There was a time when thirty former winners of the Ballon d’Or trophy took part in a vote to determine who is the “Football Player of the Century.” The results of the vote revealed that one player emerged victorious by a significant margin.
France Football, the organization that has been in charge of organizing the Ballon d’Or ever since it was first presented in 1956, consulted a large number of people who had previously held the prize in order to conduct a vote in order to invent a brand new award.
Stanley Matthews, George Best, and Omar Sivori did not participate in the voting process, and Lev Yashin, who won the competition in 1963, had passed away in 1990. Despite the fact that there were 34 winners between the years 1956 and 1999, only thirty people actually cast their votes.
It was the responsibility of each voter, as stated by the RSSSF, to select five winners from the list of winners, with each player being ranked between one and five. Based on the criteria, the first place would receive five points, the second place would receive four points, the third place would receive three points, the fourth place would receive two points, and the fifth place would receive one point.
On the other hand, the voting process was peculiar because Alfredo Di Stefano, who has won the Ballon d’Or twice, chose only one player to represent his team, and Michel Platini, who has won three Ballon d’Ors, only wanted to win first and second place.
In a peculiar turn of events, George Weah, the winner of the 1995 tournament, chose only two players, Bobby Charlton and Roger Milla, to finish in fifth place. As a result, both of these players earned forty-five points.
The final results of the voting showed that the legendary player from Brazil, Pele, came out on top with 122 points. Diego Maradona, another legend, received nearly twice as many votes as Pele. Officially, neither of these two men were awarded the Ballon d’Or because they were never eligible for the award at any point in their illustrious careers; however, they were later honored with commemorative versions of the award.
Johan Cruyff, Di Stefano, and Michel Platini completed the top five, which was filled with illustrious individuals.
Full votes for the football player of the century are as follows:
(1) Pele, with 122 points
Diego Maradona had a total of 65 points.
There are 62 points for Johan Cruyff.
There are 44 points for Alfredo Di Stefano.
5.Michel Platini, with a score of forty points
6th place: Franz Beckenbauer, with 35 points
Ferrenc Puskas, seventh, with 12 points
8th place: Marco van Basten, with 11 points
Zico, with seven points
10th place: Gerd Muller, with 5 points, and Lev Yashin, with 5 points
There are four points awarded to Enzo Francescoli, four points to Garrincha, and four points to George Best.
15. Rafael Gordillo, who has three points
Bobby Charlton with a score of 2.5 points
17.Romario; two points for him
For example, Roberto Baggio received one point, Oleg Blokhin received one point, Just Fontaine received one point, Raymond Kopa received one point, Fritz Walter received one point, and Dino Zoff received one point.
Roger Milla, who is worth 0.5 points
