Thursday brought a hotly anticipated milestone in the football calendar, as four Liverpool players earned nominations for the Ballon d’Or.
Although some see the individual award as nothing but a glorified popularity contest in a team sport, players themselves place great value on the gong.
Awarded in one form or another since 1956, the Ballon d’Or is football’s most prestigious individual prize, one which 33 Liverpool players have now been nominated to win.
As Alexis Mac Allister and Florian Wirtz take their place as the latest to be given a nod while employed by the Reds, Rousing The Kop take a look back at the previous 31.
Alexis Mac Allister applauds fans during Liverpool's pre-season friendly against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield.
Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
No Liverpool nominees for 20 years
While the first Ballon d’Or was awarded, amazingly, to 41-year-old Stanley Matthews of Blackpool in 1956, it took until 1976 for the first Liverpool player to appear amongst the nominees.
That man was Kevin Keegan, who would ultimately go on to win back-to-back Ballon d’Ors in 1978 and 1979. Unfortunately, Keegan had moved from Liverpool to Hamburg at the time, but he did place fourth in 1976 while still with the Reds, and second one year later which encompassed his final season at Anfield.
1977 brought a first European Cup triumph for Liverpool and saw captain Emlyn Hughes finish in 10th, joint with teammate Steve Heighway. Ray Kennedy came in at 26th.
The Reds retained their European crown the following year, but saw only Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness win nominations. Dalglish, scorer of the winning goal in the final, was eighth with Souness finishing 15th. Dalglish picked up a second nomination in as many years to finish 11th in 1979.
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1980’s brings a golden era
After a rather lean first 25 years of the Ballon d’Or from a Liverpool point of view, things ramped up during the 1980s.
The decade is often seen as a golden one in Liverpool history, and that was reflected in the amount of nominations to be the world’s greatest player.
Two players, Dalglish and Ian Rush, were the main beneficiaries, earning four nominations apiece. The closest either came to winning was in 1983, when King Kenny finished runner-up to Michel Platini.
Rush’s best finish arrived in 1984, when the Welshman finished an impressive fourth place.
Other nominees were Terry McDermott, who came 16th in 1980, John Barnes who was sixth and 17th in 1987 and 89 respectively, and Peter Beardsley who was 21st in 1987.
Lean years in the 1990s
If the 1980s were amazing for Liverpool, then the 1990s certainly were not. With the team mired in mid-table mediocrity, only four players were put up for the Ballon d’Or in the whole decade, including Barnes in 1990.
Another of them, Patrik Berger, was not even a Liverpool player for the feats he was nominated for in 1996, although was with the Reds at the time the awards came around. The Czech ended up in 11th place.
The same was true of Dean Saunders, who excelled for Derby County in 1991, earning a move to Liverpool and a 13th place finish. The decade closed out with an impressive 4th position finish for a certain Michael Owen.
Michael Owen on punditry work during Liverpool vs Man City at Anfield.
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
Liverpool bounce back in the 2000s
After the lean years of the 1990s, Liverpool came back to winning ways in the 2000s. Plenty of silverware meant plenty of nods to being the best players on planet earth.
And the decade began in the most unbelievable of ways. After Liverpool’s treble win of the FA Cup, UEFA Cup and League Cup in 2001, Owen became the first, and only, Red to win the Ballon d’Or, beating Real Madrid’s Raul into second place. Hugely impressive. Owen only scored one more nomination for Liverpool, finishing 13th in 2002.
Sami Hyypia was also on the list in 2001, coming in 18th, while Steven Gerrard earned the first of his five nominations, landing in 15th. Gerrard would go on to finish as high as third in 2005.
There was a World Cup-inspired nomination for Liverpool flop El Hadji Diouf, who was 21st in 2002, while Milan Baros was also helped by international exploits, coming in 12th after top-scoring in Euro 2004.
Liverpool’s unexpected Champions League triumph in 2005 saw Jamie Carragher (20th) and Luis Garcia (23rd) get on the leaderboard, before Fernando Torres finished third in 2008 and 11th one year later.
Champions League triumph brings record nominations
Fast forward to the 2010s and Liverpool were once again struggling to make an impact on the world stage. The only nominations during the first half of the decade belonged to Luis Suarez, who was sixth for his half and half season with Liverpool and Ajax in 2011 and 19th in 2013.
But after Jurgen Klopp’s arrival, Liverpool went stratospheric. Sadio Mane (23rd) and Philippe Coutinho (29th) were the first beneficiaries in 2017.
When Virgil van Dijk was just SEVEN points off winning the Ballon d’Or in 2019.
He finished second with Messi and Ronaldo alongside him in the top three 🧱 pic.twitter.com/rNneZjnzKT
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) July 25, 2025
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Mohamed Salah (6th), Roberto Firmino (19th) and Mane (22nd) hit the front in 2018, before the Reds’ Champions League win in 2019 saw a record eight players nominated for the Ballon d’Or.
Virgil van Dijk arguably should have won, but was just pipped by the great Lionel Messi into second place. Mane was fourth, Salah fifth, Alisson Becker seventh, Trent Alexander-Arnold 19th and Gini Wijnaldum 26th.
2020s belong to Mohamed Salah
With Liverpool once again the kings of England in the 2020s, Reds players have enjoyed success in the Ballon d’Or in recent seasons. But none have dominated quite like Salah.
The Egyptian now has six nominations as a Liverpool player, with fifth-placed finishes his highest, coming in 2019 and 2022.
Mane also deserves a huge mention, managing to come second in 2022 just after his transfer to Bayern Munich.
After the Reds were beaten in the Champions League final, Van Dijk also got another nomination, finishing 16th, while Alexander-Arnold ended up 22nd.
There were two new nominees as well, with Fabinho (14th) and Luis Diaz (17th) adding their names to this exclusive list.
Which brings us right up to the present day, with Mac Allister, Wirtz, Van Dijk and Salah once again hoping to write themselves into history.