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.
This year, as I was discussing the Guardian’s top 100 footballers with Thiago Rabelo, a Brazilian football journalist who contributes to our coverage and also helps with judges for the list, he mentioned that Romário could be interested in taking part. I thought it may be too good to be true, but in mid-November his votes had arrived.
Not only that, Thiago managed to get Dunga on board, as well as Walter Casagrande, Juninho (x2) and other legends of the Brazilian game. From Germany, Didi Hamann said he would be happy to join compatriots Philipp Lahm and Thomas Hitzlsperger to be part of the voting panel.
