England Player Honours -
World Soccer Players of the Century

 

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World Soccer 100 Players of the Century [England Players Highlighted]
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
1	Pel� [Edson Arantes do Nascimento]	5499	Brazil	92/77
2	Diego Maradona	3949	Argentina	90/34
3	Johan Cruyff	3388	Netherlands	48/33
4	Franz Beckenbauer	2780	West Germany	103/13
5	Michel Platini	1854	France	72/41
6	Alfredo Di St�fano	1541	Argentina; Spain	8/6; 31/23
7	Ferenc Pusk�s	1537	Hungary; Spain	84/83; 4/0
8	George Best	1190	Northern Ireland	37/9
9	Marco van Basten	1026	Netherlands	58/24
10	Eus�bio Ferreira da Silva	1022	Portugal	64/41
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
11	Lev Yashin	821	U.S.S.R.
12	Bobby Charlton	680	England
13	Ronaldo	541	Brazil
14	Bobby Moore	539	England
15	Gerd Muller	498	West Germany
16	Roberto Baggio	486	Italy
17	Stanley Matthews	429	England
18	Zico	390	Brazil
19	Franco Baresi	371	Italy
20	Garrincha	361	Brazil
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
21	Paolo Maldini	345	Italy
22	Kenny Dalglish	334	Scotland
23	Gabriel Batistuta	300	Argentina
24	Eric Cantona	299	France
25	Gheorghe Hagi	293	Romania
26	Romario	257	Brazil
27	Jairzinho	248	Brazil
28	Zinedine Zidane	238	France
29	Ruud Gullitt	221	Netherlands
30	John Charles	212	Wales
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
31	Lothar Mathaus	202	West Germany, Germany
32	Gordon Banks	178	England
33	Jurgen Klinsmann	168	Germany
34	Dennis Bergkamp	150	Netherlands
35	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	149	West Germany
36	Gary Lineker	134	England
37	Giuseppe Meazza	132	Italy
38	Rivelino	124	Brazil
39	Didi	123	Brazil
40	Ian Rush	109	Wales
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
=41	Peter Schmeichel	104	Denmark
	Paolo Rossi		Italy
43	George Weah	99	Liberia
44	Michael Owen	90	England
45	Just Fontaine	88	France
46	Duncan Edwards	86	England
47	Dino Zoff	80	Italy
48	Hristo Stoichkov	77	Bulgaria
49	David Beckham	74	England
50	Tom Finney	72
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
51	Rivaldo	71	Brazil
52	Claudio Caniggia	64	Argentina
53	Totao	63	Brazil
54	Frank Rijkaard	62	Netherlands
55	José Luis Chilavert	61	Paraguay
56	Kevin Keegan	60	England
57	Paul Gascoigne	57
58	Roger Milla	56	Cameroon
59	Michael Laudrup	55	Denmark
60	Andril Shevchenko	54	Ukraine
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
=61	David Ginola	53	France
	Glenn Hoddle		England
	Socrates		Brazil
=64	Roberto Carlos	52	Brazil
	Alan Shearer		England
66	Daniel Passarella	51	Argentina
67	Davor Suker	50	Croatia
=68	Dixie Dean	49	England
	Sandor Kocsis		Hungary
	Juan Alberto Schiaffino		Uruguay, Italy
	Player		National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
	Christian Vieri		Italy
=72	Mario Kempes	47	Argentina
	Johan Neeskens		Netherlands
	Luigi Riva		Italy
=75	José Nasazzi	46	Uruguay
	Gunter Netzer		West Germany
=77	Alessandro Del Piero	43	Italy
	Carlos Valderrama		Colombia
79	Ricardo Zamora	42	Spain
80	Enzo Francescoli	41	Uruguay
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
=81	Edgar Davids	40	Netherlands
	Francisco Gento		Spain
=83	Jim Baxter	38	Scotland
	Falcao		Brazil
	Ryan Giggs		Wales
	Sepp Maier		West Germany
=87	Zbigniew Boniek	37	Poland
	Pat Jennings		Northern Ireland
	Gyorgy Sarosi		Hungary
90	Giacinto Facchetti	36	Italy
No.	Player	Pts.	National Team[s]	Apps/Gls
=91	Alan Hansen	34	Scotland
	Raymond Kopa		France
	Bryan Robson		England
	Matthias Sammer		Germany
=95	Ladislav Kubala	33	Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Spain
	Neville Southall		Wales
97	Gerson	32	Brazil
=98	Paulo Futre	31	Portugal
	Preben Elkjaer		Denmark
100	Bebeto	30	Brazil

