The five-time winner came home in sixth place in France Football’s final points table and classification for the 2021 Ballon d’Or award.
Cristiano Ronaldo finished in sixth place in the 2021 Ballon d’Or rankings on a respectable 178 points.
The Portuguese ace ended up just eight points behind Chelsea’s fifth-placed midfielder N’Golo Kante in the standings. It is the first time he has finished as low as sixth since the 2010 Ballon d’Or – 11 years ago.
The award itself for 2021 went to Lionel Messi for a seventh time. The Paris Saint-Germain star collected 613 points, just 33 points ahead of Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski.
Chelsea midfielder Jorginho, who won the Champions League and Euro 2020, rounded off the top three on 460 points.
Men’s Ballon d’Or final standings 2021
| Pos | Player | Nation | Club/s | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Lionel Messi | 🇦🇷 | PSG/Barcelona | 613 |
| 2. | Robert Lewandowski | 🇵🇱 | Bayern Munich | 580 |
| 3. | Jorginho | 🇮🇹 | Chelsea | 460 |
| 4. | Karim Benzema | 🇫🇷 | Real Madrid | 239 |
| 5. | N’Golo Kante | 🇫🇷 | Chelsea | 186 |
| 6. | Cristiano Ronaldo | 🇵🇹 | Man United/Juventus | 178 |
| 7. | Mohamed Salah | 🇪🇬 | Liverpool | 121 |
| 8. | Kevin De Bruyne | 🇧🇪 | Manchester City | 73 |
| 9. | Kylian Mbappe | 🇫🇷 | PSG | 58 |
| 10. | Gianluigi Donnarumma | 🇮🇹 | PSG/AC Milan | 36 |
| 11. | Erling Haaland | 🇳🇴 | Dortmund | 33 |
| 12. | Romelu Lukaku | 🇧🇪 | Chelsea | 26 |
| 13. | Giorgio Chiellini | 🇮🇹 | Juventus | 26 |
| 14. | Leonardo Bonucci | 🇮🇹 | Juventus | 18 |
| 15. | Raheem Sterling | 🏴 | Manchester City | 10 |
| 16. | Neymar | 🇧🇷 | PSG | 9 |
| 17. | Luis Suarez | 🇺🇾 | Atletico Madrid | 8 |
| 18. | Simon Kjaer | 🇩🇰 | AC Milan | 8 |
| 19. | Mason Mount | 🏴 | Chelsea | 7 |
| 20. | Riyad Mahrez | 🇩🇿 | Manchester City | 7 |
| 21. | Bruno Fernandes | 🇵🇹 | Manchester United | 6 |
| 21= | Lautaro Martinez | 🇦🇷 | Inter Milan | 6 |
| 23. | Harry Kane | 🏴 | Tottenham | 4 |
| 24. | Pedri | 🇪🇸 | FC Barcelona | 3 |
| 25. | Phil Foden | 🏴 | Manchester City | 2 |
| 26. | Nicolo Barella | 🇮🇹 | Inter Milan | 1 |
| 26= | Ruben Dias | 🇵🇹 | Manchester City | 1 |
| 26= | Gerard Moreno | 🇪🇸 | Villarreal | 1 |
| 29. | Cesar Azpilicueta | 🇪🇸 | Chelsea | 0 |
| 29= | Luka Modric | 🇭🇷 | Real Madrid | 0 |
How were the points decided?
France Football had each nation represented in the voting by the national team’s manager, captain, and a nominated sports journalist. They would name the five best players of 2021 using the following points system:
- 1st – 6 points
- 2nd – 4 points
- 3rd – 3 points
- 4th – 2 points
- 5th – 1 point
While Ronaldo didn’t attend the gala in Paris on Monday night, he took to Instagram to deny France Football editor-in-chief Pascal Ferre’s accusation about him wanting to win more Ballon d’Ors than Messi.