Pallone d'Oro

The Pallone d'Oro ("Golden Ball") is an annual football award presented by Italian news magazine La Gazetta dello Sport that is one of the oldest and generally regarded as the most prestigious individual award for football players. It has been awarded since 1930 with an interruption between 1942 and 1947.

Conceived by sports writer and La Gazetta dello Sport director Emilio Colombo, the Pallon d'Oro award honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists of country that have participated in a FIFA World Cup.