At the end of October 2023, the most talked about award at the annual Ballon d'Or ceremony will naturally be the Ballon d'Or, the award that symbolizes the best footballer around the globe, which is mainly contested by two men, Lionel Messi, who helped Argentina to win the World Cup in 2022 and
Manchester City
Last season, they won the Triple Crown and the
England Premier Soccer League
With Erling Haaland, who won the European Golden Boot, it was finally Lionel Messi who prevailed to take the Ballon d'Or for the eighth time, breaking his own record in addition to leading his lifelong rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who is second all-time with a record of five Ballon d'Ors, by a margin of three.
Some people may wonder, turn over the Golden Ball Award from 1956 to the list of winners to the present, is considered to be the history of the football world, the other two king of the ball Pele and Diego Maradona how have not won the award, this is because before 1995 this award is in fact only awarded to the European players, until 1995 only to include non-European players to win the award led to two people have no chance, but the Golden Ball Award! Officials have awarded a special "Honorary Ballon d'Or" to the two Ballon d'Or winners, and even in 2016 there was a reassessment that if there had been an opening for non-European players to win the award, then Pele would have had the dreaded seven seats!
Counting down Pele's seven officially recognized Ballon d'Or awards are, from 1958 when he made his mark to 1961 when he would win the award for four consecutive years, all four years of his data performance is the world's only class, in 1962 the World Cup Pele was injured in the group stage, so even if his data for the whole season that year is also a unique, and the last year is a complementary award to him in the World Cup, after the injury, he jumped out to help Brazil to win the title again Garrincha. In 1963 and 1964, Pele continued to be recognized as the true Golden Ball winner, winning the award six times, and Pele was only 24 years old.
But the 1965 Ballon d'Or was awarded to Portuguese superstar Eusébio, who scored 48 goals in the 1964-65 season, although Pele's tally in South America that year was an even more frightening 64, and in 1966 it was awarded to the recently-deceased England star Bobby Charlton for helping England win the World Cup that year. He helped England win the World Cup that year.
The 1966 World Cup itself was a watershed in Pele's career, as he was injured again in the group stage, and the Brazilian team was unable to jump out at the right time like the previous year, and eventually exited in the group stage. The reason for Pele's successive injuries in the World Cup was that the rules of the game were quite a bit backward than today's, and the opponents often used underhanded tactics in order to stop him from being the king of the game.
But such a result for Brazil that year ultimately brought Pele a lot of criticism and made him want to quit for a while
the national team
However, finally he began to focus significantly on regimen during the four-year season of 1967-70, so his personal data in these years is no longer the world's unique presence, until 1970, Pele to tactical core of the identity of the Brazilian team once again to help win the World Cup, this year there is no doubt that must be awarded to the seventh golden ball he may have, the start of the 1971 season, when just 30 years old! At the start of the 1971 season, at the age of just 30, Pele had already begun to retire from the first division after a successful career.
In terms of age, Pele is a bit of a late bloomer, but it wasn't until now that Lionel Messi has won his eighth Ballon d'Or at the age of 36 that he surpassed him, so it's clear that it's difficult to compare Pele to Lionel Messi in terms of who is the best of all time in soccer! Although the so-called seven Golden Balls didn't really go to Pele.
In addition to Pele, another recognized Ballon d'Or winner, Maradona, is also considered to be the actual Ballon d'Or winner of that year with his performance in leading Argentina to win the 1986 World Cup, helping Napoli win the 1990 Boxing Day League and leading Argentina to finish as runners-up in the World Cup in 1990, and Mario Kempes in 1978 and Romário in 1994, who helped Argentina and Brazil win the World Cup that year. Mario Kempes in 1978 and Romário in 1994, who helped Argentina and Brazil win the World Cup that year, are considered to be the actual Ballon d'Or winners of that year.
