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Football Player of the Century

In 1999 France Football consulted former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.

30 out of the 34 former Ballon d'Or winners from 1956 to 1999 voted, with 17 of these giving the highest votes to Brazilian Pelé, who received the almost twice as many points as the second place getter Maradona.

Rank Name Natioanily Points*
1 Pelé Brazil 122
2 Diego MARADONA  Argentina 65
3 Johan CRUYFF  Netherlands 62
4 Alfredo DI STEFANO  Argentina/Spain 44
5 Michel PLATINI  France 40
6 Franz BECKENBAUER  Germany 35
7 Ferenc PUSKAS  Hungary 12
8 Marco VAN BASTEN  Netherlands 11
9 ZICO Brazil 7
10 Gerhard "Gerd" Müller Germany 5
  Lev YASHIN Soviet Union 5
12 Enzo FRANCESCOLI  Uruguay 4
  Manoel Francisco dos Santos "GARRINCHA" Brazil 4
  George BEST  Northern Ireland 4
15 Rafael GORDILLO Spain 3
16 Bobby CHARLTON England 2
17 ROMÁRIO de Souza Faria Brazil 2
18 Roberto BAGGIO  Italy 1
  Oleg BLOKHIN Soviet Union 1
  Just FONTAINE France 1
  Raymond KOPA France 1
  Fritz WALTER Germany 1
  Dino ZOFF Italy 1
24 Roger MILLA Cameroon 0.5

*points calculation: Each of the 30 voters chose 5 players. 5 points were given for the 1st place, 4 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th and 1 point for 5th.



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