The seven winners of ‘Ballon d'Or’ who represented more than one national team

The rare exceptions

In most cases, the winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ award are synonymous not only with the clubs for which they excelled, but also with the national teams they represented.

Lionel Messi for Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, Ronaldo Nazário for Brazil, Zinedine Zidane for France…

The list is extensive.

There are, however, a few rare instances in which a winner of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ has played for more than one national team during their career.

In fact, of the 47 different winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ since the award’s first edition in 1956, seven players have represented more than one national team.

How is this possible?

Let’s find out by taking a closer look at the careers of these seven players.

Example 1: Stanley Matthews

Winner of the first-ever ‘Ballon d'Or’ in 1956, Sir Stanley Matthews is remembered primarily as one of England’s greatest players of the first half of the 20th century.

After all, the forward, born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, scored 11 goals in 54 appearances for the England national team and won nine British Home Championship titles between 1935 and 1957, three of which were shared with other national teams.

He was at the centre of several memorable moments with the England team, such as the famous ‘Battle of Highbury’, in 1934 – when England defeated the reigning world champions, Italy – as well as the 6–3 victory over Nazi Germany in Berlin in 1938.

Matthews also represented England at the 1950 and 1954 World Cups, helping to secure a memorable 3–1 victory over the then-champions West Germany in a friendly played months later.

In October 1956, he even became the oldest player in the history of the England national team to score an international goal, at the age of 41, and the following year, the oldest to play for the national team, at 42.

He spent more than 22 years representing his country, between 1934 and 1957.

But did you know that, before making his debut for the England national team in 1934, Matthews had already represented an alternative side called The Football League XI, made up of various talented players who were playing in the English league at the time?

This team used to face the Scottish Football League XI and other teams made up of players from national leagues between 1891 and 1976.

Matthews also played three matches for the Great Britain representative team, made up of players from the four ‘Home Nations’, against representative teams from the ‘Rest of Europe’.

The first took place in Glasgow in 1947 to celebrate the Home Nations’ return to FIFA after more than 25 years’ absence. The second was played in Belfast in 1955 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Football Association of Ireland. The third took place in 1965, when a Great Britain team faced a ‘Rest of Europe’ side in a farewell match honouring Matthews’ career, in the year he retired from the game.

Stanley Matthews’ international career:

• 1929: England (youth)

• 1934–1956: The Football League XI

• 1934–1957: England

• 1947–1965: Great Britain

Example 2: Alfredo Di Stéfano

Alfredo Di Stéfano won the second ‘Ballon d'Or’ in the award’s history in 1957, and became the first player to win the award more than once by repeating the feat in 1959.

However, when it comes to Di Stéfano, it is difficult to say which national team he is most closely associated with, as he represented three different national or representative teams throughout his career.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1926, Di Stéfano began playing for the Argentina national team, his home country, in late 1947, a period in which he was already making history for River Plate.

He scored on his debut, in a 7–0 thrashing of Bolivia at that year’s South American Championship. He would go on to score a further five goals throughout the tournament, including a hat-trick against Colombia, helping Argentina to defend the title they had won the previous year.

However, few people realised that those six matches played by Di Stéfano during that victorious tournament would be the only ones of his entire career for the Argentine national team.

Amidst the turmoil affecting Argentine football at that time, Argentina were excluded from several competitions in the mid-20th century, including the 1949 and 1953 South American Championships and the qualifiers for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.

During this period, Di Stéfano moved to Colombia to play for Millonarios. At the time, Colombian football was experiencing a period known as ‘El Dorado’, characterised by the breakaway of the División Mayor del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano from the Colombian Football Federation. As a result, the league began operating outside the structure recognised by FIFA and signed several foreign players who were still under contract to other clubs.

During this period, the league organised matches featuring a combined side of players from Colombian clubs against other national teams and representative sides, and Di Stéfano took part in four of these matches in 1951. These matches were not recognised by FIFA as official matches for the Colombian national team.

This situation contributed to Di Stéfano being barred from representing Argentina again.

