The Football Magazines



Year of Establishment : 1989

Country : Germany

Rating : ESM Team of The Month/Year

              UEFA Men Player of The Year Awards

European Sports Media was established in 1989 as an international body for football journalism.[1] Its nine founding members were: A Bola (Portuguese), Don Balón (Spanish), Sport/Foot Magazine (Belgium), La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italian), kicker (German), Onze Mondial (French), Sport (Switzerland), Voetbal International (Dutch), World Soccer (English). ESM membership has varied over time. Former members also include France Football


Year of Establishment : 1920

Country : Germany

Rating : Bundesliga Player Rating,

                Greatest Club of The Century

Kicker was first issued in July 1920 in Konstanz, Germany. The magazine's headquarters were originally in Stuttgart before relocating to Nuremberg in 1926. During World War II, the magazine merged with the publication Fußball, and was eventually discontinued in fall 1944. After the war, the magazine was again published (under the name Sport) by the newly incorporated Olympia-Verlag publishing company. Former chief editor Friedebert Becker again began publishing Kicker in 1951, and for a number of years, both Kicker and Sport appeared at the same time. In 1966, Kicker was sold to Axel Springer AG. In 1968, Olympia-Verlag in Nuremberg acquired Kicker and merged it with Sportmagazin, which had been published twice weekly since 1952. The first issue of the newly founded Kicker-Sportmagazin was released on 7 October 1968. Beside the two weekly publications, Kicker provides a digital edition since 2012. The online version of kicker.de offers a broad live ticker for over 80 different international leagues. The magazine has three apps in the iTunes store.


Year of Establishment : 1912

Country : Italy

Rating : Series A Player Rating, Guern D'Oro

            Bravo Award. 1980s World Player of the Year


Founded in 1912 in Turin, it is published every month. The title and the logo, depicting a medieval knight throwing a javelin, are inspired by the lead character in Andrea di Barberino's chivalric romance Il Guerrin Meschino ("The Wretched Guerrin"), written in 1410. Originally, it was printed on green paper, whence the popular nickname verdolino, and also housed satirical panels. Characters used in his panels by artist Carlin (a zebra for Juventus, a female wolf for Roma, a devil for Milan and others) inspired most of the symbols of Italian sides used today. In the mid-1970s, Guerin Sportivo moved from newspaper to magazine format, starting to include a greater number of photos. Since its origins, most of the content was devoted to football, other sports being given less detail. Since the 1990s, virtually all pages are dedicated to football. Guerin Sportivo is published by Conti Editore. The publisher itself is owned by the Corriere dello Sport – Stadio and Tuttosport groups. The two daily sports newspapers are owned by Roberto Amodei.



Year of Establishment : 1946

Country : France

Rating : Ballon'Dor Awards


France Football originated from the magazine Football, which was published from 1927 to 1944 and was for a time the semi-official print organ of the FFF. Initially, FF was published on plain newsprint and only in black and white; Since February 1977 (introduction of the color front page), the magazine has increasingly become an illustrated magazine with numerous large-format color photographs. Its circulation increased in parallel from 120,000 (1975) to 213,000 copies (2004). From 1974 to 1982 and from 1997 to 2013 there were two weekly issues (Tuesdays and Fridays), with the Friday issue from 1978 to 1982 being called France Foot 2, and since April 2013 only the Tuesday issue has been produced. In Issue No. 3587 of January 21, 2015, the publication date was changed to Wednesday. France's contribution to soccer and its training of top-level players is well known. Exceptional talents like Mbappe, Katoto, Diani, Griezmann and many others hail from this country. This is why the magazine itself and the awards it bestows are so highly regarded and considered authoritative. From November 3, 2008, on the website of Francefootball magazine. fr publishes a daily newsletter.



Year of Establishment : 1970

Country : Brazil

Rating : Campeonato Brasileiro Series A Player Rating

               Bola De Prata Awards


The magazine was published on a weekly basis throughout the 1970s, and the 1980s, until August 1990. It was launched just before the 1970 World Cup, in order to fill the void of a national publication about the sport, and Pelé was featured on the cover of the first edition, which sold almost 200,000 copies. The magazine defended the modernization of the administration of Brazilian football, and on issues number 23 and 24, in 1970, a series of articles by Michel Laurence and Narciso James proposed many changes, among them the creation of a forsooth national championship, which would be created in 1971 and since then it has become the most successful sports publication in Brazil, even though it focuses fully on football.



