Have you heard of a 'curse' linking the Ballon d'Or and the World Cup?

As strange as it may seem, there is a frequently recurring pattern that—throughout history—has been broken only once.

Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon.

The origins of the curse

Ballon d'Or has been around for 70 years.

Since the first ceremony in 1956, the award has been presented to the world’s best player from the previous season, taking into account their performances for both club and country.

Two years after that first edition, the 1958 World Cup took place in Sweden. Many fans were eager to see the previous year’s Ballon d’Or winner, Alfredo Di Stéfano, competing in the tournament and representing Spain on football’s biggest stage.

But this hope was ultimately dashed, as the Spanish national team failed to even qualify for the competition.

More than just an isolated incident, Di Stéfano’s disappointment (coming just one year after he was named the world’s best player) marked the beginning of a long series of similar episodes in football.

And so the so-called ‘Ballon d’Or curse’ was born.

In other words, however unlikely it may seem, players who win the Ballon d'Or in one year never manage to lift the trophy at the World Cup the following year.

The reasons behind this ‘curse’, as with so many other football superstitions, remain a mystery. One possible explanation lies in the weight of expectations: the enormous pressure on the ‘best player in the world’ to prove he deserves that status may end up acting more as an obstacle than as a source of motivation.

Although the curse has proved extremely consistent over the years, Di Stéfano’s case is only one of two in which a Ballon d’Or winner failed even to qualify for the following World Cup.

The other was striker Allan Simonsen, who won the ‘Ballon d’Or’ in 1977, before seeing Denmark fail to qualify for the 1978 World Cup.

Two other winners did go on to play in the World Cup the year after winning the award, but failed to progress beyond the group stage: Omar Sívori, with Italy, in 1962, and five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, with Portugal, in 2014.

On the other hand, several ‘Ballon d’Or’ winners came close to winning the World Cup following their award, but fell at the final hurdle. Five of them finished as runners-up: Gianni Rivera, for Italy, in 1970; Johan Cruyff, for the Netherlands, in 1974; Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, for West Germany, in 1982; Roberto Baggio, for Italy, in 1994; and Ronaldo, for Brazil, in 1998.

The end of the curse?

For 66 years and 16 World Cups, the curse remained intact.

Every time the tournament came around, without exception, the previous year’sBallon d’Ors’ winner would, at best, come close to the title – but never lift the World Cup trophy.

Until, finally, that story changed.

At the 2022 World Cup, Lionel Messi, winner of his seventh Ballon d’Or the previous year, finally broke this trend by winning the World Cup with Argentina.

Banner

By breaking the curse, Messi did what has defined his entire career: he exceeded expectations and defied logic, cementing his legacy as one of the greatest players in the history of football.

There is, however, a caveat to the idea that Messi has completely put an end to this curse.

You see, the ‘Ballon d'Or’ ceremony almost always takes place between October and December, recognising performances from the season that ended that same year.

The World Cup, on the other hand, is played in the middle of the year, when the previous year’s Ballon d’Ballon d'Or winner still holds the title of the world’s best player.

The 2022 World Cup, however, broke completely with this pattern.

Held in Qatar, the tournament was the first in history to take place at the end of the year, a change prompted by the country’s high temperatures during the competition’s traditional months (June and July).

In other words, by the time Messi won the World Cup with Argentina in December 2022, the Ballon d’Ballon d’Or had already crowned a new winner: Karim Benzema, who was awarded the prize in October of that year.

If Benzema, rather than Messi, is taken as the benchmark for this statistic, the curse remains intact: France lost the final to Argentina, whilst Benzema himself missed the World Cup due to an injury sustained on the eve of the tournament.

Thus, there is a possibility that the curse was never actually broken.

This year’s World Cup, in fact, reinforces this idea.

Ousmane Dembélé, last year’s winner of the ‘Ballon d’Or’, was one of France’s main hopes in their quest for a third World Cup title. The dream, however, came to an end in the semi-finals, with their elimination by Spain.

All the winners of the Ballon d’Or and their World Cup performances the following year:

Ballon d’Or 1957: Alfredo Di Stéfano (Spain)
1958 World Cup: Spain did not qualify

Ballon d’Or 1961: Omar Sívori (Italy)
1962 World Cup: Eliminated in the group stage

Ballon d’Or 1965: Eusébio (Portugal)
1966 World Cup: Third place

Ballon d’Or 1969: Gianni Rivera (Italy)
1970 World Cup: Runners-up

Ballon d’Or 1973: Johan Cruyff (Netherlands)
1974 World Cup: Runners-up

Ballon d’Or 1977: Allan Simonsen (Denmark)
1978 World Cup: Denmark did not qualify

Ballon d’Or 1981: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany)
1982 World Cup: Runners-up

Ballon d’Or 1985: Michel Platini (France)
1986 World Cup: Third place

Ballon d’Or 1989: Marco van Basten (Netherlands)
1990 World Cup: Knocked out in the round of 16

Ballon d’Or 1993: Roberto Baggio (Italy)
1994 World Cup: Runners-up

Ballon d’Or 1997: Ronaldo (Brazil)
1998 World Cup: Runner-up

Ballon d’Or 2001: Michael Owen (England)
2002 World Cup: Knocked out in the quarter-finals

Ballon d’Or 2005: Ronaldinho (Brazil)
2006 World Cup: Knocked out in the quarter-finals

Ballon d’Or 2009: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
2010 World Cup: Knocked out in the quarter-finals

Ballon d’Or 2013: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
2014 World Cup: Eliminated in the group stage

Ballon d’Or 2017: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
2018 World Cup: Knocked out in the round of 16

Ballon d’Or 2021: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
2022 World Cup: Champion

Ballon d’Or 2025: Ousmane Dembélé (France)
2026 World Cup: Fourth place

This article may be shared by all media outlets with proper credit to Ballondor.com and a direct link to the original article. Ballondor.com is the official website of the Ballon d'Or.