The Ballon d'Or (French pronunciation: [balΙΜ dΙΚ] ; lit.β'Golden Ball') is an annual football award presented by French magazine France Football since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season.
Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon d'Or was based exclusively on voting by football journalists up until 2006. Originally, it was awarded only to players from Europe and was widely known as the European Footballer of the Year award. In 1995, the Ballon d'Or was expanded to include all players of any origin that have been active at European clubs. The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from around the world being eligible; additionally, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote, before reverting to just journalists in 2016.