IFFHS World's Best Player

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From 1991 until 2009, FIFA continued this distinction named "FIFA World Player of the Year"; this award was later replaced by the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010, and The Best FIFA Men's Player in 2016.^[1]

Year	Rank	Winner	Club(s)	Points
1988	1st	Marco van Basten[2]	Milan	101
	2nd	Diego Maradona	Napoli	92
	3rd	Ruud Gullit	Milan	71
1989	1st	Marco van Basten[3]	Milan	132
	2nd	Franco Baresi	Milan	62
	3rd	Ruud Gullit	Milan	57
1990	1st	Lothar Matthäus[4]	Inter Milan	174
	2nd	Salvatore Schillaci	Juventus	56
	3rd	Franco Baresi	AC Milan	52
		Paul Gascoigne	Tottenham Hotspur
2020	1st	Robert Lewandowski[5]	Bayern Munich	95%
2021	1st	Robert Lewandowski[6][7]	Bayern Munich	150
	2nd	Lionel Messi	Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain	105
	3rd	Jorginho	Chelsea	40
2022	1st	Lionel Messi[8][9]	Paris Saint-Germain	275
	2nd	Kylian Mbappé	Paris Saint-Germain	35
	3rd	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	30
2023	1st	Erling Haaland[10][11]	Manchester City	208
	2nd	Kylian Mbappé	Paris Saint-Germain	105
	3rd	Lionel Messi	Paris Saint-Germain Inter Miami	85
2024	1st	Rodri[12]	Manchester City	191
	2nd	Vinícius Júnior	Real Madrid	166
	3rd	Jude Bellingham	Real Madrid	62
2025	1st	Ousmane Dembélé[13]	Paris Saint-Germain	153
	2nd	Lamine Yamal	Barcelona	97
	3rd	Harry Kane	Bayern Munich	62

Winners (1988–present)

Player	Wins	Years
Marco van Basten	2	1988, 1989
Robert Lewandowski		2020, 2021
Lothar Matthäus	1	1990
Lionel Messi	1	2022
Erling Haaland	1	2023
Rodri	1	2024
Ousmane Dembélé	1	2025

Wins by club

Club	Total	Players
Manchester City	2	2
Paris Saint-Germain	2	2
Milan	2	1
Bayern Munich	2	1
Inter Milan	1	1

Wins by nationality

Nationality	Total	Players
Netherlands	2	1
Poland	2	1
Germany	1	1
Argentina	1	1
Norway	1	1
Spain	1	1
France	1	1

Bold indicates the World's Best Man Player winner.

Year	Confederation	Winner	Club(s)
2020	UEFA	Robert Lewandowski[14]	Bayern Munich
	CONMEBOL	Lionel Messi[15]	Barcelona
	CONCACAF	Alphonso Davies[16]	Bayern Munich
	CAF	Sadio Mané[17]	Liverpool
	AFC	Son Heung-min[18]	Tottenham Hotspur
	OFC	Chris Wood[19]	Burnley
2021	UEFA	Robert Lewandowski[20]	Bayern Munich
	CONMEBOL	Lionel Messi[21]	Barcelona Paris Saint-Germain
	CONCACAF	Alphonso Davies[22]	Bayern Munich
	CAF	Mohamed Salah[23]	Liverpool
	AFC	Son Heung-min[24]	Tottenham Hotspur
	OFC	Chris Wood[25]	Burnley
2022	UEFA	Kylian Mbappé[26]	Paris Saint-Germain
	CONMEBOL	Lionel Messi[27]	Paris Saint-Germain
	CONCACAF	Alphonso Davies[28]	Bayern Munich
	CAF	Sadio Mané[29]	Liverpool Bayern Munich
	AFC	Son Heung-min[30]	Tottenham Hotspur
	OFC	Chris Wood[31]	Burnley Newcastle

Top 10 players^[32]

Rank	Player	Nationality
1	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2	Pelé	Brazil
3	Diego Maradona	Argentina
4	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal
5	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands
6	Ronaldo	Brazil
7	Zinedine Zidane	France
8	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany
9	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Argentina  Spain
10	Ronaldinho	Brazil

In November 2021 IFFHS announced the Dream Team of the 19th Century and the top 3 players.

Top 3 players^[33]

Rank	Player	Nationality
1	Gilbert Oswald Smith	England
2	John Goodall	England
3	Steve Bloomer	England

Top 10 players^[34][35]

Rank	Player	Nationality	Points
1	Pelé	Brazil	1705
2	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	1303
3	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	1228
4	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Argentina  Spain	1215
5	Diego Maradona	Argentina	1214
6	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary	810
7	Michel Platini	France	722
8	Garrincha	Brazil	624
9	Eusébio	Portugal	544
10	Bobby Charlton	England	508

Confederation	First	Second	Third
World[36]	Lionel Messi	Cristiano Ronaldo	Andrés Iniesta
UEFA[37]	Cristiano Ronaldo	Sergio Ramos	Manuel Neuer
CONMEBOL[38]	Lionel Messi	Neymar	Dani Alves
CONCACAF[39]	Keylor Navas	Javier Hernández	Clint Dempsey
CAF[40]	Mohamed Salah	Sadio Mané	Riyad Mahrez
AFC[41]	Son Heung-min	Keisuke Honda	Salem Al-Dawsari
OFC[42]	Chris Wood	Winston Reid	Marco Rojas

