Football

Almost 20 years ago Pavel Nedved won the Ballon d’Or! Back then, legends like Henry, Zidane and Ronaldo were not enough to beat him

22. december marks 20 years since Pavel Nedvěd won the Golden Ball award and became the second Czech or Czechoslovak footballer to win the award after Josef Masopust in 1962.

Published

1 year ago

14. 11. 2023

David Sobola

22. december marks 20 years since Pavel Nedved won the Ballon d’Or award and became the second Czech or Czechoslovak footballer to win the award after Josef Masopust in 1962.

Out of 52 voters, with one journalist from each UEFA member country voting, 27 ranked him 1st and only 7 voters missed him completely. The second Thierry Henry was ranked 1st by 8 representatives. Nedved won by 62 points.

The Serie A title and the Champions League final

He was a big part of the Serie A title defence, scoring 9 goals himself. And as Juventus’ best player, he was even more instrumental in reaching the Champions League final. However, yellow cards prevented him from playing in the final. And his Juventus fell on penalties to AC Milan.

Individual achievements in 2003

at 31, he was really at his peak and was one of the best midfielders in the world. He won, as already mentioned, the most valuable individual trophy of the old continent, the Ballon d’Or. Of course, he had absolutely no competition among Czech footballers either.

And he dominated the domestic footballer of the year and the domestic Ballon d’Or polls. He even became the domestic sportsman of the year, and footballers don’t rank very high in this poll. Serie A didn’t forget him either, making him the best footballer of the season.

The sting of defeat in the Champions League final was partly offset by UEFA naming him the best midfielder of the 2002/03 season and the revamped World Soccer magazine naming him the best footballer in the world.

This was followed the following year by Euro 2004 bronze. Unfortunately, our national team unluckily lost to Greece 0:1 in the semi-final extra time. However, Nedved was not missing in the All -Stars of the tournament.

91/18 (1994-2006) – participant of European Championship 1996, 2000, 2004 and World Championship 2006
Serie A record: 352/73 – European Cups 99/24
Serie B record: 33/11

Ballon d’Or ranking

Nedved has left behind a lot of great footballers. By the way, for example, the defending champion Brazilian Ronaldo finished outside the top 10.

Henry, who had a great season from a scoring point of view, had to bow out as well. And another midfielder, Zidane, came fifth. The latter, by the way, came back to haunt him in the FIFA poll that named him the best footballer in the world.