The 2024 Ballon d’Or awards were recently held in Paris and perhaps the three biggest awards all went to Spanish players. Man City’s Rodri won the main prize, whilst it was a Barcelona double in terms of the women’s Ballon d’Or, which went to the peerless Aitana Bon Mati, and the youth-oriented Kopa trophy, which went the way of sensational Euro 2024 star Lamine Yamal.
Whilst much of the attention was on the controversy over Vinicius Junior missing out to Rodri, and the fact that Real Madrid decided to skip the whole ceremony as a result, Chelsea fans had something to cheer. Legendary former Blues boss, Emma Hayes, landed the Women’s Johan Cruyff Trophy, which was formerly known as the Coach of the Year Award.
She was victorious thanks to her amazing record with the Blues and also for guiding the US national team to Olympic glory in her new role. Full credit to the brilliant Hayes, who when it comes to a tactical understanding of the game is one of the best pundits around and is clearly a wonderful manager.
But in this article we are looking at the main, original Ballon d’Or, probably the biggest individual accolade a male footballer can dream of winning. And in particular, we consider whether a Chelsea player has ever scooped it.
Palmer 25th in 2024
Before we delve deeper into the past, let us look back to the most recent awards with one eye on the future. The sensation that is Cole Palmer finished 25th at the 2024 awards and was one of many Premier League stars to have made the 30-man shortlist. Indeed, he was rather unpleasantly sandwiched by Arsenal duo, William Saliba (24th) and Declan Rice (26th).
Palmer was the only player from the Blues to make the final 30 but we strongly expect him to be back in the years ahead, hopefully joined by some of his teammates and almost certainly much higher up the rankings. The former Man City player has been genuinely outstanding since his move to Stamford Bridge. His goals, assists, creativity and all-round football have been a joy to watch and if he maintains his hunger and gets the right coaching, he could well land the Ballon d’Or in the years ahead.
No Chelsea Player Has Won… Yet
If Palmer does continue on his current football trajectory, he could well make history as the first Chelsea player ever to win the Ballon d’Or. As of 2024, no footballer representing the club has managed to land the big prize. English teams, and indeed players, have not done especially well in general, with only Man United, Blackpool (club icon, Sir Stanley Matthews, won the inaugural award back in 1956), Liverpool and now Man City boasting players to have taken the top honour.
Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi responsible for a good portion of the 24 wins those Spanish powerhouses have enjoyed. That said, Real have had eight separate players awarded, whilst Barca have had six.
Silver for Frank as Good as It Gets
The closest a Chelsea player has ever come to winning this prestigious award is when Frank Lampard finished second in 2005. He pipped Steven Gerrard, who was third, by just six votes. However, both of England’s legendary central midfielders were a country mile behind the eventual winner that year.
Brazilian great, Ronaldinho, up there with most skilful and exciting players of all time, if not necessarily the very best of the best in terms of overall output, captured a massive 225 votes. His form for Barcelona at the time was sensational and he was such an eye-catching player that it is easy to see how he won so convincingly.
A massive 33 judges gave Ronaldinho first place, compared to just six for Lamps. Gerrard actually got eight firsts but Lampard was awarded points by more judges in total and so was able to surpass his colleague/rival’s total. It almost hurts to remember how good Chelsea were at that time and how far the club have slipped.
This is illustrated by the fact that among the 50 (as it was then) players to be in contention, a massive seven played for Chelsea. John Terry came 11th, Claude Makelele was 13th, with Petr Čech and Didier Drogba tied for 14th, Michael Essien 22nd and Arjen Robben among a large swathe of footballers to have made the longlist but fail to attract any votes.
2021 Sees Jorginho Make the Podium
Jorginho was a decent player, of that there is no doubt, but he certainly won’t be remembered in anything like the same way as most of the players mentioned above in relation to the 2005 award. Nonetheless, the Brazil-born Italian, who now players for Arsenal, did scoop third place in the 2021 Ballon d’Or.
Whilst he was very good for Chelsea at that time, and helped them to win the 2020/21 Champions League within the award period, it was probably his performances with Italy that most helped him to take third place. Jorginho was a key part of the Italian team that beat England in the final of Euro 2020 (which, of course, took place in 2021 due to the pandemic).
That year Messi won the main prize, ahead of Robert Lewandowski. N’Golo Kante, who was the Man of the Match in Chelsea’s CL final win over Man City, came fifth. Romelu Lukaku was joint 12th, and though that was for his performances with Inter, he did also play for the Blues during the relevant period. Mason Mount – does anyone remember him? – was tied 19th, whilst the old stalwart Cesar Azpilicueta was another Chelsea representative to have been in the mix.
So, to recap, no – no Chelsea player has ever won the top prize, with one second and a third as good as it gets. Over to you, Cole!