Association of Football Statisticians
Football statistical organisation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Association of Football Statisticians (AFS) is an organisation which collates the historical and statistical records for domestic and international association football.[1][2] It operates the website 11v11.com.[3][4] The AFS was founded in 1979.[5] It has published all-time world ranking lists which are not based on subjective opinion or polls, but on an objective data-driven computed assessments according to career achievements.
History
The organisation is located in London. In the beginning, the AFS published a monthly newsletter under the name The Football Experts. This soon grew into a full-fledged magazine, which was published four times a year. Currently, the AFS is working on the Football Genome Project, a project that aims to bring together all match and player statistics since the inception of professional football. In addition, an extensive photo collection is also being worked on aiming at covering the entire football, while the AFS regularly publishes articles and lists based on statistical research. The publication of the World Ranking lists started in 2007.
Lists
Top-100 (2007)
In November 2007, AFS announced the Top100 players of all time making a ranking with the players receiving points according to goals scored (for midfielders and forwards), matches without conceding a goal (for defenders and goalkeepers), titles won, matches played as captain etc. The top 100 players of this ranking are listed below.
| Rank | Player | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pelé |  Brazil |
| 2 | Ronaldo | Brazil |
| 3 | Romário | Brazil |
| 4 | Luís Figo |  Portugal |
| 5 | Zinedine Zidane |  France |
| 6 | Diego Maradona |  Argentina |
| 7 | Lothar Matthaus |  Germany |
| 8 | Gerd Müller | Germany |
| 9 | Franz Beckenbauer | Germany |
| 10 | Cafu | Brazil |
| 11 | Roberto Carlos | Brazil |
| 12 | Marco van Basten |  Netherlands |
| 13 | Michel Platini | France |
| 14 | Rivaldo | Brazil |
| 15 | Paolo Maldini |  Italy |
| 16 | Zico | Brazil |
| 17 | Raúl González |  Spain |
| 18 | Ruud Gullit | Netherlands |
| 19 | Eusébio | Portugal |
| 20 | Ferenc Puskas |  Hungary |
Top-50 (2017)
The Top-50 list was first published in August 2014 as a Top-100,[7] but it is officially presented as the 2017 edition.
In the original 2014 edition the nation with the most players in the top 100 was Germany with 14, followed closely by Spain and the Netherlands with 12 each. France and Brazil both had 11, Italy 9 and England just 6. Africa had 3 players (Ivory Coast's Drogba, Eto’o from Cameroon and Kanu of Nigeria), CONCACAF 2 (Landon Donovan of USA and Mexican Rafael Marquez) and Asia one (Ali Daei of Iran).
| Rank | Player | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronaldo | Brazil |
| 2 | Pelé | Brazil |
| 3 | Cafu | Brazil |
| 4 | Zinedine Zidane | France |
| 5 | Lionel Messi | Argentina |
| 6 | Lothar Matthaus | Germany |
| 7 | Roberto Carlos | Brazil |
| 8 | Xavi | Spain |
| 9 | Romario | Brazil |
| 10 | Franz Beckenbauer | Germany |
| 11 | Luis Figo | Portugal |
| 12 | Diego Maradona | Argentina |
| 13 | Gerd Muller | Germany |
| 14 | Paolo Maldini | Italy |
| 15 | Iker Casillas | Spain |
| 16 | Raúl González | Spain |
| 17 | Thierry Henry | France |
| 18 | Rivaldo | Brazil |
| 19 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal |
| 20 | Marco van Basten | Netherlands |
Controversy
The AFS rankings rely vastly on career achievements and trophies and not a player's impact, while international appearances are crucial. This is why some outstanding footballers, such as George Best or Eric Cantona did not make the Top100 ranking as they won few trophies and had undistinguished international careers. Modern football offers more chances for players to succeed, and the AFS lists emphasise on the achievements of relatively recent players like Pele, Beckenbauer, Lionel Messi and Maradona who remain high on the ranking.