Di Stéfano signed for Spanish giants Real Madrid in 1953 and had a realisation: since he could no longer play for Argentina, why not play for Spain? After becoming a Spanish citizen in 1956, the possibility of representing the Spanish national team finally became a reality.

Following a series of issues regarding his international eligibility, Di Stéfano was granted permission to represent Spain and made his debut for ‘La Roja’ in January 1957, scoring a hat-trick on his debut in a 5–1 victory over the Netherlands.

Di Stéfano’s Spain were considered one of the strongest sides for the 1958 World Cup, but they had a disappointing qualifying campaign and failed to qualify for the tournament. And although he managed to qualify with the national team for the 1962 tournament, the Real Madrid star was ultimately unable to play due to an injury sustained before the competition. To this day, he is regarded as one of the greatest players in history never to have played in a World Cup.

After being unable to play in the 1962 World Cup, Di Stéfano never again represented his country.

Despite his 31 appearances and 23 goals for Spain, Di Stéfano’s only title with a national team remained that 1947 South American Championship, won with Argentina.

Alfredo Di Stéfano’s international career:

• 1947: Argentina

• 1951: Colombia

• 1957–1961: Spain

Example 3: Omar Sívori

Like Di Stéfano, River Plate legend Omar Sívori, winner of the 1961 Ballon d'Or, began his international career representing his native Argentina.

Born in the town of San Nicolás de los Arroyos, in the province of Buenos Aires, the striker played for the Albiceleste between 1956 and 1957.

At the time, the national team boasted a formidable attack, led by the iconic trio known as the ‘Caras Sucias’ (Dirty Faces) – comprising Sívori, Humberto Maschio and Antonio Angelillo.

After an excellent tournament with Argentina at the 1956 Pan American Championship, Sívori once again stood out alongside his attacking teammates and helped the national team win the 1957 South American Championship, a decade after Di Stéfano had done the same.

The ‘Caras Sucias’ dominated every match in the tournament, with memorable results such as an 8–2 victory over Colombia and a 3–0 triumph over Brazil.

In total, Sívori scored nine goals in 19 appearances for the Argentine national team.

In 1957, Juventus paid a then-record fee to sign Sívori from River Plate, and the striker moved to Europe. The fee received by River helped the club complete the fourth stand at its iconic stadium, El Monumental, now the largest in South America.

Maschio and Angelillo also moved to Italy during this period, and the Argentine Football Association stopped calling up the trio, which effectively ruled them out of the 1958 World Cup.

Just as Di Stéfano had done with Spain, Sívori obtained Italian citizenship thanks to his Italian ancestry.

Sívori made his debut for the Italian national team in 1961, four years after his last match for Argentina. His spell with the Azzurri lasted until 1962, during which time he played in the World Cup, but Italy were unexpectedly knocked out in the group stage.

Even so, Sívori scored eight goals in just nine appearances for the Italian national team.

Omar Sívori’s international career:

• 1956–1957: Argentina

• 1961–1962: Italy

Example 4: Michel Platini

This one will undoubtedly surprise a lot of people.

Michel Platini, winner of three Ballons d’Or and regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, is as well known for his successful spells at Nancy, Saint-Étienne and Juventus as he is for his incredible career with the French national team.

Platini was born in 1955 in the commune of Jœuf, in the Grand Est region of France, and began playing for the French national youth teams as early as 1973. He made his debut for the senior side three years later, and the rest is history.

The attacking midfielder went on to play for the French national team for over a decade, scoring 41 goals in 72 matches – a feat that still sees him ranked as the fifth-highest goalscorer in the country’s history.

In 1984, Platini captained France to victory in the European Championship on home soil – the country’s first major international title. He was the standout player of the tournament, scoring nine of France’s 14 goals in just five matches, including two ‘perfect’ hat-tricks – against Belgium and Yugoslavia – as well as a decisive goal against Portugal in the semi-final and a free-kick against Spain in the final.

The following year, he helped France win the Artemio Franchi Trophy – the precursor to the current Finalissima – against Uruguay.