Year of Establishment : 1919

Country : Argentina

Rating : Argentinean Primera Division Player Rating


The foundation of the magazine was an initiative of Uruguayan entrepreneur Constancio C. Vigil, that had founded Atlántida magazine in 1918 with great success, but the tragic week riots in 1919 stopped the activities. After that event and its consequences, Vigil was persuaded in acquiring his own printing. With the machines and the installations ready, he established "Editorial Atlántida", his own publishing house, headquartered in Buenos Aires. The first magazine from the recently created publisher was El Gráfico, with its #1 being released on 30 May 1919. El Gráfico is widely the most regarded sports magazine in Argentina and Latin America. The magazine was nicknamed La Biblia del deporte ("The Bible of sports") due to its chronicles, notable journalists and collaborators and its photographies.



Year of Establishment : 1960

Country : United Kingdom

Rating : World Player of The Year, Eric Batty World XI

              World Manager of the Year

World Soccer is an English-language football magazine, published by Kelsey Media. The magazine was established in 1960 and is the oldest continually published football magazine in the United Kingdom. It specialises in the international football scene. Its regular contributing writers include Brian Glanville, Keir Radnedge, Sid Lowe, Tim Vickery, and Henry Winter. World Soccer is a member of the European Sports Media (ESM), an umbrella group of similar magazines printed in other languages. The members of this group elect a European "Team of the Month" and a European "Team of the Year". Since 1982, World Soccer has also organised "Player of the Year", "Manager of the Year" and "Team of the Year" awards.


Year of Establishment : 1975

Country : Spain

Rating : La Liga Spanish Player & Coach of the Year


Don Balon is a Spanish weekly sports magazine specializing in Spanish and international football. The magazine was published in Barcelona between 1975 and 2011. It was distributed on five continents. The magazine was founded in 1975[1] by José María Casanovas, a very well-known Spanish sport journalist, who had the idea of creating an internationally recognized sport magazine. Don Balón published special magazine supplements every year on La Liga and European competitions. In 1976 the magazine launched the Premio Don Balón (Don Balón Award) yearly to the best Spanish player, the best foreign player, the best coach, the best referee and the breakthrough player in La Liga. Since 2011 Don Balón has been a fully digital media outlet. It is still considered one of the most influential football media outlets in the Spanish speaking world.


Year of Establishment : 1946

Country : France

Rating : European Golden Shoe


is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor, L'Auto, was founded by wealthy conservative industrialists to undermine Le Vélo, which they found too progressive. It was a general sports paper that also covered the auto racing which was gaining popularity at the turn of the twentieth century. The European Champion Clubs' Cup, the competition that would later be rebranded as the UEFA Champions League, was also the brainchild of a L'Équipe journalist, Gabriel Hanot. The participating clubs in the first season were selected by L'Équipe on the basis that they were representative and prestigious clubs in Europe.



Year of Establishment : 1976

Country : France

Rating : Onze' Dor



The magazine was established with name Onze in 1976. In 1989 the magazine merged with another sports magazine, Mondial, and began to use its current name, Onze Mondial. The magazine is published on a quarterly basis in Paris. It was previously published monthly by Lagardère Active. In May 2013 the magazine ceased publication when it went bankrupt. Sporteam Media SAS, a subsidiary of MenInvestMedia, bought it in October 2013 and the magazine was relaunched in November of the same year. Every year, Onze Mondial hands out the European Footballer of the Year (Onze d'Or) award, as well as awards for coaches. In 2014 Onze Mondial had a circulation of 20,954 copies.


