The 1967 Ballon D’Or list and what it says about Celtic’s achievement

Among them were two very familiar names to the Celtic supporters, none other than Jimmy Johnstone and Tommy Gemmell.

Wee Jinky and Big Tam of course had a splendid year having helped Jock Stein’s wonderful Celtic side become the first British side to win the European Cup as we defeated Inter Milan to win the big cup in Lisbon on 25th May 1967.

Jinky terrorised not just Scottish defenders, but defences from the best sides in Europe. Tam of course scored many important goals on route to Lisbon and none more so than the equaliser in the final itself, that was perhaps the most important goal in Celtic’s unbroken history.

Jimmy Johnstone was third on the list while Tommy Gemmell was sixth. That is mightily impressive when you consider the other names on the list.

Top place went to the brilliant Hungarian forward Florian Albert of Ferencvaros, who was one of the best strikers of that era. Other names don’t need any introduction such as Runner up Bobby Charlton, or 4th place Franz Beckenbauer. In 5th place was Eusebio while 7th place belonged to George Best and just behind him in 8th was Gerd Muller.

That is not only some of the greatest names of that era, but some of the best ever names to grace the beautiful game and two of them were Celtic stars.

The fact that two of our players were judged to have been as good as such names in that year shows how prestigious our European Cup win was and it also makes a mockery of those who jealously try to belittle our achievements.

Just one complaint about that list, where was Bobby Murdoch? Many Celtic supporters, including the late, great David Potter reckoned that he was the greatest player on earth for a few seasons in the second half of the 1960s and who am I to argue with that assessment.