The “World Football Gala ” ,organized by IFFHS in January 4th 2000 in Rotenburg an der Fulda (Germany), was a great moment in the Football History with the nominations of THE WORLD’S BEST PLAYER and GOALKEEPER OF THE CENTURY (1900-1999). Journalists and former players of all continents in the World voted the Best Man and Woman Player of the Century. Pelé won the ranking of THE WORLD’S BEST PLAYER OF THE CENTURY with a confortable advance before the two european stars Johan Cruijff and Franz Beckenbauer.
Mia Hamm before Michelle Akers : the American girls were voted as n° 1 and 2 of the ranking THE WORLD’S BEST WOMAN PLAYER OF THE CENTURY and Russian Goalkeeper Lev Yashin won with a great advance the ranking of THE WORLD’S BEST GOALKEEPER OF THE CENTURY.
Here the different rankings :
World – Player of the Century
1."Pelé" (Brazil) 1705 (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) 2.Johan Cruijff (Netherlands) 1303 3.Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) 1228 4.Alfredo di Stéfano (Argentina) 1215 5.Diego Armando Maradona (Argentina) 1214 6.Ferenc Puskás (Hungary) 810 7.Michel Platini (France) 722 8.Garrincha (Brazil) 624 (Manoel dos Santos Garrincha) 9.Eusébio (Portugal) 544 (Eusébio Ferreira da Silva) 10.Robert Charlton (England) 508 11.Stanley Matthews (England) 368 12.Marco van Basten (Netherlands) 315 13.Gerd Müller (Germany) 265 14.Zico (Brazil) 207 15.Lothar Matthäus (Germany) 202 16.George Best (N. Ireland) 187 17.Juan Alberto Schiaffino(Uruguay) 158 18.Ruud Gullit (Netherlands) 119 19.Valdir Pereira Didi (Brazil) 116 Gianni Rivera (Italy) 116 21.Giuseppe Meazza (Italy) 108 22.Matthias Sindelar (Austria) 106 23 Fritz Walter (Germany) 103 24.Robert Moore (England) 98 25.José Manuel Moreno (Argentina) 96 26.Hugo Sánchez (Mexico) 85 27.George Weah (Liberia) 79 28.Roger Milla (Cameroon) 78 29.José Leonardo Andrade (Uruguay) 74 30.Just Fontaine (France) 73 Francisco Gento (Spain) 73 32.Ladislao Kubala (Spain) 71 33.Franco Baresi (Italy) 70 34.Josef Bican (Czechoslovakia) 63 35.Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany) 59 36.Omar Sivori (Argentina) 56 37.Elias Figueroa (Chile) 55 38.Kevin Keegan (England) 53 39.Sándor Kocsis (Hungary) 52 40.Héctor Scarone (Uruguay) 51 41.Josef Masopust (Czechoslovakia) 46 42.Giacchinto Facchetti (Italy) 44 43.Raymond Kopa (France) 41 Alessandro Mazzola (Italy) 41 45.Uwe Seeler (Germany) 40 46.Gunnar Nordahl (Sweden) 36 47.Zizinho (Brazil) 35 48.Teófilo Cubillas (Peru) 34 49.Arsenio Erico (Paraguay) 30 50.Denis Law (Scotland) 29
World – Female Player of the Century
1.Mia Hamm (USA) 443 2.Michelle Akers (USA) 411 3.Heidi Mohr (Germany) 250 4.Carolina Morace (Italy) 230 5.Sissi (Brazil) 212 6.Linda Medalen (Norway) 181 7.Liu Ailing (China) 165 8.Kristine Lilly (USA) 160 9.Heidi Støre (Norway) 141 10.Pia Sundhage (Sweden) 129 11.Joulie Foudy (USA) 117 12.Gao Hong (China) 100 13.Silvia Neid (Germany) 83 14.Joy Fawcett (USA) 82 15.Elisabetta Vignotto (Italy) 77 16.Helge Riise (Norway) 76 17.Bettina Wiegmann (Germany) 73 18.Sun Qing-Mei (China) 63 19.Pretinha (Brazil) 46 20.Martina Voss (Germany) 39 21.Gro Espeseth (Norway) 32 Lena Videkull (Sweden) 32 23.Ann Kristin Aarønes (Norway) 29 24.Charmaine Hooper (Canada) 27 Gunn Nyborg (Norway) 27 26.Carin Gabarra-Jennings (USA) 25 Fan Yunjie (China) 25 28.Anette Börjesson (Sweden) 24 29.Doris Fitschen (Germany) 23 30.Alicia Vargas (Mexico) 22 31.Roseli (Brazil) 21 32.Elisabeth Leidinge (Sweden) 20 33.Birthe Hegstadt (Norway) 18
World – Keeper of the Century
1.Lev Yashin (Soviet Union) 1002 2.Gordon Banks (England) 717 3.Dino Zoff (Italy) 661 4.Sepp Maier (Germany) 456 5.Ricardo Zamora (Spain) 443 6.José Luis Félix Chilavert(Paraguay) 373 7.Peter Schmeichel (Denmark) 291 8.Peter Shilton (England) 196 9.František Plánicka (Czechoslovakia) 194 10.Amadeo Raúl Carrizo (Argentina) 192 11.Gilmar dos Santos Neves(Brazil) 160 12.Ladislao Mazurkiewicz (Uruguay) 144 13.Patrick Jennings (N. Ireland) 132 14.Ubaldo Matildo Fillol (Argentina) 121 15.Antonio Carbajal (Mexico) 105 16.Jean-Marie Pfaff (Belgium) 95 17.Rinat Dasaev (Soviet Union) 89 18.Gyula Grosics (Hungary) 87 19.Thomas Ravelli (Sweden) 66 20.Walter Zenga (Italy) 62