How the Guardian ranked the world’s top 100 footballers for 2017

For our sixth annual survey we have gathered our biggest panel yet: 169 judges from 63 countries choosing the 100 best male footballers in the world in 2017. Led by the Brazilian legend Ronaldo, our global panel of players, coaches, broadcasters, reporters, correspondents and editors is fronted by 27 current and former professionals who have won a combined total of 698 caps.

Alongside Ronaldo, the likes of Hernán Crespo, Javier Zanetti and Jan Aage Fjortoft have given up their time to participate in an illustrious judging team which also comprises international coaches and a wide array of broadcasting and journalistic talent. Many are household names in their own country.

The countdown begins on Tuesday December 18 with Nos100-71. On Wednesday we will reveal Nos70-41, on Thursday Nos40-11 before the top 10 on Friday completes this year’s list.

Our 169 judges are drawn from around the world as follows: Africa 21, Asia 13, Europe 103, North and Central America 6, South America 26.

The Top 100 rules are explained beneath the list of judges. The judges are listed in alphabetical order by category.

Players

• Patrik Andersson Former Sweden international who played at the 1994 and 2002 World Cups
• Luca Antonini Former Milan player; represented club 111 times between 2008 and 2013
• Sergej Barbarez Former Bosnia and Herzegovina international with 47 caps
• Roman Berezovsky Former Armenia international who represented his country from 1996-2016
• Rune Bratseth Former Norway international; captained country at 1994 World Cup
• Hernán Crespo Former Argentina international who played at three World Cups
• Erik Edman Former Sweden international; played at 2006 World Cup
• Efan Ekoku Former Nigeria international; 20 caps
• Jan Aage Fjortoft Former Norway international
• Quinton Fortune Former South Africa international
• Takis Fyssas Former Greek international; part of team that won Euro 2004
• Stelios Giannakopoulos Former Greek international; part of team that won Euro 2004
• Levan Kobiashvili Former Georgia international and current president of the Georgian Football Federation
• Joel Lindpere Former Estonia international who played 107 times for his country
• Janusz Michallik Former US international and ESPN football analyst
• Tetsuo Nakanishi Former Nagoya Grampus Eight and Kawasaki Frontale player; now a commentator on Japanese TV
• Palhinha Former Brazil international; now president and head coach of Boston City FC
• Bambang Pamungkas Former Indonesia international with 86 caps
• Lutz Pfannenstiel Former goalkeeper and the first player to have played professionally in all six Fifa confederations
• Fabio Pisacane Current Cagliari defender
• Rustu Recber Former Turkey international who finished third at 2002 World Cup
• Ronaldo Former Brazil international who won two World Cups (1994 and 2002) and finished second in 1998
• Tuncay Sanli Former Turkey international who played 80 times for his country
• Eisa Santo Emirati footballer currently playing for Al-Sharjah
• Alexei Smertin Former Russia international who played 55 times for his country
• Kazuyuki Toda Former Japan international who played for Tottenham during the 2002-03 season
• Jonny Williams Wales and Crystal Palace midfielder on loan at Sunderland
• Javier Zanetti Former Argentina international who played at the 1998 and 2002 World Cups

Coaches

• Steve Darby Former Laos head coach
• Mattar M’boge Assistant manager of Gambia
• Vardan Minasyan Technical director at the Football Federation of Armenia
• Gary White Head coach of Taiwan

