The vote for the seventh annual REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR vote
is over. 31 days of voting have passed and 125 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 2000 for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Player Of the Year 1999!
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
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
have ended at the time of the vote.
3. Each vote must by 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 is allowed.
7. A player need to have been active during the preceding calendar to
elegible to vote for.
3. RESULTS
REC.SPORT.SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR 1998
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.Zinedine Zidane Juventus FC France 36 19 21 7 2 335
2.Gabriel Batistuta Fiorentina AC Argentina 14 10 10 14 7 175
3.Lilian Thuram Parma AC France 11 11 8 5 3 136
4.Emmanuel Petit Arsenal FC France 15 5 4 7 1 122
5.Davor Suker Real Madrid CF Croatia 5 12 5 8 4 108
6.Michael Owen Liverpool FC England 5 5 4 9 9 84
7."Ronaldo" FC Internazionale Brazil 9 8 7 9 83
8.Dennis Bergkamp Arsenal FC Netherlands 3 5 9 7 4 80
9.Edgar Davids Juventus FC Netherlands 4 4 7 8 6 79
10."Rivaldo" FC Barcelona Brazil 3 5 7 6 8 76
11.Carlos Gamarra SC Corinthians Paraguay 3 5 3 3 1 51
12.José Luis Chilavert CA Vélez Sarsfield Paraguay 4 3 1 1 6 43
13."Roberto Carlos" Real Madrid CF Brazil 2 3 3 2 25
14.Marcelo Salas SS Lazio Chile 5 1 1 23
15.Juan Sebastián Verón Parma AC [1] Argentina 1 1 1 3 3 21
16.Roberto Baggio FC Internazionale [2] Italy 3 2 18
17.Predrag Mijatovic Real Madrid CF Yugoslavia 1 3 3 17
18.Oliver Bierhoff Milan AC [3] Germany 1 1 1 1 1 15
Jay-Jay Okocha Paris Saint-Germain Nigeria 2 1 1 15
20.Marc Overmars Arsenal FC Netherlands 1 2 2 12
Clarence Seedorf Real Madrid CF Netherlands 1 1 2 12
Christian Vieri SS Lazio [4] Italy 3 6 12
23.Fabien Barthez AS Monaco France 1 2 1 11
24.Frank de Boer AFC Ajax Netherlands 1 1 3 10
25.Tony Adams Arsenal FC England 1 1 1 9
"Raúl" Real Madrid CF Spain 1 2 1 9
Andrei Shevchenko Dinamo Kyiv Ukraine 1 1 2 9
Zdravko Zdravkov Istanbulspor AS Bulgaria 1 1 9
29.Marcel Desailly Milan AC France 1 1 8
Gianluca Pagliuca FC Internazionale Italy 2 1 8
31.David Beckham Manchester United FC England 1 1 7
Cuauhtémoc Blanco América (Cd. México) Mexico 1 1 7
"Edmundo" Fiorentina AC [5] Brazil 1 1 7
Ariel Ortega Valencia CF Argentina 1 1 2 7
35.Brian Laudrup Chelsea FC [6] Denmark 1 1 1 6
Felipe Loureiro CR Vasco da Gama Brazil 1 1 6
Sinisa Mihajlovic SS Lazio [7] Yugoslavia 1 1 1 6
Pavel Nedved SS Lazio Czech Republic 2 6
Ivailo Yordanov CSKA Sofia Bulgaria 1 1 6
40."Cafú" AS Roma Brazil 1 5
Benito Carbone Sheffield Wednesday Italy 1 5
Mustapha Hadji Deportivo La Coruña Morocco 1 5
Luis Hernández Tigres [8] Mexico 1 1 5
"Jardel" FC Porto Brazil 1 5
Jens Jeremies FC Bayern München [9] Germany 1 5
Lilian Laslandes Girondins de Bordeaux France 1 5
Hidetoshi Nakata AC Perugia [10] Japan 2 1 5
Alessandro Nesta SS Lazio Italy 1 5
Ntemis Nikolaidis AEK Greece 1 5
Igor Shkyvrin Pakhtakor Tashkent Uzbekistan 1 5
Hristo Stoitchkov CSKA Sofia [11] Bulgaria 1 5
52.Abel Balbo Parma AC [12] Argentina 1 4
Laurent Blanc Olympique Marseille France 1 1 4
