The 2004 Ballon d'Or, given to the best

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player in Europe as judged by a panel of sports journalists from UEFA member countries, was delivered to the Ukrainian

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Andriy Shevchenko Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko, or Andrii Mykolaiovych Shevchenko ( uk, Андрій Миколайович Шевченко, ; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian football manager, a former professional football player and a former politici ...

on 13 December 2004. On 9 November 2004, was announced the shortlist of 50 male players compiled by a group of experts from '' France Football''. There were 52 voters, from Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales and Yugoslavia. Each picked a first (5pts), second (4pts), third (3pts), fourth (2pts) and fifth choice (1pt).

was the third Ukrainian to win the award after Oleh Blokhin (

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

) and Igor Belanov (

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

). He finished top goalscorer in the

2003–04 Serie A The 2003–04 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 102nd season of top-tier Italian football, the 72nd in a round-robin tournament. It contained 18 teams for the 16th and last time from the 1988–89 season. With th ...

, scoring 24 goals in 32 matches, as his team won the league title. The best ranked goalkeeper on the list was Gianluigi Buffon (Italy) with a 17th place (jointly with

Traianos Dellas Traianos Dellas ( el, Τραϊανός Δέλλας; born 31 January 1976) is a Greek football manager and former professional footballer, who played as a centre back. He was an integral part of Greece's Euro 2004 winning squad, during which ...

, Fernando Morientes, Frank Lampard and

Didier Drogba Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He is best known for his career at ...

). Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal) was the top ranked defender in the list, at ninth, while Deco (Portugal) was the top ranked midfielder at second place.

Rankings

Voted players

Non-voted players

The following 21 men were originally in contention for the 2004 Ballon d’Or, but did not receive any votes:

References

External links

''France Football'' Official website

{{Ballon d'Or recipients

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2004–05 in European football