The FIFA 100 is a list compiled by Brazilian professional footballer

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...

featuring his choices of the "greatest living footballers" at the time of its release. The list was unveiled on 4 March 2004 during a gala ceremony at the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, as part of the celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the

Fédération Internationale de Football Association The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

(FIFA), the international governing body of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

. The figure 100 does not refer number of players nominated in the list, which is actually 125. Pelé was asked by FIFA to select 50 active players and 50 retired players from a shortlist of 300, but found it too difficult to limit himself and therefore picked 50 current and 75 former players. The list contains 123 men and two women (

Michelle Akers Michelle Anne Akers (formerly Akers-Stahl; born February 1, 1966) is an American former Association football, soccer player who starred in the FIFA Women's World Cup 1991, 1991 and FIFA Women's World Cup 1999, 1999 Women's World Cup and Footbal ...

and

Mia Hamm Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional Association football, soccer player, two-time Women's Football at the Summer Olympics, Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Haile ...

). The list was controversial. Writing in the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', politician turned football pundit,

David Mellor David John Mellor (born 12 March 1949) is a British broadcaster, barrister, and former politician. As a member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John Major as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1990–1992) ...

, felt the selections were politically motivated rather than being made on purely footballing grounds. He suggested the geographical spread of inclusions indicated the list came from then-FIFA president

Sepp Blatter Joseph Sepp Blatter (born Josef Blatter; 10 March 1936) is a Swiss former association football, football administrator who served as the list of Presidents of FIFA, eighth president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015. He has been banned from participatin ...

rather than Pelé himself.

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

columnist Tim Vickery expressed similar assertions. Brazilian midfielder Gérson, who played alongside Pelé at the

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

FIFA World Cups, reacted to his omission by tearing up a copy of the list on a Brazilian television programme.

Marco van Basten Marcel "Marco" Van Basten (; born 31 October 1964) is a Dutch former football manager and player who played as a striker for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all t ...

and

Uwe Seeler Uwe Seeler (; 5 November 1936 – 21 July 2022) was a German Association football, footballer and football official. As a Striker (association football), striker, he was a prolific scorer for Hamburger SV and also made 72 appearances for the Ger ...

refused to take part in the project on a point of principle.

Players

Statistics

Notes

References

{{Pelé Lists of association football players

100 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standard SI prefix for a hundred is " hecto-". 100 is the b ...

Pelé Association football player non-biographical articles

Players

Statistics

See also

Notes

References