How did Messi and Ronaldo share the Ballon d'Or for a decade?

For about a decade, the Ballon d'Or was a two-man race. The two men dominated the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA men's player awards from 2008, until Luka Modrić interrupted a run of more than a decade in 2018. Messi won four in a row from 2009 to 2012 and a fifth in 2015; Ronaldo won five, in 2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017. In 2019 Messi took the lead again with a record sixth, finishing just seven points ahead of Virgil van Dijk, and he added a seventh in 2021 and an eighth in 2023.

As of the 2025 edition, those counts stand at eight for Messi and five for Ronaldo. Messi finished in the top three a record fourteen times, including eleven years in a row from 2007 to 2017. Ronaldo holds the record for most nominations, with eighteen. Their scoring records ran in parallel: Messi won eight Pichichi trophies and six European Golden Shoes, and Ronaldo is the only footballer with top-flight top scorer awards in England, Spain and Italy.

What drove the duel? Ronaldo said in 2016, "we push each other sometimes in the competition". Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo's manager at Manchester United, said he did not think the rivalry bothered them and that each had personal pride in wanting to be the best. Messi himself has denied any rivalry and blames the media for creating it.

When Modrić finally broke the spell in 2018, he said history would say a Croatian player from a small country won the Ballon d'Or after Ronaldo and Messi, "players at another level". It was the first win by anyone else since Kaká in 2007.