Notes

As the year 2000 approached, World Soccer, the English international football magazine established in 1960, conducted a poll of its readers to choose the 100 greatest players of the 20th century.  Voters picked their top 10 players in order of preference.  Points were assigned to each vote a player gained, 10 points for a 1st place vote, 9 points for a 2nd place vote and so on down to 1 point for a 10th place vote.  World Soccer published the poll results in its December, 1999 issue.  Predictably, Pele ran away with 1st place.

Polls of this sort commonly suffer twin defects; they give disproportionate weight to the views of younger football fans, who are much more likely to vote than their elders and yet much less likely to have as broad a perspective, and to the views of fans in the country where the publisher of the poll is located.  While it is based in England, World Soccer has a worldwide readership, and its readers are relatively sophisticated football fans.  As the magazine itself noted, "Despite the enormous growth in media coverage of the game since the advent of colour TV, nearly all the Top 10 were in their prime many years ago."  It also claimed that "in general our voters opted for" choices representing "long-lasting class rather than fly-by-night tabloid-and-telly hysteria" and that the poll results "bear out the view" that "our readers are more discerning than those of other football magazines."  

Nevertheless, the entire list of players selected as the top 100 demonstrates beyond doubt that the usual defects flawed the World Soccer poll, albeit perhaps not as severely as most popular polls.  World Soccer itself noted, "The majority of nominations were for English players, which is hardly a shock in view of the magazine's base."  Moreover, the inclusion of some players who had only recently begun to shine, the exclusion of stellar stars of the past and the relative placement of both past and present stars were often bewildering.  

The voters' marked preference for the recent put beyond the pale even some of England's most celebrated players of the past.  While Michael Owen and David Beckham, still beginning to establish themselves as England stars when the vote was taken, finished in the top 50, Jimmy Greaves, England's greatest modern-day scorer with 44 goals in 57 internationals and 357 goals in 516 top-division league games, collected just 24 points and was not among the top 100.  Neither Tommy Lawton, 14 points, nor Wilf Mannion, 3 points, two members of England's fabled post-Second War forward line, secured enough votes to reach the top 100, and, as World Soccer observed, the failure of a third, Stan Mortensen, to gain even a single point although he scored more than 300 goals, including 23 in only 25 internationals, "was one of the biggest surprises of the entire vote."  

Yet, skewed as it was, the top 100 selection could have been much worse.  At least the two wingers on that marvelous post-war England forward line, Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney, were voted into the top 50.  And, despite World Soccer's English base and the resulting English bias, no England player finished in the top 10, the least controversial portion of the poll's results.  Three--Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore and Stanley Matthews-- were in the top 20, but they deserved those positions.  Six more--Gordon Banks, Gary Lineker, Michael Owen, Duncan Edwards, David Beckham and Tom Finney--finished in the top 50, and there were at least two and perhaps three or even four question marks there.  Another six finished in the top 100--Kevin Keegan, Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, Alan Shearer, Dixie Dean and Bryan Robson--great players all, but perhaps not all deserving a spot among the 100 greatest.  

Both England and Brazil had 15 players in the top 100, Italy, 11 (1 of them shared), Germany, 8, Holland, 7, Argentina, 6 (1 of them shared), France, 6, Spain, 5 (3 of them shared), Hungary, 4 (2 of them shared), Wales, 4, Denmark, 3, Scotland, 3, and Uruguay, 3 (1 of them shared).

