The vote for the fourth annual REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR vote is over. 31 days of voting have passed and 76 votes were processed. The contents of this article: Distribution of this post Results Remarks of the RSSSF president Names of Voters Demographic analysis (split into two parts) A. Country of Origin B. Country of today (i.e. from where the letters were sent) Previous Winner(s): 1992: MARCO VAN BASTEN, Milan AC, The Netherlands 1993: ROBERTO BAGGIO, Juventus FC, Italy 1994: ROMARIO, Flamengo, Brazil
DISTRIBUTION LIST FOR REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR The USENET newsgroup Rec.Sport.Soccer The WINNER of the Vote for this Year (1995) Magazines: France Football L'Equipe World Soccer Guerin Sportivo Kicker Voetbal International Sport und Toto Soccer International (US) Soccer America
REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR 1995 The rules used: Each voter gave five players in order of which at most two could be from the same country. 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 PO NAME CLUB COUNTRY 1P 2P 3P 4P 5P TOTAL ============================================================================== 1.George Weah Milan AC [1] Liberia 10 17 6 6 5 153 2.Paolo Maldini Milan AC Italy 11 5 4 5 5 102 3.Patrick Kluivert Ajax Netherlands 10 4 5 3 1 88 4.Jürgen Klinsmann FC Bayern München [2] Germany 10 4 3 2 7 86 5.Alessandro Del Piero Juventus FC Italy 5 7 5 3 1 75 6.Jari Litmanen Ajax Finland 2 5 4 3 3 51 7.Gianluca Vialli Juventus FC Italy 1 3 4 1 1 32 8.Alan Shearer Blackburn Rovers England 3 1 7 29 9.Zinedine Zidane FC Girondins Bordeaux France 1 2 3 1 23 10.Gabriel Batistuta Fiorentina AC Argentina 1 2 2 4 21 11.Marc Overmars Ajax Netherlands 1 3 2 2 19 12.Enzo Francescoli River Plate Uruguay 2 1 2 18 13.Paolo Sousa Juventus FC Portugal 2 1 1 1 16 Iván Luis Zamorano Real Madrid Spain 2 1 1 16 15.Gheorge Popescu FC Barcelona Romania 1 2 2 15 Anthony Yeboah Leeds United FC Ghana 2 2 1 15 17."Juninho" Middlesbrough FC Brazil 1 1 3 1 14 "Ronaldo" PSV Brazil 1 2 1 1 14 19.Youri Djorkaeff Paris Saint Germain [3]France 1 2 2 13 20.Robert Fowler Liverpool FC England 4 12 Fabrizio Ravanelli Juventus FC Italy 1 2 1 12 22.Eric Cantona Manchester United FC France 2 2 1 11 Luc Nilis PSV Belgium 2 1 11 "Raí" Paris Saint Germain Brazil 2 1 11 25.Roberto Baggio Juventus FC Italy 4 2 10 Ronald de Boer Ajax Netherlands 2 10 Dejan Savicevic Milan AC Yugoslavia 1 1 1 10 Hristo Stoitchkov FC Barcelona Bulgaria 2 1 2 10 29."Bebeto" Deportivo La Coruña Brazil 2 1 1 9 30.David Ginola Newcastle United FC [4]France 2 2 8 31.Gianfranco Zola Parma AC Italy 1 1 7 32.Viktor Onopko Spartak Moskva Russia 2 6 Alain Roche Paris Saint Germain France 1 1 6 Juergen Sommer Queen's Park Rangers[5]USA 1 1 6 35.Franco Baresi Milan AC Italy 1 5 Mario Basler SV Werder Bremen Germany 1 5 Jean-Marc Bosman Union Liège Belgium 1 5 Rui Costa Fiorentina AC Portugal 1 1 5 Edgar Davids Ajax Netherlands 1 5 Marcel Desailly Milan AC France 1 1 5 Paul Gascoigne SS Lazio England 1 5 Marvin Johnson Luton Town FC England 1 5 Alexi Lalas Padova USA 1 5 Brian Laudrup Rangers FC Denmark 1 5 Michael Laudrup Real Madrid Danmark 1 3 5 Leszek Pisz Legia Warszawa Poland 1 5 Davor Suker Real Betis Balompié Croatia 1 1 5 "Túlio" Botafogo Brazil 1 5 