For our fifth annual survey we have gathered our biggest panel yet: 124 judges from 45 countries choosing the 100 best male footballers in the world in 2016. Our global panel of players, coaches, broadcasters, reporters, correspondents and editors is headed by 11 former internationals who have won a combined total of 767 caps.
Names such as Hernán Crespo, Faustino Asprilla, Jan Aage Fjortoft and Javier Zanetti have given up their time to participate in an illustrious judging team which also comprises two head coaches and a wide array of broadcasting and journalistic talent. Many are household names in their own country.
The number of countries represented by our judges are as follows, listed by continent: Africa 5, Asia 9, Europe 24, North and Central America 1, South America 6.
The Top 100 rules are explained beneath the list of judges. The judges are listed in alphabetical order by category.
Players
• Patrik Andersson Former Sweden international who played at the 1994 and 2002 World Cups
• Faustino Asprilla Former Colombia international who played at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups
• Hernán Crespo Former Argentina international who played at three World Cups
• Jan Aage Fjortoft Former Norway international
• Quinton Fortune Former South Africa international
• Jan Koller Former Czech international who played at the 2006 World Cup
• Igor Korneev Former Soviet Union, CIS and Russia international
• Sammy Kuffour Former Ghana international who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich
• Nii Lamptey Former Ghana international who played in Belgium, England, Mexico and Germany
• Benni McCarthy Former South Africa international who scored 32 goals in 80 international games
• Javier Zanetti Former Argentina international who played at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups
Coaches
• Steve Darby Laos head coach
• Gary White Shanghai Shenxin head coach
Broadcasters, reporters, editors, correspondents
• Ed Aarons Deputy news editor, Guardian
• Michael Oti Adjei Ghanaian football journalist and manager of sports at TV3 Network
• Vitor Hugo Alvarenga Football writer, Maisfutebol, Portugal
• Omar Al Raisi Dubai journalist for beIN Sports. Founder of DANTANI
• Gary Al-Smith African football expert
• Nick Ames Football writer, Guardian
• Janine Anthony Freelance sports journalist and founder of Africa’s largest women’s football network, LadiesMarch
• Juan Arango TV commentator/Contributor Aficion Central (Ecuador) and TALKSport
• Philippe Auclair Senior football writer, France Football
• Paolo Bandini Italian football correspondent, Guardian
• David Leon Bardi Editor of Peruvian football magazine, El DT que Llevo Dentro
• Salim Baungally Presenter on SFR Sport, the French Premier League rights holders
• John Bennett Sports reporter for BBC World Service radio and BBC World TV
• Andy Brassell European football writer and broadcaster
• Costas Bratsos Greek football writer at Sport24.gr
• Matteo Brega Football writer at Gazzetta dello Sport
• Verónica Brunati Sports journalist writing for for El Grafico, AS and Sport
• Lédio Carmona Brazilian football journalist and SporTV commentator
• Martin Charquero Uruguayan football journalist on Tenfield, Goltv and Radio Sport890
• Ivaylo Chilev Bulgarian football journalist and Champions League broadcast producer at bTV Media Group
• Marcus Christenson Football editor, Guardian
• Paulo Vinicius Coelho Brazilian football writer and Fox commentator
• Michael Cox Tactics expert, Guardian
• Joe Crann Soccer Laduma journalist in South Africa. Part-time TV and Radio analyst
• James Dart Sports editor, theguardian.com
• Frank Dell’Apa Football correspondent, The Boston Globe
• Haresh Deol Executive Editor, Malay Mail
• Paul Doyle Football writer, Guardian
• John Duerden Asian football correspondent, Guardian
• Vincent Duluc Senior reporter at L’Equipe
• Luis Miguel Echegaray Sports and Latino culture journalist in New York
• Claudia Ekai Soccer Africa (SuperSport) correspondent
• Alejandro Etcheverry Uruguayan journalist working for Espn Deportes Radio
• Alejandro Farffann Pundit at beIN SPORTS US and DIRECTV Latin America, Sports Blogger Yahoo!
