The World Team of the 20th Century was chosen in 1998 to comprise the best association football players of the 20th century CE. The team comprises an eleven-member

side Side or Sides may refer to: Geometry * Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape) * Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape) Places * Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, Greece * Side (Caria), a town of an ...

, with one

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, four defenders, three

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

s, and three forwards.

History

The team was announced on 10 June 1998, in conjunction with the opening ceremonies of the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. The team was selected in

plurality voting Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member pe ...

undertaken by a panel of 250 international football journalists from amongst the members of eleven-member sides styled as the ''South American'' and ''European Teams of the 20th Century'', selected previously by the same panel to be composed of players respectively to have represented principally member nations of the CONMEBOL and

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas t ...

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

s. Similarly constituted teams for players from the nations of

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...

, the Confederation of African Football, and collectively the Asian and Oceania Football Confederations were chosen by separate, smaller juries of journalists situated respectively in North and Central America, Africa, and Asia and Oceania, and announced alongside the European and South American teams, but players selected to the former sides were not considered for selection to the world team.

Players

Notes

References

*Brown, Gerry, and Morrison, Michael (eds.; 2003). ''ESPN Information Please Sports Almanac''. New York City: ESPN Books and Hyperion (joint). .

External links

Analysis of the constitution of the world team in the
'' International Herald Tribune''
Enumeration of the European, South American, and world teams
by Infoplease
Ramos, Balboa named to MasterCard CONCACAF 20th Century team.
''SoccerTimes'' {{DEFAULTSORT:World Team Of The 20th Century Association football trophies and awards +World Lists of association football players

History

Players

Notes

See also

References

External links