I'm not sure the page is as easily accessible for 2002 as for 1998 so I'll list the extra players named as on Wikipedia: Again there were seven reserves. This time, they were Iker Casillas, Cafu, Dietmar Hamann, Joaquín, Hidetoshi Nakata Landon Donovan and Marc Wilmots.[49]
Continuing with liberos: Laurent Blanc (1998) (Average rating of 6.30 from Italian newspapers - joint 38th player in list tied with Cafu and others) http://football-ratings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/average-ratings-world-cup-1998.html (Average rating of 3.00 from Kicker - joint 68th in list) http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/wm/spiele/weltmeisterschaft/1998/topspieler-der-saison.html (France Footballs average rating - 3.75 with best of 4/6 vs S.Africa, Paraguay and Italy, excluding the Croatia game where he got a red card and an automatic zero rating) Daniel Passarella (1978) (All-Star team member) (France Footballs average rating - 3.86 with best of 4/6 vs Hungary, France, Italy, Poland, Peru and the Netherlands)
Centre-backs: Marcel Desailly (1998) (All-Star squad member) (Average rating of 6.65 from Italian newspapers - joint 11th in list - see link under Blanc) (Average rating of 2.64 from Kicker - joint 32nd in list - see link under Blanc) (France Footballs average rating - 4.67 with best of 5/6 vs S.Africa, Saudi Arabia, Denmark and Italy; excluding game vs Brazil where he was sent off and received an automatic zero) Elias Figueroa (1974) (France Footballs average rating - 4.33 with best of 5/6 vs East Germany)
Side-backs: Jorginho (1994) (All-Star team member) (Average rating from Italian newspapers - 6.45 - joint 27th in list) http://football-ratings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/average-ratings-world-cup-1994.html (France Footballs average rating - 3.33 with best of 4/6 vs Russia and USA) Wim Suurbier (1974) (France Footballs average rating - 4.14 with best of 5/6 vs Argentina) Nilton Santos (1958) (Regular in Team of Tournament/All Star team selections - also as per Wikipedia) http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...x-by-dr-friedebert-becker-1958.1346000/page-2 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MxbqcUh1SSAC&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=golden ball giuseppe meazza&source=bl&ots=jifKHSUETE&sig=AAZcgYsx4Kuju30sDJ7pi6hYNi8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCmoVChMIqdXrhoTqxgIVBboUCh347AYG#v=onepage&q=golden ball giuseppe meazza&f=false (Most votes in one as per the top link; I recall Gregoriak or someone posting that a publication had given him a maximum rating available in every game too) As we are a bit lacking in other ratings here is a video I notice has been recently made of him vs France: Maxime Bossis (1982) (France Football average rating - 3.83 with best of 5/6 vs West Germany) Andreas Brehme (1990) (All-Star team member) (Top rated player by Castrol for 1990) (Average rating of 6.75 from Italian newspapers - 3rd player on list) (France Footballs average rating - 4.33 with best of 5/6 vs the Netherlands, England and Argentina)
Box-to-box (various types) midfielders: Falcao (1982) (All-Star team member) (Silver Ball) (France Footballs average rating - 4.8 with best of 6/6 vs Argentina) Johan Neeskens (1974) (All-Star team member) (France Footballs average rating - 4.58 with best of 6/6 vs Brazil) Bobby Charlton (1966) (Player of the tournament award) (All-Star team member)
Playmakers: Zinedine Zidane (2006) (All-Star team member) (Golden Ball) (Average rating from Kicker and Placar combined - 6.79 - 9th player in list) http://football-ratings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/memory-lane-2006-world-cup.html (Average from Kicker alone using their normal scale with lowest scores best - 2.75 - joint 31st in list) http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/wm/spiele/weltmeisterschaft/2006/topspieler-der-saison.html (France Footballs average rating - 4.2 with best of 6/6 vs Brazil) *Actually very similar to 1998 average though then he did miss a few games Kazimierz Deyna (1974) (All-Star team member) (France Footballs average rating - 4.43 with best of 5/6 vs Argentina, Haiti and Italy) Didi (1958) (Widely declared best player as indicated above, awarded that title at least in South America and retrospectively called the Golden Ball winner) (All-Star team member)
