The vote for the tenth annual REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR vote
is over. 31 days of voting have passed and 144 votes were processed.
Note, that this year, it has also been possible to vote through the World
Wide Web.
Welcome back next year - from the 1st of January to the 31st of January
in 2003 for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Player Of the Year 2002!
The contents of this article:
1. Previous Winners.
2. Rules.
3. Results.
4. Comments of the President of the RSSSF.
5. Name of voters.
6. Demographic analysis of the voters.
7. Final Word
1. PREVIOUS WINNERS: 1992: MARCO VAN BASTEN, Milan AC, The Netherlands 1993: ROBERTO BAGGIO, Juventus FC, Italy 1994: ROMÁRIO, Flamengo, Brazil 1995: GEORGE WEAH, Milan AC, Liberia 1996: RONALDO, FC Barcelona, Brazil 1997: RONALDO, FC Internazionale, Brazil 1998: ZINEDINE ZIDANE, Juventus FC, France 1999: RIVALDO, FC Barcelona, Brazil 2000: LUIS FIGO, Real Madrid CF, Portugal
2. RULES
The rules of the Rec.Sport.Soccer Player Of the Year vote is a modification
of the rules used by France Football for their Player of the Year award.
1. All valid votes have to submitted between the 1st of January at
00:00 MET (Mid European Time) and the 31st of January at midnight MET.
2. The vote, held each year, represents the calendar year which just
ended at the time of the vote.
3. Each vote must be sent to the Vote-taker or co-votetakers.
4. The vote must be submitted on a form including the following information:
Name of voter and his country of birth and country of residence.
5. The rest of vote should list five players in order.
6. No more than two players of the same nationality are allowed.
7. A player needs to have been active during the preceding calendar year
to be eligible to vote for.
3. RESULTS
REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2001
The columns are:
Position
Name of Player
Name of Club he is playing for (as official as possible, space limit)
Nationality
1P = First Places
2P = Second Places
3P = Third Places
4P = Fourth Places
5P = Fifth Places
Total Number of Points
POS NAME CLUB COUNTRY 1P 2P 3P 4P 5P TOTAL
================================================================================
1.Michael Owen Liverpool FC England 35 12 15 7 6 288
2."Luís Figo" Real Madrid CF Portugal 19 19 11 10 10 234
3.Raúl González Blanco Real Madrid CF Spain 16 18 10 12 10 216
4.Oliver Kahn FC Bayern München Germany 9 9 9 6 11 131
5.Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid CF [1] France 4 9 6 13 10 110
6.Francesco Totti AS Roma Italy 8 5 8 8 7 107
7.David Beckham Manchester United FC England 1 12 12 4 6 103
8.Andriy Shevchenko Milan AC Ukraine 7 10 3 4 7 99
9."Rivaldo" FC Barcelona Brazil 2 3 6 6 8 60
10.Thierry Henry Arsenal FC France 3 3 4 6 5 56
11.Juan Sebastián Verón Manchester United [2] Argentina 3 1 3 3 3 37
12.Abdulrahman Al-Beeshi Al-Nassr Saudi Arabia 7 35
13.Ruud van Nistelrooij Manchester United [3] Netherlands 1 5 3 34
14.Gabriel Batistuta AS Roma Argentina 1 1 3 5 1 29
15.Bandar Al-Dossary Al-Nassr Saudi Arabia 7 28
16.David Trezeguet Juventus FC France 1 1 3 3 1 25
17.Hernán Crespo SS Lazio [4] Argentina 1 2 2 2 1 24
18.Javier Saviola FC Barcelona [5] Argentina 2 1 2 3 20
19.Juan Román Riquelme CA Boca Juniors Argentina 2 1 1 3 18
20.Alessandro Nesta SS Lazio Italy 3 2 16
Patrick Vieira Arsenal FC France 1 1 1 1 2 16
Christian Vieri FC Internazionale Italy 1 1 2 1 16
23.Manuel Rui Costa Milan AC [6] Portugal 2 1 14
24.Oscar Eduardo Córdoba CA Boca Juniors Colombia 1 2 2 13
