The best player who has never won the Ballon D'Or

Don Alfredo

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With all the Ballon D'Or talk, I thought it would be interesting to discuss about who are the best players who have never won the Ballon D'Or.

The answer to this is not Pele or Maradona because they weren't eligible at the time, it was unfair on non-Europeans until 1995, but there have been awards like "South American Footballer of the Year" and "Le nouveau palmares" to make up for that.

So the specific question is: Who is the best player who has never won the Ballon D'Or, despite him being eligible?

The reason for that may be that he was indeed the best player in a particular year but was unfairly overlooked, or that he was a great player but had his peak while a genuine GOAT stole the limelight.
 
Iniesta

And Henry at one time, was miles ahead of anyone. He should also have one at least 1.
 
Ademir Da Guia
Bochini
Carlos Alberto
Roberto Carlos
Zubizaretta
Stam
Eto'o
 
The best player, so only one, Baresi

/thread
 
Xavi, Iniesta, Henry, Raul, Scholes......too many
 
It's interesting question.. I was reading about Kenny Dalglish and how a lot of people thought he was overlooked for the 1977 award (won by Simonsen)

Similarly a lot of English players of that time got completely overlooked (Liverpool and Forest were the dominant force in Europe). Keegan won twice only after moving to Germany
 
donkeyfish said:
Scholes or Cantona
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Cantona has done very little for his national team and in the CL, he doesn't belong among the names here in my opinion.

The first two names that came to my mind were Sandor Kocsis and Dragan Dzajic

Kocsis is the greatest goalscorer ever on the international stage, that WC final loss really hurt his legacy. Also he always had a rivalry with Puskas for goals at the NT and Puskas made the better career move when he went to Real later, while Kocsis didn't win the European Cup at Barca.

Dzajic is probably the best pure LW ever and if he had a big career in western europe, the casual fans would think about him much more.


Wow I just wrote this and then I realised that Puskas himself has never won the Ballon D'Or either :eek: Surely he is the greatest European player to have never won it! The date of the invention of the Ballon D'Or really hurt him (same with the date of the invention of the European Cup), if both had been around in the early 50s, I am certain he would have had like 3 more European Cups and some Ballon D'Or awards for sure.
 
It's between Baresi, Xavi and Iniesta for me. Very tough to separate them. A few keepers can be mentioned as well (Buffon, Schmeichel), although they essentially play a different sport and it's impossible to compare them to any other position.

Puskas as well, but he would've won it (probably multiple times) if it was introduced a few years earlier, so it's not a clear-cut example.
 
What about Duncan Edwards?

He was 3rd in Ballon D'Or in 1957 while he just turned 21 in October that year. It is always a "what if" with him, but he was already really close to the award at a very young age, so can we assume he would have won one as well at some point?
 
MJJ said:
What year would you give it to Zlatan or Giggs?
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99 for Giggs 07 for Zlatan. Not saying they should've won it over others but based on what was posed in the OP I think my choices are valid.
 
Don Alfredo said:
What about Duncan Edwards?

He was 3rd in Ballon D'Or in 1957 while he just turned 21 in October that year. It is always a "what if" with him, but he was already really close to the award at a very young age, so can we assume he would have won one as well at some point?
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He most definitely would've, but he shouldn't be in the discussion for this thread though, in my opinion.
 
Baresi, Maldini, Henry, Xavi, Iniesta, Scholes and Baggio for me.
 
Xavi.

I'd rule out the defenders here. They need a perfect storm of circumstances to win the award (win a major tournament producing once-in-a-generation defending, while outperforming their attacking teammates in the eyes of the media)
 
Aside from the ones that have been mentioned already, I think one of Scirea or Zoff should have won the Ballon D'Or. Rossi was spectacular in España '82 with 6 goals in 3 games and the redemption narrative around him is very touching, but his smash-and-grab Ballon D'Or win was a bit undeserved considering he made very few appearance for Juventus in the preceding season because of the Totonero ban and didn't contribute a whole lot in the subsequent season leading up to the Ballon D'Or ceremony. Scirea and Zoff on the other hand were masterminding the best statistical defense in the top European leagues and played a major role in leading Juventus to the Serie A title (though they did crash out against Anderlecht in the European Cup), aside from being very important players in Italy's first post-War World Cup title with Conti and Tardelli and Gentile. In a historical context, them winning ahead of Rossi would have been more significant because Zoff was the grand old captain of Italy and probably the greatest goalkeeper in football since Yashin (only other credible challenger was Maier), and Scirea was the spiritual successor of Beckenbauer as libero, albeit in a more conservative Italian style — and delivered a sumptuous performance in the '82 final (on both ends of the pitch)...



Also scored a double vs. Torino in the Derby della Mole.
 
