On this day in 1975, the legendary former Dynamo Kyiv footballer and former Ukrainian national team player Oleh Blokhin won the Golden Ball, the prize for the best player in Europe. Blokhin became the first Ukrainian to achieve this achievement. This was reported by the Ukrainian Football Association, UNN reports.
"On December 30, 1975, the world saw the New Year's issue of France Football, which announced the results of the voting to determine the best football player in Europe. The undisputed victory in the 20th anniversary poll was won by the striker of Dynamo Kyiv and the USSR national team Oleg Blokhin (122 points), who defeated such world football stars as German Franz Beckenbauer (42 points) and Dutchman Johan Cruyff (27 points) in the vote, "the UAF said.
Addendum
In the 1974-1975 season, Dynamo Kyiv won the USSR championship (the seventh title), the Cup Winners' Cup, and the UEFA Super Cup.
In the final of the Cup Winners' Cup, Dynamo defeated Hungarian Ferencvaros 3-0, with Oleh Blokhin scoring his team's third goal.
In the same year, 1975, Dynamo defeated Bayern Munich in the UEFA Super Cup by the sum of two matches - 3:0. Oleg Blokhin scored all three goals.
These victories allowed the Ukrainian forward to win the Ballon d'Or. After Lev Yashin, Blokhin became the second Soviet footballer to win this prestigious award and the first Ukrainian to achieve this feat. Also in 1975, Blokhin became the top scorer in the USSR championship.
"I found out about the victory a week before the New Year. I think I was sitting at home - I had something wrong with my leg. I received a call from the editorial office of the newspaper Sovetsky Sport and was informed that I had won the Golden Ball. At first I thought it was a New Year's Eve joke. I couldn't quickly verify the veracity of this information by calling one of the Dynamo players - there were no cell phones in those years. Moreover, everyone was on vacation before the New Year. But when calls from different people - colleagues, friends and journalists - started coming in, I immediately realized that I was not being played," Blokhin said earlier.