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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

139TopList

0commentsUpdated on 09/26/2026 at 07:00 PM

Robert Lewandowski1434

The worldwide ranking generated by 6.6k votes

30 / 30

Robert Lewandowski1434

Lionel Messi1407

Kylian Mbappé1374

Gianluigi Donnarumma1308

Cristiano Ronaldo1300

Neymar Jr.1288

Jorginho1286

Erling Haaland1280

N'Golo Kanté1278

#10

Kevin De Bruyne1271

#11

Luka Modrić1239

#12

Mohamed Salah1233

#13

Pedri1216

#14

Harry Kane1215

#15

Giorgio Chiellini1208

#16

Luis Suárez1207

#17

Riyad Mahrez1164

#18

Rúben Dias1153

#19

Karim Benzema1139

#20

Romelu Lukaku1133

#21

Leonardo Bonucci1132

#22

Raheem Sterling1112

#23

Phil Foden1108

#24

Bruno Fernandes1106

#25

Lautaro Martínez1101

#26

Simon Kjær1086

#27

Mason Mount1083

#28

Gerard Moreno1051

#29

César Azpilicueta1046

#30

Nicolò Barella1022

What the community says

Robert Lewandowski leads with an ELO of 1,434, ahead of Lionel Messi (1,407) and Kylian Mbappé (1,374). Ranked over 6,634 duels between 30 contenders, last updated September 26, 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.