Many other England players drew votes but placed outside the top 100, some of them, to put it charitably, singularly peculiar choices.   They were, in alphabetical order: Tony Adams, 6 points, Alan Ball, 7, Gary Bailey, 5, John Barnes, 23, Len Barry, 8 (or, since World Soccer gave no first name or initial, could that be the then uncapped Gareth Barry?), Cliff Bastin, 6, Peter Beardsley, 3, Colin Bell, 17, Roger Byrne, 8, Sol Campbell, 21, Allan Clarke, 2, Ray Clemence, 16, Andrew Cole, 6, Tony Currie, 2, Brian Deane, 4, Tony Dorigo, 2, Ted Drake, 6, Robbie Fowler, 10, the uncapped former England squad member Steve Froggatt, 5, Charlie George, 1, Jimmy Greaves, 24, Geoff Hurst, 22, Paul Ince, 5, Tommy Lawton, 14, Steve McManaman, 28, Wilf Mannion, 3, Phil Neal, 6, Gary Neville, 1, Stuart Pearce, 11, Paul Parker, 2, David Platt, 4, Charlie Roberts, 5, David Seaman, 5, Len  Shackleton, 6, Lee Sharpe, 4, Peter Shilton, 16, Frank Swift, 8, Peter Thompson, 3, Phil Thompson, 3, Dennis Tueart, 1, Chris Waddle, 1, Ray Wilson, 17, Frank Worthington, 5, Billy Wright, 15, Ian Wright, 14.  One other English player, "Howells," no first name or initial given, received 8 points.  While there have been several English players named Howells, none of them were ever capped at senior level.

The complete list of players who received votes but finished outside the top 100 in rough alphabetical order:

Ardiles (Arg) 14, Ademir (Bra) 13, S Al-Owairan (Sau) 10, Albert (Hun) 10, Amoros (Fra) 10, Archibald (Sco) 10, Albert (Blg) 9, Atmatsidis (Gre) 8, Adams (Eng) 6, Alemao (Bra) 6, Anelka (Fra) 6, Abedi Pele (Gha) 5, Aldridge (Ire) 5, I Allchurch (Wal) 5, Asparuhov (Bul) 5, J L Andrade (Uru) 3, Antognoni (Ita) 3, Awukoso 3, Ayala (Chl) 2, Almeyda (Arg) 1.

Bergomi (Ita) 27, Blokhin (Rus) 27, Brady (Ire) 25, Bremner (Sco) 24, J Barnes (Eng) 23, D Blanchflower (NI) 20, Butragueno (Spa) 18, Basler (Ger) 17, Bell (Eng) 17, Bierhoff (Ger) 16, Bozsik (Hun) 16, Ben Barek (Fra/Mor) 10, Bosman (Blg) 10, Bourdeau 10, Bratseth (Nor) 10, Baljic (Bos) 9, Barry (Eng) 8, Bettega (Ita) 8, Bosman (Hol) 8, R Byrne (Eng) 8, Ball (Eng) 7, Blind (Hol) 7, Bastin (Eng) 6, Benetti (Ita) 6, Binder (Aut) 6, Boniperti (Ita) 6, G Bailey (Eng) 5, Bonner (Ire) 5, Barthez (Fra) 3, Beardsley (Eng) 3, Briegl (Ger) 3, Budai (Hun) 3, Burruchaga (Arg) 3, Balakov (Bul) 2, Boban (Cro) 2, Buzansky (Hun) 2, Belanov (Rus) 1, Blanc (Fra) 1.

Cubillas (Per) 28, Czibor (Hun) 24, Claudio Lopez (Arg) 23, Campbell (Eng) 21, Clemence (Eng) 16, Cafu (Bra) 12, Cannavaro (Ita) 10, Carlos Alberto (Bra) 10, Careca (Bra) 9, Chiesa (Ita) 9, Clodoaldo (Bra) 8, Coluna (Por) 8, Carbajal (Mex) 7, J Collins (Sco) 7, Cabrini (Ita) 6, Caldow (Sco) 6, Campos (Mex) 6, Carey (Ire) 6, Ceulemans (Blg) 6, Coimbra (Por) 6, A Cole (Eng) 6, Croy (Ger) 6, Causio (Ita) 5, Combi (Ita) 5, Cabanas (Par) 3, Conte (Ita) 3, Chumpitaz (Per) 2, A Clarke (Eng) 2, D Cooper (Sco) 2, Currie (Eng) 2, Colak (Tur) 1, Jordi Cruyff (Hol) 1.

Detori (Hun) 29, Dzajic (Yug) 24, Denilson (Bra) 19, Dunga (Bra) 17, Domingas (Bra) 14, Desailly (Fra) 10, Duff (Ire) 10, Dilman (Tur) 9, Donadoni (Ita) 9, F De Boer (Hol) 6, Deyna (Pol) 6, Drake (Eng) 6, Dumitrescu (Rom) 5, Daei (Irn) 4, Deane (Eng) 4, Del Sol (Spa) 4, Dorigo (Eng) 2, Dasayev (Rus) 1.

