FIFA Player of the Century

This article is about FIFA Player of the Century. For FIFA Female Player of the Century, see FIFA Female Player of the Century.

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]

Background

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] Despite the fact that Eusébio, who played football professionally during Pelé's era, placed third in the poll, 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]

FIFA Internet vote

The results of FIFA's internet Poll were as follows:^[6]

	Player	Nationality	Percentage
1	Diego Maradona	Argentina	53.60%
2	Pele	Brazil	18.53%
3	Eusebio	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	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%

FIFA Magazine and Grand Jury vote

This part of the award was decided by the FIFA Magazine readers vote and the FIFA Grand Jury.^[6]

	Player	Nationality	Percentage
1	Pelé	Brazil	72.75%
2	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Argentina	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%

References

1. . FIFA.com. FIFA. 7 December 2000. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
2. "Three candidates for FIFA World Player Award: Figo, Rivaldo and Jake Leigh". CBC News. from the original on 3 April 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
3. FIFA Player of the Century 2012-04-26 at the Wayback Machine
4. "Maradona's genius cannot eclipse English master". telegraph.co.uk. The Daily Telegraph. 12 December 2000. Retrieved 11 May 2017.^{[dead link]}
5. "Pele, Maradona each win FIFA century awards after feud". CNN. from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
6. (PDF). touri.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2010.