Bobby Charlton

Charlton's 1966 Ballon d'Or arrived weeks after he had won the World Cup on home soil, both trophies bookending the strangest apprenticeship in English football: a survivor of the Munich air disaster at 20, ordered by Matt Busby to carry the club's dead with him for the rest of his career. He did it without ever appearing to carry anything — the thunderous right foot, the sprint from halfway, the refusal to foul or be fouled into bitterness. In the final against West Germany, both of England's goals in the semifinal and final built on his runs.

For decades he held the records of English football like furniture holds a room: most caps, most goals for United (249), the 1968 European Cup finally completing Busby's vow to the dead. In later life he became the game's conscience — the modest knight in the stands at every tournament, applauding the sport that had taken everything from him and given it back with interest. His Ballon d'Or is the only one England's golden year produced.