2008 Ballon d'Or

2008 Ballon d'Or
Date2 December 2008 (2008-12-02)
LocationParis, France
CountryFrance
Presented byFrance Football
Highlights
Won by Cristiano Ronaldo (1st award)
Websitewww.francefootball.fr

The 2008 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in the world as judged by an international panel of sports journalists,[1] was awarded on 2 December 2008.[2] Cristiano Ronaldo won the award, being his first of five. His win also began a 10-year dominance of the award between him and Lionel Messi — which eventually led to an intense rivalry between the two. Both players had won five Ballon d'Or awards before the dominance was ended in 2018 by Luka Modrić.

Rankings

Rank Player Nationality Club(s) Points
1 Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal Manchester United 446
2 Lionel Messi Argentina Barcelona 281
3 Fernando Torres Spain Liverpool 179
4 Iker Casillas Spain Real Madrid 133
5 Xavi Spain Barcelona 97
6 Andrey Arshavin Russia Zenit Saint Petersburg 64
7 David Villa Spain Valencia 55
8 Zlatan Ibrahimović Sweden Internazionale 30
9 Kaká Brazil Milan 29
10 Steven Gerrard England Liverpool 28
11 Marcos Senna Spain Villarreal 16
12 Emmanuel Adebayor Togo Arsenal 12
13 Wayne Rooney England Manchester United 11
14 Sergio Agüero Argentina Atlético Madrid 10
15 Frank Lampard England Chelsea 8
16 Franck Ribéry France Bayern Munich 7
17 Samuel Eto'o Cameroon Barcelona 6
18 Gianluigi Buffon Italy Juventus 5
19 Michael Ballack Germany Chelsea 4
Cesc Fàbregas Spain Arsenal 4
21 Didier Drogba Ivory Coast Chelsea 3
Sergio Ramos Spain Real Madrid 3
Nemanja Vidić Serbia Manchester United 3
24 Edwin van der Sar Netherlands Manchester United 2
Ruud van Nistelrooy Netherlands Real Madrid 2
26 Karim Benzema France Lyon 0
Pepe Portugal Real Madrid 0
Luca Toni Italy Bayern Munich 0
Rafael van der Vaart Netherlands Real Madrid 0
Yuri Zhirkov Russia CSKA Moscow 0

References

  1. ^ "2008 Leaderboard". France Football. 2 December 2008. Archived from the original on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  2. ^ Pierrend, José Luis (16 January 2009). "European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") 2008". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2009.