Carlos Valderrama Junior Barranquilla [6]Colombia 1 5 Kim Vilfort Brøndby IF Denmark 1 5 51."Aldaír" AS Roma Brazil 1 4 Darren Anderton Tottenham Hotspur FC England 1 4 Vítor Baía FC Porto Portugal 1 4 Dennis Bergkamp Arsenal FC Netherlands 1 1 4 Danny Blind Ajax Netherlands 2 4 "Geovanni" FC Santos Brazil 1 4 Gheorghe Hagi FC Barcelona Romania 1 2 4 "Nayim" Real Zaragoza Spain 1 4 Scott Oakes Luton Town FC England 1 4 Fernando Redondo Real Madrid Argentina 1 4 Dragan Stojkovic Nagoya Grampus Eight Yugoslavia 1 4 Dwight Yorke Aston Villa FC Trinidad/T. 1 4 63.Frank de Boer Ajax Netherlands 1 3 Didier Deschamps Juventus FC France 1 3 Ian Feuer Luton Town FC USA 1 3 George Finidi Ajax Nigeria 1 1 3 Guiseppe Giannini AS Roma Italy 1 3 Fernando Hierro Real Madrid Spain 1 3 Roy Keane Manchester United FC Ireland 1 3 Tab Ramos U.A.N.L. USA 1 3 71.Fernando Cáceres Real Zaragoza Argentina 1 2 Martin Dahlin Borussia M'gladbach Sweden 2 2 Les Ferdinand Newcastle United FC England 1 2 Heiko Herrlich BV Borussia Dortmund[7]Germany 1 2 Bixente Lizarazu FC Girondins Bordeaux France 1 2 Juan Antonio Pizzi CD Tenerife Spain 1 2 "Romário" Flamengo Brazil 1 2 Moussa Saib AJ Auxerre Algeria 1 2 Peter Schmeichel Manchester United FC Denmark 1 2 Roberto Sensini AC Parma Argentina 1 2 Ciriaco Sforza FC Bayern München [8] Switzerland 1 2 Teddy Sheringham Tottenham Hotspur FC England 1 2 Guiseppe Signori SS Lazio Italy 2 2 Steve Stone Nottingham Forest FC England 1 2 Ilya Tsymbalar Spartak Moskva Russia 1 2 86.Oliver Bierhoff Udinese Germany 1 1 Zvonimir Boban Milan AC Italy 1 1 Harald Brattbakk Rosenborg BK Norway 1 1 Aboubacar Camara RC Lens Guinea 1 1 Roberto Carlos FC Internazionale Brazil 1 1 Tony Cascarino Olympique Marseille Ireland 1 1 Fernando Couto Parma AC Portugal 1 1 Marco Etcheverri Colo Colo Bolivia 1 1 Ryan Giggs Manchester United FC Wales 1 1 Vincent Guérin Paris Saint Germain France 1 1 Thomas Hässler Karlsruher SC Germany 1 1 Wim Jonk PSV Netherlands 1 1 Andrzej Juskowiak Olympiakos [9] Poland 1 1 Patrice Loko FC Nantes Atlantique France 1 1 Roberto Martínez Universitario Peru 1 1 Jamie Redknapp Liverpool FC England 1 1 David Seaman Arsenal FC England 1 1 Mark Viduka Croatia Zagreb [10] Australia 1 1 Johnny Vilstrup Luton Town FC [11] Denmark 1 1 Previous clubs in 1995: [1] Paris Saint Germain [2] Tottenham Hotspur FC [3] AS Monaco [4] Paris Saint Germain [5] Luton Town FC [6] Real Valladolid [7] VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach [8] 1.FC Kaiserslautern [9] Sporting CP [10] Melbourne Knights [11] Lyngby BK 17 "Juninho" = Osvaldo Girolddo Júnior 17 "Ronaldo" = Ronaldo Luiz Nazário de Lima 22 "Raí" = Raí Souza Vieira de Oliveira 29 "Bebeto" = Jorge Roberto Gama de Oliveira 35 "Túlio" = Túlio Humberto Pereira da Costa 51 "Aldaír" = Aldaír Nascimento Santos 51 "Geovanni" 51 "Nayim" = Mohamad Amar 71 "Romário" = Romário da Souza Faria