Broadcasters, reporters, editors, correspondents

• Ed Aarons Deputy news editor, Guardian Sport
• Ireneo Acosta Editor-in-chief at La Nación in Paraguay
• Ahmed Adala Journalist at Radio IFM Tunisie
• Michael Oti Adjei Football journalist and manager of sports at TV3 Network in Ghana
• Omar Al Raisi Founder of Dantani, Inc. Sports and Editor-in-Chief of The Sports Journal
• Gary Al-Smith African football expert
• Nick Ames Football writer, Guardian
• Janine Anthony Freelance sports journalist and founder of Africa’s largest women’s football network, LadiesMarch
• Juan Arango TV commentator/contributor Aficion Central (Ecuador), Sportsmax (Caribbean) and Al-Jazeera
• Philippe Auclair Senior writer, France Football
• Gregg Bakowski Football writer, Guardian
• Paolo Bandini Italian football correspondent, Guardian
• David Leon Bardi Editor of Peruvian football magazine El DT que Llevo Dentro
• Salim Baungally Presenter on SFR Sport, the French Premier League rights holders
• John Bennett Sports reporter for BBC World Service radio and BBC World TV
• Andreas Böni Head of football at Swiss newspaper Blick
• Andy Brassell European football writer/broadcaster
• Costas Bratsos Football writer at Sport24.gr
• Matteo Brega Football writer at Gazzetta dello Sport
• Jon Brodkin Deputy football editor, Guardian
• Rodrigo Bueno Football journalist and Fox commentator in Brazil
• Gevorg Burnuchyan Editor-in-chief, football365.am
• Lédio Carmona Football journalist and SporTV commentator in Brazil
• Hernán Castillo Football journalist at TNTSports in Argentina
• Mauro Cezar Pereira Football journalist and ESPN commentator in Brazil
• Martin Charquero Football journalist on Tenfield, Teledoce and Radio Sport890 in Uruguay
• Ivaylo Chilev Football journalist and Champions League broadcast producer at bTV Media Group in Bulgaria
• Marcus Christenson Football editor, Guardian
• Paulo Vinicius Coelho Football writer and Fox commentator in Brazil
• Joe Crann Soccer Laduma journalist in South Africa. Part-time TV and radio analyst
• James Dart Sports editor, theguardian.com
• Kirill Dementiev Sport TV commentator in Russia
• Nabil Djellit Football writer working for, among others, France Football
• Paul Doyle Football writer, Guardian
• Vincent Duluc Senior reporter at L’Equipe
• Claudia Ekai Kwese Sports correspondent
• Amine El Amri Sports journalist at Le Matin in Morocco
• Kasper Elissaar Editor-in-chief at Estonian football website Soccernet
• Alejandro Etcheverry Sports journalist working for Espn Deportes Radio in Uruguay
• Amr Fahmy Sports journalist working for beIN Sports in Egypt
• Dominic Fifield Football writer, Guardian
• Ben Fisher Football writer, Guardian
• Jonas Giaever Norwegian football journalist
• Barry Glendenning Football writer, Guardian
• Mélisande Gomez Football reporter at L’Equipe
• Andreas Hagenauer Football journalist at Der Standard in Austria
• Pavel Hartman Czech football writer at Sport daily
• Aleksandar Holiga Chief editor for Telesport in Croatia
• Sasa Ibrulj Bosnian football writer
• Jamie Jackson Football writer, Guardian
• Ott Järvela Senior sports editor at Estonian newspaper Postimees
• Eduard Kalantaryan Head of Armenia TV sport
• Celestine Karoney Kenyan sports journalist
• Hideki Kasuya Japanese football journalist, broadcaster and commentator
• Shinya Kizaki Japanese football journalist, broadcaster and commentator
• Chad Klate Reporter, Kick Off Magazine, South Africa
• Ermal Kuka Sports journalist at vipsport.al in Albania
• Cecilia Lagos Sports journalist. Columnist at Medios Regionales El Mercurio and cecilialagos.com
• Steven Lavon Sports journalist and editor-in-chief of africatopsports.com in Lomé, Togo
• Amy Lawrence Football writer, Guardian
• Almir Leite Sports editor of Estado de S. Paulo in Brazil
• Sergio Levinsky Football journalist working for, among others, Jornada, Radio Cooperativa of Buenos Aires and So-compa in Argentina as asll as Sportsnavi in Japan
• Gianluca Lia Sports journalist at Times of Malta
• Pablo Londinsky Football journalist at Tenfield in Uruguay
• Alejandro Lozano Football editor, Ethnos in Greece
• Jorge Luiz Rodrigues Football journalist and SporTV Head of production in Brazil
• Olof Lundh Football writer for Fotbollskanalen and Dagens Industri in Sweden, pundit for TV4 and C More and author
• Ben Lyttleton Football author and consultant
• Ben Mabley Japan-based football writer, J Sports television commentator
• Jaime F. Macias Football analyst at BeIN Sports USA
• 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
