The task of ranking the world’s 100 best footballers is a monumental undertaking, requiring a vast and diverse panel of experts to ensure credibility and global perspective. This year’s selection process was distinguished by the involvement of an exceptionally qualified jury.
A panel of 219 judges, comprising former international players, active coaches, and respected journalists from across the globe, was assembled. Their combined experience is staggering, with the former professionals alone boasting over 900 international caps. The roster includes World Cup-winning legends, celebrated tacticians, and authoritative voices from every major footballing continent.
Participation was entirely voluntary, with no judge receiving compensation. This underscores the project’s commitment to impartial, passion-driven evaluation. To protect the integrity of the process and encourage complete honesty, all individual votes will be anonymized in the final data release.
The voting methodology was designed for both depth and fairness. Each judge ranked their top 40 players, with points awarded on a sliding scale from 40 for first place down to one point for 40th. The total raw scores were then calculated. A statistical adjustment was applied to mitigate the impact of any outlier votes, ensuring a balanced and representative final tally. In the event of a points tie, the number of votes received and then the highest individual ranking serve as tiebreakers.
The highly anticipated list will be unveiled over four days, beginning with players ranked 100 to 71, and culminating with the reveal of the top ten.
This collaborative effort, drawing on unparalleled expertise from all corners of the football world, aims to deliver a definitive and authoritative hierarchy of the sport’s elite talent for the year 2025.