How the Guardian ranked the 100 best male footballers in the world 2025
Didi Hamann, Romário and Dunga were part of our 219-strong voting panel to decide who should make our list this year
If someone, back in 1994, had said that at one point in my life I would work on a project selecting the world’s best footballers together with Romário, I would not have believed them.
That summer I was living in Rosersberg, seeing Sweden make their way to a World Cup semi-final, watching the late games at the local Blå Laguna pizza restaurant. Tommy Svensson’s team finally came unstuck against a Brazil side not only containing the wonderful Romário, but also Bebeto, Dunga, Jorginho and Raí. Brazil went on to win the World Cup, beating Italy on penalties in the final.