Year of Establishment : 1918

Country : Uruguay

Rating :  South American Footballer of The Year

                European Footballer of the Year 90s - 2000s

is a national Uruguayan daily newspaper. It is based in the capital city of Montevideo and is regarded as the newspaper with the largest circulation in the country. It was first published on September 14, 1918, and previously belonged to the same media group as the television network Teledoce. Founded by journalists Leonel Aguirre, Eduardo Rodríguez Larreta and Washington Beltrán Barbat, in 1919 Carlos Scheck [es] joined the group. Originally, it was related to the National Party, precisely with the Independent National Party. However it later developed into a general interest newspaper. For decades, El País has been among the leading written media in Uruguay, with a circulation of 65,000 on weekdays and 100,000 on Sundays. Its editorial focus is on the social, political and economic news of Uruguay, as well as the Mercosur regional trade alliance.


Year of Establishment : 1994

Country : United Kingdom

Rating :  World Footballer of The Year


is an association football magazine published by British company Future. Issued monthly, it published its 300th edition in May 2019. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4–4–2. Future acquired the magazine from Haymarket Media Group in 2018.[1] Haymarket previously acquired Future's earlier football magazine Total Football in 2001 in exchange of subscriber list and the rights to the masthead of its defunct internet magazine The Net, Haymarket later absorbed Total Football into FourFourTwo. FourFourTwo has a number of annual rankings and awards. In 2007, the magazine put together its first FFT100, their list of the 100 best footballers in the world.[5][6] At the end of the 2012–13 Premier League season, FourFourTwo announced its first Stats Zone Awards.[7] In May 2015, the inaugural list of the 50 best Asian players in world football was announced.[8] They have also produced a top 50 of players from the Football League


The Introduction and Map

                               
                                          Welcome to WFHC

“The True Passionate Sphere of World 
 Historical and Legendary Football Greatness
  
     We effort to seek for the valuable evidences, creating the best method of 
      historical rating to implement and conclude the set of the best ever 
in the entire history of the game. 



Establishment : 7 August 2013
Project Completion : 7 September 2018
Capacity : 1,374 Pages, 126 Topics



History of Football






The Greatest Footballers of All-Time







WFHC Definition

WFHC historical rating solution is an integration between scientific methodology and social values. The research methodology acts as a tool to standardize the criteria while social values has an essential role to define value of each performance aspect and function. WFHC represents the love of football historical value, having been identified as a semi-opened source of football historical innovation and has always been listening to the reader voice and a large number of the contributed comments led to further development.


WFHC Objective

1) To initiate and represent in research and development of all-time footballing evaluation.
2) To preserve the greatness of football history for the recognition of the next generations.
3) To generate the mutual exchange of useful information, data and idea between football historians and group of interested person to expand the extent of historical knowledge. 


WFHC Policy

1) WFHC is a non-profit body with spiritual contribution.  
2) WFHC has been continuously improving and developing to increase its level of objectivity. 
3) WFHC gives importance as a neutral workplace and pay attention in sustaining fairness of rating.
4) WFHC aims to lead the way of positive attitude and vision in football history discussion. 


WFHC Commitment

I appreciate all WFHC readers, participants, followers and supporters who has been recognized as an indispensable propulsion of the progressive project. I would like to requite supporters in my commitment to perpetually update and develop the football historical work. The frequency of updating players is every season and update club/national team ranking at the end of season or tournament. 










History of WFHC



Logo Concept

The central golden sphere is a world map on the ball represent the word “World Football Center”. 
The three orbit encircles the sphere represents the major three affiliated branches surrounding WFHC.
The counterclockwise direction of the orbit lines represents “Historic”

The Greatest Individual Performers In a Single Competition


The Greatest Performers in a Single Domestic Season
(Domestic League + Cup)


1. Pele (1961)

Pele played in 3 domestic competitions in 1961, Campeonato Paulista, Torneo Rio Sao Paolo and Campeonato Brasileiro. In total, he scored 55 goals in 33 games. From overall 10 hat-tricks, Pele made 8 hat-tricks in Campeonato Paulista, scored one hat-trick in Torneo Rio Sao-Paolo against Flamengo. In the campeonato brseileiro final match, he scored hat-trick against Bahia. The most extraordinary goal is the scene he dribbed pass 3 opponents and score decisively. Pele scored 48 % of overall team scores.  

