This year we have gathered together our biggest judging panel yet: 123 judges from 49 countries led by 16 current and former internationals who have won a combined total of 1,145 caps.
Names such as Zico, Javier Zanetti, Gheorghe Hagi, Paolo di Canio and Quinton Fortune have given up their time to participate in an illustrious judging team which also comprises two international head coaches, one advisor, and 104 journalists and broadcasters. Many are household names in their own country. Together, they have a combined Twitter following of 14.7m.
The number of judges based in each continent is as follows: Africa 11, Asia 14, Europe 77, North and Central America 5, Oceania 2, South America 14.
The Top 100 rules are explained beneath the list of judges. The judges are listed in alphabetical order by category.
Players
• Krassimir Balakov Former Bulgaria international who played at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups
• Paolo Di Canio Former Lazio, Milan, Juventus, Celtic and West Ham player who won Serie A with Milan
• Jan Aage Fjortoft Former Norway international
• Quinton Fortune Ex-Manchester United and South Africa international
• Arne Friedrich Former Germany international who played at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups
• Gheorghe Hagi Former Romania international who played at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups. Now owner and chairman of Viitorul Constanța
• Jesper Gronkjaer Former Chelsea and Atlético Madrid winger who played 80 times for Denmark
• Adlene Guedioura Algeria international who plays for Watford
• Kostas Katsouranis Former Greek international who played 116 times for his country and won Euro 2004
• Sammy Kuffour Former Ghana international who won the Champions League with Bayern Munich
• Bambang Pamungkas Indonesian international footballer
• Juninho Pernambucano Former Brazil international who played at the 2006 World Cup
• Herbert Prohaska Former Austria international who played at the 1978 and 1982 World Cups
• Kazuyuki Toda Former Japanese international; played at 2002 World Cup
• Javier Zanetti Former Argentina international who played at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups
• Zico Former Brazil international who played at the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups
Coaches
• Steve Darby Head coach of Laos national team
• Gary White Head coach of Guam national team
Advisor
• Tor-Kristian Karlsen Advisor to football clubs
Journalists
• Ed Aarons Deputy news editor, Guardian
• 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
• Juan Arango TV commentator and contributor Gazzetta World
• Philippe Auclair Senior football writer, France Football
• Paolo Bandini Italian football correspondent, Guardian
• David Leon Bardi Editor of Peruvian football magazine El DT
• Salim Baungally Presenter on Canal + Africa/Debater on Europe 1 and RF1 and commentator on Eurosport
• Andy Brassell European football writer/broadcaster
• Costas Bratsos Greek football writer at contra.gr
• Hector Fernandez Bravo Director and presenter, Al Primer Toque radio show
• Martin Charquero Uruguayan football journalist on Tenfield, Goltv and Radio Sport890
• Marcus Christenson Football editor, Guardian
• Paulo Vinicius Coelho Brazilian football writer
• Paul Connolly Guardian Australia football contributor
• 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
• Gianluca Di Marzio Sky Sport Italy journalist, specialising in football transfers
• Paul Doyle Football writer, Guardian
• Stavros Drakoularakos CEO of 24MEDIA, Greece
• John Duerden Asian football correspondent, Guardian
• Vincent Duluc Senior reporter at L’Equipe
• Luis Miguel Echegaray Peruvian-British football journalist based in New York
• Claudia Ekai Soccer Africa (SuperSport) correspondent
• Alejandro Farffann Pundit at beIN SPORTS US and DIRECTV Latin America; sports blogger at Yahoo!