• Jonty Mark Football editor for Phakaaathi at the Citizen Newspaper in South Africa
• Tom Marshall Football writer based in Mexico
• Alexis Martin-Tamayo Blazquez Football writer
• Luís Mateus News director at Maisfutebol in Portugal
• Martin Mazur Football journalist for El Gráfico in Argentina, FourFourTwo and La Gazzetta dello Sport
• Ugur Meleke Football columnist at Hürriyet Dai in Turkey
• Elsever Memmedov Football writer at Qafqazinfo in Azerbaijan
• Sotiris Milios Chief editor of sdna.gr
• Nick Miller Football writer, Guardian
• Luo Ming Sports editor, Titan Sports, China
• Tomasz Mortimer Hungarian football writer
• Hassanin Mubarak Football writer
• Hirofumi Nakano Journalist and radio show host in Japan
• Sachin Nakrani Football writer, Guardian
• Elshadai Negash Ethiopian football writer
• Christian Nourry Editor-in-chief, Get French Football News
• Antonis Oikonomidis Greek freelance football writer
• Oluwashina Okeleji Reporter for BBC Sport, World Soccer and Al Jazeera online
• Collins Okinyo Football journalist and managing editor of soka25east.com
• Luis Omar Tapia On-air football announcer for Univision Deportes Network
• Gonzalo Orellano Argentinian football writer
• Fernando Palomo ESPN commentator and the voice of Fifa 17 in Latin America
• Juan Carlos Pasman Argentinian journalist who presents his own shows on DirecTV Sports and Radio La Red
• Michal Petrak Football reporter at iSport TV in Czech Republic
• Artur Petrosyan Russian football journalist and uefa.com reporter
• Michal Pol Editor in chief Przeglądu Sportowego
• Thiago Rabelo Brazilian football journalist and Guardian contributor
• Melissa Reddy Football journalist for goal.com
• Michael Reis Head of international football at Sport Bild
• Jeff Rueter US freelance football writer, contributing to the Guardian and ESPN FC
• José Armando Rodríguez Editor-in-chief, Deporte Total USA
• Fabrizio Romano Sky Sport Italy journalist and Guardian contributor
• Barney Ronay Senior sports writer, Guardian
• Emanuel Rosu Football writer at Sport.ro
• Doojin Sa Marketing manager at the K-League in South Korea
• Arlind Sadiku Sports journalist and commentator at Digitalb/Supersport Kosova
• Marwan Saeed Operations manager of KingFut.com
• Antonis Saoulis Football editor at gazzetta.gr
• Emre Sarigul Editor and founder of turkishfootball.com
• Hyungwook Seo MBC Football pundit, Footballist Editor
• Metodi Shumanov Bulgarian football writer
• Mojmir Stasko Football writer for Dennik Sport in Slovakia
• Jacob Steinberg Football writer, Guardian
• Alexandr Strelnikov Editor-in-chief of Sports.kz in Kazakhstan
• Vladimir Stognienko Russian football expert and VGTRK commentator
• Saku-Pekka Sundelin Football journalist at Ilta-Sanomat in Finland
• Aet Süvari Estonian football reporter
• Daniel Taylor Chief football writer, the Guardian
• Louise Taylor Football writer, the Guardian
• Kristof Terreur Belgian football writer and Premier League correspondent for HLN
• Tomas Tor Thordarsson Sports journalist and a TV/radio show host for Visir.is and Channel 2 Sport in Iceland
• Nuno Travassos Football writer at Maisfutebol in Portugal
• Darren Tulett Presenter at beIN Sports in France
• Colin Udoh Nigerian football journalist
• Petter Veland TV commentator and La Liga expert for Viasat in Norway
• Bart Vlietstra Dutch football journalist working for de Volkskrant and Santos magazine
• Lukas Vrablik Slovakian freelance football writer
• Ville Väänänen Football reporter at Ilta-Sanomat in Finland
• Tomasz Wlodarczyk Chief football writer, Przeglad Sportowy in Poland
• Carl Worswick Football writer based in Colombia
• Michael Yokhin European football writer
• Víctor Zaferson Football scout & consultant, Diario de un Scout magazine in Peru
• Federico Zanon Football journalist working for Sky Sport and Eurosport in Italy
• Timofey Zinoviev Chief editor of Football.by in Belarus

How they made their choices

• Our judges were sent a longlist of more than 500 footballers drawn from leagues on every continent and asked one simple question: who have been the best male players in the world in 2017?

• 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 male 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 raw score.

• To minimise the influence of outliers in the list, the highest score awarded to a player was then deducted to give a final score.

• A player needed to receive votes from at least five judges to qualify for the list.

• 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.