FC Barcelona, first club to win men's and women's Ballon d'Or

On Monday in Paris, Leo Messi and Alexia Putellas were crowned winners of the men’s and women’s Ballon d’Or, making the club the first to ever have winners in both categories.

Barça winners

Alexia follows on from Luis Suárez (1960), Johan Cruyff (1973 & 1974), Hristo Stoichkov (1994), Rivaldo (1999), Ronaldinho (2005) and Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 & 2019).

There have also been the cases Ronaldo (1997), Luis Figo (2000) and Messi (2021), who played half the year at Barça but had moved elsewhere by the time the prize was awarded.

Double champions of Europe

Of course, Barça also became this year the first club to have ever won both the men’s and women’s variants of the Champions League. What’s more, in both cases, the club has completed trebles by winning the two major domestic tournaments in the same season.

Record breaking gala

FC Barcelona can also boast that it’s the first club to have collected three different awards at the same Ballon d’Or gala. Because in addition to Alexia and Messi, there was also Pedri, who won the Kopa Trophy for the best player under the age of 21. What a treble!