George Weah remains Africa’s only men’s Ballon d’Or winner, but the voting records reveal how others have challenged for his crown.
As London hosts the 2026 ceremony on Monday, the Liberian’s 1995 triumph remains unmatched by another player representing an African nation.
Sadio Mané has come closest in finishing position, although his runner-up placing in 2022 concealed a substantial gap behind Karim Benzema.
The Senegal forward collected 193 points against Benzema’s 549, finishing 356 points behind the winner despite beating every other contender.
Interestingly, Mané’s fourth-place finish in 2019 produced a stronger return relative to the winner, although it left him outside the podium.
He earned 347 points against Lionel Messi’s 686, just over half the Argentine’s total, compared with roughly 35 percent of Benzema’s.
Mohamed Salah finished fifth that year with 178 points, while Algeria’s Riyad Mahrez placed tenth after collecting 33 points.
Salah subsequently reached fourth in 2025, accumulating 657 points as Ousmane Dembélé secured the trophy with a commanding 1,380 points.
The Egyptian finished only 46 points behind third-placed Vitinha, making the podium considerably closer than the award itself that year.
Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi also featured prominently, finishing sixth with 484 points in another strong showing for African football’s leading players.
Before Mané and Salah, Didier Drogba mounted one of the continent’s strongest challenges, finishing fourth in the 2007 Ballon d’Or.
The Côte d’Ivoire striker received 108 points, behind winner Kaká’s 444, Cristiano Ronaldo’s 277 and Messi’s 255 in the final standings.
Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o reached fifth in 2009, collecting 75 points during a vote dominated by his former Barcelona teammate Messi.
Messi amassed 473 points, leaving Eto’o 398 behind despite the Cameroonian’s contribution to Barcelona’s historic treble-winning campaign earlier that year.
These figures require context because voting systems and jury sizes have changed, making raw totals from different editions unsuitable for direct comparison.
The men’s award is decided by specialist journalists, with one representative from each of the top 100 countries in FIFA’s rankings.
Daily Monitor’s Allan Darren Kyeyune has been voting for Uganda for the last two (2024 & 2025) editions.
Each journalist ranks ten nominees, who receive 15, 12, 10, eight, seven, five, four, three, two and one point respectively.
Mané’s second place remains the strongest finish since Weah, while the points explain why even that challenge fell well short.
Hakimi and Mané return to the men’s shortlist this year, with Monday’s ceremony beginning at 11pm Ugandan time at the London Palladium.