ZURICH – Brazilian great Pele (pictured left) was finally awarded a Ballon d’Or in Zurich on Monday, despite retiring in 1977, co-organisers France Football announced.
When France Football created the Ballon d’Or in 1956 it was for the best player playing in Europe and Pele never played club football in the cold continent.
By the time FIFA inaugurated the world footballer of the year award in 1991, Pele had long since retired. But yesterday he was given an honorary Ballon d’Or to rectify a historic wrong.
“For regulation reasons the king is not on the list of Ballon d’Or winners, an anomaly that was corrected in 2013,” said France Football on their website.
