The survey on the Golden Ball ( Fr. Ballon d'or ) in 1978 was conducted for the twenty-third time. The voting results were published in the number 1707 France Football December 27, 1978. The jury consisted of 26 sports journalists from the following football associations included in UEFA : Austria , England , Belgium , Bulgaria , Hungary , GDR , Greece , Denmark , Ireland , Spain , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Poland , Portugal , Romania , USSR , Turkey , Finland , France , Germany , Czechoslovakia , Switzerland , Sweden and Yugoslavia .
The winner of the vote was Kevin Keegan . He beat Hans Crankle and Rob Rensenbrink in the poll.
Voting System
Each of the jury members chose five players who, in his opinion, were the best footballers in Europe. The first place got 5 points, the second - four, the third - three, the fourth - two, and the fifth - one point. Thus, the draw was 390 points; maximum player could get 130 points.
Results
| A place | Player | Club | Places | Glasses | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 place | 2 places | 3 places | 4 places | 5 places | Total | ||||
| one | Kevin Keegan | Hamburg | 9 | 6 | four | 3 | 22 | 87 | |
| 2 | Hans krankl | Rapid (Vienna) / Barcelona | eight | 3 | eight | 2 | one | 22 | 81 |
| 3 | Rob Rensenbrink | Anderlecht | 3 | four | four | 3 | one | 15 | 50 |
| four | Roberto Bettaga | Juventus | one | one | 2 | 6 | one | eleven | 28 |
| five | Paolo Rossi | Vicenza | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 23 | |
| 6 | Ronnie helstrom | Kaiserslautern | 2 | one | one | four | eight | 20 | |
| Rudy krol | Ajax (Amsterdam) | one | 2 | 2 | 3 | eight | 20 | ||
| eight | Kenny Dalglish | Liverpool | one | one | one | one | four | ten | |
| Allan Simonsen | Borussia (Mönchengladbach) | one | 2 | 2 | five | ten | |||
| ten | Peter Shilton | Nottingham Forest | one | one | one | 3 | 9 | ||
| eleven | Ari Khan | Anderlecht | one | one | 2 | 7 | |||
| 12 | Rene van de Kerkhof | PSV Eindhoven | one | one | 2 | 6 | |||
| 13 | Antonio Cabrini | Juventus | one | one | five | ||||
| Willy van de Kerkhof | PSV Eindhoven | one | one | five | |||||
| 15 | Johan Cruyff | Barcelona | one | one | four | ||||
| Graeme Souness | Middlesbrough / Liverpool | one | one | four | |||||
| Zdenek Negoda | Dukla (Prague) | one | one | 2 | four | ||||
| 18 | Marian Masny | Slovan (Bratislava) | one | one | 3 | ||||
| nineteen | Archie gemmill | Nottingham Forest | one | one | 2 | ||||
| Maurice Trezor | Olympic Marcel | one | one | 2 | |||||
| 21 | Juan Alvish | Salamanca / Benfica (Lisbon) | one | one | one | ||||
| Rainer Bonhof | Borussia (Mönchengladbach) / Valencia | one | one | one | |||||
| Zbigniew Bonek | Widzev | one | one | one | |||||
| Franco Causio | Juventus | one | one | one | |||||
| Hansi Muller | Stuttgart | one | one | one | |||||
| Johan Neeskens | Barcelona | one | one | one | |||||
| Michel Platini | Nancy | one | one | one | |||||
| Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | Bavaria | one | one | one | |||||
| Didier Sixx | Lance / Olympic Marcel | one | one | one | |||||
| Francois van der Elst | Anderlecht | one | one | one | |||||