Van Basten who dominated the Ballon d'Or Trophy

Before the dominance of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at the Ballon d'Or trophy award, Marco Van Basten was the last name to win the award three times. He won it in less than five years, namely in 1988, 1989 and 1992.

In 1988, Van Basten won his first Ballon d'Or trophy. He won the most support with 129 votes and defeated his two colleagues in the Dutch National Team and AC Milan, namely Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard.

His impressive performance on the gridiron and his achievements with AC Milan made Van Basten win his second Ballon d'Or trophy in 1989. Again, three Milan players dominated the top three positions. This time Van Basten was chosen after defeating Franco Baresi and Frank Rijkaard.

However, a series of ankle injuries that struck him could make his football career fade. Van Basten was forced to pull aside long enough to recover from the ankle injury he suffered.

Van Basten then began to regain his confidence on the gridiron after being under the care of Fabio Capello. Van Basten can be said to be back in peak performance with the Rossoneri - the nickname of Milan.

Recorded in the 1991-1992 Italian League, Van Basten collected 25 goals in 31 appearances. He came out as the top scorer and at the end of the year won the third Ballon d'Or trophy (1992) after defeating Hristo Stoichkov and Dennis Bergkamp.

Collaborating with two other Dutch players, namely Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, made the Rossoneri have the most feared attack line in the era. The player born October 31, 1964 was even very satisfied with his achievements with the Rossoneri.

"Perfection in football may not exist, but this season we are almost near perfect," he said at the time.

Unfortunately, his career with AC Milan slowly began to decline. The 1993-1994 season became the last era of the Dutch trio Gullit-Rijkaard-Van Basten. Both of his colleagues chose to leave while Van Basten himself began to have trouble getting rationed due to injury.

The ankle injury recurred and was severe, the injury was not a minor injury as before. Van Basten had surgery to be able to restore his condition. However, the operation did not have much impact, forcing him to retire at the age of 31 years.