♣ FIFA 100

The FIFA 100 is a list of Brazilian footballer Pelé's choice of the "greatest living footballers". Unveiled on 4 March 2004 at a gala ceremony in London, England, the list was part of the celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international governing body of football.

The figure 100 refers to the 100th anniversary of FIFA and not the number of players listed, which is actually 125. Pelé was asked to select 50 active players and 50 retired players, from a shortlist of 300, but found it too difficult to limit the number of retired players to 50. The list contains 123 men and two women (Michelle Akers and Mia Hamm). At the time the FIFA 100 was unveiled, 50 of the players were still active, with the remaining 75 retired from the game.

Criticism

Writing in the Evening Standard, politician turned football pundit, David Mellor, felt the selections were politically motivated rather than being made on purely footballing grounds. He suggested the geographical spread of inclusions indicated the list came from, then-FIFA president, Sepp Blatter. BBC columnist Tim Vickery expressed similar assertions.

Brazilian midfielder Gérson, who played alongside Pelé at the 1966 and 1970 FIFA World Cups, reacted to his omission by tearing up a copy of the list on a Brazilian television programme. Marco van Basten and Uwe Seeler refused to take part in the project on a point of principle.

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List

Following is the list of the "FIFA 100" greatest living footballers as nominated by Pelé in March 2004.

♣ FIFA Player of the Century

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. Diego Maradona and Pelé were joint winners of the award.

Background

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. 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.

FIFA Internet vote

The results of FIFA's internet Poll were as follows:

FIFA Magazine and Grand Jury vote

This part of the award was decided by the FIFA Magazine readers vote and the FIFA Grand Jury

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