Artificial Intelligence predicts the next 15 victors of the Ballon d’Or, including an icon returning to the top at the age of 39, and a surprise Premier League name being a two-time winner

Artificial intelligence has been used to predict the next 15 Ballon d’Or winners – and some surprising names have made the list.

The French football award has evolved significantly since its inception in 1956, with Lionel Messi, the current holder, earning a record eight gongs and Cristiano Ronaldo securing the most nominations for the top prize (18).

However, fans keen to get a glimpse into the future of the France Football award honoring the best player have received some surprising answers from AI.

X (formerly Twitter) account Football Archive asked AI to name the grand prize winners through 2038 – and there are plenty of talking points.

Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham has been tipped for the top prize in 2024 – and would be the first English winner of the top prize since Michael Owen in 2001 if that were to happen. Last year he won the Kopa Trophy, for players under 21 years old.

Jude Bellingham, who won the Kopa Trophy at last year’s awards, has been tipped for 2024

Kylian Mbappe, who was third on the 2023 list, is expected to take the top prize in 2025, before Messi claims a ninth prize the following year, when he would be 39 years old.

A win for Messi would increase the Argentine’s dominance in winning the prize at the expense of his Portuguese foe Cristiano Ronaldo, who has no intention of winning the top prize again.

Looking ahead, young talents Phil Foden, currently at Man City, and Gavi, now at Barcelona, ​​are expected to top the polls in 2027 and 2028 respectively.

Foden’s clubmate Erling Haaland, who finished second in 2023 and also won the Gerd Muller Trophy, is expected to go one better in the most important Ballon d’Or in 2029.

Vinicius Jr. Real Madrid’s is expected to win the first prize of the 2030s after earning the Socrates Award for his humanitarian work last October.

Brighton and Ireland star Evan Ferguson is the surprise choice for the 2031 award, despite the fact that no Republic of Ireland player has ever been in the top three of the Ballon d’Or to date.

Erling Haaland, who came second at the 2023 ceremony, is expected to go one step further in 2029

Evan Ferguson from Brighton is a surprising name and will win two Ballon d’Or’s according to AI

Currently 21-year-old Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen is expected to win the top prize in 2032, while Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala, who finished second behind Bellingham at the Kopa Trophy in 2033, claimed the big prize.

The first name to appear twice on the list, Frenchman Mbappé, who has just left PSG, is expected to follow up his 2025 award another nine years later, when he would be 35.

Ferguson will then win his second ever Ballon d’Or in 2035, following on from his success four years earlier, the AI ​​data shows.

Lamine Yamal, currently only 16 years old but working for Barcelona, ​​is expected to become the Messi or Ronaldo of his time by earning consecutive Ballon d’Or awards in 2036 and 2037.

And Turkey’s Arda Guler, who now plays for Real Madrid at the age of 19, is the expected winner of the 2038 award.

Lamine Yamal becomes an icon of his time with consecutive Ballon d’Or’s in 2036 and 2037

Turkey’s Arda Guler, currently playing for Real Madrid, is expected to win the award in 2038

The full list of the next 15 Ballon d’Or winners, according to AI, from Bellingham to Guler

Since the 2023 ceremony took place in October last year, the next awards ceremony is expected to take place sometime this fall.

Plus, football fans still have a decade and a half to see how many of these predictions are intelligent and which ones are way off the mark.