FIFA 100

On March 4, 2004, at a gala ceremony in London, to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international governing body of football revealed the FIFA 100. The list contains the world-renowned Brazilian striker Pelé's choice of the "greatest living footballers". The figure 100 refers to the 100th anniversary of FIFA and not the number of players listed, which is actually 125. Apparently Pelé found it too difficult to list just 100. The list contains 123 professional men and 2 women players. At the time the FIFA 100 was selected, 50 of the players were still active, with the remaining 75 retired from the game.

Some football observers have questioned the selection methodology of the list. David Mellor, former politician turned football pundit, wrote in his column in the Evening Standard, that he felt the selections were politically motivated rather than made on purely footballing grounds. He suggested that the selections looked as if they came from the pen of the FIFA Executive Committee rather than Pelé. As evidence for this, Mellor noted the wide geographical spread of the selected players: a true selection would be more heavily biased to South America and Europe, he claimed. Other critics have claimed the list was too biased towards modern-day players.

Another questionable FIFA-rule here is that it should contain only "living" players: not limited to "active" players, and not expanded to the greatest players "ever" in these celebrated 100 years of FIFA. As example, one could reasonably expect Bobby Moore, Lev Yashin or Garrincha to be included. One reason for this criterion was to allow publication of a tie-in coffee table book of specially-commissioned photographic portraits of the honoured players.

The most notable display of contempt for the controversial list came from one of Pelé's old team-mates, the former Brazil midfielder Gérson, who reacted to his omission from the FIFA 100 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. [1]

List

Following is the list of the "FIFA 100" greatest living footballers as nominated by Pelé. The list prepared for 100th anniversary of FIFA. List has total of 125 nominees:

Diego Maradona
Alfredo Di Stéfano
Daniel Passarella
Gabriel Batistuta
Hernán Crespo
Javier Saviola
Javier Zanetti
Juan Sebastián Verón
Mario Kempes
Omar Sivori