TwelveandGolden Ball winner - Florian Albert
First Hungarian of a wonderful generation with the most significant individual prize
The golden years of Hungarian football in the late 1950s and 1960s were also marked by an individual award. This is the prize for the best European football player in 1967, which goes to Florian Albert from Ferencvaros. The striker does not stop with his good seasons and finally managed to top the ranking, in which he remained outside the top three a year earlier.
Albert collects 68 points from the already voted 24 journalists from countries that are members of the European football headquarters - UEFA. That's 28 more than second-order and Ballon d'Or winner the previous year Bobby Charlton. Scotland's Jimmy Johnston is third, just 1 point behind Charlton. A total of 18 people voted for the Hungarian striker, of which 8 put him in the first position, four in the second, three in the third and three in the last place giving points - fifth. Four of those eligible to vote said Charlton was most deserving of the award, two more placed him second, one third, four fourth and one fifth. 11 people vote for Jimmy Johnston, two of whom think he should be the winner, as many as five put him in second place, one in third and three in fourth. 2 points from the top 3 remains Franz Beckenbauer, who once again has an impressive season with Bayern Munich, but he is almost not enough to displace the KES winner with Celtic Johnston.
For the third year in a row, a Bulgarian football player is included in the ranking, and this time it is Nikola Kotkov. The Lokomotiv Sofia player earns two points, as does Tottenham's Jimmy Greaves. They remain tied for 25th in Ballon d'Or voting in 1967.
Laureate Florian Albert doesn't look like someone who can stand out with huge achievements, both with his team and on an individual level. Ferencvaros regains the title of Hungary, and by a significant margin over the second-placed Ujpesti Doza. With 28 goals, Albert is the top scorer of his team in the league, but Antal Dunaj scores 36 goals for the second in the ranking. Still, 28 of Ferencvaros' 85 league goals isn't a bad record for Albert. After a two-year hiatus and incredible competition, Florian Albert's goal-led team managed to climb back to the top in one of the most curious championships of the time.
As far as European club tournaments are concerned, Ferencváros takes part in the competition for the Fair Cities Cup. The Hungarian team coped with Olimpia Ljubljana in the first round, after which they defeated the Swedish Jorgrit, but in the third round they were eliminated by the German Eintracht Frankfurt. Still, Albert remains the competition's top scorer with 8 goals - two more than his pursuers.
Manchester United's English crown and Bobby Charlton's contribution to it is proving to be insufficient to see major competition for the top spot once again. The attacking midfielder remains on 12 goals in 44 games, with Dennis Lowe and David Hurd more to the credit than him, at least in terms of goals scored. However, it is impressive that Charlton retains the second position in the ranking, after the great sensation Jimmy Johnston, who became the European club champion with his Celtic. The right wing made killer runs and set up a number of goals for the Scottish champions, but even that didn't prove enough to see him with the Ballon d'Or.
The 1967 Player of the Year Award went to a player from a team that would hardly produce a top 30 player today. The award is for a football player from a country whose championship is no longer as competitive and classy, and perhaps Florian Albert will remain the only Hungarian with the Ballon d'Or in history. It is a curious fact that even Ferenc Puskas did not reach the distinction, remaining second to Luis Suarez in 1960.