Younger people might ask themselves: why Diego Armando Maradona did not even win a Golden Ball? The explanation is simple: France Football opened the candidacy to non-European players only in 1995, when the career of the Pibe de Oro was in decline. The following year he was awarded a career award but today, days after the Argentine’s death, the French magazine wondered how many Golden Balls Maradona would have won if the award had been open to everyone since his birth.
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According to France Football, the answer is due: That of the 1986 (actually won by Belanov) in the year of the World Cup won with Argentina and that of 1990 (Matthaus was awarded) despite the World Cup final lost in Italy but in a year that was still marked by the Scudetto with Napoli and snatched from Milan.
Going forward with the reasoning, the French magazine also explained that, by opening the award to everyone from the beginning, Pele would have won seven between the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties: the Brazilian (named footballer of the century by the French in 1999) had had less competition in proportion to the champions challenged by Maradona.
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