Invictus said:
Aside from the ones that have been mentioned already, I think one of Scirea or Zoff should have won the Ballon D'Or.
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When I saw this thread yesterday, Rossi and Scirea were the first to come to mind. In the final rankings, Scirea finished 12th with just 2 votes which was a bit shocking.
 
Invictus said:
Aside from the ones that have been mentioned already, I think one of Scirea or Zoff should have won the Ballon D'Or. Rossi was spectacular in España '82 with 6 goals in 3 games and the redemption narrative around him is very touching, but his smash-and-grab Ballon D'Or win was a bit undeserved considering he made very few appearance for Juventus in the preceding season because of the Totonero ban and didn't contribute a whole lot in the subsequent season leading up to the Ballon D'Or ceremony. Scirea and Zoff on the other hand were masterminding the best statistical defense in the top European leagues and played a major role in leading Juventus to the Serie A title (though they did crash out against Anderlecht in the European Cup), aside from being very important players in Italy's first post-War World Cup title with Conti and Tardelli and Gentile. In a historical context, them winning ahead of Rossi would have been more significant because Zoff was the grand old captain of Italy and probably the greatest goalkeeper in football since Yashin (only other credible challenger was Maier), and Scirea was the spiritual successor of Beckenbauer as libero, albeit in a more conservative Italian style — and delivered a sumptuous performance in the '82 final (on both ends of the pitch)...



Also scored a double vs. Torino in the Derby della Mole.
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Not sure if those images will actually be legible, but it is interesting how Scirea is rated so highly retrospectively, yet that isn't necessarily reflected via the contemporary sources. His dbscalcio ratings versus contemporary libero gods Krol and Passarella:

Krol-DBS.png


Passarella-DBS.png


Scirea-DBS.png


Two WC Team of the Tournament inclusions for Krol, one at libero, one for Passarella, and none for Scirea, yet Scirea is invariably ranked way above the other two in our forum. Passarella wasn't eligible for the Ballon d'Or, yet Krol placed several times and even managed a third place, wherea Scirea was nowhere near winning it and only appeared once as having received a vote.

All of those metrics should be treated with a huge degree of scepticism, particularly the fecking WC All Stars given that Marcelo and David Luiz made the cut in 2014, but I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here given that I've found Passarella and libero Krol underrated rather than having any dislike towards Scirea.
 
Agree with most of the names here, would throw Bergkamp into the mix, had a couple of spells in his career where he was just unreal to watch.
 
Pat_Mustard said:
Not sure if those images will actually be legible, but it is interesting how Scirea is rated so highly retrospectively, yet that isn't necessarily reflected via the contemporary sources. His dbscalcio ratings versus contemporary libero gods Krol and Passarella:

Krol-DBS.png


Passarella-DBS.png


Scirea-DBS.png


Two WC Team of the Tournament inclusions for Krol, one at libero, one for Passarella, and none for Scirea, yet Scirea is invariably ranked way above the other two in our forum. Passarella wasn't eligible for the Ballon d'Or, yet Krol placed several times and even managed a third place, wherea Scirea was nowhere near winning it and only appeared once as having received a vote.

All of those metrics should be treated with a huge degree of scepticism, particularly the fecking WC All Stars given that Marcelo and David Luiz made the cut in 2014, but I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here given that I've found Passarella and libero Krol underrated rather than having any dislike towards Scirea.
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Truer words were never spoken, Passrella rules over all!
 
I reckon I would rate sweepers in this order:

Beckenbauer
Baresi
Passarella
Scirea
Figueroa
Krol

Normally, i think the forum tend to rate Passarella lower than the rest for whatever reason, but probably there's some element of individual preference involved.
 
Himannv said:
I reckon I would rate sweepers in this order:

Beckenbauer
Baresi
Passarella
Scirea
Figueroa
Krol

Normally, i think the forum tend to rate Passarella lower than the rest for whatever reason, but probably there's some element of individual preference involved.
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Figueroa is hands down the greatest South American center back/libero. Passarella never came close to his peak level, when he won 3 South American Footballer of the Year awards (let alone the reports of him being recognised as the best player of the world by the FIFA[11][12][13][14] in 1975, 1976).
 
harms said:
Figueroa is hands down the greatest South American center back/libero. Passarella never came close to his peak level, when he won 3 South American Footballer of the Year awards (let alone the reports of him being recognised as the best player of the world by the FIFA[11][12][13][14] in 1975, 1976).
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I feel this is getting overplayed here. It was a era nicely sandwiched after Pele and before Maradona. The only other players that can be considered as his peer was Rivellino who has having a bad patch at club level. The emergence of Zico in 1976/77 is possibly the next closest 'big name' player in the mix there. 1974-75 is probably a barren patch for superstars in South America, excepting Elias. I'm not saying his reputation is undeserved or anything, but just that the awards on its own does't say the full story. Like Cannavaro or Keegan getting the Balon d'or I suppose!
 
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