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td8_Zj_4he8
                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sim1Jcp8HF0




2. Lionel Messi (2011 - 2012)

Messi in this season is named in every ESM team of the month that no one could achieve and is one of the most prolific scorers in history of the global domestic football with 53 goals  (10 Penalty Kicks) and 18 assists or 1.61 (goal + assist per game). He scored 45 % of overall team goals and made 8 hat tricks in which is the highest hat-trick record in history of la liga. In attribute data, Dearman rates all of his 50 goals in La Liga and give average qualitative scores as 6.9. He obtains average seasonal rating at 7.72, one of the highest ratings. Messi established himself as a complete forward. His positional play in penalty box area to score had been developed allowing him to meet a ton of chances to score. He is also dangerous in his running with the ball in everywhere of the front line. However, he failed to score against Real Madrid in all 4 matches.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPnsvjmwhiM


3. Diego Maradona (1980)


At his only 20 years old, Maradona performed as the greatest young player ever, scoring 43 goals in 45 games in domestic football with Argentinos Juniors or around 50 % of total team goals and made 20 assists. Maradona was a pivot of the team and he was used as a forward. He was a top scorer in Argentine Nacional and Metropolitano.  Maradona in this season was very fast and remarkable in dribbling. Most of his goals were individually produced from his own actions. The average rating of his performance in 40 games is 7.10 is one of the highest ratings in history of Argentina Primera Division. 




4. Diego Maradona (1984 - 1985)

   Although Napoli was unsuccessful in Series A, finishing 8th place and lost 7 matches, Maradona's average seasonal rating in this season is 7.03, one of the highest ever in history of Italian Series A. Maradona in this season is very fast, unstoppable dribbling, He scored 40 % of overall team goals with 4 penalty kicks. He made a hat-trick in 20th match against Lazio, is arguably one of the best matches in his domestic career and he totally made 5 assists in this season. In match against Juventus, he got pass 5 Juventus players before being fouls in penalty box. Once he was fouled and lost balance fall to the ground but just a sec, he stood up very fast and continue running. He made a acrobatic style of passing with accurate overhead kicking. One of the incredible goals, he scored from corner-kick. In Copa Italia, he scored 3 goals in 6 games when Napoli was eliminated at round of 16.

                                                Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0l88GURbK4 


5. Ronaldo (1996 - 1997)

Quantitatively, Ronaldo scored 40 goals in 41 games counted as 38 % of total team goals and totally made 20 assists. In attribute qualitative scoring rating, Dearman rate Ronaldo in La Liga at 6.8 in average. In the first half of the season, he scored most goals by awesome dribbling and his impeccable speed. The second half saw his decline in spectacular scoring style when he more scored by tapping and penalty kick. He did not play in Copa Del Rey final which Barcelona win the title but his hat-trick against Atletico Madrid in semi-final second leg, is considered as a key performance of team achievement as a great come back after being led 0-3. 

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQwPlSFfFMk


6. George Best (1967 -1968)

George Best in this season scored 28 goals as the top scorer of the league and received FWA footballer of the year awards. As watched samplings of highlight in match Man Utd versus and Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal,  George Best is always dangerous and expectable in his dribbling that is unparalleled and help him to meet the chances to score by his own. Moreover, his shooting is 100 % accurate in direction. When he lost controlling the ball, his speed helps him to win the ball back at the moment.  

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k481ZaDlXfQ
                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA7P8jFjFSQ
                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be2wP2JCdQg



7. Zico (1982)

Zico scored 42 goals in total 45 domestic games or counted as 42 % of overall team goals. He led Flamengo to win Campeonato Brasileiro title. He obtained 8.16 rating in Bola De Ouro as the ninth place but the rating standard between positions saw very high variance. In attribute qualitative scoring rating, Dearman rate Zico in Campeonato Brasileiro at 6.8 in average. The best goal is the scene against Treze when he drib pass 5 players from the midfield area and finally scored by the chance of the overflowed ball. He also scored several goals by his heading thanks to his superb positional play and scored by free-kick only 2 goals. 

