In 1957 the Ballon d'Or was won by Alfredo di Stefano. The Argentinean born attacker impressively led his club Real Madrid to their second consecutive European Cup in 1957, scoring seven goals in the process, and also to their third Spanish league championship in four years.
| Embed from Getty Images |
| February 1957: Di Stefano (kneeling in the middle) lines up with Real Madrid |
Di Stefano being named European Footballer of the Year was the outcome of a ballot held among a panel of football journalists organised by the magazine 'France Football', with one vote coming from each of the following 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, West Germany and Yugoslavia.
The result was announced in the edition dated December 17th, 1957.
| Name | Country | Club | Pts. |
|
1. |
Alfredo di Stefano | Spain [1] | Real Madrid | 72 |
2. |
Billy Wright | England | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 19 |
3. |
Duncan Edwards | England | Manchester United | 16 |
| Raymond Kopa | France | Real Madrid | 16 | |
5. |
Laszlo Kubala | Spain [2] | FC Barcelona | 15 |
6. |
John Charles | Wales | Juventus | 14 |
7. |
Eduard Streltsov | Soviet Union | Torpedo Moscow | 12 |
8. |
Tommy Taylor | England | Manchester United | 10 |
9. |
Jozsef Bozsik | Hungary | Honved Budapest | 9 |
| Igor Netto | Soviet Union | Dynamo Moscow | 9 | |
| 11. | Lev Yashin | Soviet Union | Dynamo Moscow | 8 |
12. |
Gyula Grosics | Hungary | Tatabanya | 7 |
| Francisco Gento | Spain | Real Madrid | 7 | |
14. |
Juan Schiaffino | Italy | AC Milan | 4 |
| Danny Blanchflower | Northern Ireland | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | |
| Milos Milutinovic | Yugoslavia | Partizan Belgrade | 4 | |
17. |
Gerhard Hanappi | Austria | Rapid Vienna | 3 |
| Johnny Haynes | England | Fulham | 3 | |
| Stanley Matthews | England | Blackpool | 3 | |
20. |
Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | Young Boys Bern | 2 |
| Horst Szymaniak | West Germany | Wuppertaler SV | 2 | |
22. |
Kurt Hamrin | Sweden | Padova | 1 |
| Ladislav Novak | Czechoslovakia | Dukla Prague | 1 | |
1956 • European Footballer of the Year • 1958
#1: Alfredo di Stefano was born in Argentina, and had previously made international appearances for Argentina and Columbia, but was now playing for Spain.
#2: Laszlo Kubala was born in Hungary, and had previously made international appearances for Hungary and Czechoslovakia, but was now playing for Spain.