The Ballon d'Or weighs 12 kilograms, contains 5 kilograms of 18-carat gold plating alone, and has been awarded by the French magazine France Football since 1956. Unlike most major football trophies, the winner, the world's best footballer of the year, gets to keep it permanently.
In this blog you will find all the facts: weight, material, manufacturer, value and what fans can buy.
How Heavy Is the Ballon d'Or?
12 kilograms. More than you would expect at first glance from a golden ball. Five of those kilograms come from the 18-carat gold plating alone, the rest from the brass core and pyrite base.
By comparison, the Champions League trophy weighs 7.5 kg and the Bundesliga Meisterschale around 11 kg. The Ballon d'Or exceeds both. Its compact, round shape makes it look far lighter than it actually is — something you would probably only realise once you have actually won it and are holding it in your hands.
What Is the Ballon d'Or Made Of?
The ball consists of a brass core coated in 18-carat gold. The gold layer alone accounts for 5 of the 12 kilograms of total weight. This is not the symbolic gold plating you find on ordinary trophies — it is a fundamental part of the trophy itself.
The base is made of pyrite, also known as fool's gold, because it has a metallic sheen and looks like gold but is chemically iron sulphide. That the most coveted individual trophy in football rests on fool's gold has a certain irony that France Football presumably accepted knowingly.
The Ballon d'Or is made by Mellerio in Paris. Mellerio is one of the oldest jewellers in Europe, established in Paris since 1613 and responsible for crafting the trophy for decades. For an award honouring the world's best player, choosing one of the continent's most storied jewellers makes sense.
What Does Ballon d'Or Mean?
Ballon d'Or is French and means simply: golden ball. The trophy depicts a football, gold-plated, on a pyrite base. The name is to be taken literally.
What France Football launched in 1956 as a European football prize is today the most recognised individual award in sport.
History: When Was the Ballon d'Or First Awarded?
In 1956, by France Football. At the time it was a purely European award, restricted to players active in European leagues, with a jury made up of sports journalists from across Europe.
That changed gradually. In 1995 the award was opened to players of all nationalities, provided they were playing in Europe. In 2007 the last restriction fell and since then players worldwide have been eligible.
A notable episode in the history of the award: between 2010 and 2015, France Football cooperated with FIFA to jointly award the FIFA Ballon d'Or. The cooperation ended and both awards have since existed separately again.
The record for the most awards stands at eight titles, all won by the same player. It is a record that seems unlikely to be broken anytime soon.
What Is the Ballon d'Or Worth?
The material value can be calculated precisely. Five kilograms of 18-carat gold plating means 3.75 kilograms of fine gold (18 carats corresponds to a gold content of 75 per cent). At a current gold price of around €85,000 per kilogram, the pure gold value comes to approximately €320,000.
The comparison with other trophies is striking: the Champions League trophy is made of 925 sterling silver and has a material value of around €6,200. The Ballon d'Or exceeds that by a factor of fifty through its gold content alone. Visually, the Champions League trophy at 73.5 centimetres looks more imposing. In material terms, the compact golden ball is far ahead of its UEFA counterpart.
Individual originals have been auctioned for charitable purposes over the years. As a reliable basis for a general market value, however, these cases fall short: the market is too small, too irregular and too dependent on the profile of the individual winner to draw any meaningful price from them.
Who Receives the Ballon d'Or?
The winner. And they keep it.
That sounds obvious, but in football it is not. With the Champions League trophy, the original returns to UEFA after every season and clubs only receive a replica. The DFB-Pokal works similarly. The Ballon d'Or is different: what France Football presents stays with the recipient.
That makes it a special case among football's major trophies. Anyone who has won it owns the original permanently. Some winners have auctioned or donated their trophies for charitable causes over the years.
Buying the Ballon d'Or: What Fans Can Actually Get
For fans there are replicas, available to purchase in our shop.
Am Ball sells officially licensed Ballon d'Or products, including a trophy replica and a keychain. All products have been developed in close collaboration with the licence holders and reproduce the original in material and form as precisely as possible.