The thirty-sixth winner of the Ballon d'Or - Jean-Pierre Papin

Thirtiest and the sixth Ballon d'Or winner - Jean-Pierre Papin    

Surprise winner of the vote for the best football player in Europe in 1991

One of the most unexpected Ballons d'Or was won on Christmas Eve by Jean-Pierre Papin in 1991. Olympique Marseille's goalscorer has been the most impressive player of the past 12 months, which has seen quite a few players stand out, but his individual impact on the French team's performance seems most notable. The Frenchman is the undisputed winner over three competitors sharing the second position – the European club champions with Red Star Dejan Savicevic and Darko Panchev, as well as the previous winner Lothar Mateus.

A strong finish to the 1989/90 season and Jean-Pierre Papin's start to the following campaign led to an unexpectedly good performance by the French Championship side, who also reached the European final, but were thwarted by the tactics of Ljupko Petrovic and his Red Star. "Zvezdashi" presents the huge sensation in the European Champions Cup and shows the whole of Europe that it should look around in football in the Balkans. As if in contrast to this comes the goal-scoring flair, ease and beauty in Papen's actions.

The top scorer of CES and the French championship earned 141 points, which is just four short of the maximum to be voted the best player of the "Old Continent". All 29 journalists from the countries that are members of the European football headquarters - UEFA, vote for the French striker. Twenty out of six of them put it in the first position, two in the second position, and one in the third position. The difference to the second position is 99 points, and because of his two first places, Dejan Savicevic from Red Star occupies this place, but he shares the same assets with Darko Panchev and Lotar Mateus. The German continues with his strong games, but this is far from enough for a higher ranking. Nor the European club title of the Serbian giant, who has another representative in the top five in the person of Robert Prosinechki, who received 34 points.

For the first time in a long time, there is a Bulgarian in the ranking and it is the Barcelona striker Hristo Stoichkov, who collects three points from a third place, sharing the thirteenth position with five other competitors, among whom is his teammate Aitor Begiristain.

Jean-Pierre Papin takes the prize not only because of the ease with which he operates on the pitch, but also because of the goals he scores. The Frenchman shares the top scorer prize in the CAS with Peter Pakult from Austria's Swarovski Tirol. The two have six goals each, but the Frenchman scored against Spartak Moscow in the semi-finals, as well as the tournament winners of the previous two years, AC Milan in the previous phase. Papin scored a total of 36 goals in the 1990/91 season, 23 of which helped Olympique Marseille defend their title in France. The team reached the final of the CAS, which they lost after 0:0 in regular time and extra time and 3:5 on penalties, as well as the last match in the French cup dispute, lost to Monaco 0:1. However, it was Papin who took the main credit for reaching this tie, scoring one of the two goals in a 2-1 away win over Nantes in the quarter-finals and scoring a hat-trick against Rodez in the semi-finals.

The next campaign for Papen continues in the direction in which the previous one ended and, apart from the French championship, the striker again shines with his goals in Europe. Marseille crushed Union Luxembourg 10-0 on aggregate in the first round of the CAS, with half of the goals coming from the future Ballon d'Or winner. He also scored twice against Sparta Prague in the second round, but a 3-2 win at the Stade Velodrome was not enough, and after a 1-2 loss and fewer goals away from home, Olympique Marseille's dream of a major European triumph faded. .

However, Jean-Pierre Papin's goals did not stop in 1991 and he was the top scorer in all of Europe. With his goals, he led Olympique Marseille to unexpected heights, some of which remain unconquered, but quite deservedly the top scorer was chosen as the best European footballer in 1991.