Ronaldo raises the Ballon d'Or trophy in Madrid, Spain, on December 18, 2002. Photo: IC

When the 2021 Ballon d'Or was announced earlier this month it was notable how experienced those at the top of the list were.  

Argentina international Lionel Messi was handed a seventh crown with the 34-year-old finishing ahead of a 33-year-old Robert Lewandowksi. Of the top eight players, only Liverpool's Mohamed Salah is under 30 and he is 29, while the presence of Kylian Mbappe and Gianluigi Donnarumma drags down the average age of the top 10. 

Ninth-placed Mbappe, 23, and his Paris St-Germain goalkeeper Donnarumma, 22, in 10th are the youngest players in the top 10 but were well off top spot dominated by their fellow PSG teammate Messi.  

Given the dominance of Messi and Ronaldo since the Portuguese first won it in 2008, it is easy to understand why the days of young winners are over as the two global superstars have aged. Ronaldo, 37 in February, finished a spot above Salah this year. Even when there have been ­challenges those have come from players of a similar vintage.  

While Lewandowski may yet be awarded the 2020 Ballon d'Or, which was canceled because of COVID-19 with the Poland striker the clear favorite, the only winner not named Messi or Ronaldo since 2008 was Luka Modric in 2018. The Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder was 33 when he won the crown.  

That's a far cry from some of the winners in the past, who were named as the best player on the planet before they turned 24.  

Ronaldo - 21 years, 3 months, 5 days 

The Brazilian was the most expensive player in the world after moving from Barcelona to Inter Milan in the summer of 1997 and he lived up to his billing at the San Siro. He won the award by some distance - his 222 points were 154 ahead of Atletico Madrid's Predrag Mijatovic and 159 more than Zinedine Zidane. He had scored 47 goals in 49 games in his single season at Barcelona before moving to Italy. Ronaldo would go on to win the 2022 Ballon d'Or despite injury robbing the world of some of O Fenomeno's abundant talents, with the second coming after he helped Brazil to World Cup redemption in Japan. Ronaldo scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Germany in the final. 
 

Brazil striker Ronaldo celebrates scoring the opening goal in the final against Germany in the 2002 World Cup in Yokohama, Japan, on June 30, 2002. Photo: IC

Michael Owen - 22 years, 4 days 

It is now 20 years since Owen's controversial victory in a year where many thought the award should have gone to his future Real Madrid teammate Raul. Like Ronaldo before him, injury stripped Owen of the pace that was so feared during his time at Liverpool. 

"At 21? Oh, I definitely thought I could win another Ballon d'Or," he told the Daily Mail. "I still didn't know injuries would compromise me so much. But looking back, even then, I was terrified to run at top speed. 

"From 10 to 17, I believe there wasn't anyone in the world as good. By 18, I was scoring goals at a World Cup. By 21, the Ballon d'Or. But honestly, I was better at 19. That was when I suffered a crippling injury. Everything comes back to that." 

He looks back on the win fondly even if it was largely overlooked in England. 

"It was only when I joined Real Madrid and it was all, 'We've signed a Ballon d'Or winner!' I was like, 'Jesus, no one gives me any credit back home." Now, I look at it with so much pride." Owen's career never quite reached the heights of his early years and after leaving Real Madrid he played for Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City. 

Lionel Messi - 22 years, 5 months, 7 days 

What more needs said about the player who won this year's Ballon d'Or some 12 years after his first? With seven wins, Messi is the most decorated player in the history of the game. 

George Best - 22 years, 7 months, 2 days 

Football's first celebrity was handed the Ballon d'Or after winning the European Cup in 1968, with Best starring along the way to the victory over Benfica in the final at Wembley.  

Dubbed "El Beatle" after starring against Benfica in the 1966 European Cup quarters, the pressure on Best was immense and the Northern Ireland international as his star rose and he retired from United aged 26. He would play on for another 11 years in a nomadic career that took in South Africa, the US, Hong Kong and Scotland among other stops and for all the highlights, especially in his time in the US, Best never matched his early days at United. He is still revered at Old Trafford long after his death, aged 59, in 2005. 

Oleg Blokhin - 23 years, 1 month, 25 days 

The Ukrainian was named the winner in 1975. Blokhin's breakthrough came after his fine scoring form for Dynamo Kiev and he beat European football royalty to the title, collecting 80 votes more than "Der Kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer - a record margin at the time - and beating Johan Cruyff into third place.  

Blokhin's goals had seen Dynamo win the European Cup Winners' Cup that year, besting Ferencvaros in the final, before beating Beckenbauer's Bayern Munich in the European Super Cup. Blokhin scored all three goals in the latter win.  

Cristiano Ronaldo - 23 years, 9 months, 27 days 

Another player who needs no introduction, the second Ronaldo to win the Ballon d'Or has won it five times and is second only to his great rival in the all-time list, though it would take some late career resurgence to match Messi. 

Eusebio - 23 years, 11 months, 3 days 

The Benfica star was Portugal's greatest player until Cristiano Ronaldo came along to take that crown. Eusebio won the Ballon d'Or in 1965 after finishing runner-up in 1962. The Mozambique-born star was regularly European Cup top scorer and twice European Golden Boot. After leaving Benfica in 1975 he played in North America. Eusebio died aged 71 in 2014.