What is the Super Ballon d’Or and which footballers have won it?
Only European players were considered for the Super Ballon d’Or award.
The Super Ballon d’Or was awarded on 24 December 1989. The award was to commemorate the 30th anniversary of France Football Magazine.
Alfredo Di Stéfano
The great Alfredo Di Stéfano was the recipient of the prize, with the Argentine pipping Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini in the vote. Only European players were considered for the award, and Di Stéfano was on the list of nominees due to his Spanish citizenship. The French publication, France Football, has only awarded the prize on one occasion.
Di Stéfano only Super Ballon d’Or winner
Di Stéfano remains as the only player to have ever won the Super Ballon d’Or. The Real Madrid legend also won the actual Ballon d’Or award on two occasions in the 1950s, in 1957 and 1959, during an era of Real Madrid dominance. Di Stéfano helped Madrid to win the first five consecutive European Cups between 1956 and 1960.
In 1995, Diego Armando Maradona won the Golden Ballon d’Or, which also recognised non-European players.
On 7 July 2014, Alfredo Di Stéfano passed away at 88 years of age at the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital in Madrid.
Throughout his spell with Los Blancos, he won five European Cups in a row, one Intercontinental Cup, two Copas Latinas, eight LaLiga titles, one Copa de España and a Small Club World Cup. The Blond Arrow made 396 appearances for Real Madrid, scoring 308 goals.
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