25.Roy Keane Manchester United FC Ireland 2 1 12
"Roberto Carlos" Real Madrid CF Brazil 1 1 2 1 12
"Romário" CR Vasco da Gama Brazil 1 1 1 12
28.Alessandro Del Piero Juventus FC Italy 2 2 1 11
Stefan Effenberg FC Bayern München Germany 1 2 1 11
Giovane Élber FC Bayern München Brazil 1 2 11
Sami Hyypiä Liverpool FC Finland 1 2 1 11
32."Pauleta" FC Girondins Bordeaux Portugal 1 2 1 10
33.Henrik Larsson Celtic FC Sweden 1 2 9
Emmanuel Olisadebe Panathinaikos AO [7] Poland 4 1 9
35.Rio Ferdinand Leeds United FC England 1 1 8
Álvaro Recoba FC Internazionale Uruguay 1 1 1 8
37.Agustín Delgado Necaxa [8] Ecuador 1 1 7
Mário Jardel Sporting CP [9] Brazil 1 1 7
39.Roberto Baggio Brescia Calcio Italy 1 1 6
Michael Ballack Bayer 04 Leverkusen Germany 1 1 1 6
Samuel Eto'o Fils RCD Mallorca Cameroon 2 6
Ryan Giggs Manchester United FC Wales 1 1 1 6
Walter Samuel AS Roma Argentina 1 1 6
Ebbe Sand FC Schalke 04 Denmark 1 1 1 6
45.Santiago Cañizares Valencia CF Spain 1 5
Iker Casillas Real Madrid CF Spain 1 1 5
José Luis Chilavert RC Strasbourg Paraguay 1 1 5
Ulisés De la Cruz Hibernian FC [10] Ecuador 1 5
França São Paulo FC Brazil 1 5
Steven Gerrard Liverpool FC England 1 1 5
Mohammed Hussain Muharraq Bahrain 1 1 5
Jafar Irismetov Slavia Mazyr [11] Uzbekistan 1 5
Patrick Kluivert FC Barcelona Netherlands 1 2 5
Samuel Osei Kuffour FC Bayern München Ghana 1 1 5
Christian Lønstrup FC København Denmark 1 5
Paolo Maldini Milan AC Italy 1 5
Juan Pablo Rodríguez CD Atlas Mexico 1 5
Viktor Skripnik SV Werder Bremen Ukraine 1 5
Mamadou Zongo Vitesse Burkina Faso 1 5
60."Alex Mineiro" Atlético Paranaense Brazil 2 4
José Alfredo Castillo Oriente Petrolero Bolivia 1 4
Moumini Dagano Racing Genk [12] Burkina Faso 1 4
El-Hadji Diouf RC Lens Senegal 2 4
Eiður Godjohnsen Chelsea FC Iceland 1 4
Bixente Lizarazu FC Bayern München France 1 4
"Luizão" SC Corinthians Brazil 1 4
Vasile Miriuta FC Energie Cottbus Hungary 1 4
Ruslan Nigmatullin Lokomotiv Moskva Russia 1 4
Carlos Pavón Udinese Calcio Honduras 1 4
Christoph Preuss Eintracht Frankfurt Germany 1 4
Sergi Barjuan FC Barcelona Spain 1 4
Mark Viduka Leeds United FC Australia 1 4
Stefan Wessels FC Bayern München Germany 1 4
74.Enrico Chiesa AC Fiorentina Italy 1 3
Eugenio Corini AC Chievo Italy 1 3
Edgar Davids Juventus FC Netherlands 1 1 3
Jerzy Dudek Liverpool FC [13] Poland 1 1 3
Manuel "Pablo" García RC Deportivo (La C.) Spain 1 3
Jimmy F. Hasselbaink Chelsea FC Netherlands 1 3
Iván Helguera Real Madrid CF Spain 1 1 3
Fernando Hierro Real Madrid CF Spain 1 3
Ahmed Hossam Ajax [14] Egypt 1 3
Olivier Kapo AJ Auxerre France 1 3
Harry Kewell Leeds United FC Australia 1 3
"Lúcio" Bayer 04 Leverkusen Brazil 1 3
Jurij Maximov Waldhof Mannheim [15] Ukraine 1 3
Mario Méndez CD Atlas Mexico 1 3
Alexander Mostovoi RC Celta (Vigo) Russia 1 3
Claudio Pizarro FC Bayern München Peru 1 1 3
Ole Gunnar Solskjær Manchester United FC Norway 1 3
Lilian Thuram Juventus FC [4] France 1 1 3
Fernando José Torres Atlético de Madrid Spain 1 3
Diego Tristán RC Deportivo (La C.) Spain 1 3
Paulo César Wanchope Manchester City FC Costa Rica 1 1 3
95.Markus Allbäck SC Heerenveen Sweden 1 2
Mohammed Al-Anizi Al-Wahda (Abu Dhabi) UAE 1 2
Víctor Aristazábal Deportivo Cali Colombia 1 2
Massimiliano Cappioli US Palermo Italy 1 2
Cosmin Contra Milan AC [16] Romania 1 2
Jordi Cruijff Deportivo Alavés Netherlands 1 2
Olivier Dacourt Leeds United FC France 1 2
Hani Al-Dhabet Dhofar Oman 1 2
Ariel Graziani Dallas Burn Ecuador 1 2
Fredrik Ljungberg Arsenal FC Sweden 1 2
