In 1958 the Ballon d'Or was won by Raymond Kopa. The gifted French midfielder won the European Cup and the Spanish league championship with his club Real Madrid that year. Kopa also guided France to third place at the World Cup that was held in Sweden that summer.
| Embed from Getty Images |
| World Cup 1958: Raymond Kopa converts a penalty against Germany. |
Kopa 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 of December 16, 1958.
| Name | Country | Club | Pts. |
|
1. |
Raymond Kopa | France | Real Madrid | 71 |
2. |
Helmut Rahn | West Germany | Rot-Weiss Essen | 40 |
3. |
Just Fontaine | France | Stade de Reims | 23 |
4. |
Kurt Hamrin | Sweden | Fiorentina | 15 |
| John Charles | Wales | Juventus | 15 |
|
6. |
Billy Wright | England | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 9 |
7. |
Johnny Haynes | England | Fulham | 7 |
8. |
Nils Liedholm | Sweden | AC Milan | 6 |
| Horst Szymaniak | West Germany | Wuppertaler SV | 6 |
|
| Harry Gregg | Northern Ireland | Manchester United | 6 |
|
11. |
Colin McDonald | England | Burnley | 5 |
12. |
Francisco Gento | Spain | Real Madrid | 4 |
| Gunnar Gren | Sweden | Örgryte IS | 4 |
|
14. |
Vujadin Boskov | Yugoslavia | Vojvodina | 3 |
| Bengt Gustavsson | Sweden | Atalanta Bergamo | 3 |
|
| Valentin Ivanov | Soviet Union | Torpedo Moscow | 3 |
|
| Luis Suárez | Spain | FC Barcelona | 3 |
|
| Lev Yashin | Soviet Union | Dinamo Moscow | 3 |
|
19. |
Orvar Bergmark | Sweden | Örebro SK | 2 |
| Danny Blanchflower | Northern Ireland | Tottenham Hotspur | 2 |
|
| Ivan Kolev | Bulgaria | CDNA Sofia | 2 |
|
| Bruno Nicole | Italy | Juventus | 2 |
|
| Ladislav Novak | Czechoslovakia | Dukla Prague | 2 |
|
| Lennart Skoglund | Sweden | Inter Milan | 2 |
|
25. |
Giampiero Boniperti | Italy | Juventus | 1 |
| Gerhard Hanappi | Austria | Rapid Vienna | 1 |
|
1957 • European Footballer of the Year • 1959