Edílson SC Corinthians Brazil 1 4
Andrey Fedorov Alaniya Vladikavkaz Uzbekistan 1 4
Darren Huckerby Coventry City FC England 1 4
Ilian Iliev Bursaspor K Bulgaria 1 4
Ruud van Nistelrooij PSV [13] Netherlands 1 4
Ljubomir Penev RC Celta (Vigo) Bulgaria 1 4
Milan Rapajc AC Perugia Croatia 1 4
Sergei Rebrov Dinamo Kyiv Ukraine 1 4
Fernando Redondo Real Madrid CF Argentina 1 4
Carlos Angel Roa RCD Mallorca Argentina 1 1 4
64.Daniel Batista Lima AEK Greece/Portugal 1 3
Stefan Beinlich Bayer 04 Leverkusen Germany 1 3
Alban Bushi FC Litex Lovetch Albania 1 3
Sol Campbell Tottenham Hotspur FC England 1 3
Stefan Effenberg FC Bayern München [14]Germany 1 3
Giovane Élber FC Bayern München Brazil 1 3
Colin Hawkins St.Patrick's Athletic Ireland 1 3
Martin Jørgensen Udinese Calcio Denmark 1 1 3
Luis Enrique FC Barcelona Spain 1 1 3
Martín Palermo CA Boca Juniors Argentina 1 1 3
Patrick Vieira Arsenal FC France 1 3
Iván Zamorano FC Internazionale Chile 1 3
76.Vítor Baía FC Barcelona Portugal 1 2
Mario Basler FC Bayern München Germany 1 2
Alen Boksic SS Lazio Croatia 1 2
Gian Luigi Buffon Parma AC Italy 1 2
Danilo Doncic Lokomotiv Sofia Yugoslavia 1 2
"Figo" FC Barcelona Portugal 1 2
Jürgen Klinsmann Tottenham Hotspur FC Germany 1 2
Michael Laudrup AFC Ajax Denmark 2 2
Jari Litmanen AFC Ajax Finland 1 2
Claudio López Valencia CF Argentina 1 2
Lothar Matthäus FC Bayern München Germany 1 2
Benny McCarthy AFC Ajax South Africa 1 2
Francesco Moriero FC Internazionale Italy 1 2
Gustavo Poyet Chelsea FC Uruguay 1 2
Toni Savevski AEK Macedonia 1 2
Marco Simone Paris Saint-Germain Italy 1 2
Ilya Tsymbalar Spartak Moskva Russia 1 2
93.Krasimir Balakov VfB Stuttgart Bulgaria 1 1
Fabio Cannavaro Parma AC Italy 1 1
Derek Coughlan Cork City Ireland 1 1
Alessandro Del Piero Juventus FC Italy 1 1
Fábio Júnior Cruzeiro EC Brazil 1 1
Tore André Flo Chelsea FC Norway 1 1
Sinisa Gogic Olympiakos (Pireus) Cyprus 1 1
Frankie Hejduk Bayer Leverkusen [15] USA 1 1
Adrian Ilie Valencia CF Romania 1 1
Stern John Columbus Crew Trinidad and Tobago 1 1
Vladimir Jugovic SS Lazio Yugoslavia 1 1
Iván Kaviedes Emelec Ecuador 1 1
Robbie Keane Wolverhampton Wanderers Ireland 1 1
Martin Keown Arsenal FC England 1 1
Mateja Kezman FK Partizan Beograd Yugoslavia 1 1
Nikos Mahlas Vitesse (Arnhem) Greece 1 1
Paolo Maldini Milan AC Italy 1 1
Roberto Mancini SS Lazio Italy 1 1
César Sampaio Yokohama Flugels Brazil 1 1
Peter Schmeichel Manchester United FC Denmark 1 1
Gareth Southgate Aston Villa FC England 1 1
Yegor Titov Spartak Moskva Russia 1 1
"Toni" RCD Espanyol Spain 1 1
Dwight Yorke Manchester United [16]Trinidad and Tobago 1 1
Previous clubs in 1998:
[1] UC Sampdoria
[2] Bologna FC
[3] Udinese Calcio
[4] Atlético de Madrid
[5] CR Vasco da Gama
[6] Rangers FC
[7] UC Sampdoria
[8] Necaxa
[9] TSV 1860 München
[10] Bellmare Hiratsuka
[11] Al Nasr (Riyadh)
[12] AS Roma
[13] SC Heerenveen
[14] VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach
[15] Tampa Bay Mutiny
[16] Aston Villa FC
"Cafú" Marcos Evangelista de Moraes
"Edmundo" Edmundo Alves de Souza Neto
"Figo" Luís Madeira Figo
"Jardel" Mário Jardel Almeida Ribeiro
"Raúl" Raúl González
"Rivaldo" Rivaldo Victor Borba Ferreira
"Roberto Carlos" Roberto Carlos da Silva
