The 1967 Ballon D’Or list and what it says about Celtic’s achievement

From a Celtic perspective, a recent social media post from a nostalgic football account that identified the

top 10 players in European football in the renowned Ballon D’Or rankings in 1967 made for extremely

intriguing reading.

Among them were two very familiar names to the Celtic supporters, none other than Jimmy Johnstone

and Tommy Gemmell.

Wee Jinky and Big Tam of course had a splendid year having helped Jock Stein’s wonderful Celtic side

become the first British side to win the European Cup as we defeated Inter Milan to win the big cup in

Lisbon on 25th May 1967.

Jinky terrorised not just Scottish defenders, but defences from the best sides in Europe. Tam of course

scored many important goals on route to Lisbon and none more so than the equaliser in the final itself,

that was perhaps the most important goal in Celtic’s unbroken history.

Jimmy Johnstone was third on the list while Tommy Gemmell was sixth. That is mightily impressive

when you consider the other names on the list.

Top place went to the brilliant Hungarian forward Florian Albert of Ferencvaros, who was one of the

best strikers of that era. Other names don’t need any introduction such as Runner up Bobby Charlton, or

4th place Franz Beckenbauer. In 5th place was Eusebio while 7th place belonged to George Best and just

behind him in 8th was Gerd Muller.

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