At present, Haaland and Mbappe are getting better and better, almost making people forget Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In fact, in the past ten years, the two best players in world football have always been Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who are known as peerless double pride and have monopolized most of the individual honors in European football for more than a decade. One of the most noteworthy is the European Golden Globe. Up to now, Messi has won 7 European Ballon d'Or awards, and Ronaldo has won 5. Looking at the history of the European Ballon d'Or, this is a unique example. Previously, Dutch legend Van Basten, and French king Platini and others won three awards, which was already jaw-dropping, and Mero raised this ceiling. Although the duo's 12 European Golden Globes are also full of controversy, it is undeniable that the two are indeed the strongest in this era.
In fact, in addition to the numerical advantage, Mero's Ballon d'Or has another outstanding detail - both have won European Ballon d'Or at two clubs. In '08, Ronaldo played for Manchester United when he won the award, and his next four awards were all at Real Madrid. Messi's first six awards were all at Barcelona; And the last time he won the award, he had already come to the grand Paris.
Of course, the European Ballon d'Or was previously based on a player's performance in one year, not a season. So there is a situation where a player performs well in the first half of the year, or wins the national team competition in June and July, but in the second half of the year comes to a new club and does not play well. For example, Messi's last award in 2021 was largely due to his help Argentina win the Copa America, and after he joined the Grand Paris, his performance in the first half of the season was mediocre. Therefore, he won this award, but he has the identity of a Grand Paris player, but the content and texture of this award have little to do with Grand Paris.
But even so, to win the Ballon d'Or for different clubs is a great achievement.
Historically, the players who have won the European Ballon d'Or have undoubtedly been superstars who can enter the football Hall of Fame, but like Mero, there are very few players who can win awards for both teams, only two.
The first is Cruyff. Cruyff has won the European Ballon d'Or three times, the first of which was at Ajax and the second and third in Barcelona. However, Cruyf's second award is somewhat similar to Messi's last award. In the 72-73 season, Cruyff led Ajax to three consecutive Champions League titles, and then he joined Barca, so when he won the award, although he was a Barca player, the award was largely based on his performance at Ajax.
The second is the alien Ronaldo. Ronaldo first won the prize in 1997, when he was just 21 years old. During the year, he played for two teams, Barcelona and Inter Milan. It is worth mentioning that Ronaldo has performed well in both teams this year.
In 2002, Da Luo won another award. Of course, this award is largely due to the World Cup winner and the World Cup Golden Boot. In fact, Da Luo's performance at the club that year was not outstanding, returning from injury at Inter and losing the title, and in his first season at Real Madrid, although he won the first league title of his career, his performance in the first half of the season was relatively lackluster.
On the surface, winning the European Ballon d'Or in two teams is not a difficult thing to achieve, after all, for superstars, their attraction to the giants is great, so their flow will only happen between the giants. But looking at the history of the European Golden Globes, only four people have done this. It can be seen that although superstars have super personal ability, there are too many superstars of the same era, and superstars who can really maintain a top state for a long time are still scarce after all.
Who will do this in the next ten years? For now, Mbappe and Haaland are most likely. Of course, the first thing they have to do is win their first European Ballon d'Or at Paris and Manchester City respectively.