FC Barcelona: The team with the most Ballon d'Or winners

Aitana Bonmatí has added her name to the glittering list of blaugrana Ballon d'Or winners. The club already held the all-time record, which has now been extended to fifteen in the men's and women's categories combined.

For men alone, Barça and Real Madrid are tied with 12 winners each, but the Catalans can also boast three female winners while the all-whites have none. Alexia Putellas won in the last two editions, and Aitana has now added her name to the list. The women's Ballon d’Or has only existed since 2010, when France Football merged with FIFA to create the FIFA Ballon d’Or, although the two separated in 2016 and now have different prizes.

So many winners

The first Barça winner was Luis Suárez (1960), followed by Johan Cruyff (1973 & 1974), Hristo Stoichkov (1994), Rivaldo (1999), Ronaldinho (2005) and Leo Messi (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 & 2019). The Argentinian went on to win the award again in 2021 and then this year too, but those were after he had left the club. And we have also had female winners in Alexia Putellas (2021 & 2022) and now Aitana Bonmatí.

Eleven ‘made in Masia'

Players that have come out of the club's own youth system have amassed an impressive 11 Ballon d'Ors over the years. Eight of those were thanks to Leo Messi, while Putellas and Aitana account for the others.

And Barça players have also tended to feature elsewhere on the podium, to the extent that in 2010 the club enjoyed an unprecedented one, two and three of Leo Messi, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández, an era when there was no possible disputing which club was the best on the planet. Xavi and Iniesta continued to appear on the podium in subsequent years, though neither won the top honour. Neymar was also at Barça when he finished third in 2015 and 2017.