Trequaristas: Michael Laudrup (1986) (Average rating from Italian newspapers - 6.88 - joint 7th in list) http://football-ratings.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/average-ratings-world-cup-1986.html (France Footballs average rating - 4.00 with best of 6/6 vs Uruguay) Zico (1982) (All-Star team member) (France Footballs average rating - 4.8 with best of 5/6 vs USSR, Scotland, New Zealand and Argentina)
Central forwards: Roberto Baggio (1994) (All-Star team member) (Silver Ball) (Average rating from Italian newspapers - 6.75 - joint 5th on list - see link under Jorginho) (France Footballs average rating - 3.67 with best of 5/6 vs Spain and Bulgaria) Romario (1994) (All-Star team member) (Golden Ball) (Top rated player by Castrol for 1994) (Average rating from Italian newspapers - 6.85 - 3rd on list - see link under Jorginho) (France Footballs average rating - 3.71 with best of 4/6 vs Russia, Sweden, USA, Netherlands and Sweden) Preben Elkjaer (1986) (All-Star team member) (Bronze ball) (Average rating from Italian newspaper/s - 7.25 - 3rd in list - see link under Laudrup) (France Footballs average rating - 4.5 with best of 6/6 vs Uruguay) Ronaldo (1998) (All-Star team member) (Golden ball) (Average rating from Italian newspapers - 6.40 - joint 28th in list - see link under Blanc) (Average rating from Kicker - 3.14 - joint 111th in list - see link under Blanc) (France Footballs average rating - 3.29 with best of 4/6 vs Morocco, Denmark and the Netherlands)
So, like I say feel free to post more or ask me to check more (although 2010 ratings are 1-10 and hard to compare/convert, and I haven't seen 2014 ratings - not on the everyfourthyear.com website anyway) but of the ones I've checked these are the top 10 average ratings by France Football for a single World Cup between 1970 and 2006: 1 - Lilian Thuram (1998) - 5.00 out of 6 2 - Jairzinho (1970) - 4.83 3= Falcao (1982) - 4.80 3= Zico (1982) - 4.80 4 - Gerson (1970) - 4.75 5= Franz Beckenbauer (1974) - 4.71 5= Johan Cruyff (1974) - 4.71 5= Diego Maradona (1986) - 4.71 9= Pele (1970) - 4.67 9= Marcel Desailly (1998) (if discounting his Brazil match and not scoring it 0, otherwise Johan Neeskens from 1974 makes it in the top ten with 4.58) - 4.67 Of course it's hard to know what effect different eras had (with new journalists scoring the games - not the same ones in 1970 as in 2006 surely) and anyway I would think they might well pick out Maradona for example or maybe Cruyff as the best themselves if they weren't sticking to using their average scores. Cruyff has the most 6/6 ratings I think with two. Maradona had an average of 8.00 from the Italian newspaper/s, which is the highest since 1986 (but different newspapers are used in different years too). Actually, re-checking Manuel Amoros for 1986 I see he'd be up in second in that list with 4.86 (he wasn't so high up for the Italian newspaper/s used on football-ratings BlogSpot for 1986 itself). So if we allow him to be left-back (he was used on both sides) he'd be in a France Football (1970-2006) all-star XI looking like this: Preud'homme 1994 (4.5); Thuram 1998 (5.0), Beckenbauer 1974 (4.71), Desailly 1998 (4.67) (otherwise Cannavaro 2006 with 4.57), Amoros 1986 (4.86); Falcao 1982 (4.80), Neeskens 1974 (4.58) (or Gerson if it's ok to have another playmaker in the all-star team); Jairzinho 1970 (4.83), Zico 1982 (4.80), Maradona 1986 (4.71); Cruyff 1974 (4.71).
1. Maradona 1986 2. Cruyff 1974 3. Kempes 1978 4. Garrincha 1962 5. Romario 1994 Haven't really thought that through a whole lot, so I'm not absolutely certain on the order, nor am I certain that there's not a performance I missed that should sneak in. But the above seems about right to me.
Top 10 rated players by France Football for each world cup from 1970 on. Minimum of four games required. 1970 1. Jairzinho (Brazil) 4.83 (5,6,5,4,5,4) 2. Gerson (Brazil) 4.75 (6,4,4,5) 3. Pele (Brazil) 4.67 (6,4,4,4,5,5) 3. Tostao (Brazil) 4.67 (4,5,4,5,5,5) 3. Clodoaldo (Brazil) 4.67 (4,5,5,5,5,4) 6. Rivelino (Brazil) 4.6 (5,4,5,5,4) 7. Carlos Alberto (Brazil) 4.5 (4,4,5,5,4,5) 7. Teofilo Cubillas (Peru) 4.5 (5,4,4,5) 9. Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) 4.4 (3,4,4,6,5) 10. Ladislao Mazurkiewicz (Uruguay) 4.33 (4,4,4,5,4,5)
Excellent work Tom - I was too lazy to look at all players in all World Cups, but I'll look at your posts with interest to see if any players I didn't expect had very high averages and I think showing the top 10 for each year will help to show trends in top ratings (which then we'd have to try to analyse though in terms of if we think the ratings were more generous or the performances generally more impressive - 1970 is probably going to stack up well I think actually for average ratings awarded).
