The Ballon d'Or award is an annual football award for the best player from the previous year. Up until 1995 it was awarded only to football players from Europe and was generally known as the European Footballer of the Yearaward.
Below are the nominees in the final order after voting for the 1959 award. The winner was Spanish player Alfredo Di Stéfano who played for Real Madrid. It was Di Stéfano's second win (he also won in 1957). He was born in Argentina, but became a Spanish citizen in 1956, thereby becoming eligible for the award.
As only European players were eligible for the Ballon d'Or at this time, there may have been players outside of Europe deserving of the best player of the year award. To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Ballon d'Or in 2016, the results were reevaluated, and it was determined that in 1959 Pelé would have won if he was eligible.
See the list of all Ballon d'Or winners.
Final order for the men's 1959 Ballon d'Or
Order | Player | Club | Nationality | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alfredo Di Stéfano | Real Madrid | Spain | 80 |
2 | Raymond Kopa | Real Madrid / Reims | France | 42 |
3 | John Charles | Juventus | Wales | 24 |
4 | Luis Suárez | Barcelona | Spain | 22 |
5 | Agne Simonsson | Örgryte IS | Sweden | 20 |
6 | Lajos Tichy | Budapest Honvéd | Hungary | 18 |
7 | Ferenc Puskás | Real Madrid | Hungary | 16 |
8 | Francisco Gento | Real Madrid | Spain | 12 |
9 | Helmut Rahn | Rot-Weiss Essen / 1. FC Köln | West Germany | 11 |
10 | Horst Szymaniak | Wuppertaler SV / Karlsruher SC | West Germany | 8 |
11 | Lev Yashin | Dynamo Moscow | Soviet Union | 7 |
12 | Yuriy Voynov | Dynamo Kyiv | Soviet Union | 5 |
13 | Dezső Bundzsák | Vasas | Hungary | 4 |
Gyula Grosics | Tatabánya | Hungary | 4 | |
Ivan Kolev | CDNA Sofia | Bulgaria | 4 | |
Nils Liedholm | Milan | Sweden | 4 | |
17 | Titus Buberník | ČH Bratislava | Czechoslovakia | 3 |
Just Fontaine | Reims | France | 3 | |
Georgi Naydenov | CDNA Sofia | Bulgaria | 3 | |
20 | Flórián Albert | Ferencváros | Hungary | 2 |
Uwe Seeler | Hamburger SV | West Germany | 2 | |
Joan Segarra | Barcelona | Spain | 2 | |
23 | János Göröcs | Újpest | Hungary | 1 |
Ken Jones | Scunthorpe United | Wales | 1 | |
Roger Marche | RC Paris | France | 1 | |
Antoni Ramallets | Barcelona | Spain | 1 |
Related Pages
- Ballon d'Or Home
- Men's Ballon d'Or Winner's List
- Football Awards Lists
- List of the FIFA male player of the year and FIFA female player of the year.
- History of the Ballon d'Or
- The Year in Sport: 1959