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.[1] Diego Maradona and Pelé were joint winners of the award.[2] [3]
Since 1955, FIFA has had awards for FIFA World Player of the Year and they decided to bring in the year 2000 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.[4] 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.[5]
The results of FIFA's internet Poll were as follows:[6]
| scope=col | Rank | scope=col | Player | scope=col | Nationality | scope=col | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | scope=row | Diego Maradona | 53.60% | ||||
| 2 | scope=row | Pelé | 18.53% | ||||
| 3 | scope=row | Eusébio | 6.21% | ||||
| 4 | scope=row | Roberto Baggio | 5.42% | ||||
| 5 | scope=row | Romário | 1.69% | ||||
| 6 | scope=row | Marco van Basten | 1.57% | ||||
| 7 | scope=row | Ronaldo | 1.55% | ||||
| 8 | scope=row | Franz Beckenbauer | 1.50% | ||||
| 9 | scope=row | Zinedine Zidane | 1.34% | ||||
| 10 | scope=row | Rivaldo | 1.19% | ||||
| 11 | scope=row | Zico | 1.15% | ||||
| 12 | scope=row | Garrincha | 1.08% | ||||
| 13 | scope=row | Johan Cruyff | 0.87% | ||||
| 14 | scope=row | Alfredo Di Stéfano | 0.68% | ||||
| 15 | scope=row | Michel Platini | 0.58% | ||||
| 16 | scope=row | Bobby Charlton | 0.39% | ||||
| 17 | scope=row | Ferenc Puskás | 0.37% | ||||
| 18 | scope=row | Lothar Matthäus | 0.37% | ||||
| 19 | scope=row | Lev Yashin | 0.36% | ||||
| 20 | scope=row | George Best | 0.32% |
This part of the award was decided by the FIFA Magazine readers vote and the FIFA Grand Jury.
| scope=col | Rank | scope=col | Player | scope=col | Nationality | scope=col | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | scope=row | Pelé | 72.75% | ||||
| 2 | scope=row | Alfredo Di Stéfano | 9.75% | ||||
| 3 | scope=row | Diego Maradona | 6.0% | ||||
| 4 | scope=row | Franz Beckenbauer | 2.5% | ||||
| 5 | scope=row | Johan Cruyff | 2.0% | ||||
| scope=row | George Best | 2.0% | |||||
| 7 | scope=row | Roberto Baggio | 1.0% | ||||
| scope=row | Garrincha | 1.0% | |||||
| scope=row | Zico | 1.0% | |||||
| scope=row | Michel Platini | 1.0% | |||||
| scope=row | Gerd Müller | 1.0% | |||||