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L39fV-1xpIg



8. Johan Cruyff (1971 - 1972)

Cruyff was achieving his peak performance with the leadership role of total football strategy. Cruyff appeared in every where on the midfield and front-line. He scored 26 goals in total 31 domestic games. He was named as man of the match against Feyenoord in away match with scoring 2 goals and 1 assist. In the home match, Cruyff did not produce any score and assist but he was reported to play very well throughout the game, participating in the first goal and almost score the third goal after dribbling pass a keeper but the ball was finally cleared out. In the Dutch cup final, he scored one goal and made one assist with creating a chance for his teammate to score by penalty kick. In matches against top five side, he scored 5 goals and made 4 assists in total 9 games.

Reference : http://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/johan-cruyff-matches-and-goals-scored.1865250/


9. Garrincha (1962)

In 1962, Garrincha was named as the best player of Campeonato Carioca, Torneo Rio-Sao Paolo and Campeonato Brasileiro. He led Botafogo win the Carioca and Rio-Sao Paolo tournament and lost Santos in Campeonato Brasileiro final tie breaker 0 - 5. Garrincha was a confident one-man-show with his phenomenon dribbling ability. The Carioca final match is one of his best games, he scored one goal after getting pass a defender and assist one goal from crossing.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZavkOfX0Wc
                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKZV1FxDucE



10. Lionel Messi (2014 - 2015)

Messi in this season is named in 7 ESM team of the month from total 9 and won domestic double champion with Barcelona. is one of the most prolific scorers in history of the global domestic football with 48 goals (6 Penalty Kicks) and 22 assists or 1.6 (goal + assist per game).  He scored 37.5 % of overall team goals and made 6 hat tricks. In attribute data, Dearman rates all of his 47 goals in La Liga and Copa Del Rey and give average qualitative scores as 6.7. He obtains average seasonal rating at 7.82, the highest ratings in history of Spanish La Liga. Messi . He failed to score against Real Madrid in both home and away game. Messi withdraws himself deeper to attacking midfield and wing area and running across the deep-lying forward to penalty area to create many chances to his team or score by himself.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrLgxHRxD_U

Other potential candidates : Eusebio (1967 - 1968), Alfredo Di Stefano (1957), Michel Platini (1983 - 1984), Dixie Dean (1927 - 1928)



The Greatest Performers in a Single International Club Season
(Continental, Super Cup and World/Intercontinental Club Final)

1. Lionel Messi (2010 - 2011)

In total, Messi scored 15 Goals and made 3 Assists in total 15 Games. Messi was rated as man of the match in the final against Man Utd and most media rates him at 9 points. His spectacular goals against Real Madrid in semi-final second leg is regarded as one of the best goals in history when he dribb pass 4 Real Madrid players before scoring the goal. In match against Arsenal, he scored an important goal just before the end of first half ิby flapping the ball across a keeper. In UEFA Super Cup, Messi made an incredible coincident assist aside from his scoring a goal. He is named as the man of the match in 2011 World Club Cup final against Santos.




2. Zico (1981)

Zico scored 11 goals and made 4 assists in total 14 games. He was a phenomenon scorer in Copa Libertadores Cup final against Cobreloa, scoring all 4 goals that the team made. He scored a wonderful goal by perfect curving free-kick and the other two goals are made after his great positional support from midfield to penalty area. In semi-final match against Deportivo Cali, he scored the first goal after his superb first touch and scored the second goal by free-kick. He also scored hat-trick against Cerro Porteno in group stage. He did score in intercontinental cup but he participated in all 3 goals, making two assists and the second goal was achieved credit to his free-kick.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osPY3m7RwRU
                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d59xjbkQ3KM


3. Pele (1962)

Pele scored 9 Goals in 6 Games. In Copa Libertadores cup, Pele played only a play-off game of final game and scored all two goals. He scored other two goals against Cerro Porteno in group stage as Santos beat the opponent 9-1. Pele's best performance came in 1962 intercontinental cup, scoring five goals and made an assist in two games, including hat-trick in the second leg. In related 7 goals in copa libertadores cup and intercontinental cup, dearman rates Pele's qualitative average scoring at 6.64.   