REMARKS OF THE RSSSF PRESIDENT With no international tournament in the main voting areas (the US and Europe), club football was always going to be the decisive factor in the vote, and Weah's fourth crown for 1995 (after European, African, and World player of the year) comes as no surprise, given his fine performances for both PSG and Milan in league and Europe. Paolo Maldini proves himself yet again as the most consistent player of our age, after third place in 1994. Apart from that, Ajax players are well-represented in the higher echelons of the vote, and South American players are conspicuously missing, only Fiorentina's Batistuta making it into the top-10. Surely a result of the as yet unbalanced distribution of the internet. While the final margin shows wide support for Weah, the distribution of actual first places shows that this year was a hard one to choose; a kind of post-World Cup-depression that many of the 1994 stars suffered from might be a reason for this - the low ranking for 4 out of the top-5 of last year (Romário, Stoitchkov, Baggio and Hagi) giving ample proof. Maldini's ranking is all the more recommendable, and if ever a defender is to win a competition like this, he's the most likely candidate at the moment. Cheers, Karel Stokkermans
VOTERS Name Albert Au Wai Yip 1 Thomas Alexander Esamie 2 Jeff Okleberry 3 Johnny Pelroni 4 Riccardo Biondini 5 Nelson Tabares 6 Winston J. "Wink" Cushing 7 Manoel Mendonca 8 Remco van der Weel 9 Simon Gleave 10 Jacqueline von Wahlesthron Ximenes 11 Rory Campbell 12 Daan de Krosse 13 Aaron Lewis 14 Karel Stokkermans 15 Martin Aslett 16 Patrick Keenan 17 Lennart Stock 18 Alex Tochilovsky 19 Charles Willard 20 Staale Toemmeraas 21 Tom Zuehlke 22 Shakil Ahmed 23 Nick Guzman 24 Scott Dressler 25 Adrian Weissman 26 John Knapp 27 Andrei Besutiu 28 Adrian Ungureanu 29 Florin V. Citu 30 Silviu Stroescu 31 Romulus N. Filip 32 Raul Carlos Espinoza-Munoz 33 Kent Hedlundh 34 Fernando Andres Gonzales Bastias 35 Garry Archer 36 Robert Hauck 37 Dan Roberts 38 Jero de Lorenzo 39 Hesaaun Habibula 40 Marco Esagerato 41 Mats Wickbom 42 Mark Geary 43 Lars Henrik Tombre 44 Wojciech Bartelski 45 Michael M Dryomin 46 Vincent Bernardi 47 Romain Vincent 48 Jean-Michel Seago 49 Raphael Raeber 50 Martijn "Tigran" Spaan 51 Tobias Johansson 52 David Cuny 53 Marco van de Weert 54 James McAndrews 55 Yevgeniy Shtutin 56 Chris Goldsmith 57 Eric Totouom 58 Adrian Vassallo 59 Marc Wuertz 60 Alain Girault 61 Josien Laurent 62 Cedric Dourthe 63 Eiichiro Kuriki 64 Charles Patrick Conway 65 Libor Laubacher 66 Arthur Berkowicz 67 Fernando Olivas 68 Loris Magnani 69 Pedro Infante 70 Olivier Leroy 71 Loic Menager 72 Erkki Hakala 73 Doug Green 74 Jean-Pierre Caillault 75 Kevin Khor 76
COUNTRY OF BIRTH Afghanistan 1 Australia 1 Austria 1 Bangladesh 1 Brazil 1 Byelorussia 1 Canada 3 Chile 2 Czechoslovakia 1 Denmark 1 Finland 1 France 9 Germany 1 Guyana 1 Hong Kong 1 Italy 4 Ireland 1 Malaysia 1 Malta 1 Netherlands 6 Norway 2 Peru 1 Poland 1 Portugal 1 Romania 6 Russia 1 South Africa 1 Spain 1 Sweden 3 Switzerland 2 UK 6 USA 11 Ukraine 1 COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE Australia 5 Austria 1 Canada 8 Chile 2 Czech Republic 1 Denmark 1 Finland 1 France 4 Germany 2 Hong Kong 1 Israel 1 Japan 1 Malaysia 1 Malta 1 Mexico 1 Netherlands 5 Norway 2 Poland 1 Portugal 1 Russia 1 Sweden 4 Switzerland 2 UK 7 USA 22
FINAL WORD
Thanks to all participants!
Kent Hedlundh - Vote-taker
Bernd Timmermann - Counting
Prepared and maintained by Kent Hedlundh for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Kent Hedlundh (kenth@cs.umu.se)
Last updated: 31 Jan 2002
(C) Copyright Kent Hedlundh and RSSSF 1996/2002
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