- Updates as the year’s top male and female players are named
- And you can contact Scott here with your thoughts
There have only been two previous Ballon d’Or Féminin. Ada Hegerberg of Lyon and Norway won the first, in 2018, coming in ahead of Pernille Harder of Wolfsburg and Denmark, and Dzsenifer Morozsan of Lyon and Germany. The aforementioned Megan Rapinoe won the 2019 version, romping way ahead of England’s Lucy Bronze and Rapinoe’s USWNT colleague Alex Morgan.
The 1956 Ballon d’Or, then. The first-ever recipient of this prestigious award was Stanley Matthews of Blackpool. He held off Alfredo Di Stefano of Real Madrid by three votes. Raymond Kopa of Reims and Real Madrid pipped Honved’s Ferenc Puskas to third spot, while legendary USSR and Dynamo Moscow keeper Lev Yashin was fifth. That’s not a bad top five, all told. Di Stefano, Kopa and Yashin all won in later years, though Puskas never did. The legendary Hungarian won Matthews’ respect, though. Years later, Matthews and Puskas ran into each other in London in their dotage. “Puskas, you were the greatest,” Stan said. “Maybe,” the Galloping Major replied, “but you are the very, very, all-time greatest.” As for the hard stats ...
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3I1vuQD
via
0 Comments