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One-off award by FIFA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FIFA Player of the Century was a one-off award created by FIFA to decide the greatest football player of the 20th century, announced at the annual FIFA World gala, held in Rome on 11 December 2000.[1] Diego Maradona and Pelé were joint winners of the award.[2][3]
Since 1955, FIFA has had awards for FIFA World Player of the Year and they decided to bring in the year 2000 by conducting a public vote to decide the FIFA Player of the Century. This was to be decided by votes on their official website, their official magazine, and a grand jury. Maradona won the Internet-based poll by wide margins, garnering 53.6% of the votes against 18.53% for Pelé.[4] Many observers complained that the Internet nature of the poll would have meant a skewed demographic of younger fans who would have seen Maradona play, but not Pelé. As a result, FIFA decided to add a second poll and appointed a "Football Family" committee composed of football journalists, officials, and coaches, who voted Pelé the best player of the century with 72.75% of the vote, thus both were joint winners of the award.[5]
The results of FIFA's internet Poll were as follows:[6]
Rank | Player | Nationality | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Diego Maradona | Argentina | 53.60% |
2 | Pelé | Brazil | 18.53% |
3 | Eusébio | Portugal | 6.21% |
4 | Roberto Baggio | Italy | 5.42% |
5 | Romário | Brazil | 1.69% |
6 | Marco van Basten | Netherlands | 1.57% |
7 | Ronaldo | Brazil | 1.55% |
8 | Franz Beckenbauer | Germany | 1.50% |
9 | Zinedine Zidane | France | 1.34% |
10 | Rivaldo | Brazil | 1.19% |
11 | Zico | Brazil | 1.15% |
12 | Garrincha | Brazil | 1.08% |
13 | Johan Cruyff | Netherlands | 0.87% |
14 | Alfredo Di Stéfano | Argentina Spain | 0.68% |
15 | Michel Platini | France | 0.58% |
16 | Bobby Charlton | England | 0.39% |
17 | Ferenc Puskás | Hungary | 0.37% |
18 | Lothar Matthäus | Germany | 0.37% |
19 | Lev Yashin | Soviet Union | 0.36% |
20 | George Best | Northern Ireland | 0.32% |
This part of the award was decided by the FIFA Magazine readers vote and the FIFA Grand Jury.[6]
Rank | Player | Nationality | Percentage |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Pelé | Brazil | 72.75% |
2 | Alfredo Di Stéfano | Argentina Spain |
9.75% |
3 | Diego Maradona | Argentina | 6.0% |
4 | Franz Beckenbauer | Germany | 2.5% |
5 | Johan Cruyff | Netherlands | 2.0% |
George Best | Northern Ireland | 2.0% | |
7 | Roberto Baggio | Italy | 1.0% |
Garrincha | Brazil | 1.0% | |
Zico | Brazil | 1.0% | |
Michel Platini | France | 1.0% | |
Gerd Müller | Germany | 1.0% | |
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