The 30-man shortlist for the 2026 men’s Ballon d’Or has again underlined who has lasted longest among football’s elite.
Lionel Messi has a 17th nomination. He now sits one behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who holds the record with 18. Ronaldo was first nominated in 2005 and last appeared on the list in 2022. Messi has turned his nominations into a record eight wins. Ronaldo has five.
They are the only players to have won the award more than once in the 21st century, and the first multiple winners since Ronaldo Nazário in 1997 and 2002.
Behind them the all-time nomination table is a history lesson. Paolo Maldini has 13. Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer and Karim Benzema have 12 each. Zlatan Ibrahimović, Gianluigi Buffon, Zinédine Zidane, Michel Platini and Eusébio have 11.
A nomination is not a trophy. Ronaldo’s 18 appearances measure decades of being in the conversation after the season ends. Messi’s 17 measure the same consistency plus a conversion rate no one else has matched. The 2026 list still includes a new generation, but the top of the historical chart has not changed hands.
Ronaldo no longer appears each year; Messi, at Inter Miami and after international retirement, still does. That is the quiet fact inside the shortlist: one man’s record for being named, another’s record for winning, and a 30-name sheet that still cannot tell the story of the award without both of them.
