UEFA Team of the Year

The UEFA Team of the Year is a football award given by UEFA through a poll on its official website. This award started in 2001 to allow users and visitors of the organization's website to choose their own eleven players and a coach based on their overall performances in European club football and international competitions. The UEFA Team of the Year poll for 2010 will be the tenth edition of the award, which has seen nearly 12 million votes cast in previous editions of this popular poll.

In the 2007 poll, UEFA and its official site allowed its users an additional option of donating to the International Committee of the Red Cross to support landmine victims in Afghanistan.

Selection Process

The writers at the website construct a shortlist of sixty footballers and coaches who have performed well in European club competition and international tournaments for that particular year. Users then go on the website and cast their vote of a lineup consisting of eleven players (including a goalkeeper, four defenders, four midfielders, and two strikers) and a coach based on who they believed excelled in European football. After the selection is made, the user also has to select one of the players to be the captain of their team.

After the votes are cast, they are tallied and the final team are announced on the website itself.

Appearance records

The players with the most appearances in the team are Carles Puyol and Cristiano Ronaldo having appeared six times. Second is Thierry Henry and Iker Casillas with 5 appearances. Alessandro Nesta, John Terry, Lionel Messi and Xavi have four. They are followed by several players with three appearances: Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldinho, Pavel Nedvěd, Gianluigi Buffon, Steven Gerrard, Kaká ,Dani Alves and Iniesta. The most consecutive appearances in the team is five for Cristiano Ronaldo (2007-11) and Iker Casillas (2007-11).

The teams with the most player appearances (not including manager appearances) are Barcelona with 31,Real Madrid (19), followed by Milan (17), Juventus (10), Arsenal (9), Manchester United (8) and Chelsea (8). Barcelona has been the team with more players selected in a single season with 6 players in 2009 and 2010, 5 players in 2011, four players in 2006 and 3 players in 2005 and 2008. The only other teams with more than two players in one season are Real Madrid with 3 players in 2002,2003 and 2011, Milan with 3 players in 2004,2005 and 2007 and Juventus with 3 players in 2006.

The manager with the most appearances is José Mourinho, with four appearances (one with Internazionale, two with Porto, one with Chelsea). He is followed by Alex Ferguson and Josep Guardiola, with two.

Team of the Year 2001

Player	Team	Appearance
Santiago Cañizares	Valencia	1
Cosmin Contra	Milan / Alavés	1
Sami Hyypiä	Liverpool	1
Patrik Andersson	Barcelona / Bayern Munich	1
Bixente Lizarazu	Bayern Munich	1
David Beckham	Manchester United	1
Patrick Vieira	Arsenal	1
Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid / Juventus	1
Kily González	Valencia	1
Thierry Henry	Arsenal	1
David Trezeguet	Juventus	1

Coach: Gérard Houllier Liverpool

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2002

Player	Team	Appearance
Rüştü Reçber	Fenerbahçe	1
Carles Puyol	Barcelona	1
Alessandro Nesta	Milan / Lazio	1
Cristian Chivu	Ajax	1
Roberto Carlos	Real Madrid	1
Clarence Seedorf	Milan / Internazionale	1
Michael Ballack	Bayern Munich / Bayer Leverkusen	1
Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid	2
Damien Duff	Blackburn Rovers	1
Thierry Henry	Arsenal	2
Ronaldo	Real Madrid / Internazionale	1

Coach: Şenol Güneş Turkey

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2003

Player	Team	Appearance
Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus	1
Paulo Ferreira	FC Porto	1
Alessandro Nesta	Milan	2
Paolo Maldini	Milan	1
Roberto Carlos	Real Madrid	2
Luís Figo	Real Madrid	1
David Beckham	Manchester United	2
Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid	3
Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	1
Thierry Henry	Arsenal	3
Ruud van Nistelrooy	Manchester United	1

Coach: José Mourinho FC Porto

Team of the Year 2004

Player	Team	Appearance
Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus	2
Cafu	Milan	1
Alessandro Nesta	Milan	3
Ricardo Carvalho	Chelsea / FC Porto	1
Ashley Cole	Arsenal	1
Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	1
Maniche	FC Porto	1
Ronaldinho	Barcelona	1
Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	2
Thierry Henry	Arsenal	4
Andriy Shevchenko	Milan	1

