Barcelona captain Lionel Messi was believed to have won the highest number of Ballon d’Or awards after clinching his sixth prize in 2019.
But this appears to be untrue as the organisers of the event have come out to reveal that three-time World Cup winner, Pele, has more.
The Brazil legend was said to have been awarded seven times after re-evaluating the procedure of picking the winner.
According to Sport Bible, only European footballers were opened to winning the prize until 1995 – a process deemed unfair.
And this led France Football to re-arrange their guidelines which then widened their scope of selecting the truly deserving player for the world’s best honour.
The publication revealed that in 2016, the organisers went back and did an “international re-evaluation” to determine who truly deserved the award if it had been global – and retrospectively gave Pele seven; 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, and 1970.
#tbt – @pele @francefootball 7 Ballon d’or ? #pele #ballondor #montreal #soccer #football #futbol #mtl #soccerbible #footy #futbolista #futbolistas #soccer⚽️ #fútbol #futboleros #futbolsport #instagood #soccerskills #instafutbol #footballer #soccertime #… https://t.co/844OIOwS3h pic.twitter.com/X2gCoEHN1Q
— Time4Foot (@time4foot) December 6, 2018
Players like Diego Maradona won twice according to the new arrangement, while the likes of Romario, Mario Kempes and Garrincha also joined Pele on the honorary winners’ list.
The organisers went as far as putting a picture of the three-time World Cup winner on a magazine cover with his golden trophies and the headline: “Pele 7 Ballon d’Or”.
