Rec.sport.soccer Player of the Year 1998

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

overview file

1997 vote

1999 vote


About this document

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.