RSSSF

International organization collecting football stats

Lars Aarhus
Kent Hedlundh
Karel Stokkermans

URLrsssf.orgLaunchedJanuary 1994; 30 years ago (1994-01), as Northern European Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (NERSSSF)Current statusActive

The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the world.

Website

The RSSSF website contains football-related statistics in the form of lists without commentary and it is maintained by volunteer contributors.^[1] It is considered one of "the most complete" publicly available statistical football databases in the world, and has virtually every piece of historical information.^[2]

This enterprise, according to its founders, was created in January 1994^[3] by three regulars of the Rec.Sport.Soccer (RSS) Usenet newsgroup: Lars Aarhus, Kent Hedlundh, and Karel Stokkermans. It was originally known as the "North European Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation", but the geographical reference was dropped as its membership from other regions grew.^{[citation needed]}

The RSSSF has members and contributors from all around the world and has spawned seven spin-off projects to more closely follow the leagues of that project's home country. The spin-off projects are dedicated to Albania, Brazil, Denmark, Norway, Romania, Uruguay, Venezuela and Egypt.^{[citation needed]} In November 2002, the Polish service 90minut.pl became the official branch of RSSSF Poland.^[4]

Player of the Year award

The Rec.Sport.Soccer Player of the Year Award was an annual football award presented by the organisation. First presented in 1992, the readers of the newsgroup voted in a format similar to that of the France Football Ballon d'Or award. It recognised the best player in the world and was discontinued after the 2005 edition.^[5]^{[non-primary source needed]}

Award winners^[5]
Year	Rank	Player	Team	Votes
1992	1st	Marco van Basten	AC Milan	207
	2nd	Hristo Stoichkov	Barcelona	87
	3rd	Peter Schmeichel	Manchester United	62

1993	1st	Roberto Baggio	Juventus	407
	2nd	Romário	Barcelona	295
	3rd	Dennis Bergkamp	Inter Milan	178

1994	1st	Romário	Barcelona	269
	2nd	Hristo Stoichkov	Barcelona	254
	3rd	Paolo Maldini	AC Milan	158

1995	1st	George Weah	AC Milan	153
	2nd	Paolo Maldini	AC Milan	102
	3rd	Patrick Kluivert	Ajax	88

1996	1st	Ronaldo	Barcelona	348
	2nd	Alan Shearer	Newcastle United	241
	3rd	Matthias Sammer	Borussia Dortmund	215

1997	1st	Ronaldo	Inter Milan	276
	2nd	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	129
	3rd	Gabriel Batistuta	Fiorentina	75

1998	1st	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	335
	2nd	Gabriel Batistuta	Fiorentina	175
	3rd	Lilian Thuram	Parma	136

1999	1st	Rivaldo	Barcelona	536
	2nd	David Beckham	Manchester United	313
	3rd	Andriy Shevchenko	AC Milan	186

2000	1st	Luís Figo	Real Madrid	648
	2nd	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	535
	3rd	Rivaldo	Barcelona	272

2001	1st	Michael Owen	Liverpool	288
	2nd	Luís Figo	Real Madrid	234
	3rd	Raúl	Real Madrid	216

2002	1st	Ronaldo	Real Madrid	447
	2nd	Roberto Carlos	Real Madrid	371
	3rd	Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid	341

2003	1st	Pavel Nedvěd	Juventus	818
	2nd	Thierry Henry	Arsenal	540
	3rd	Zinedine Zidane	Real Madrid	350

2004	1st	Ronaldinho	Barcelona	437
	2nd	Andriy Shevchenko	AC Milan	329
	3rd	Deco	Barcelona	297

2005	1st	Ronaldinho	Barcelona	482
	2nd	Frank Lampard	Chelsea	281
	3rd	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	191

Wins by player
Player	Winner	Second place	Third place
Ronaldo	3 (1996, 1997, 2002)	—	—
Ronaldinho	2 (2004, 2005)	—	—
Zinedine Zidane	1 (1998)	2 (1997, 2000)	2 (2002, 2003)
Romário	1 (1994)	1 (1993)	—
Luís Figo	1 (2000)	1 (2001)	—
Rivaldo	1 (1999)	—	1 (2000)
Marco van Basten	1 (1992)	—	—
Roberto Baggio	1 (1993)	—	—
George Weah	1 (1995)	—	—
Michael Owen	1 (2001)	—	—
Pavel Nedvěd	1 (2003)	—	—

Wins by nationality
Nationality	Players	Wins
Brazil	4	7
France	1	1
England	1	1
Portugal	1	1
Italy	1	1
Netherlands	1	1
Liberia	1	1
Czech Republic	1	1

Wins by club
Club	Players	Wins
Barcelona	4	5
Juventus	3	3
Real Madrid	2	2
AC Milan	2	2
Inter Milan	1	1
Liverpool	1	1

References

^ Finkelstein, Daniel (15 November 2003). "Weighting in vain for Fifa's ranking aficionados". The Times. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
^ Witzig, Richard (2006). The Global Art of Soccer. New Orleans: CusiBoy Publishing. p. 418. ISBN 0-977-66880-0.
^ Loek Groot (25 January 2008). Economics, Uncertainty and European Football: Trends in Competitive Balance. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-78100-823-2. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ "O stronie". www.90minut.pl. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Rec.sport.soccer Player of the Year Award". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2022.

External links

Official website

Association football

Chronology

Modern code	History Timeline First league First international Oldest clubs Oldest competitions Attempts to ban the sport
Ancestors	Caid Cuju Calcio Fiorentino English school games Episkyros Harpastum La soule Marn Grook Medieval Ba Camping Cnapan Cornish hurling Old Division Royal Shrovetide Uppies and Downies

Rules

Current	Away goals rule Ball Ball in/out Corner kick Duration of the match Equipment Field Fouls and misconduct Free kick Goal kick Goal difference Offside Penalty kick Penalty shoot-out Players Referee Assistants Scoring Start and restart Throw-in
Former	Sheffield rules Cambridge rules
Board	IFAB