"Ronaldo" Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima
"Toni" Antonio Jiménez
4. Comments of the President Some Reflections on the Vote ============================ This year, once more, the RSS voters have confirmed the verdicts of the national coaches (in the FIFA poll) as well as the France Football poll: Zidane was indeed the best player of 1998, but certainly not by the 3-1 ratio indicated by the FIFA vote. Second, one place higher than last year, Gabriel Batistuta, who continues to be overlooked in most other polls, but certainly has his support among the rec.sport.soccer readers (by no means in majority Argentinian or Italian). He was closely followed by two other players who were not that high in other polls: Lilian Thuram and Emmanuel Petit got their just reward for their essential roles in France's World Cup campaign. Only then follows Davor Suker, topscorer in the World Cup and instrumental in Croatia's third place finish. The next five players are very close together - indeed there was little to choose between them. They are two Brazilians, Ronaldo (only seventh in this poll, and with noone listing him as number one choice!) and Rivaldo, two Dutchmen, Dennis Bergkamp and Edgar Davids, both couples just being pipped for sixth place by English hope Michael Owen. These five are followed by five South Americans: Paraguay's Carlos Gamarra as (with Thuram) the best defender of the World Cup, his countryman José Luis Chilavert, reclaiming his 1996 title as the best 'keeper of the world, Roberto Carlos of Brazil, who dropped quite a few places compared to last year, Marcelo Salas of Chile and Juan Sebastián Verón of Argentina. Apart from Ronaldo, all of the first twelve earned multiple mentions as best player of the year, an honour only shared by Jay-Jay Okocha of Nigeria further down the poll, who thereby became the best-placed African player. It is clear that the World Cup was the dominant factor in the poll; club competitions like the European Champions' Cup counted for nothing - indeed the highest-placed player of Real Madrid, who claimed that coveted trophy for the first time since over 30 years, was Davor Suker, who hardly played a role in that conquest. The winner of El País' South American player of the year award, Martín Palermo, hardly figured in this poll - for three clear reasons: first, that award is only open to players still in South America, ruling out most of the World Cup stars, second, of course, Palermo's star only started shining after the World Cup, where he didn't play himself, and thirdly, as always, the contingent of Latin American voters is not yet very significant - though clearly growing, as the demographic analysis below shows. All in all, I personally feel that while agreeing on the best player with the world's coaches once more, the r.s.s.-voters have managed (again!) to come up with an altogether more balanced and representative ranking than that of the FIFA poll. Cheers, Karel Stokkermans
