The 2008 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in the world as judged by an international panel of sports journalists,[1] was awarded on 2 December 2008.[2] Cristiano Ronaldo won the award, being his first of five. His win also began a 10-year dominance of the award between him and Lionel Messi — which eventually led to an intense rivalry between the two. Both players had won five Ballon d'Or awards before the dominance was ended in 2018 by Luka Modrić.

2008 Ballon d'Or
Date2 December 2008 (2008-12-02)
LocationParis, France
CountryFrance
Presented byFrance Football
Highlights
Won byPortugal Cristiano Ronaldo (1st award)
Websitewww.francefootball.fr
← 2007 · Ballon d'Or · 2009 →

Rankings

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Rank Player Nationality Club(s) Points
1 Cristiano Ronaldo   Portugal   Manchester United 446
2 Lionel Messi   Argentina   Barcelona 281
3 Fernando Torres   Spain   Liverpool 179
4 Iker Casillas   Spain   Real Madrid 133
5 Xavi   Spain   Barcelona 97
6 Andrey Arshavin   Russia   Zenit Saint Petersburg 64
7 David Villa   Spain   Valencia 55
8 Zlatan Ibrahimović   Sweden   Internazionale 30
9 Kaká   Brazil   Milan 29
10 Steven Gerrard   England   Liverpool 28
11 Marcos Senna   Spain   Villarreal 16
12 Emmanuel Adebayor   Togo   Arsenal 12
13 Wayne Rooney   England   Manchester United 11
14 Sergio Agüero   Argentina   Atlético Madrid 10
15 Frank Lampard   England   Chelsea 8
16 Franck Ribéry   France   Bayern Munich 7
17 Samuel Eto'o   Cameroon   Barcelona 6
18 Gianluigi Buffon   Italy   Juventus 5
19 Michael Ballack   Germany   Chelsea 4
Cesc Fàbregas   Spain   Arsenal 4
21 Didier Drogba   Ivory Coast   Chelsea 3
Sergio Ramos   Spain   Real Madrid 3
Nemanja Vidić   Serbia   Manchester United 3
24 Edwin van der Sar   Netherlands   Manchester United 2
Ruud van Nistelrooy   Netherlands   Real Madrid 2
26 Karim Benzema   France   Lyon 0
Pepe   Portugal   Real Madrid 0
Luca Toni   Italy   Bayern Munich 0
Rafael van der Vaart   Netherlands   Real Madrid 0
Yuri Zhirkov   Russia   CSKA Moscow 0

References

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  1. ^ "2008 Leaderboard". France Football. 2 December 2008. Archived from the original on 17 December 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  2. ^ Pierrend, José Luis (16 January 2009). "European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") 2008". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 16 January 2009.
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