Mantorras SL Benfica Angola 1 2
Gaizka Mendieta SS Lazio [17] Spain 1 2
Emile Mpenza FC Schalke 04 Belgium 1 2
Salomon Olembé Olympique Marseille[18] Cameroon 1 2
Carles Puyol FC Barcelona Spain 1 2
Nolberto Solano Newcastle United FC Peru 2 2
Archibald Thompson Lierse SK [19] Australia 1 2
Francesco Toldo FC Internazionale [6] Italy 1 2
Raphael Wicky Hamburger SV [20] Switzerland 1 2
114.Francisco Arce SE Palmeiras Paraguay 1 1
Dennis Bergkamp Arsenal FC Netherlands 1 1
Baichung Bhutia Bury FC India 1 1
Cuauhtémoc Blanco Real Valladolid Mexico 1 1
Claudio Caniggia Dundee FC Argentina 1 1
José S. Cardozo CDSC Cruz Azul [21] Paraguay 1 1
Petr Cech AC Sparta Praha Czech Republic 1 1
Rogério Ceni São Paulo FC Brazil 1 1
Ceyhun Eris Fenerbahçe SK [22] Turkey 1 1
Gennaro Ivan Gattuso Milan AC Italy 1 1
Rolf-Chr. Guié-Mien Eintracht Frankfurt Congo(-Brazz.) 1 1
Owen Hargreaves FC Bayern München England 1 1
Adel Jodoo'a Al-Sadd Qatar 1 1
Mohammed Kallon Internazionale FC [23] Sierra Leone 1 1
Mateja Kezman PSV Yugoslavia 1 1
Vittorio Mero Brescia Calcio [24] Italy 1 1
Mourad Mghizrat FC Den Bosch Morocco 1 1
Claudio Reyna Rangers FC [25] USA 1 1
Paul Scholes Manchester United FC England 1 1
Alan Shearer Newcastle United FC England 1 1
Alan Smith Leeds United FC England 1 1
Rigobert Song West Ham United [26] Cameroon 1 1
Earnie Stewart NAC USA 1 1
Igor Tudor Juventus FC Croatia 1 1
Frank Verlaat SV Werder Bremen Netherlands 1 1
[1] previously at Juventus FC
[2] previously at SS Lazio
[3] previously at PSV
[4] previously at Parma AC
[5] previously at CA River Plate
[6] previously at Fiorentina AC
[7] previously at Polonia Warszawa
[8] has moved to Southampton FC since end 2001
[9] previously at Galatasaray SK
[10] previously at LDU (Quito)
[11] previously at Spartak Moskva
[12] previously at Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen
[13] previously at Feyenoord
[14] previously at AA Gent
[15] previously at SV Werder Bremen
[16] previously at Deportivo Alavés
[17] previously at Valencia CF
[18] previously at FC Nantes-Atlantique
[19] previously at Marconi-Fairfield Stallions
[20] previously at SV Werder Bremen and Atlético de Madrid
[21] previously at CD Toluca
[22] previously at Siirt Jet-PA K
[23] previously at Vicenza Calcio
[24] previously at Ternana; died in car accident January 23, 2002
[25] has moved to Sunderland FC since end 2001
[26] has moved to 1.FC Köln since end 2001
4. Comments of the President Some Reflections on the Vote ============================ For the tenth time readers of rec.sport.soccer and visitors of the RSSSF website have voted their player of the year, and, like last year, they have gone with France Football's verdict rather than that of the national team coaches in FIFA's poll. Michael Owen won 5 different cup competitions with Liverpool in 2001, and a week after winning the fifth (the European Super Cup against Champions' League winners Bayern) almost singlehandedly destroyed Germany in Munich, scoring a hattrick for England in what must count as the international result of the year. This fine record ensured him the win in the RSS Player of the Year poll, albeit with the lowest average number of points per voter (exactly 2) in the history of the vote (1995 winner Weah held the previous record with 2.01). Nevertheless, his advantage over the Iberic Real Madrid couple of Luís Figo and Raúl was convincing enough. Both medalists had commendable seasons with both country (ensuring the World Cup qualification without the least difficulty) and