• Sebastián Fest Head of sport at La Nación
• Dominic Fifield Football writer, Guardian
• Johanna Frändén International football expert at Aftonbladet
• Raphael Gellar BBC World Football correspondent in Israel
• Pavel Hartman Czech football writer at Sport daily
• Troels Henriksen Danish football reporter at Jyllands-Posten
• Aleksandar Holiga Croatian football writer
• Raphael Honigstein German football correspondent, Guardian
• James Horncastle Italian football expert
• David Hytner Football writer, Guardian
• Hyung Wook Seo MBC-TV Football Commentator, Chief Editor, Republic of Korea
• Sasa Ibrulj Bosnian football writer
• Ovidiu Ioanitoaia Editorial director at Gazeta Sporturilor in Romania
• Celestine Karoney Kenyan sports journalist
• Hideki Kasuya Japanese football journalist, broadcaster and commentator
• Jens Kirschneck Editor in chief of German football magazine 11Freunde
• Cecilia Lagos Football journalist at TVN-Chile
• Julien Laurens Guardian and BT French football expert and UK correspondent for Le Parisien
• Amy Lawrence Football writer, Guardian
• Christian Leblebidjian Senior football writer at La Nación
• Marcos López Football analyst at Marca
• Sid Lowe Spanish football correspondent, Guardian
• Olof Lundh Swedish football columnist for fotbollskanalen and pundit for TV4
• Ben Lyttleton European football writer/broadcaster
• Ben Mabley Japan-based football writer, J Sports television commentator
• 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
• Velile Mbuli Sports writer working for SABC
• Ugur Meleke Football columnist at Milliyet. Also works as a pundit for TRT Spor and Lig Radio
• Maher Mezahi Algerian football journalist
• Luo Ming Sports Editor, Titan Sports, China
• Marcela Mora y Araujo Argentinian football writer
• Tomasz Mortimer Hungarian football writer
• Vladimir Novakovic Serbian football writer
• Antonis Oikonomidis Greek football journalist at Sportday and Sdna.gr
• Oluwashina Okeleji Reporter for BBC Sport, World Soccer and Al Jazeera online
• Musa Okwonga Football writer and poet
• Fernando Palomo ESPN commentator and the voice of Fifa 16 in Latin America
• Begoña Pérez Spanish football journalist covering Premier League for El Mundo and Cadena Cope
• Michal Petrak Football reporter at iSport TV in Czech Republic
• Artur Petrosyan Russian football journalist and editor in chief of The Bookmaker Ratings
• Alejandro Pino Colombian football journalist at GolCaracol
• Michal Pol Editor in chief of sports daily Przeglad Sportowy
• Ian Prior GNM Head of sport, Guardian
• Thiago Rabelo Brazilian football journalist and Guardian contributor
• Igor Rabiner Leading writer at Sport-Express and Blizzard contributor
• Michael Reis International football reporter at Sport Bild
• Filippo Ricci Gazzetta dello Sport’s Spain correspondent
• Aysha Ridzuan Malaysian football writer
• Andre Rizek Brazilian football journalist and Sportv presenter
• Fabrizio Romano Sky Sport Italy journalist and Goal contributor
• Barney Ronay Senior sports writer, Guardian
• Jakob Rosenberg Editor-in-chief of Austrian football magazine Ballesterer
• Emanuel Rosu Romanian football writer at Sport.ro
• Francisco Sagredo Chilean football journalist and author of three books: the best-selling ‘La Caída’, ‘Sergio Livingstone, su archivo personal’ and ‘El método Pellegrini’
• Emre Sarigul Editor and founder of turkishfootball.com
• Metodi Shumanov Bulgarian football writer
• Pangeran Siahaan Indonesian broadcaster & football writer
• Alexi Sokachev Bulgarian football journalist and Champions League pundit at bTV Media Group
• Jacob Steinberg Football writer, Guardian
• Vladimir Stognienko Russian football expert and Match TV commentator
• Aet Süvari Estonian football reporter
• Daniel Taylor Chief football writer, Guardian
• Kristof Terreur Belgian football writer and Premier League correspondent
• Darren Tulett Presenter at beIN Sport 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
• Arthur Wandji Writer at Camfoot.com
• 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
How they made their choices
• Our judges were sent a longlist of more than 250 players drawn from leagues on every continent and asked one simple question: who have been the best players in the world in 2015?
• 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 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 final score.
• 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.
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