The 1963 Ballon d'Or, given to the best

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player in Europe as judged by a panel of sports journalists from

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

member countries, was awarded to

Lev Yashin Lev Ivanovich Yashin (; 22 October 1929 – 20 March 1990) was a Soviet professional footballer considered by many to be the greatest goalkeeper in the history of the sport. He was the first and only goalkeeper to win a Ballon d'Or, a feat whi ...

on 17 December 1963. He was the first, and as of 2025, the only goalkeeper to win this award. He also became the first

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

national to win the award.European Footballer of the Year ("Ballon d'Or") 1963
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Rankings

References

{{Ballon d'Or recipients

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

1963–64 in European football