The thirty-seventh winner of the "Golden Ball" - Marco van Basten

Thirty and sevenandGolden Ball winner - Marco van Basten    

Third recognition for the Dutch forward after a two-year hiatus

The strong end of the 1980s for Dutch footballers was marked by one Ballon d'Or for Ruud Gullit and two for Marco van Basten. Following the accolades for Lothar Matheus in 1990 and Jean-Pierre Papin a year later, Van Basten was again voted the best player in Europe on 22 December 1992. The Milan striker equals compatriot Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini in terms of honors won.

This time, the Dutchman did not win with such a big lead and managed to collect 98 points out of a possible 145, leaving behind the Bulgarian striker of Barcelona Hristo Stoichkov by 18 points. The trio is completed by another player from the "low land". It's Ajax's young star Dennis Bergkamp, who has 53 points.

The Ballon d'Or voting in 1992 was highly contested, although 25 of the 29 journalists representing UEFA member countries placed Van Basten in the top five. Eleven of them think he should be the winner, eight people leave him second, two - third, one - fourth and according to three he should be in fifth position. For Stoichkov, the votes for the first position are 10, for the second - five, for the third - two, for the fourth - one and for the fifth - two. First places are also the third Bergkamp, remaining in fourth position Thomas Hessler, whom three people have placed first, fifth Peter Schmeichel with two first places, sixth Brian Laudrup and eighth Ronald Koeman. This is the vote with the most players receiving first place points. And Schmeichel's fifth position shows that again goalkeepers can bring the best players closer.

In 1992, Marco Van Basten managed to win the title in the Italian Serie A with his AC Milan and helped it with 25 goals in the 1991/92 campaign. Most of them came precisely in 1992, which gives it a serious advantage over other competitors. Highlights include a hat-trick against Foggia in a 3-1 win, a hat-trick away to Cagliari in a 4-1 win, a goal against Juventus in a 1-1 win, a third hat-trick of the year – this time in a 3-1 win over Atalanta, both goals in the last round in the defeat over Foggia. Van Basten is helping Milan immensely to become champions of his country again after a three-year hiatus. The team also reached the semi-finals of the cup, where, however, it failed to cope with the resistance of Juventus. The Rossoneri are out of European club competition due to a one-year ban.

However, this does not prevent Van Basten from starting to shine in the first rounds of the renamed Champions League tournament. The Dutchman scored twice at Olimpia Ljubljana before netting four times against Gothenburg in the first leg of the group stage. The matches with three or more goals for him continued in the first half of the 1992/93 season. The first victim was Pescara, and Milan won the contested match 5:4 away. Van Basten scored three of the goals. He scored twice in a 7-3 rout of Fiorentina, scored twice in a 5-3 rout of Lazio and punished Napoli with four goals in November when the Stadio San Paolo was silenced as the Rossoneri won 5-1 . Multiple matches with two, three or more goals definitely give a huge advantage in Ballon d'Or voting. Moreover, not a small part of them are in the second half of the year.

However, with his national team at Euro 1992, the Milan striker was disappointing as it was he who made the decisive miss on penalties in the semi-final with Denmark. "Red Dynamite" became European champions without even qualifying for the finals of the competition, taking the place of the disintegrated Yugoslavia. That is exactly why the positions between fifth and seventh are reserved for the best Danes.

Hristo Stoichkov managed to win a double with his Barcelona, conquering La Liga and the last KES before the tournament was renamed. His four goals in the European competition came in 1992, but it was clearly not enough to compete with Van Basten. He also failed to become the league's top scorer, having been overtaken by Real Madrid's Fernando Hierro and Atletico's Manolo. At the start of the next season, the Bulgarian brought Barca to victory in El Clasico, scored a hat-trick against Atletico, scored a number of important goals, including two against Valencia, Cádiz and Zaragoza, scored against Athletic Bilbao, as well as against Logroños. In Europe, however, Barcelona disappointed, crashing out before the Champions League groups, and losing the Intercontinental Cup also tipped the scales in Van Basten's favour, although Stoichkov scored the opener against Sao Paulo.

In a very contested year, Marco Van Basten won the "Golden Ball" ahead of Hristo Stoichkov, but the Bulgarian footballer is yet to reach his strongest performance.

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