The 34th Ballon d'Or winner - Marco van Basten

Thirty-fourthGolden Ball winner - Marco van Basten

Second consecutive award for the best European football player for the Milan striker

A European title and top scorer award with the Netherlands national team brought Marco van Basten the Ballon d'Or in 1988, and a year later he duplicated his success with a European title and the achievement of 10 goals in the European Champions Cup tournament with the club his Milan team, which turns out to be key to the award. Van Basten finished 1988 very strongly and continued on an upward trajectory, and the Dutch dominance of the late 1980s was largely due to his performances.

Once again, three players of the Italian AC Milan occupy the top three positions in the ranking, but this time Franco Baresi separates the two of the three Dutch players in the team, occupying the second place. Frank Rijkaard remains third for the second year in a row, with 1987 winner Ruud Gullit as low as seventh. Before him are Inter's Lothar Mateus, Darby County's Peter Shilton and Red Star's Dragan Stojkovic. For another year, there are no Bulgarians who were voted for by at least one of the 27 journalists representing the countries that are members of the European football headquarters - UEFA.

This time, Van Basten collected 10 points less than the 129 in 1988. The forward boasts 18 first, six second, one third and one fourth places, and not even one of the voters places him in the top five. However, the difference with the second is 39 points. So much for Franco Baresi, who played phenomenally in defense for the Rossoneri and also contributed greatly to the European triumph. And for balance, prop midfielder Frank Rijkaard collects 43 and is as far from fourth position as he is from second, but there are two people among the voters who think he deserves the top spot. The fourth Lothar Matheus collects only 24 points, which is two more than Peter Shilton, who remained fifth.

We have already mentioned the top scorer prize in the CAS, which is the basis of Van Basten's triumph, although five of his ten goals came in the previous year and in the first rounds of the tournament. His two goals in the final against Steaua Bucharest, a 4-0 win, as well as his goals, one each at the Santiago Bernabeu and San Siro to eliminate Real Madrid 6-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals, came at a huge price . Van Basten also scored the only goal in the two meetings with Germany's Werder Bremen in the quarter-finals, managing to score in each round of the competition.

In Serie A, Milan disappointed in their third position, remaining 12 points behind champions Inter and one behind second-placed Napoli, but that did not prevent Van Basten from being the second top scorer alongside Brazilian Gareca. The two have 19 goals each, which is 3 less than champions striker Aldo Serena. Not a small part of the Dutchman's goals were scored in 1989. He scored once in the successes over Como and Roma, twice against Ascoli for 2:0, was on target in the 1:1 with Bologna, in the 1:1 with Lazio, won the 2:1 against Torino, scored again against Roma at the end of the season and finished with 7 goals in the last three games: two each at Pisa and Bologna and a hat-trick against Ascoli.

The end of 1989 was a bit shakier as his first goal in the Calcio didn't come until the end of October, but it was a late goal against Roma, then Van Basten struck twice against Juventus in a 3-2 win over Inter. , Lecce and Barry. In KESH, he again punishes Real Madrid so that Milan can guarantee football in Europe in the spring, when it wins a second European title in a row.

The strong times of Dutch football in the Italian Serie "A" are mainly reflected by the performance of Marco van Basten, who in 1989 was quite deservedly chosen as the best player on the "Old Continent" for the second time in a row.