The eighth Golden Ball winner - Lev Yashin

The eighth winner of the "Golden Ball" - Lev Yashin  

The first and only goalkeeper with the prize for the best player in Europe for the year

The eighth Ballon d'Or, awarded in 1963, is unique as it is the only one won by a goalkeeper. His name is Lev Yashin. The Dynamo Moscow guard goes down in history as the only player in that position to have earned the award with his incredible performances, both at club and national level.

On December 17, the vote of 21 journalists from countries that are members of the European football headquarters - UEFA - was announced, according to which Yashin scored 73 points. He leaves behind Gianni Rivera from Milan. The Italian finished with 55, which is just 5 more than the third - Englishman Jimmy Greaves from Tottenham Hotspur. The goalkeeper of the Soviet Union was chosen by 11 people as the best player of the year, three put him in second position, and one each in third, fourth and fifth place. The previous year's winner, Josef Masopust, was only thirteenth, along with three other competitors, including the winner of the award in 1961, Omar Sivori. Czechoslovakia has only three points. For the third year in a row, there is not a single Bulgarian representative in the ranking.

The guard's phenomenal performances in 1960, 1961 and 1962, which included two concussions during World Cup games in Chile, continued to grow. His unusual style, great saves, excellent reflexes and a more unusual game for this position make him unique. One of his best matches in the 1963 calendar year came in a friendly between England and a Rest of the World squad. A string of glittering interventions has also earned him the nickname 'the black spider', as he also sports a distinctive all-black sports kit. However, his most loyal supporters call him "the black panther".

Lev Yashin often enters the role of an additional defender and fights for every ball with the opposing players, which his teammates at Dynamo Moscow and the USSR cannot reach. For many, Lev is also considered the best goalkeeper of all time.

In 1963, the guard won his fifth Soviet Union title with Dynamo, which was also a remarkable achievement for the time. The fact that he managed to stop Ballon d'Or third-rower Jimmy Greaves more than once during the friendly against England earned him even more fans and, most likely, votes from the press.

The recognition means even more to Yashin as the years go by. Only five other goalkeepers have been in the top 3 of the voting for the award. They are Dino Zoff, Ivo Victor, Oliver Kahn, Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer. However, none of them managed to touch the return from which the Russian served.

The Golden Ball awarded to Lev Yashin in 1963 remains a historic prize for the goalkeeper position in football, but also for the USSR as a country. No other footballer, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, came even close to receiving such a prize.