Ballon d'Or 2024: From Alfredo Di Stefano to Cristiano Ronaldo; how ...

Real Madrid are no strangers to trophies, given they have lifted a record 15 UEFA Champions Leagues, as well as 36 La Liga titles and a multitude of other trophies.

The list of star players who have helped Los Blancos become the force they are across the globe is a lengthy one, and it is no surprise that individual honours have followed.

No fewer than eight players have won the Ballon d'Or while at the Bernabeu.

That makes Real Madrid the most successful club in the history of the award, with legendary names such as Alfredo Di Stefano, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo taking the honour.

The 2024 Ballon d'Or award ceremony takes place in Paris on Monday 28 October.

Given Carlo Ancelotti's side lifted the UEFA Champions League title this year, there are, unsurprisingly, several Real Madrid players among the nominees.

So could England star Jude Bellingham, midfielder Federico Valverde or Vinicius Junior, who scored in the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund this year, add to the long list of Real Madrid stars?

Vinicius, who did not even make the top three in 2023, is the favourite this year.

Ahead of the ceremony, we take a look at some of the past Los Blancos heros to be crowned Ballon d'Or winner.

Real Madrid were the undoubted kings of Europe in the mid 1950s and early 1960s, lifting the trophy on no fewer than six occasions over an 11-year period, and finishing as runners-up twice.

Their brilliance was recognised with a string of Ballon d'Or nominations and subsequent wins.

Although Blackpool and England star Stanley Matthews was the first winner of the award in 1956, a pair of Los Blancos players came second and third, in the form of Alfredo Di Stefano and Raymond Kopa.

Twelve months later, with the Spanish giants having just lifted their second successive European title, Di Stefano was crowned the game's best player, with Kopa again in third.

The Frenchman eventually won his first crown in 1958, though, followed by a second and final award for Di Stefano in 1959.

After beating FK Partizan to lift their sixth European Cup in 1966, Real Madrid's powers waned in continental football, as clubs like Liverpool and Bayern Munich came to the fore.

The Spanish giants had to wait until the inception of the UEFA Champions League before their next title, which came in 1998.

Van Nisterlooy, Ronaldo Nazario (Real Madrid)

Image credit: Getty Images

With European honours evading them, so did Ballon d'Or victories, until Figo was named as the game's best player in 1998, narrowly beating Zinadine Zidane, then of Juventus.

It capped a magnificent year for the Portuguese, who had become one of a handful of players to cross the divide in moving to the Bernabeu from Barcelona.

Two years later, another former Camp Nou favourite would lift the award: Brazilian megastar Ronaldo.

The striker had just guided his country to their fifth - and most recent - World Cup title, scoring eight goals in just seven international appearances over the course of the calendar year.

Then in 2006, defender Fabio Cannavaro was rewarded for helping Italy lift the World Cup as he became Real's fifth Ballon d'Or winner.

Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid from Manchester United in 2009 helped take the Spaniards back to the top of the European tree.

They have won six of the last 11 European Cups, and as a result their players have regularly been near the top of the Ballon d'Or voting.

Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid

Image credit: Getty Images

Ronaldo originally had to play second fiddle to Lionel Messi: having been named Ballon d'Or winner in 2008 while still at Old Trafford, he finished directly behind his Argentine rival in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

However, a box-office year in 2013 led to the Portuguese being crowned Ballon d'Or winner again, and he repeated that feat twelve months later.

Messi returned to top spot in 2015, but Ronaldo was never far behind him, and he won a further two gongs in 2016 and 2017, with Real Madrid lifting Champions League titles in both of those years, as well as another La Liga crown in 2016.

Los Blancos' dominance of the award contined in 2018 as Luka Modric, who had just helped Croatia finish as runners-up in the World Cup, beat Ronaldo - then at Juventus - into first place.

In 2022, after Real Madrid's 14th Champions League triumph, Karim Benzema won the Ballon d'Or for the first time.

Here is the list of all the Real Madrid players who have topped the voting for the Ballon d'Or.

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