Best of the best: the Bundesliga's Ballon d'Or winners
On 26 October, the 70th annual Ballon d'Or ceremony will take place at the London Palladium. Bayern Munich's Harry Kane is among the favourites to win the illustrious prize, while a trio of his team-mates, Luis Díaz, Michael Olise and Dayot Upamecano, have also been nominated. With just a few days to go, we take a look back at the six Bundesliga players to have landed the much-coveted award...
Gerd Müller (1970)
Müller, a veritable legend for club and country, was the first German player and first Bundesliga representative to win the Ballon d'Or. Having scored a whopping 38 league goals for Bayern during the 1969/70 campaign to get his hands on the Torjägerkanone for the second year running, the clinical striker – still the Bundesliga's record goalscorer – netted 10 times for West Germany at the 1970 FIFA World Cup to clinch the tournament's Golden Boot.
Although he was unable to inspire his country to lift the trophy in Mexico, despite his best efforts – he scored a brace in the thrilling 4-3 semi-final defeat by Italy at Estadio Azteca – his considerable achievements were recognised at the Ballon d'Or ceremony in December of that year, where he finished just above England's Bobby Moore in the voting. A certain Franz Beckenbauer finished fourth, but his time would come...
Watch: An ode to Gerd Müller
Franz Beckenbauer (1972, 1976)
The iconic defender, already captain of Bayern and West Germany, enjoyed a hugely successful 1971/72 term, first leading the Munich club to the Bundesliga title, the first in a three-in-a-row winning streak, and then propelling his country to a maiden UEFA European Championship triumph in Belgium. In one of the tightest votes in the history of the Ballon d'Or, 'Der Kaiser' pipped two other Bundesliga players – club team-mate and 1970 winner Müller, and Borussia Mönchengladbach's Günter Netzer – to first place by just two points. It was the first time that a trio of players from the same league or sharing the same nationality had occupied the top three spots.
Four years later, Beckenbauer's winning margin was more comfortable, and understandably so, given his capture of a third successive European Cup with Bayern at the culmination of the 1975/76 season. A month later, he again marshalled West Germany's rearguard at the European Championship, where he and his team-mates finished as runners-up to a strong Czechoslovakia side. At the end of the year, the stylish sweeper became the first defender to win the Ballon d'Or twice.
Allan Simonsen (1977)
Regarded as one of Gladbach's greatest-ever players, the technically gifted Simonsen was up against tough competition for the 1977 award, with future two-time winner Kevin Keegan, who had recently joined Hamburg, and a nascent Michel Platini also in the running. In the end, it was the attack-minded Dane's continually brilliant performances, helping the rampant Foals to secure a third Bundesliga title in a row and reach the European Cup final – during which he scored a memorable equaliser in an eventual 3-1 loss to Liverpool – that clinched it for him.
The only Danish player to be awarded the Ballon d'Or trophy, Simonsen was also the first Bundesliga representative from a club other than Bayern to do so.
Kevin Keegan (1978,1979)
Hamburg legend Keegan, who sadly passed away on 20 July 2026, was already a huge star when he signed for the club, having amassed a host of trophies with Liverpool. It was at the Volksparkstadion that the Yorkshire native's career took on another dimension, however, as his relentless work rate and entertaining all-action style gradually won over the fans and the Ballon d'Or voters, who anointed him at the end of 1978.
The following season, ‘King Kev’ stepped up a gear, scoring 17 goals to help the Red Shorts win the Meisterschale – the club’s first league championship in 19 years. In December 1979, romping home with over double the number of points than his nearest challenger, Bayern's Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (who would only have to wait 12 months until he could celebrate himself), he became the first Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or twice, an accomplishment that remains unequalled to this day.
Watch: Keegan's best Bundesliga goals
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980,1981)
Bayern goal machine Rummenigge found the net 26 times in the 1979/80 season, finishing as the Bundesliga's top scorer and spurring his club on to league glory for the first time since 1974. And while that certainly put the pacy and clinical forward firmly in the running for the Ballon d'Or, it was his strong performances for a triumphant West Germany at UEFA Euro 1980 in Italy – where he provided an assist for one of Horst Hrubesch's two goals in the final and was named in the Team of the Tournament – that clinched the award.
The two-time European Cup winner earned a second successive Bundesliga winner's medal the subsequent season and again claimed the Torjägerkanone prize for top goalscorer – this time with an even higher goal tally of 29. In the Ballon d'Or voting, Rummenigge's team-mate Paul Breitner placed second, giving Bayern another one-two finish. Remarkably, this was the sixth consecutive occasion that a Bundesliga player had scooped the famed accolade.
Matthias Sammer (1996)
The last player to lift the Ballon d'Or while playing for a Bundesliga club, Sammer captained Borussia Dortmund to two successive Bundesliga titles, the second of which he achieved in the 1995/96 season.
Having been moved into a sweeper role from midfield by Dortmund coach Ottmar Hitzfeld following his transfer from Inter Milan in 1993, the talented and elegant defender proved highly adept at anchoring the Black & Yellows' back line, and it was his consistently excellent performances for the Ruhr club and for Germany at UEFA Euro 1996 – where he scored twice and was named Player of the Tournament as Die Nationalelf emerged victorious in England – that saw him squeak ahead of Brazilian juggernaut Ronaldo in the 1996 poll.
Watch: Matthias Sammer - world-class sweeper
Honorable mentions
Prior to Sammer's coronation, Lothar Matthäus, who enjoyed great success with Bayern during two separate spells with the club but who was on the books of Inter Milan at the time, became the fourth German to hold aloft the Ballon d'Or trophy in 1990, following his strong displays while captaining West Germany to victory at the World Cup that summer.
Matthäus' team-mate Jürgen Klinsmann came in second behind AC Milan's George Weah in 1995, while another Bayern luminary, Oliver Kahn, placed third for two years running in 2001 and 2002 – a laudable accomplishment for a goalkeeper.
Manuel Neuer also took third in 2014 after winning the World Cup in Brazil, while Bayern representatives finished as runners-up in both 2021 (Robert Lewandowski, who came mightily close to toppling the all-conquering Lionel Messi) and 2022 (Sadio Mané).
