Three Dutch players make UEFA Top 20

5 March 2004

AMSTERDAM — Three Dutch football stars – Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten – have been named in the Top 20 best players in the history of European soccer.

UEFA asked fans in recent months to vote for the best players as part of the European football body’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The rankings within the Top 20 list will be announced on 10 March.

The world football organisation FIFA also produced a list of 125 best players on Thursday. The selection for the FIFA list was made by Brazilian soccer legend Pele.

UEFA left its list to fans, giving them the opportunity to name the 10 best players from various decades.

The UEFA Top 20 list in alphabetical order is as follows: Franco Baresi (Italy); Franz Beckenbauer (Germany); George Best (Northern Ireland); Bobby Charlton (England); Johan Cruyff (Netherlands); Alfredo Di Stefano (Spain); Eusebio (Portugal); Ruud Gullit (Netherlands); Kevin Keegan (England); Paolo Maldini (Italy); Lothar Matthaus (Germany); Gerd Muller (Germany); Michel Platini (France); Ferenc Puskas (Hungary); Paolo Rossi (Italy); Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany); Marco van Basten (Netherlands); Lev Yashin (Soviet Union); Zinedine Zidane (France) and Dino Zoff (Italy).

Subject: Dutch news