The Ballon d'Or (; "Golden Ball"), often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award, was an annual association football award presented by France Football between 1956 and 2009. Conceived by chief magazine writer Gabriel Hanot, the award honoured the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on a voting by Europe-based journalists. Originally, only European players were in contention for the Ballon d'Or, but from 1995 all players at European clubs were eligible.