He played in three World Cups for France, with their best result being third place in 1986.

Platini also further strengthened his ties with the French national team by taking up the role of manager between 1988 and 1992.

It may therefore come as a surprise to discover that, technically speaking, he also took to the pitch for another national team as a player.

Any idea which one?

No, it’s not Italy, even though both his parents are of Italian descent.

The real answer is far more intriguing.

Platini retired from the game in 1987, aged 32.

A year later, he decided to return to play a single match – not for France, Nancy, Saint-Étienne or Juventus… but for Kuwait.

That’s right: Kuwait, the small Middle Eastern country that had played in its first – and, to date, only – World Cup just a few years earlier, in 1982. In the group stage of that tournament, in fact, Platini’s France had beaten the debutants 4–1.

At the invitation of the Emir of Kuwait, Platini took to the pitch for the national team for 21 minutes in that one-off friendly, played in November 1988, in a 2–0 defeat to the Soviet Union.

Although it may seem strange today, his appearance did not come as such a shock at the time. Platini already had links with football in the Middle East and was in the region on promotional activities linked to his clothing brand.

The match against the Soviet Union turned out to be the last time Platini took to the pitch as a player, and he left the field to a standing ovation from a huge crowd.

Michel Platini’s international career:

• 1975–1976: France (youth)

• 1976–1987: France

• 1988: Kuwait

Examples 5 and 6: Lothar Matthäus and Matthias Sammer

The 1990 winner of the ‘Ballon d'Or’, Lothar Matthäus, and the 1996 winner, Matthias Sammer, appear together on this list for a historical reason: both played for one of the two German states before representing reunified Germany.

After Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied powers in May 1945, bringing the war in Europe to an end, the country lost part of its territory and was divided under the joint authority of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France.

However, with the onset of the Cold War a few years later, the Soviets withdrew from the Allied Control Council in 1948, and two new German states were formed in 1949: the Federal Republic of Germany, aligned with the Western powers – West Germany – and the German Democratic Republic, aligned with the Soviet Union – East Germany.

Both states developed their own national teams and football associations following the division.

West Germany notably won three World Cups (1954, 1974 and 1990) and two European Championships (1972 and 1980), whilst the greatest international honour won by the East German men’s senior national team was the Olympic gold medal in 1976.

In March 1961, Lothar Matthäus was born in Erlangen, Bavaria, West Germany. His father, Heinz, had fled southern Silesia in the 1940s, travelling along the River Oder to escape the Soviet advance in the region.

A few years later, in September 1967, Matthias Sammer was born in Dresden, the capital of the state of Saxony in East Germany. His father, Klaus, was a player and manager, also a native of Saxony – born in the small town of Gröditz.

What follows are two stories that, for many years, unfolded separately.

Matthäus made his debut for the West German national team in 1980, winning the European Championship that same year.

In the years that followed, he became synonymous with the national team and, to this day, holds the record for the most appearances for Germany, with 150.

His most memorable achievement was captaining the team to victory in the 1990 World Cup, where he was hailed as a key leader in the title-winning campaign and one of the best players of the tournament.

Sammer, meanwhile, played for East Germany, who won the Under-18 European Championship in 1986. That same year, he also made his debut for the senior national team.

In total, he made 23 appearances for the national team and captained East Germany in their final match as a nation – a 2–0 victory over Belgium, in which he scored both goals.

Of course, everything was about to change.

When Matthäus lifted the World Cup trophy for West Germany in 1990, the Berlin Wall – which had divided the two sides of the country’s most important city – had already fallen months earlier.

Shortly afterwards, in October 1990, Germany was officially reunified, following the collapse of the East German government and the opening of its borders.

In football, reunification followed shortly afterwards: the East German football association was dissolved, and its structure became part of the West German football association’s system, giving rise to a single German football structure.

The West German national team also came to represent reunified Germany, gradually incorporating players from the former East Germany.

By the end of 1990, the German national team consisted mainly of West German players who had won the World Cup a few months earlier. Sammer, however, was also brought into the squad as one of its leading stars, making his debut for reunified Germany in December of that year.