1974 1. Luis Pereira (Brazil) 4.83 (5,4,6,4,5,5) 2. Johan Cruyff (Netherlands ) 4.71 (5,6,5,6,3,5,3) 2. Franz Brckrnbauer (Germany) 4.71 (5,4,5,5,5,4,5) 4. Ralf Edstrom (Sweden) 4.67 (5,4,6,4,4,5) 5. Johan Neeskens (Netherlands) 4.57 (4,4,4,5,5,6,4) 5. Robert Gadocha (Poland) 4.57 (4,5,4,5,5,4,5) 7. Kazimierz Denya (Poland) 4.43 (5,5,5,4,4,4,4) 8. Ronnie Hellstrom (Sweden) 4.33 (4,5,5,4,4,4) 8. Josip Katalinski (Yugoslavia) 4.33 (4,5,4,5,4,4) 10. Gregorz Lato (Poland) 4.29 (4,5,5,4,4,4,4)
Pereira was certainly someone I overlooked then (not to say I would put him in my squads and forgot, but I didn't realise his average was quite so high). Interesting that he got a rating (and a 5/6!) vs the Dutch despite being sent off. There was a change of policy on that clearly, as later even cases like Laurent Blanc vs Croatia in 1998 (where I assume FF thought he shouldn't have even been sent off) got a 0/6.
I think as I calculated earlier and checked now though, Figueroa should make that top 10 with 4.33 (although just played 3 games and I'm not sure Tom isn't including only players who played more than that).
1978 1. Teofilo Cubillas (Peru) 4.5 (5,5,6,4,4,3) 2. Mario Kempes (Argentina) 4.43 (4,4,3,5,4,5,6) 3. Osvaldo Ardiles (Argentina) 4.33 (4,4,5,5,4,4) 3. Diego Tardelli (Italy) 4.33 (4,5,3,4,5,5) 3. Direcu (Brazil) 4.33 (4,4,5,4,4,5) 6. Ubaldo Fillol (Argentina) 4.29 (4,4,4,5,4,4,5) 6. Ruud Krol (Netherlands) 4.29 (4,5,4,3,4,5,5) 6. Johnny Rep (Netherlands) 4.29 (4,4,5,4,5,4,4) 9. Arie Haan (Netherlands) 4.17 (3,4,4,4,5,5) 9. Hector Chumpitaz (Peru) 4.17 (4,5,5,4,4,3)
1982 1. Zico (Brazil) 4.8 (5,5,5,5,4) 1. Falcao (Brazil 4.8 (4,5,4,6,5) 3. Osvaldo Ardiles (Argentina) 4.6 (4,5,5,4,5) 4. Gregorz Lato (Poland) 4.57 (4,5,6,5,5,4,3) 5. Alain Giresse (France) 4.5 (4,4,4,5,5,5) 6. Junior (Brazil) 4.4 (4,4,4,6,4) 6. Socrates (Brazil) 4.4 (4,5,4,5,4) 8. Diego Tardelli (Italy) 4.29 (4,4,4,5,4,4,5) 9. Toninnho Cerezo (Brazil) 4.25 (5,4,5,3) 9. Jean Tigana (France) 4.25 (5,4,4,4) Edit
Another addition there (1982) for Jean Tigana but he only had 4 ratings (plus a sub appearance vs England) - his average is 4.25 though. Lato's rating being higher in 1982 than 1974 is interesting I think, but I certainly recall some impressive play by him from 1982 even if Boniek was the star/key player at times like of course vs Belgium.
I'd somehow overlooked that before! Understandable anyway. Some players like Figueroa can have 3 impressive group games and then go home, but it is harder to maintain a better rating over more games and of course it's a better tournament for a player the more impressive games he can tally up and the further he and his team go.
One of the most impressive things about Lato's rating in 1982 is that the meaningless 3rd place game actually pulled him down overall. Without it he rated at 4.83 best of the tournament with more games played that Zico or Falcao as well.
Agree. Lato was fantastic, but second best in WC74 to Deyna and second best in WC82 to Boniek. I believe Deyna was also Poland's best player in WC78.
Yeah, maybe Deyna having his penalty saved by Fillol put a downer on his 1978 tournament at the last minute but he and the team weren't too far away again were they. I thought he played really well against Argentina in 1974 actually, but continued in good form for all of the tournament really (not that I've seen every minute of his play). Lato was a livewire in 1974 too though ofc, and a key forward player from the right side.
1986 1. Manuel Amoros (France) 4.86 (5,5,4,5,6,5,4) 2. Maxime Bossis (France) 4.83 (3,5,5,6,5,5) 3. Morten Olsen (Denmark) 4.75 (4,4,6,5) 4. Diego Maradona (Argentina) 4.71 (5,4,4,5,5,6,4) 5. Preben Elkjaer Larsen (Denmark) 4.5 (5,6,3,4) 5. Jorge Amado Nunes (Paraguay) 4.5 (4,4,5,5) 7. Yannick Stopyra (France) 4.4 (5,4,4,5,4) 8. Jorge Burruchaga (Argentina) 4.29 (4,4,4,4,4,5,5) 9. Alessandro Altobelli (Italy) 4.25 (5,4,5,3) 10. Andreas Brehme (Germany) 4.2 (3,4,4,5,5)