The European Footballer of the Year awards began in 1956 and have been awarded annually since 65 years. However, since many players have won the European Ballon d'Or more than once, far fewer than 65 players have actually won the award. It can be said that players who can get the European Footballer of the Year are absolutely rare.
And for a club, it is a very good thing to have a European Footballer of the Year, both from a practical point of view and from a business point of view. Top giants like Bayern, Real Madrid and Barcelona have all historically won the European Footballer of the Year, and they have reflected each other in their respective eras, making the history of these giants shine brightly.
But the above is history, if we look at a specific period, which team has the largest number of European Footballers in the same period?
Three
Objectively speaking, it's amazing to have a European Footballer of the Year in the team, and even more so if there are two. Real Madrid, which completed five consecutive Champions League titles in the mid-to-late 1950s, had two European footballers, Di Stéfano and Copa.
In addition, bayern in the mid-1970s also had two gentlemen, Beckenbauer and Gedmuller.
Then there are Juventus in the mid-to-early '80s, with both Paul Rossi and Platini.
Then in the early '90s, AC Milan had Basten and Gullit.
However, the configuration of the two European Footballers of the Year, although great, is more powerful than them.
Two
Historically, there has been a team with three European footballers at the same time, and they are Manchester United in the mid-to-late 1960s.
At the time, United had three European footballers, Dennis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best, who won awards in '64, '66 and '68 respectively. It was really a golden age for Manchester United, who were invincible at home and won the first Champions League title in the club's history. And, if it weren't for the Munich crash, United might have accomplished more than that. Duncan Edwards, who died in the crash, is considered a talented player with more talent than George Best, and if he can survive, he may book a European Footballer of the Year.
One
Having three European Footballers of the Year is not the best. Because there is a team in history that has included four European footballers.
This team is, of course, the Galactic Battleships of the early 2000s, Real Madrid.
After Florentino came to power, he gradually built Real Madrid into a superstar-studded team, and he bought four European Ballon d'Or winners, Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Irving. For a time, Real Madrid became the strongest team on paper. Of course, Real Madrid has four European Ballon d'Ors for a short time, after all, the iron-clad Real Madrid superstar, Owen came to the Bernabeu in 2004, and Figo left in 2005, so in fact, the time when the four gentlemen gathered together is a year. But that's enough to get the fans in the blood.
But to tell the truth, the results of the Galactic Battleship gathered by Mr. Did not meet people's expectations. Because compared with the teams mentioned earlier, the biggest difference between the situation of Real Madrid is that none of the four gentlemen have won awards at Real Madrid. In other words, Real Madrid just invited the already award-winning gentleman to the Bernabeu, and at that time, whether it was the status or the desire for honor, these successful superstars were no longer at the peak.
But in any case, to have four European footballers at the same time, Real Madrid at that time, is indeed unprecedented.