Ballon d'Or 1956

European Footballer of the Year
Stanley Matthews

The first award of the Ballon d'Or (French for Golden Ball) by France Football magazine took place in 1956 . English right-winger Stanley Matthews was the winner and thus the first footballer of the year in Europe .

Jury and voting process

The idea for this competition came from France Football's editorial director , Jacques Ferran , who also took over the organization. He was convinced that only regular observers of European football - which was also made easier by the introduction of a European championship cup competition in the 1955/56 season - were suitable as jurors, and put together a jury of 16 sports journalists from as many countries. Austria, Switzerland and Germany were also represented (Ferdinand Wimmer from New Austria , Frédéric Schlatter from La Gazette de Lausanne , Fritz Weilenmann from Kicker ), as well as three journalists from the Eastern Bloc (Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary); for France, Gabriel Hanot from L'Équipe voted . Each juror gave five, four, three, two or one point to five players of their choice - France Football did not specify a shortlist. The votes were sent to the editorial office in Paris by letter or by telephone .

Result

In its December 18, 1956 edition, France Football published the result:

1. Stanley Matthews ( Blackpool FC , 47 out of 80 maximum possible points)
2. Alfredo Di Stéfano ( Real Madrid , 44)
3. Raymond Kopa ( Stade Reims / Real Madrid, 33)
4. Ferenc Puskás ( Honvéd Budapest , 32)
5. Lev Yashin ( Dynamo Moscow , 19)
6. József Bozsik (Honvéd Budapest, 15)
7. Ernst Ocffekt ( FK Austria Wien / Sampdoria Genua , 9)
8. Sándor Kocsis (Honvéd Budapest, 6)
9. Iwan Kolew ( CSKA Sofia ), Billy Wright ( Wolverhampton Wanderers ) and Thadée Cisowski ( Racing Paris , 4 each)
12. Julinho ( Fiorentina , 3)

Also consideration was Stefan Boschkow (CSKA Sofia), Duncan Edwards ( Manchester United ), Gerhard Hanappi ( Rapid Vienna ), Robert Jonquet (Stade Reims), Miguel Montuori (Fiorentina), Pepillo ( FC Sevilla ), Juan Schiaffino ( AC Milan ) and Eduard Strelzow ( Torpedo Moscow ) with two points each and one point each for Campanal (Sevilla FC), Břetislav Dolejší ( Dukla Prague ), Roger Piantoni (Stade Reims) and Kees Rijvers ( AS Saint-Étienne ).

In retrospect, Jacques Ferran rates Matthews' award as one that “takes into account less his past year as a player than the overall career of the now almost 42-year-old”. To hand over the trophy created by a Parisian jeweler, Gabriel Hanot traveled with a photographer to Blackpool , where he presented it to the winner in his apartment. This first award was also marketed in the media, albeit to a relatively modest extent in line with the times. In its 1956 Christmas edition , France Football reported on it on just three pages, to which only a small box on the front page indicated. Before Hanot left, RTF showed the trophy and short newsreel excerpts of the first footballer of the year, and the BBC invited Matthews to their studio in Manchester in early 1957 .

literature

• “Il est né le divin Ballon d'Or.” France Football, January 9, 2013, pp. 48–50

Web links

• Ballon d'Or 1956 at francefootball.fr

Notes and evidence

1. ↑ "Il est né le divin Ballon d'Or.", P. 49
2. ↑ "Il est né le divin Ballon d'Or.", P. 50
3. ↑ A photo of this delivery can be found in “Il est né le divin Ballon d'Or.” On p. 48.
4. ↑ For comparison: The 2012 election was worth 53 pages for the magazine.