English players who finished in the top three of Ballon d'Or voting

The very first winner of the Ballon d’Or was in fact English. Matthews also has the honor of being the first winner of the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year award. Playing the now-archaic position of “outside right,” Matthews was considered one of the best players of his era. Also, he was a remarkable iron man of football. Matthews was 41 when he won the Ballon d’Or, and he would not retire for another decade.

Matthews barely eked past the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano in 1956. The next year Di Stefano floored the competition, but a Brit finished second. That would be Wright, a centre back who played his entire domestic career with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He was also the first player in the world to pick up 100 international caps.

Edwards finished third in 1957 behind Di Stefano and Wright. Well, he finished tied for third with Raymond Kopa, Di Stefano’s teammate at Real Madrid. Edwards was a burgeoning young star for Manchester United and England, but unfortunately he’s also tied to tragedy. One of the Busby Babes, Edwards was one of the eight players who died as a result of the Munich air disaster of 1958. He was only 21.

After a few years without an Englishman in the mix, Haynes picked up the proverbial bronze in 1961. Side note: Did you know there was a famed Spanish Luis Suarez many years before the Uruguayan version kicked (and bit) his way to success? Many consider Haynes the best player in Fulham history, and he captained the England squad on several occasions as well. Sadly, a serious car accident in 1962 completely reshaped his career, and likely kept Haynes out of the 1966 World Cup-winning squad.

If you wanted a guy to pot a goal or two in the 1960s, Greaves was a fine go-to option. He finished third in Ballon d’Or voting in 1963, and it’s not surprising that in both the 1962-63 and 1963-64 seasons Greaves scored at least 35 goals for Tottenham Hotspur. In 1963 he also potted eight goals in nine games for England, who he would score 44 goals for in his international career.

It may not be surprising that Charlton won the Ballon d’Or in 1966. After all, he scored three goals en route to England winning the World Cup, and he was also a star for Manchester United at the time. That being said, Charlton did not run away with the award. In fact, he beat the iconic Eusebio by a single point in the voting totals.

Yep, Charlton is back. He’s the first repeat appearance on this list, but not the last. This was a true repeat in a way, as Charlton is here for the 1967 Ballon d’Or voting. However, it’s not a repeat in full, as Charlton finished second this time around. The winner is pretty interesting and a reminder of the ways in which football has changed. Florian Albert won while playing for Ferencvaros in his native Hungary. and would spend his entire career with the Hungarian side.

One last appearance from Charlton. He came oh-so-close to being the first two-time winner of the Ballon d’Or in English football. By this point in time, Di Stefano was the only player with multiple wins. Charlton finished second once again in 1968. This time, he lost to his club teammate George Best. Best was, of course, from Northern Ireland, but this is an English-focused list, not a U.K. list.

Apparently being British and named Bobby went a long way toward Ballon d’Or success for a little while there. In 1970, Moore, who had captained the 1966 World Cup side, finished runner-up to Gerd Muller. While the West Ham legend didn’t win a Ballon d’Or, Pele did call him the best defender he ever faced, and that’s worth just as much.

You may only know Keegan as a manager (and maybe not even that at this point) but he was a fantastic player in his day. He finished second in 1977, but the path there is quite interesting. Keegan spent the 1976-77 season with Liverpool, the club he is most associated with as a player, but during the summer of 1977 he made the move to Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga. At the time players from countries with high-level football leagues didn’t often head overseas, but Keegan gave it a shot.

Keegan’s move to Germany paid off for him personally. In 1978 he would win the Ballon d’Or this time. He had found personal success with Hamburger SV during the 1977-78 season, and then his personal success combined with Hamburger’s increase in play to start the 1978-79 season, helping push Keegan to the win.

Keegan is, to date, the only English player to win the Ballon d’Or multiple times. Not only that, but he won in back-to-back years. After taking the trophy in 1978, he did so in 1979 as well. That success from 1978 continued, driven by Keegan, into 1979. Hamburger won the Bundesliga title in the 1978-79 season, which got the club into the then-European Cup for the 1979-80 campaign. Keegan trounced the competition in winning the Ballon d’Or.

It would be a bit of time until an English player would finish in the top three again. Lineker finished second in 1986, and it feels a bit surprising he didn’t finish first. He scored six goals for England at the World Cup and then added two more goals during Euro 1988 qualifications. Lineker scored 30 goals during the 1985-86 season for Everton and then had 20 during the 1986-87 season with fabled Barcelona. Alas, Lineker didn’t win, as Igor Belanov of Dynamo Kyiv (then a Soviet Union club) took home the trophy. Lineker would never finish in the top three again.

It would take another decade until an English player finished in the top three. Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer, finished third in 1996. The striker is yet another English player who began the season with one club and ended it with another. This was the year in which Shearer made the move from Blackburn Rovers to Newcastle United, two clubs for which he scored plenty of goals. That year he also managed four goals at Euro 1996.

This time there wasn’t a long gap, as Beckham finished second in 1999. He was still with Manchester United prior to his move to Real Madrid. This was a big year for Beckham, who also married Posh Spice in 1999. All his celebrity and free-kick skills couldn’t get him the Ballon d’Or over Rivaldo, though.

Savor this entry, English football fans. Owen’s win in 2001 represents the last time an English player has won the Ballon d’Or. One of England’s greatest strikers, Owen was playing with his boyhood club Liverpool. In addition to scoring Premier League goals he was also finding the back of the net in the UEFA Cup and the Champions League in 2001. Maybe his hat trick against Germany in World Cup qualifying also helped give Owen’s the edge over Raul.

2005 was a fine year for English footballers. Lampard was the runner-up for this award. The famed box-to-box midfielder was central to the success of Chelsea during that era. Lampard had won basically every English footballer of the season award for the 2004-05 season, and he was already off to a strong start with Chelsea in the 2005-06 campaign when the Ballon d’Or voters gave him the silver spot.

Lampard? He edged past Gerrard in that 2005 vote. That’s right, two English players in the top three! Sure, neither of these all-decade midfielders could best Ronaldinho, but they both had excellent years. Of course, as any Liverpool fan of the era surely remembers, the 2004-05 season ended with Gerrard and company staging a comeback for the ages to win the Champions League final over AC Milan. That alone may have gotten Gerrard into third.

The two-fer of Lampard and Gerrard had to tide England over for a while. We’ve only just seen one other English player finish in the top three. While most were debating Rodri versus Vinicius Jr. for the 2024 Ballon d’Or, somebody had to finish in third. That somebody was Bellingham. In addition to taking Real Madrid by storm, the young English midfielder was a pivotal part of his country’s squad at Euro 2024. If any English player is primed to win another Ballon d’Or for the country, it’s probably Bellingham.