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.
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| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Created by |
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| URL | rsssf.org |
| Launched | January 1994, as Northern European Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (NERSSSF) |
| Current status | Active |
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]
| 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) | — | — |
| 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 |
| Club | Players | Wins |
|---|---|---|
 Barcelona | 4 | 5 |
| Juventus | 3 | 3 |
| Real Madrid | 2 | 2 |
| AC Milan | 2 | 2 |
| Inter Milan | 1 | 1 |
| Liverpool | 1 | 1 |