club (winning another Spanish league title, narrowly failing against Bayern in the Champions' League, and starting impressively in the quest for a 9th European club title in fall), and deserve their placings. Bayern may have won the Champions Cup (and, in the very last seconds of injury time, the German league), but apparently few friends with their brand of football. Only 'keeper Oliver Kahn made it to the higher echelons of the ranking, finishing fourth and becoming the best-placed 'keeper since Peter Schmeichel's third place in the very first poll in 1992 (when Schmeichel was the guarantee for Denmark's surprise European Championship win). Only after these four follow the big superstars of France (Zidane), Italy (Totti), England (Beckham) and Eastern Europe (Shevchenko), with little to chose between them. At ninth place we finally find the first South American, Rivaldo, winner of the 1999 poll - perhaps a reflection on the relatively low participation from Southern America as compared to previous years, but certainly also an implicit comment on the value of the only continental championship in 2001, the Copa América. The top-10 is completed by Thierry Henry, who found spectacular scoring form for Arsenal. If we ignore the Saudi Arabians placed 12th and 15th thanks to a few supporters of Al-Nassr who decided to improve on Heerenveen's showing last year, the remaining players of the top-20 again represent the fine fleur of international football - as in all nine votes before. At the end of this jubilee poll it is perhaps interesting to look at players who have figured in most or all polls. It turns out that there is only one player who obtained votes in each of the ten polls: Dutchman Dennis Bergkamp (it was very close this year, when the one point he got ensured he retained the proud record of being the only player to appear in all polls; it was the first time that he was not selected by at least two voters). Next are three players who failed to obtain points in just one poll: Ryan Giggs (no points in 1998; on two occasions he obtained just 1 point), Paolo Maldini (no points in 1997, and just 1 in 1998) and Gabriel Batistuta (no points in the first poll in 1992, but at least 7 supporters in all votes since - probably the most impressive sequence of all). Seven players obtained points in all but two polls: Roberto Baggio (1996 and 1999), Alessandro Del Piero (1992 and 1993), Fernando Redondo (1992 and 2001), Romário (1996 and 1998), Peter Schmeichel (1994 and 2001), Alan Shearer (1998 and 1999) and Zinedine Zidane (1992 and 1994). These eleven star players can be said to have consistently represented top class football in the first decade of RSS Player of the Year polls. Cheers, Karel Stokkermans
5. The Names of the Voters. (NB: in order in which they were counted, not in which they voted) 1 Wesley de Vleeschouwer 2 Paul Mettewie 3 Kent Hedlundh 4 Doug Green 5 Almantas Lauzadis 6 Gabriel Rossetto 7 Adam Glatt 8 Tim Leidecker 9 Jose Durao 10 Miron Goihman 11 Iordan Tsirov 12 Yevgeniy Shtutin 13 Roberto Di Maggio 14 Maurizio Mariani 15 Dan Sammartino 16 Didier Fort 17 Danny Doran 18 Guy De Dekker 19 Colin Beirne 20 Julián Díaz Rubio 21 Luc Vandenberghe 22 Stefan Witzmann 23 Andrzej Zlotkowski 24 Misha Miladinovich 25 Eduardo Cacella 26 Thierry Houllier 27 Paul Valin 28 Sorin Arotaritei 29 Chin Woon Wei 30 Carlos Del Aguila 31 Jérôme Faugeras 32 Frank Ballesteros 33 Karel Stokkermans 34 Pavel Belchev 35 Stephen Davies 36 Sean Berretta 37 Mauro Giovanelli 38 Nicolas Bernard 