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXa9IkTWkh4
                   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewwZacrQ1Zc

4. Cristiano Ronaldo (2016 - 2017)

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 13 Goals and made 6 Assist in 14 Games. He was rated by media at 9 points in four games against Atletico Madrid in semi-final that he made a hat-trick and Juventus in Final Match. In match against Bayern Munich in quarter-final, he obtained 10 points in both leg and achieved hat-trick in the first leg. He did not play well in match against Napoli in first leg but he returned to perform superbly in second leg. In knock out phase, his average rating is 8.5. He did not player in 2017 super cup and receive only 7 point in World Club cup final. He scored only 2 goals in UEFA Champion League Group stage.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXzpJYkIliI
5. Michel Platini (1984 - 1985)


Michel Platini scored 8 goals and made 4 assists in 11 Games. In attribute data, Dearman rates his average qualitative scoring point at 6.8. He scored 4 goals by penalty kicks. He made an incredible accurate long passing for the last two assists against Sparta Prague and Bordeaux. He played superbly in the European Cup final match which Dearman rate him as a man of the match at 8.5 point. In intercontinental cup, he scored a wonderful goal after bouncing the ball 3 tempos but it was mistakenly judged as offside by referee. However, he made a 1-tempo quick passing to M.Laudrup.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq_jvQWZV7A


6. Johan Cruyff (1972 - 1973)


Cruyff scored 5 goals and made 5 assists from total 7 matches including 1972 European Super Cup that is held in 1973. Dearman rates him in man of the match against Bayern in European Cup quarter-final first leg.








7. Pele (1963)

Pele scored 7 Goals in 5 Games. In Copa Libertadores cup, he only played in semi-final and final match as Santos qualified for semi-final round automatically. In intercontinental cup, he played only a game from total 3 and scored 2 goals. In Copa Liberadores Cup, Pele scored hat-trick against Botafogo in semi-final second leg. He also scored a winning goal in the final match. In attribute qualitative average data of Pele's related 6 goals, Dearman give 7.00 point.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hBdX52ktSY
                  


8. Marco Van Basten (1988 - 1989)

Van Basten scored  11 Goals in 12 games counted as 48 % of total team goal in this international club season. In attribute data, Dearman rates his qualitative goals at 6.8 points in average. Van Basten scored 4 goals against Votoshua from Bulgaria at the first round. In the first leg of second round, he made one great assist Red Star Belgrade and he eventually scored a decisive goal in 3rd match. In total, he scored by heading 4 goals, Penalty 2 goals and by left foot 2 goals. However, he failed to score a goal aside from penalty kick in super cup and intercontinental cup. 

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evm8KaNypic

9. Ference Puskas (1959 - 1960)

Puskas scored 14 goals in only 9 games. He scored two hat-trick, the first one against Jeunesse Esch and the second one against Frankfurt in European Cup final match. He also scored 2 goals in intercontinental cup. In total, he scored 44 % of total team goals.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-HyElkIytM






10. Cristiano Ronaldo (2013 - 2014)

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 19 Goals and made 5 Assist in 13 Games, counted as 45 % of overall team goals. In knockout stage, he is rated by media at 9 points in four games against Schalke (2 matches), Bayern Munich and Dortmund. Unfortunately, he did not play well in the final where he received only 6 point the same rate as his performance in World Club Cup final. Also, he scored only an important goal in knock-out stage. His 17 goals in UEFA Champion League is the record of highest goalscorer in a single season. He scored two goals in super cup against Sevilla. He made one hat-trick at UEFA Champion League group stage against Galatasaraay in the first match.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w2MJhK9alE




Other potential candidates : C.Ronaldo (2017 - 2018)


The Greatest Performers in a Single International Country Tournament

1. Diego Maradona (WC 1986)

Maradona scored 5 Goals and made 4 assists in 7 Games. Maradona scored the best goal ever in history of the game against England in quarter-final match when he dribb pass 5 English players from the central midfield area to score. In match against Belgium in semi-final, he drib pass 3 Belgian players and scored another wonderful goal. Maradona made an assist in final match that is the only game arguably if he is deserved man of the match while he is considered as the man of the match in the previous 6 games conveniently.  In Opta stats, he made 81.9 passing accuracy, 50 % shot accuracy, duels won 57 % chance creation 2,1 times per game.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV6hC9Fqb2k


