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.

File:MaradonaPeleShirts.jpg

Five years after the award, winners Maradona and Pelé exchanged national team shirts.

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. Diego Maradona and Pelé were joint winners of the award. Maradona won the award based on the Internet poll, while Pelé won the award based on votes from FIFA officials, journalists and coaches.

Background

Since 1991, FIFA have had awards for FIFA World Player of the Year and they decided to bring in the new millennium 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. 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.

FIFA internet vote

The results of FIFA's internet Poll were as follows:

	Player	Nationality	Percentage
1	Diego Maradona	Argentina	53.6%
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	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.

	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	Michel Platini	France	1.0%
	Garrincha	Brazil	1.0%
	Zico	Brazil	1.0%
	Gerd Müller	Germany	1.0%
	Roberto Baggio	Italy	1.0%

FIFA Centennial Award

FIFA Centennial Player and Football Personality.

Winner	Nationality
Franz Beckenbauer	Germany
Pelé	Brazil

IFFHS

IFFHS gave out an award decided by votes which was conducted with the participation of journalists and former players (no further details given).

	Player	Nationality	Votes
1	Pelé	Brazil	1705
2	Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	1303
3	Franz Beckenbauer	Germany	1228
4	Alfredo Di Stéfano	Argentina	1215
5	Diego Maradona	Argentina	1214
6	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary	810
7	Michel Platini	France	722
8	Garrincha	Brazil	624
9	Eusébio	Portugal	544
10	Bobby Charlton	England	508