39 Dan Lee 40 Dean Flynn 41 Julian Canny 42 Victoria Barrett 43 Misael Betancur 44 Razvan Toma 45 Bojan Puric 46 Alan Brown 47 Neil Morrison 48 Goran Mancevski 49 Arunava Chaudhuri 50 Rui Silva 51 Estebán Ávila Villagómez 52 Rui Cardoso 53 Loris Magnani 54 Jorge Teixeira 55 Lars Aarhus 56 Giacomo Giusti 57 Fernando Espinoza 58 José Luis Pierrend 59 Igor Kramarsic 60 Thomas Søfting 61 Simon Preston 62 Dirk Göhmann 63 Stefan Eghøj Hansen 64 Rastko Cvekic 65 Jos Kloppenborg 66 Timothy du Lobo 67 Pablo Betancor 68 Dahak Mehdi Amazigh 69 Sondre Zachiarassen 70 Pedro Sá 71 Erik Lugo 72 Paulo Claro 73 Peter Young 74 Dirk Vestjens 75 Marcello Perra 76 Duan Stokes 77 Damian Iskra 78 Gerald Kitzmüller 79 Zdenek Martinek 80 Peter Brodzikowski 81 Jeremy Rueter 82 Hoodh Ali 83 Sebastián Ferreira 84 Florian Schewe 85 Paulo Martins 86 Ruud Verlinden 87 Dennis Smit 88 Marcelo Arruda 89 Dragoljub Jovanovic 90 Oscar Astudillo Fernández 91 Alfonso Criado Fernández 92 Jarek Owsianski 93 Alex Apostol 94 Maciej Kusina 95 Daniele Trimarchi 96 Lukasz Mulak 97 Paulo Torres 98 Giuseppe Imburgia 99 Rami Busbait 100 Dante Oliva 101 Konrad Bauer 102 Alexander Mastro 103 Ionaldo Carvalho Júnior 104 Jürgen Groothus 105 Jihad Turkistani 106 John Partridge 107 Nikolaj Steen Moøller 108 Azzam Al-Rumih 109 Milad Niqui 110 Khali Alaskar 111 Jon Halldorsson 112 Christoph Gebhardt 113 Dag Magnus Ringås 114 Fernando Pellitero 115 Abdulrahman Suliman 116 Magne Stenvold 117 Jordi Riu 118 Adel Al-Khadem 119 Markus Kleinmann 120 Zeid Al-Mutairi 121 Andrea Camporese 122 Ruben Zarbabian 123 Nils Johansson 124 Jon Long 125 Marco Avena 126 Andrea M 127 Neil Evans 128 Raúl Criado Cores 129 Pieter Veroeveren 130 Jan Alsos 131 Ruud Doevendans 132 Trygg Methi 133 Carlos Pessoa-Pardellas 134 Walter García-Fontes 135 Irineu Carvalho 136 Chris Horymski 137 William Nyikuli 138 José Mora Rivera 139 Jonathan Kan 140 Alberto Novello 141 Matthijs Boers 142 Rodrigo Lima 143 Raúl Torre 144 Michael Kurbatov
6. Demographic analysis. Birth Algeria 1 Angola 1 Argentina 2 Austria 1 Belgium 4 Bolivia 1 Brazil 8 Bulgaria 2 Canada 3 Colombia 1 Croatia 2 Czech Republic 1 Denmark 2 Ecuador 2 France 5 Germany 7 Hongkong 1 Iceland 1 India 1 Iran 1 Ireland 2 Italy 12 Macedonia 1 Maldives 1 Mexico 2 Netherlands 7 Norway 7 Peru 2 Poland 6 Portugal 6 Romania 3 Saudi Arabia 6 Singapore 1 Soviet Union 5 (Armenia 1, Lithuania 1, Ukraine 1, unspecified 2) Spain 9 Sweden 3 Switzerland 1 UK 13 (England 9, Scotland 2, Wales 1, unspecified 1) Uruguay 1 USA 5 Venezuela 1 Yugoslavia 3 Residence Argentina 2 Austria 1 Belgium 4 Brazil 7 Bulgaria 2 Canada 6 Colombia 1 Croatia 2 Czech Republic 1 Denmark 3 Ecuador 2 France 5 Germany 9 Greece 1 Hongkong 1 Iceland 1 Ireland 2 Italy 12 Lithuania 1 Macedonia 1 Maldives 1 Mexico 2 Moldova 1 Netherlands 7 Norway 7 Peru 2 Poland 4 Portugal 7 Romania 3 Russia 1 Saudi Arabia 6 Singapore 1 South Korea 1 Spain 8 Sweden 2 UK 9 (England 8, Scotland 1) Ukraine 1 USA 16 Yugoslavia 1
7. FINAL WORD
A big THANKS to everyone who voted and please vote again next year!
Also a special mention to Pawel for his assistance.
THIS VOTE IS COURTESY OF
REC.SPORT.SOCCER STATISTICS FOUNDATION
BROUGHT TO YOU
by
Kent HEDLUNDH STOKKERMANS Karel
Vice-President of the RSSSF President of the RSSSF
Prepared and maintained by Kent Hedlundh for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Kent Hedlundh (kenth@cs.umu.se)
Last updated: 3 Feb 2002
(C) Copyright Kent Hedlundh and RSSSF 2002
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.