On 24 April 1990, before the 1990 FIFA World Cup, IFFHS gave out an award for the best European player taking into consideration players who were voted in the shortlist of the France Football's Ballon d'Or from 1956 until 1989.^[43]

Top 10 players

Rank	Player	Nationality
1	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany
2	Michel Platini	France
3	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands
4	Eusébio	Portugal
5	Gerd Müller	West Germany
6	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	West Germany
7	Luis Suárez	Spain
8	Bobby Charlton	England
9	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Spain
10	Raymond Kopa	France

Phase 1 (48 players)[44] Player Nationality Majed Abdullah  Saudi Arabia Mohamed Aboutrika  Egypt Roberto Baggio  Italy Franz Beckenbauer  Germany David Beckham  England Bhaichung Bhutia  India Oleg Blokhin  Ukraine Cha Bum-kun  South Korea Antonio Carbajal  Mexico Bobby Charlton  England José Luis Chilavert  Paraguay Tanju Çolak  Turkey Johan Cruyff  Netherlands Ali Daei  Iran Alfredo Di Stéfano  Argentina Landon Donovan  United States Mahmoud El Khatib  Egypt Eusébio  Portugal Luís Figo  Portugal Garrincha  Brazil Paco Gento  Spain Ryan Giggs  Wales Ruud Gullit  Netherlands Hao Haidong  China Sun Jihai  China Nwankwo Kanu  Nigeria Rabah Madjer  Algeria Diego Maradona  Argentina Lothar Matthäus  Germany Stanley Matthews  England Roger Milla  Cameroon Gerd Müller  Germany Hidetoshi Nakata  Japan Pelé  Brazil Michel Platini  France Ferenc Puskás  Hungary Lucas Radebe  South Africa Ronaldo  Brazil Wynton Rufer  New Zealand Hugo Sánchez  Mexico Juan Alberto Schiaffino  Uruguay Marco van Basten  Netherlands George Weah  Liberia Jasem Yaqoub  Kuwait Lev Yashin  Russia Zico  Brazil Zinedine Zidane  France Dino Zoff  Italy

Phase 2 (48 players)[45] Player Nationality Franco Baresi  Italy Gabriel Batistuta  Argentina Dennis Bergkamp  Netherlands Zbigniew Boniek  Poland Roberto Carlos  Brazil Petr Čech  Czech Republic Kenny Dalglish  Scotland Edgar Davids  Netherlands Alessandro Del Piero  Italy Didier Drogba  Ivory Coast Samuel Eto'o  Cameroon Enzo Francescoli  Uruguay Gheorge Hagi  Romania Thierry Henry  France Oliver Kahn  Germany Kaká  Brazil Kevin Keegan  England Mario Kempes  Argentina Miroslav Klose  Germany Ronald Koeman  Netherlands Philipp Lahm  Germany Michael Laudrup  Denmark Younis Mahmoud  Iraq Paolo Maldini  Italy Rafael Márquez  Mexico Pavel Nedvěd  Czech Republic Mohammed Noor  Saudi Arabia Jay-Jay Okocha  Nigeria Abedi Pele  Ghana Jean-Marie Pfaff  Belgium Andrea Pirlo  Italy Carles Puyol  Spain Raúl  Spain Frank Rijkaard  Netherlands Rivaldo  Brazil Romário  Brazil Ronaldinho  Brazil Paolo Rossi  Italy Karl-Heinz Rummenigge  Germany Peter Schmeichel  Denmark Andriy Shevchenko  Ukraine Hristo Stoichkov  Bulgaria Davor Šuker  Croatia Francesco Totti  Italy Carlos Valderrama  Colombia Ruud van Nistelrooy  Netherlands Robin van Persie  Netherlands Xavi  Spain

Phase 3-A (16 players)[46] Player Nationality Gianluigi Buffon  Italy Iker Casillas  Spain Zlatan Ibrahimović  Sweden Andrés Iniesta  Spain Mesut Özil  Germany Franck Ribéry  France Arjen Robben  Netherlands Daniel Passarella  Argentina Mikel John Obi  Nigeria Wayne Rooney  England Yousuf Al-Thunayan  Saudi Arabia Mubarak Mustafa  Qatar Toni Kroos  Germany Sócrates  Brazil Philipp Lahm  Germany Daniele De Rossi  Italy

Month	Year	Player	Club	Ref.
January	2025.12025	Mohamed Salah	Liverpool	[47]
February	2025.22025	Kylian Mbappé	Real Madrid	[48]
March	2025.32025	Nico Williams	Athletic Bilbao	[49]
April	2025.42025	Lamine Yamal	Barcelona	[50]
May	2025.52025	Désiré Doué	Paris Saint-Germain	[51]
June	2025.62025	Nuno Mendes	Paris Saint-Germain	[52]
July	2025.72025	Cole Palmer	Chelsea	[53]
August	2025.82025	Giorgian de Arrascaeta	Flamengo	[54]
September	2025.92025	Erling Haaland	Manchester City	[55]
October	2025.102025	Harry Kane	Bayern Munich	[56]
November	2025.112025	Bukayo Saka	Arsenal	[57]
December	2025.122025	Rayan Cherki	Manchester City	[58]
January	2026.12026	Raphinha	Barcelona	[59]
February	2026.22026	Vinícius Júnior	Real Madrid	[60]