{
  "id": 16441759,
  "title": "Ballon d’Or 2026: The five most historic winners – from Matthews to Messi",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/25/ballon-dor-2026-the-five-most-historic-winners-from-matthews-to-messi-16441759",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-25T06:31:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The National UAE",
    "slug": "the-national-uae",
    "url": "https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/football/2026/10/25/ballon-dor-2026-the-five-most-historic-winners-from-matthews-to-messi/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The 2026 Ballon d'Or winner will be announced on Monday night at a glittering ceremony in London. The 70th staging of the event will be the first to be held outside France, with it moving to England as a tribute to Sir Stanley Matthews, who won the first ever Ballon d'Or in 1956. Below, we pick out five of the most historically significant Ballon d'Or victories and list every winner, going back…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}