5. The Names of the Voters. (NB: in order in which they were counted, not in which they voted) 1 Jordi Riu 2 Andrzej Zlotkowski 3 O.C. Garza 4 John Beuker 5 David Graham 6 Richard Lee Chee Houw 7 Corey Holman 8 Alexandre Kaoru Mizuki 9 Z. Alach 10 Kareem Elwakil 11 Masafumi Sugano 12 Paul Mettewie 13 Daniel Nunes da Silva 14 Irineu Carvalho 15 Daniele Paserman 16 Claude Waledisch 17 Sebastien Monclar 18 Lee Siew Peng 19 Didier Boivent 20 Cedric Pujol 21 Alain David 22 Stephane Guillard 23 Herve Thouvenin 24 Juan Pablo Andres 25 Chuck Pearson 26 Almantas Lauzadis 27 Didier Fort 28 Marc Riu 29 Loris Magnani 30 Stig Oppedal 31 Misha Miladinovich 32 Ian Dunbar 33 Christopher J. Herrera 34 Marcelo Leme de Arruda 35 Radu I. Siminiceanu 36 Julian Canny 37 Stephen Davies 38 Shintaro Ikegaki 39 Julian Dontchev 40 Manoel Mendonca 41 Vidar Jortveit 42 Alexander C. Kamilewicz 43 Walter Garcia-Fontes 44 Miron Goihman 45 Nino Medves 46 Nat Harrison 47 Guy De Dekker 48 Laurent Hyzy 49 Leszek Kraszyna 50 Lars Aarhus 51 Ricardo Esparta 52 Christian Wiedemann 53 Emmanuel Amin 54 Alex Fowler 55 Michael Marshall 56 Karel Stokkermans 57 Kent Hedlundh 58 Stefan Hansen 59 Doug Green 60 Zoran Vukelic 61 Biplav Gautam 62 Jean-Pierre Caillault 63 James Alnutt 64 Vadim Berko 65 Sergej Karlov 66 Boris Kosanic 67 Mike Wakeford 68 Pablo Aro Geraldes 69 Brian Milne 70 Damir Smitlener 71 Patrick Devitt 72 Chris Applegate 73 Thomas Moyles 74 Ricardo Pontes 75 Nelson Silva 76 Yevgeniy Shtutin 77 Peter Wolf 78 Eduardo Carrizo 79 Andreas Hofmann 80 Sebastien Daubigne 81 Genadi Tverskoy 82 Lars Brozus 83 Luiz Fernando Bindi 84 Mohamed Ezz 85 Barnis Yuen 86 Marcel Schrijvers 87 Jose Mora 88 Luis Felipe Lima 89 Cicero De Lira 90 Srdjan Perovic 91 Felix Laya 92 Jan Alsos 93 Alisher Nikimbaev 94 Ravshan Nikimbaev 95 Jimmy Sorensen 96 Jos Kloppenburg 97 Salvador Oria 98 Bojan Pintaric 99 Frank Miccolupo 100 Velimir Imbri 101 Haridimos Manoussakis 102 Svet Dimov 103 Peter Hoeting 104 David Lewis 105 Boyan Gyuzelev 106 Rastko Cvekic 107 Henrik Lundgaard 108 Mikhael Yokhin 109 Edgar Garcia 110 Juergen Meyer 111 James Tan 112 Marcello Perra 113 Rafael Reynal 114 Jose Luis Pierrend 115 Roland Shami 116 Parviz Gassanov 117 Doan Nguyen 118 Zlatan Skobic 119 Alfonso Sermonti 120 Kalin Dimitrov 121 Davide Rota 122 Igor Jokic 123 Yevgeniy Sidash 124 Rene W.E. Zingler 125 Olivier Fourets
6. Demographic analysis. Birth Argentina 2 Australia 1 Belgium 1 Bolivia 1 Brazil 10 Bulgaria 4 Canada 3 Chile 1 Denmark 3 Egypt 1 El Salvador 1 France 13 Germany 8 Greece 1 Ireland 2 Italy 6 Hongkong 1 Japan 2 Lebanon 1 Lithuania 1 Malaysia 1 Mexico 1 Nepal 1 Netherlands 4 New Zealand 1 Norway 3 Peru 1 Poland 2 Portugal 1 Romania 1 Singapore 2 Soviet Union 10 (Aze 1, Bls 1, Rus 2, Ukr 3, Uzb 2, not specified 1) Spain 3 Sweden 1 UK 5 (Eng 2, Sco 1, Wal 1, not specified 1) Uruguay 2 USA 14 Vietnam 1 Yugoslavia 8 (Cro 3, Yug 5) Residence Argentina 1 Australia 2 Austria 1 Belgium 1 Brazil 7 Bulgaria 2 Canada 9 Chile 1 Croatia 3 Denmark 3 (Den 2, Greenland 1) Finland 1 France 8 Germany 9 Greece 1 Ireland 3 Israel 3 Italy 3 Lithuania 1 Malaysia 1 Mexico 1 Moldova 1 Nepal 1 Netherlands 3 New Zealand 2 Norway 4 Peru 1 Poland 2 Portugal 1 Russia 1 Singapore 2 Spain 4 Sweden 1 UK 8 (Eng 3, not specified 5) Ukraine 1 Uruguay 1 USA 29 Uzbekistan 2
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: 31 Jan 2002
(C) Copyright Kent Hedlundh and RSSSF 1999/2002
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.