Ballon d'or 2021 ranking

6634 duels later, Robert Lewandowski is still #1 in the Ballon d'Or 2021 ranking, with Lionel Messi close behind.

Lewandowski edges out Messi by 16 ELO points at the summit, both strikers winning over three-quarters of their duels. The real chasm appears below: an 87-point gap separates Messi from third-placed Gianluigi Donnarumma, underlining the voters' conviction that the award belonged to one of these two attacking giants. Jorginho and Kylian Mbappé round out the top 5, within a single point of each other at 1343 and 1342 ELO respectively. At the opposite end, Gerard Moreno sits at the bottom with 1023 points and a 28% win rate, suggesting the community views him as the least compelling candidate among the official nominees.

This ranking draws on 6634 duels submitted by 69 players across 30 contenders, all vying for retrospective recognition of who truly deserved football's most prestigious individual prize. The data was last updated on 12 October 2026, preserving a snapshot of collective opinion years after the ceremony. Head to the Ballon d'Or 2021 TopList on VAINKEURZ to cast your own vote, compare your choices with the crowd, and see whether Lewandowski's dominance holds or Messi can close the gap.

Updated on October 12, 2026

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.

How our rankings are made →