• Dominic Fifield Football writer, Guardian
• Johanna Frändén International football expert at Aftonbladet
• Raphael Gellar BBC World Football correspondent in Israel
• Jonas Giaever Norwegian football journalist at Josimar magazine
• Barry Glendenning Football writer, Guardian
• Pavel Hartman Czech football writer at Sport daily
• Troels Henriksen Sports editor, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, Denmark
• Raphael Honigstein German football correspondent, Guardian
• James Horncastle Italian football expert
• Andy Hunter Football writer, Guardian
• David Hytner Football writer, Guardian
• Sasa Ibrulj Bosnian football writer
• Jamie Jackson Football writer, Guardian
• Behnam Jafarzadeh Iran-based football writer and analyst for Varzesh3.com
• Celestine Karoney Kenyan sports journalist
• Hideki Kasuya Japanese football journalist, broadcaster and commentator
• Jens Kirschneck Editor in chief of German football magazine 11Freunde
• Shinya Kizaki Japanese football journalist, broadcaster and commentator
• Ermal Kuka Sports journalist at Panorama Sport in Albania
• Cecilia Lagos Sports journalist with her own website www.cecilialagos.com
• Julien Laurens Guardian and BT French football expert and UK correspondent for Le Parisien
• Amy Lawrence Football writer, Guardian
• Aleksei Lebedev Moskovskiy Komsomolets sport editor in chief
• Christian Leblebidjian Senior football writer at La Nación
• Marcos López Football analyst at Marca
• Sid Lowe Spanish football correspondent, Guardian
• Olof Lundh Swedish football writer for Fotbollskanalen and Dagens Industri, pundit for TV4 and C More and author
• Ben Lyttleton Football author and consultant
• Ben Mabley Japan-based football writer, J Sports television commentator
• Jaime F. Macias Football analyst at BeIN Sports
• Thierry Marchand International football chief editor, France Football
• Luca Marchetti Chief Editor of Sky Sport Italia
• Magnús Már Einarsson Editor of fotbolti.net in Iceland
• Tom Marshall Football writer based in Mexico
• Martin Mazur Argentinian football journalist for El Gráfico, FourFourTwo and La Gazzetta dello Sport
• Ugur Meleke Football columnist at Hürriyet Daily. Also a pundit for TivibuSpor and Radyospor
• Maher Mezahi Algerian football journalist
• Janusz Michallik Former US international and ESPN football analyst
• Luo Ming Sports Editor, Titan Sports, China
• Marcela Mora y Araujo Argentinian football writer
• Tomasz Mortimer Hungarian football writer
• Hassanin Mubarak Football writer who covers football in Iraq
• Sachin Nakrani Football writer, Guardian
• Antonis Oikonomidis Greek football journalist
• Oluwashina Okeleji Reporter for BBC Sport, World Soccer and Al Jazeera online
• Fernando Palomo ESPN commentator and the voice of FIFA 17 in Latin America
• Michal Petrák Football reporter at iSport TV in Czech Republic
• Artur Petrosyan Russian football journalist and editor in chief of Sportfakt
• Michal Pol Editor in chief Przeglądu Sportowego
• Thiago Rabelo Brazilian football journalist and Guardian contributor
• Igor Rabiner Leading football writer at Sport-Express and Blizzard contributor
• Pejman Rahbar Editor in chief at Varkesh
• Melissa Reddy Football journalist for goal.com
• Michael Reis Head of International Football at Sport Bild
• Filippo Ricci Gazzetta dello Sport’s Spain correspondent
• André Rizek Brazilian football journalist and SporTV presenter
• Fabrizio Romano Sky Sport Italy transfer expert and Guardian contributor
• Barney Ronay Senior sports writer, Guardian
• Emanuel Rosu Romanian football writer at Sport.ro
• Arlind Sadiku Sports journalist and commentator at Digitalb/Supersport Kosova
• Emre Sarigul Editor and founder of turkishfootball.com
• Metodi Shumanov Bulgarian football writer
• Jacob Steinberg Football writer, Guardian
• Vladimir Stognienko Russian football expert and VGTRK commentator
• Aet Süvari Estonian football reporter
• Kristof Terreur Belgian football writer and Premier League correspondent
• Duc Truong Tran Sports journalist working for Vietnam News
• Nuno Travassos Portuguese football writer at Maisfutebol
• Darren Tulett Presenter at beIN Sports in France
• Colin Udoh Nigerian football journalist
• Ville Väänänen Finnish football reporter at Ilta-Sanomat
• Bart Vlietstra Dutch football journalist working for de Volkskrant and SANTOS magazine
• Jonathan Wilson Columnist and international expert, Guardian
• Paul Wilson Observer football correspondent, Guardian
• Carl Worswick Football writer based in Colombia
• Michael Yokhin European football writer
• Federico Zanon Italian football journalist working for Sky Sport and Eurosport
How they made their choices
• Our judges were sent a longlist of more than 350 footballers drawn from leagues on every continent and asked one simple question: who have been the best male players in the world in 2016?
• We asked our judges to choose 40 names each, and rank their selection in order from 1-40, No1 being their choice of the best male player in the world this year.
How the voting works
• The No1 choice of each judge was awarded 40pts, No2 given 39pts, down to 1pt for their No40 choice. All the votes were added together to give a raw score.
• To minimise the influence of outliers in the list, the highest score awarded to a player was then deducted to give a final score.
• A player needed to receive votes from at least five judges to qualify for the list.
• If players are level on points in the scoring, the number of individual votes cast is used as a tie-breaker.
• The individual voting breakdown will be published when the full list has been revealed.
Voting disclosure
• We are very grateful to our judges for taking part, and none have been paid for participating in this project.
• To allow our judges the freedom to express their opinions without fear or favour, individual voting records will be anonymised in the full breakdown of scores.
• Voters are identified only by their category and a number chosen at random. The judges’ numbers bear no relation whatsoever to the alphabetical list of judges’ names presented above.