2. Garrincha (WC 1962)

Garrincha scored 4 Goals and made 2 assists in 6 games. In Knockout stage, He is deserved as a man of the match in all 3 games including the final match. Garrincha was phenomenally quick in his footage and drib pass at least 2-3 players often. He is unexpectedly very good in heading and very effective in his left foot as well. In the group stage, he only an assist to Amarildo against. His best match is arguably the game against Chile in semi-final when he scored two goals and made an assist.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Kh2lHZKEU
3. Michel Platini (Euro 1984)

Platini scored 9 Goals and made 2 Assists in only 5 games or scored 64 % of total team goals. Platini is a main creator of the magic square, is excellent in coordination and synchronization from midfield to penalty area as well as contribute accurate passing consistently. He scored by free-kick two goals and he proved to be very good in aerial scoring with 2 goals by heading and a goal by penalty. Platini are conveniently deserved as the man of the match in 4 games from total 5. The only one match against Denmark could be shared with Alain Giresse.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU9S9oaa-AU



4. Johan Cruyff (WC 1974)

Johan Cruyff scored 3 goals and made 3 assists in 7 games. He was a central role in total football strategy, operating the game in everywhere on the midfield and the front-line  and dominates in his speed and dribbling. His performance is rated in excellent level in two matches against Sweden and Argentina, is rated in very good level in 3 matches against Bulgaria, Uruguay and Brazil and is rated in fair level against East Germany and West Germany in final match although he made a magnificent scene and led to win penalty kick. In Opta stats, he made 81.3 % passing accuracy, 76.5 % shot accuracy, 56 % Duals won, chance creation 5.1 times per game.

Reference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTkMuxFRGbE
                   http://www.everyfourthyear.com/1974/

5. Marco Van Basten (Euro 1988)

Van Basten scored 5 goals, 4 games. He scored many wonderful goals in this tournament including the most fantastic goal against Soviet Union in the final match when he made a spectacular volley from acute angle. In overall qualitative goal average rating, Dearman give him at 7.9 point. He scored hat-trick in match versus England and scored winning goal against West Germany. He is regarded as man of the match in all of these 3 games.







6. Roberto Baggio (WC 1994)

Baggio scored 5 memorable goals and made an assist in 6 games. He scored 62.5 % of total team goals. In the group stage, his performance is under his standard due to Italy's defensive tactic that is very difficult for attackers to get significant participation. In knock-out stage, he is an absolutely indispensable player of the team, carrying the team by turning from bad situation to win the match by his scoring that is mostly created the chance by himself. He is considered a man of the match in round of 16 against Nigeria, quarter-final against Spain and semi-final against Bulgaria. In the final match, he is not fit but still make some good performance,




7. Didi (WC 1958)

Didi scored only one goal but made 6 assist. He was a main orchestra of Brazil with excellent ball controlling and consistently contributing accurate long passing with a drive curve trajectory. His performance is deserved to be rated as man of the match in final match against Sweden and semi-final against France, is considered as the best match in his career when he scored a goal and made 2 assists.



8. Matthias Sammer (Euro 1996)

Sammer played in offensive libero role in 5-3-2 system. During the tournament, he performed superbly in going support from defensive line throughout  the front-line with incredible synchronization with his teammates. He is also excellent in vision to pass from the back-line and performed sweeping effectively. He scored opening goal in match against Russia.He is named as Man of the match against Czech Republic in group stage and against Croatia in quarter-final, scoring a winning goal.  



9. Franz Beckenbauer (WC 1974)

Beckenbauer made an assist, 87.6 % passing accuracy, Duel won 64.4 %, tackle won 68.8 %, shooting accuracy 66.7 % and creates chances 9 times.  He performs as an offensive libero as a director of team from the back-line with notable accurate long passing.








10. Raymond Kopa (WC 1958)

Kopa scored 3 Goals and made 9 Assists in only 6 Games as the record of highest assists in a single world cup tournament. He is a main creator of French game, playing as an inside forward position and is highly credit to support Just Fontaine's a record of goalscoring in history of world cup with 4 assists to him. In the group stage against Paraguay, he scored a goal and made 3 assists.








Other potential candidates : Paolo Rossi (1982)