Coach: José Mourinho FC Porto

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2005

Player	Team	Appearance
Petr Čech	Chelsea	1
Cafu	Milan	2
John Terry	Chelsea	1
Carles Puyol	Barcelona	2
Paolo Maldini	Milan	2
Luis García	Liverpool	1
Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	1
Ronaldinho	Barcelona	2
Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	3
Samuel Eto'o	Barcelona	1
Andriy Shevchenko	Milan	2

Coach: José Mourinho Chelsea

Team of the Year 2006

Player	Team	Appearance
Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus	3
Gianluca Zambrotta	Barcelona / Juventus	1
Fabio Cannavaro	Real Madrid / Juventus	1
Carles Puyol	Barcelona	3
Philipp Lahm	Bayern Munich	1
Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	2
Cesc Fàbregas	Arsenal	1
Kaká	Milan	1
Ronaldinho	Barcelona	3
Thierry Henry	Arsenal	5
Samuel Eto'o	Barcelona	2

Coach: Frank Rijkaard Barcelona

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2007

Player	Team	Appearance
Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	1
Dani Alves	Sevilla	1
Alessandro Nesta	Milan	4
John Terry	Chelsea	2
Éric Abidal	Barcelona / Lyon	1
Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	2
Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	3
Kaká	Milan	2
Clarence Seedorf	Milan	2
Zlatan Ibrahimović	Internazionale	1
Didier Drogba	Chelsea	1

Coach: Alex Ferguson Manchester United

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2008

Player	Team	Appearance
Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	2
Sergio Ramos	Real Madrid	1
John Terry	Chelsea	3
Carles Puyol	Barcelona	4
Philipp Lahm	Bayern Munich	2
Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	3
Xavi (c)	Barcelona	1
Cesc Fàbregas	Arsenal	2
Franck Ribéry	Bayern Munich	1
Lionel Messi	Barcelona	1
Fernando Torres	Liverpool	1

Coach: Alex Ferguson Manchester United

Team of the Year 2009

Player	Team	Appearance
Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	3
Dani Alves	Barcelona	2
John Terry	Chelsea	4
Carles Puyol	Barcelona	5
Patrice Evra	Manchester United	1
Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid / Manchester United	4
Xavi	Barcelona	2
Kaká	Real Madrid / Milan	3
Andrés Iniesta	Barcelona	1
Lionel Messi	Barcelona	2
Zlatan Ibrahimović (c)	Barcelona / Internazionale	2

Coach: Josep Guardiola Barcelona

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2010

Player	Team	Appearance
Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	4
Maicon	Internazionale	1
Gerard Piqué	Barcelona	1
Carles Puyol (c)	Barcelona	6
Ashley Cole	Chelsea	2
Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	5
Xavi	Barcelona	3
Wesley Sneijder	Internazionale	1
Andrés Iniesta	Barcelona	2
Lionel Messi	Barcelona	3
David Villa	Barcelona / Valencia	1

Coach: José Mourinho Internazionale / Real Madrid

Players who played for two teams during the year have the team they finished the year with listed first.

Team of the Year 2011

Player	Team	Appearance
Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	5
Dani Alves	Barcelona	3
Gerard Piqué	Barcelona	2
Thiago Silva	Milan	1
Marcelo	Real Madrid	1
Arjen Robben	Bayern Munich	1
Xavi (c)	Barcelona	4
Andrés Iniesta	Barcelona	3
Gareth Bale	Tottenham	1
Lionel Messi	Barcelona	4
Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	6

Coach: Josep Guardiola Barcelona

Most Appearances

By a Player

Player	Appearance
Carles Puyol	6
Cristiano Ronaldo
Thierry Henry	5
Iker Casillas
Alessandro Nesta	4
John Terry
Lionel Messi
Xavi
Zinedine Zidane	3
Ronaldinho
Pavel Nedvěd
Gianluigi Buffon
Steven Gerrard
Kaká
Andrés Iniesta
Dani Alves
13 players	2
32 players	1

By a Country

Country	Players
Spain	28
Brazil	17
France	14
Italy	11
England
Portugal	10
Argentina	5
Netherlands
Czech Republic	4
Germany	3
Sweden
Cameroon	2
Romania
Ukraine
Côte d'Ivoire	1
Finland
Republic of Ireland
Turkey
Wales

By a Club

See also

• European Footballer of the Year
• UEFA club competition records
• South American Footballer of the Year

External links

• UEFA Team of the Year 2010
• List of previous articles of UEFA Team of the Year from the UEFA website