Eder (Bra) 14, Edmundo (Bra) 10, England (Wal) 9, Effenberg (Ger) 1, Elder (NI) 1, M Etcheverry (Bol) 1.

Ferrara (Ita) 19, K-H Forster (Ger) 16, Friedenreich (Bra) 11, Fowler (Eng) 10, Figueroa (Chl) 9, Figo (Por) 7, S Froggatt (Eng) 5, Frantzeskos (Gre) 2, Fortunato (Ita) 1.

Greaves (Eng) 24, Gentile (Ita) 22, Gilmar (Hun) 15, Giles (Ire) 14, Gilzean (Sco) 9, Giresse (Fra) 9, Grosics (Hun) 9, Gaetjens (Usa) 8, Guardiola (Spa) 7, Goycochea (Arg) 6, Georgiatos (Gre) 3, E Gray (Sco) 3, Gamarra (Par) 2, T Gemmell (Sco) 2, George (Eng) 1, B Gonsalves (Usa) 1.

Hierro (Spa) 26, Hassler (Ger) 25, Hurst (Eng) 22, Hidegkuti (Hun) 21, Luis Hernandez (Mex) 20, Higuita (Col) 14, Haller (Ger) 12, Hakan Sukur (Tur) 10, Held (Ger) 8, Howells (Eng) 8, Haan (Hol) 7, Hanappi (Aut) 6, Harder (Ger) 6, Hamman (Ger) 5, M Hughes (Wal) 3, Hellstroem (Swe) 2, Hermann (Swi) 2, Hoeness (Ger) 2, Hamm (Usa) 1.

Ikpeba (Nig) 10, Ince (Eng) 5, F Inzaghi (Ita) 2, Illgner (Ger) 1.

J Johnstone (Sco) 23, Jorginho (Bra) 11, Juninho (Bra) 11, James (Sco) 8, Jordao (Por) 7, Julinho (Bra) 7, Junior Baiano (Bra) 5, Josimar (Bra) 4, Jardel (Bra) 3, R Johnstone (Sco) 3, Jurion (Blg) 3, Jarni (Cro) 1.

Kohler (Ger) 29, Kanu (Nig) 25, R Koeman (Hol) 25, Krol (Hol) 14, Kopke (Ger) 13, Roy Keane (Ire) 12, Kluivert (Hol) 12, Kipiani (Rus) 9, Kirkwood (Sco) 7, Kostic (Yug) 6, Kucukandonyadis (Tur) 6, Kiriakov (Rus) 5, Kahn (Ger) 3, Kanchelskis (Rus) 3, Konsel (Aut) 2, Krankl (Aut) 2, Kalb (Ger) 1, Keller (Usa) 1, Kirsten (Ger) 1.

Lacatus (Rom) 24, B Laudrup (Den) 24, Labruna (Arg) 21, Leonidas (Bra) 19, Lawton (Eng) 14, H Larsson (Swe) 12, Lentini (Ita) 10, Liddell (Sco) 10, Lato (Pol) 8, Luzhnyi (Ukr) 8, Leonardo (Bra) 5, Leboeuf (Fra) 4, Liedholm (Swe) 4, Letchkov (Bul) 3, Lubanski (Pol) 3, Lerby (Den) 2, Lorimer (Sco) 1, Luis Enrique (Spa) 1.

McManaman (Eng) 28, S Mazzola (Ita) 25, Mancini (Ita) 17, McInally (Sco) 15, McCoist (Sco) 12, Moreno (Arg) 12, Marzolini (Arg) 10, Masopust (Cze) 9, V Mazzola (Ita) 9, Meredith (Wal) 9, D Mackay (Sco) 7, McNeill (Sco) 7, Majid Abdullah (Sau) 6, Moller (Ger) 6, C Maldini (Ita) 5, McGrath (Ire) 5, Mihajlović (Yug) 5, Moravcic (Cze) 5, Murdoch (Sco) 5, J McIlroy (Ire) 4, Montero (Uru) 4, Mostovoi (Rus) 4, Maddix (Jam) 3, Mannion (Eng) 3, Mijatović (Yug) 3, McGrain (Sco) 2, W Miller (Sco) 2, Morena (Uru) 2, Machlas (Gre) 1, Martin Vazquez (Spa) 1, Monti (Arg/Ita) 1.

