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Ballon d'Or 2021

Ballon d'or 2021 ranking

The community has spoken. Discover the world ranking, compare it to yours and see how everyone else voted.

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30contenders high-voltage

6.6kvotes

144TopList

0commentsUpdated on 10/06/2026 at 04:00 PM

Robert Lewandowski1462

The worldwide ranking generated by 6.6k votes

30 / 30

Robert Lewandowski1462

Lionel Messi1446

Gianluigi Donnarumma1359

Jorginho1343

Kylian Mbappé1342

Kevin De Bruyne1318

Cristiano Ronaldo1315

N'Golo Kanté1291

Neymar Jr.1261

#10

Erling Haaland1258

#11

Giorgio Chiellini1247

#12

Luka Modrić1237

#13

Leonardo Bonucci1197

#14

Pedri1180

#15

Mohamed Salah1173

#16

Rúben Dias1171

#17

Riyad Mahrez1171

#18

Karim Benzema1147

#19

Luis Suárez1143

#20

Harry Kane1140

#21

Romelu Lukaku1135

#22

Lautaro Martínez1121

#23

Bruno Fernandes1118

#24

Mason Mount1090

#25

Raheem Sterling1082

#26

Phil Foden1077

#27

Simon Kjær1054

#28

Nicolò Barella1052

#29

César Azpilicueta1027

#30

Gerard Moreno1023

What the community says

Robert Lewandowski leads with an ELO of 1,462, ahead of Lionel Messi (1,446) and Gianluigi Donnarumma (1,359). Ranked over 6,634 duels between 30 contenders, last updated October 6, 2026.

Vote for the real winner of the 2021 Ballon d'Or! Messi, Lewandowski, Salah, Benzema...

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.