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France Football European National Team of the Year Award Rankings
Year First Second Third Fourth Fifth England's Placing
1959 Hungary France Spain Sweden West Germany 13th
1960 U.S.S.R. Yugoslavia England, Czechoslovakia, Sweden & Switzerland =3rd
1961 Austria U.S.S.R. Czechoslovakia & Yugoslavia England & Spain =5th
1962 Czechoslovakia Italy, U.S.S.R. & West Germany Hungary
Yugoslavia
7th
1963 Sweden Belgium, Italy & Yugoslavia England, U.S.S.R. & Yugoslavia =5th
1964 Hungary & Spain Czechoslovakia & U.S.S.R. Italy & Portugal =10th
1965 England Hungary Portugal Bulgaria & Italy 1st
1966 England Portugal & West Germany U.S.S.R. Hungary
Italy
1st
1967 U.S.S.R. Hungary & Italy England Bulgaria 4th
1968 West Germany Czechoslovakia England, Italy, U.S.S.R. & Yugoslavia =3rd
1969 England Sweden Italy & West Germany Romania 1st
1970 Italy West Germany England & U.S.S.R. Sweden =3rd
Year First Second Third Fourth Fifth England's Placing
1971 England & U.S.S.R. West Germany Hungary Belgium & Romania =1st
1972 West Germany Netherlands Belgium & Poland Portugal 13th
1973 Italy Sweden Yugoslavia German Democratic Republic & Poland =8th
1974 Netherlands & West Germany Poland Spain Belgium 6th
1975 Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia U.S.S.R. Wales & West Germany =6th
1976 West Germany Czechoslovakia German Democratic Republic, Netherlands & Hungary 12th
1977 West Germany Netherlands Spain Austria & France =14th
1978 Netherlands Italy England & Poland France & Spain =3rd
1979 Yugoslavia West Germany Austria Belgium & England =4th
1980 West Germany Belgium & U.S.S.R. Italy German Democratic Republic 6th
Year First Second Third Fourth Fifth England's Placing
1981 West Germany U.S.S.R. & Yugoslavia Hungary Scotland =15th
1982 Italy Poland West Germany, England & France =3rd
1983 Denmark U.S.S.R. Spain Belgium & France =13th
1984 France Spain Denmark Portugal Hungary & West Germany 10th
1985 U.S.S.R. Denmark Spain Bulgaria France =6th
1986 Spain England West Germany France Italy & U.S.S.R. 2nd
1987 England Netherlands & Italy U.S.S.R. West Germany 1st
1988 Netherlands Italy U.S.S.R. West Germany & Yugoslavia =9th
1989 Netherlands Belgium Republic of  Ireland & Spain Yugoslavia 6th
1990 West Germany Republic of Ireland England & Italy France & Yugoslavia =3rd
Year First Second Third Fourth Fifth England's Placing
1991 France Germany Netherlands England Czechoslovakia, Republic of Ireland & Switzerland 4th
1992 Denmark Germany Belgium & Republic of Ireland Bulgaria, Italy & Norway =11th
1993 Germany Netherlands Italy & Spain Norway =17th
1994 Italy & Sweden Bulgaria Spain Romania =11th
1995 Spain Germany France Italy, Russia & Turkey =17th
1996 Germany France Czech Republic, England & Spain =3rd
1997 Spain England Germany & Yugoslavia Italy 2nd
1998 France Croatia Netherlands Italy Yugoslavia 6th
1999 Norway Czech Republic, Denmark, France & Spain =15th
2000 France Italy Portugal Netherlands Russia 20th
Year First Second Third Fourth Fifth England's Placing
2001 Spain Sweden England Italy France 3rd
2002 Germany Netherlands Spain Turkey Denmark 12th
2003 Czech Republic France Italy Greece England 5th
2004 Greece Portugal Czech Republic Ireland Romania 11th
2005 England Netherlands Poland Portugal Czech Republic 1st
2006 Italy France Germany Portugal England 5th
2007 Spain          
2008 not known          
2009 not known          

Notes

This prestigious award is made by the French football magazine France Football and is based on  a survey  of European football journalists.  To and including 2007, the award had been made 49 times.

England have won the award six times, one of them shared--four times under Alf Ramsey, in 1965, 1966, 1969 and 1971 (shared), once under Bobby Robson, in 1987, once under Sven-Göran Ericsson, in 2005.

They have finished second twice, under Robson in 1986 and under Glenn Hoddle in 1987.  They have ended third eight times, all but the last time shared--under Ramsey in 1960 (shared), 1968 (shared) and 1970 (shared), under Ron Greenwood in 1978 (shared), under Greenwood and Robson in 1982 (shared), under Robson and Graham Taylor in  1990 (shared), under Terry Venables and Hoddle in 1996 (shared) and under Sven-Göran Eriksson in 2001.  They have finished fourth three times, sharing that spot on one occasion--under Ramsey in 1967, under Greenwood in 1979 (shared), and under Taylor in 1991.  They have ended fifth four times, sharing that place twice under Ramsey in 1961 and 1963 and occupying it alone under Eriksson in 2003 and 2006.

Of the 49 times the award has been made, England have finished in the top five 23 times--twice under Winterbottom, eight times under Ramsey, twice under Greenwood, once under Greenwood/Robson, twice under Robson, once under Robson/Taylor, once under Taylor, once under Venables/Hoddle, once under Hoddle and four times under Eriksson.

They have finished in the top 10 an additional 11 times for a total of 34 times.  They have finished outside the top 10 on 15 occasions.

England regularly finished in the top 10 during Winterbottom's last years, climbed to the heights under Ramsey, fell out of the top 10 under Revie, returned to the top five for a good part of Greenwood's reign, fell out of the top 10 again for the first half of Robson's tenure but recovered to regain several top-five placings during his last years, fell out of the top 10 once again under Graham Taylor, regained the top five only in the last part of Venables' reign, remained in the top five or just outside it under Hoddle, fell again under Keegan and once again regained the top five under Eriksson in 2001 and 2003, although falling back to 12th in 2002.

Only West Germany/Germany have won more team of the year awards than England and only Spain have won as many.  

Sources

All but the most recent information comes solely from records compiled by Erlan Manaschev, Erik Garin and José Luis Pierrend in the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistical Foundation [RSSSF] Archive.  We have relied on news accounts supplemented by the RSSSF materials for recent years.

Further Information

The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistical Foundation [RSSSF] Archive contains the yearly team rankings and useful overviews.

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