Matthäus and Sammer played together for Germany in two major tournaments: the 1992 European Championship, in which Germany finished as runners-up, and the 1994 World Cup, in which Germany were knocked out in the quarter-finals.

Sammer also won the European Championship with Germany in 1996, although Matthäus was not part of the squad for that tournament.

The following year, Sammer retired from the national team at the age of 29, whilst Matthäus would not retire until 2000, at the age of 39.

Lothar Matthäus’s international career:

• 1979–1981: West Germany (youth)

• 1980–1990: West Germany

• 1990–2000: Germany

Matthias Sammer’s international career:

• 1982–1988: East Germany (youth)

• 1986–1990: East Germany

• 1990–1997: Germany

Example 7: Pavel Nedvěd

Global geopolitical history also helps to explain the international career of the 2003 ‘Ballon d'Or’ winner, Pavel Nedvěd.

The Czech midfielder was born in Cheb in 1972. At the time, the town lay in the far west of what was then Czechoslovakia. Nedvěd grew up in neighbouring Skalná, also situated in the same region.

Nedvěd began his club career as a child, playing for youth teams such as Tatran Skalná and Rudá Hvězda Cheb, before signing his first professional contract with Škoda Plzeň in 1990. As part of his military service that same year, he was loaned to Dukla Prague, a club based in the country’s capital and run by the Army.

During his first year at the club, Nedvěd also played for VTJ Dukla Tábor, a lower-division side also run by the Army. Upon completing his military service and his loan spell at Dukla, the midfielder moved to Sparta Prague in 1992, the club with which he won the Czechoslovak First League title.

Between 1992 and 1993, Nedvěd made seven appearances for the Czechoslovak Under-21 national team.

However, following the fall of the communist government during the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved, with two new sovereign states – the Czech Republic and Slovakia – officially coming into being in January 1993.

The former Czechoslovak national team, winners of the European Championship in 1976 and the Olympic Games in 1980, as well as twice finishing as World Cup runners-up (in 1934 and 1962), played its final match in November 1993. From then on, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were represented by their own national teams.

Although Nedvěd represented Czechoslovakia at youth level, he never actually played for the country’s senior team. Instead, he received his first call-up to the Czech Republic national team in 1994.

He would go on to represent his country for over a decade, scoring 18 goals in 91 matches.

The highlight of his career was helping to lead the country to the final of Euro 1996, the first major international tournament in which he took part. Nedvěd put in an impressive performance in the semi-final against France, but the Czechs eventually lost the title to Germany in the final.

Nedvěd also competed in the 2000 and 2004 European Championships, being named in the Tournament Team for the latter, as well as the 2006 World Cup – the country’s first appearance in the competition since the break-up of Czechoslovakia.

It was a disappointing campaign, marked by an early exit, and Nedvěd retired from international football after the tournament.

Pavel Nedvěd’s international career:

• 1992–1993: Czechoslovakia (youth)

• 1994–2006: Czech Republic

Could this happen again?

So there you have it: the seven winners of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ who played for more than one national team during their careers.

Could something like this happen again?

In other words: could a future winner of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ also go on to play for more than one national team?

Well… yes, but only under very specific circumstances.

A change to FIFA’s eligibility rules, approved in 2020, allows certain players to switch associations and go on to represent another national team.

To do so, amongst other requirements, the player must have played a maximum of three matches for the senior national team, whether official or not; must have played their last official match for their previous national team before the age of 21; and must have waited at least three years since their last match for the senior team.

Furthermore, the player must not have played for their previous national team in a World Cup finals tournament or a competition organised by a confederation, such as the European Championship or the Copa América. Qualifying matches, on the other hand, do not necessarily prevent a future change of association.

Finally, the player must already hold the nationality of the association they wish to represent by the time they play their first match in an official competition for their previous national team.

So, will we one day see another winner of the ‘Ballon d'Or’ who has represented more than one national team?

Only time will tell.