Nicol (Sco) 10, Nikolaidis (Gre) 9, Neal (Eng) 6, Niyilasi (Hun) 6, Nakata (Jap) 1, Nedved (Cze) 1, G Neville (Eng) 1, Nevin (Sco) 1.

Ortega (Arg) 29, Oliseh (Nig) 28, Overath (Ger) 16, Ocwirk (Aut) 7, F Omam-Biyik (Cam) 6, Okocha (Nig) 2, Oktay (Tur) 2.

Piola (Ita) 17, Gheorghe Popescu (Rom) 17, Pearce (Eng) 11, Planicka (Cze) 11, Pirri (Spa) 10, Piyapong (Tha) 10, Petit (Fra) 9, Petrescu (Rom) 5, Preud�homme (Blg) 5, Papaioannou (Gre) 4, Parvin (Irn) 4, Pedernera (Arg) 4, Platt (Eng) 4, Peruzzi (Ita) 3, Polster (Aut) 3, P Parker (Eng) 2, Parola (Ita) 2, Hugo Perez (Usa) 1, Prosinecki (Cro) 1.

Rivera (Ita) 29, Rensenbrink (Hol) 15, Rui Costa (Por) 12, Rufai (Nig) 8, Rosenthal (Isr) 7, Rosler (Ger) 6, C Roberts (Eng) 5, Rava (Ita) 3, Ramos (Usa) 2, Redondo (Arg) 2, Rep (Hol) 2, Ravelli (Swe) 1, J Robertson (Sco) 1.

Sindelar (Aut) 29, Stam (Hol) 29, Suarez (Spa) 29, N Santos (Bra) 28, Scirea (Ita) 28, Salas (Chl) 27, Schuster (Ger) 27, Savicević (Yug) 23, Simeone (Arg) 21, Hugo Sanchez (Mex) 19, Schillaci (Ita) 18, D Santos (Bra) 17, Solskjaer (Nor) 17, Shilton (Eng) 16, Leonel Sanchez (Chl) 13, Seeler (Ger) 12, Santamaria (Uru/Spa) 10, Scifo (Blg) 10, W Steel (Sco) 10, Savrakos (Gre) 9, Schlosser (Hun) 9, Slijvo (Yug) 9, Sono (SAf) 9, Spiegler (Isr) 9, Stabile (Arg) 8, Stojković (Yug) 8, Streltsov (Rus) 8, Swift (Eng) 8, Sekularac (Yug) 7, Skoblar (Yug) 7, Shackleton (Eng) 6, Sarti (Ita) 5, Seaman (Eng) 5, Schumacher (Ger) 4, Sharpe (Eng) 4, Stulfauth (Ger) 2, Schroif (Cze) 1, Simoes (Por) 1.

Trautmann (Ger) 26, Thuram (Fra) 13, Tardelli (Ita) 8, Torres (Por) 6, Taffarel (Bra) 4, Tigana (Fra) 4, Toshack (Wal) 4, Peter Thompson (Eng) 3, Phil Thompson (Eng) 3, Thon (Ger) 3, Tueart (Eng) 1.

Ugarte 13.

Vialli (Ita) 26, Van der Sar (Hol) 23, Varela (Uru) 18, Voller (Ger) 17, Veron (Arg) 16, Van Hanegem (Hol) 13, Vava (Bra) 11, Viola (Bra) 7, Van Breukelen (Hol) 6, Vierchowod (Ita) 6, Van Beveren (Hol) 4, Van Tiggelen (Hol) 2, Villa (Arg) 1. 

R Wilson (Eng) 17, W Wright (Eng) 15, I Wright (Eng) 14, J White (Sco) 8, Wenger (Fra) 6, Worthington (Eng) 5, F Walter (Ger) 3, Worns (Ger) 2, Waddle (Eng) 1, Wynalda (Usa) 1.

Yorke (T&T) 18, A Young (Sco) 7, G Young (Sco) 6, Yeboah (Gha) 5, Yekini (Nig) 1.

Zubizarreta (Spa) 29, Zola (Ita) 26, Zamorano (Chl) 7, Zagallo (Bra) 6, Zenga (Ita) 6, Zalayeta (Uru) 5, Zanetti (Arg) 2.

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