Six. That was the magic number. When the 2019 Ballon d Or winner was announced at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, Lionel Messi stood alone. He’d finally nudged ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo. People lost their minds. Some fans called it a "robbery," while others argued it was the purest distillation of footballing genius we’d ever see.
Honestly, the 2019 race was weird. It wasn't like the years where one guy clearly blew everyone out of the water by winning the Champions League and the World Cup in one go. It was a statistical tug-of-war between a defensive giant and a diminutive magician. Virgil van Dijk was the wall. Messi was the storm.
The Razor-Thin Margin That Decided Everything
You’ve gotta look at the points to really get how close this was. Messi won by just seven points. Seven. In a voting system involving hundreds of journalists from across the globe, that is basically a rounding error. Van Dijk actually had more votes from European and Asian journalists. Messi took the crown because of his overwhelming support in South America and Africa.
It’s kinda fascinating how geography plays into these things.
The 2019 Ballon d Or winner didn’t just win because of "reputation," though his critics love to say that. Messi dragged a fairly mediocre Barcelona team to a La Liga title. He scored 51 goals in 50 games across all competitions. Think about that for a second. More goals than games. He wasn't even playing as a pure striker; he was dropping deep, playmaking, and basically acting as the team's lungs and brain simultaneously.
Why Virgil van Dijk Almost Changed the Narrative
For a long time, the Ballon d'Or has been a "goals" trophy. If you score, you win. If you’re a defender? Good luck. Fabio Cannavaro was the last one to do it back in 2006, and he needed a World Cup trophy to make it happen.
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Van Dijk’s 2019 season was statistically perfect for a center-back. He went 65 consecutive games without being dribbled past. Not once. Not by pacy wingers, not by physical strikers. Nobody. He was the anchor that allowed Liverpool to lift the Champions League trophy in Madrid. He was the reason they pushed Manchester City to a 97-point finish in the Premier League.
The Anfield Miracle and the Shadow of the 4-0
If you want to know why some people think the 2019 Ballon d Or winner should have been the Dutchman, you only have to look at the Champions League semi-final. Liverpool lost 3-0 at the Camp Nou—a game where Messi scored a free-kick so good it felt like a glitch in the Matrix—but then the return leg happened.
4-0.
Barcelona collapsed. Messi was silenced. Liverpool went to the final; Barcelona went home in shame. Usually, that kind of head-to-head result settles the debate for the voters. But for some reason, the individual brilliance of Messi’s league campaign outweighed the collective triumph of Van Dijk’s European conquest.
The Statistics Nobody Can Argue With
Let’s get into the weeds of the 2018-19 season. It’s easy to say "Messi scored goals," but the data from Opta and FBref shows a deeper level of dominance.
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- Expected Goals (xG): Messi outperformed his xG by a massive margin, proving his finishing wasn't just high volume—it was high precision.
- Free Kicks: He scored eight direct free-kick goals in a single season. Most teams don't score eight in a decade.
- Assists: He topped the charts in La Liga with 13 assists, meaning he was involved in nearly 50% of Barcelona’s total output.
He was the top scorer in the Champions League too, with 12 goals. People forget that. Even though Barcelona got knocked out, Messi was still the most lethal player in the tournament.
The "Fatigue" Factor and the Ronaldo Decline
By 2019, the world was starting to see a shift. Cristiano Ronaldo had moved to Juventus. While he won Serie A, his goal-scoring numbers dipped below his usual "alien" standards. He finished third in the voting, quite far behind the top two.
There was a sense of voter fatigue, but ironically, it wasn't for Messi. It was for the duopoly itself. People wanted a new winner. That’s why Luka Modric winning in 2018 felt like a breath of fresh air. In 2019, the "new winner" was supposed to be Van Dijk. When the 2019 Ballon d Or winner turned out to be the same guy who'd been winning it since 2009, the internet exploded.
What We Learned from the 2019 Results
The 2019 ceremony taught us that the Ballon d'Or is increasingly about "moments of awe" rather than "trophy counts."
Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah finished 4th and 5th. If they hadn't split the "Liverpool vote," maybe one of them would have pushed Messi even harder. That’s the problem with having a great team; you end up cannibalizing your own success in individual awards.
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Messi’s speech that night was surprisingly humble. He talked about retirement approaching. He seemed to realize that this sixth trophy was a legacy-defining moment. It moved him ahead of Ronaldo, and in the eyes of many, it ended the "Greatest of All Time" debate right then and there, three years before he even touched the World Cup.
The Legacy of the 2019 Vote
Looking back from 2026, the 2019 award looks like the start of Messi’s "second act." He transitioned from the lightning-fast dribbler to the surgical playmaker.
If you’re trying to understand the criteria for these awards, 2019 is the perfect case study. It proves that the "Best Player" and the "Player with the Best Season" are often two different people. Van Dijk had the best season. Messi was the best player. The journalists chose the latter.
How to Analyze Future Winners
If you want to predict who wins these things now, you have to look past the team trophies.
- Check the "Big Chance Creation" stats.
- Look at how much a team relies on one specific individual. Without Messi, 2019 Barcelona was a mid-table side.
- Monitor the narrative in non-European markets. They often carry more weight than the English or Spanish media realize.
- Ignore the "clean sheet" stats for defenders unless they also win a major international tournament.
The 2019 Ballon d Or winner wasn't just a man receiving a trophy; it was the coronation of a style of football that values individual magic over defensive structure. Whether you agree with it or not, that night in Paris changed how we value defenders in the modern game. They have to be twice as good as the attackers just to stand a chance.
Keep an eye on the underlying metrics of the current season. If a player is leading in both "Progressive Carries" and "Goals per 90," they are likely the next one to follow in Messi's footsteps, regardless of how many trophies their teammates help them win.