Ballon d’Or ceremony returns to England in nod to ‘revolutionary’ Stanley Matthews

Matthews’ family ‘very excited’ as London Palladium hosts event 70 years after first award at Blackpool town hall When football’s dignitaries assemble on Monday at the London Palladium for the Ballon d’Or ceremony it will be a far cry from the first awards 70 years ago.

That was held in the slightly less glamorous surroundings of Blackpool town hall, where Stanley Matthews was presented with the prize by Gabriel Hanot, the visionary editor of L’Équipe who came up with the idea of crowning the world’s best player every year. A specially commissioned china plate was also handed over by the town’s mayor before the 41-year-old Matthews, who was famously teetotal, gave a short speech. “He might have had a double carrot juice…