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France Football
European National Team of the Year Award Rankings

 

France Football European National Team of the Year Award Rankings
Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th England's Placing
1959 Hungary France Spain Sweden West Germany 13th
1960 U.S.S.R. Yugoslavia England
Czechoslovakia
Sweden
Switzerland
- - =3rd
1961 Austria U.S.S.R. Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
- England
Spain
=5th
1962 Czechoslovakia Italy
U.S.S.R.
West German
- - Hungary
Yugoslavia
7th
1963 Sweden Belgium
Italy
Yugoslavia
- - England
U.S.S.R.
Yugoslavia
=5th
1964 Hungary
Spain
- Czechoslovakia
U.S.S.R.
Italy
Portugal
=10th
1965 England Hungary Portugal Bulgaria
Italy
- 1st
1966 England Portugal
West Germany
- U.S.S.R. Hungary
Italy
1st
1967 U.S.S.R. Hungary
Italy
- England Bulgaria 4th
1968 West Germany Czechoslovakia England
Italy
U.S.S.R.
Yugoslavia
- - =3rd
1969 England Sweden Italy
West Germany
- Romania 1st
1970 Italy West Germany England
U.S.S.R.
- Sweden =3rd
Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th England's Placing
1971 England
U.S.S.R.
- West Germany Hungary Belgium
Romania
=1st
1972 West Germany Holland Belgium
Poland
- Portugal 13th
1973 Italy Sweden Yugoslavia East Germany
Poland
- =8th
1974 Holland
West Germany
- Poland Spain Belgium 6th
1975 Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia U.S.S.R. Wales
West Germany
- =6th
1976 West Germany Czechoslovakia East Germany
Holland
Hungary
- - 12th
1977 West Germany Holland Spain Austria
France
- =14th
1978 Holland Italy England
Poland
- France
Spain
=3rd
1979 Yugoslavia West Germany Austria Belgium
England
- =4th
1980 West Germany Belgium
U.S.S.R.
- Italy East Germany 6th
Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th England's Placing
1981 West Germany U.S.S.R.
Yugoslavia
- Hungary Scotland =15th
1982 Italy Poland England

West Germany
- - =3rd
1983 Denmark U.S.S.R. Spain Belgium
France
- =13th
1984 France Spain Denmark Portugal Hungary
West Germany
10th
1985 U.S.S.R. Denmark Spain Bulgaria France =6th
1986 Spain England West Germany France Italy
U.S.S.R.
2nd
1987 England Holland
Italy
- U.S.S.R. West Germany 1st
1988 Holland Italy U.S.S.R. West Germany
Yugoslavia
- =9th
1989 Holland Belgium Republic of  Ireland
Spain
- Yugoslavia 6th
1990 West Germany Republic of Ireland England
Italy
- France
Yugoslavia
=3rd
Year 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th England's Placing
1991 France Germany Holland England Czechoslovakia
Republic of Ireland
Switzerland
4th
1992 Denmark Germany Belgium
Republic of Ireland
- Bulgaria
Italy
Norway
=11th
1993 Germany Holland Italy
Spain
- Norway =17th
1994 Italy
Sweden
- Bulgaria Spain Romania =11th
1995 Spain Germany France Italy
Russia
Turkey
- =17th
1996 Germany France Czech Republic
England

Spain
- - =3rd
1997 Spain England Germany
Yugoslavia
- Italy 2nd
1998 France Croatia Holland Italy Yugoslavia 6th
1999 Norway Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Spain
- - - =15th
2000 France Italy Portugal Holland Russia 20th
2001 Spain Sweden England Italy France 3rd
2002 Germany Holland Spain Turkey Denmark 12th
2003 Czech Republic France Italy Greece England 5th

Notes

This prestigious award is made by the French football magazine France Football and is based on  a survey  of European football journalists.  To and including 2003, the award had been made 45 times.

England have won the award five times, one of them shared--four times under Alf Ramsey, in 1965, 1966, 1969 and 1971 (shared), and once under Bobby Robson, in 1987.

They have finished second twice, under Robson in 1986 and under Glenn Hoddle in 1987.  They have ended third eight times, all but the last time shared--under Ramsey in 1960 (shared), 1968 (shared) and 1970 (shared), under Ron Greenwood in 1978 (shared), under Greenwood and Robson in 1982 (shared), under Robson and Graham Taylor in  1990 (shared), under Terry Venables and Hoddle in 1996 (shared) and under Sven-Göran Eriksson in 2001.  They have finished fourth three times, sharing that spot on one occasion--under Ramsey in 1967, under Greenwood in 1979 (shared), and under Taylor in 1991.  They have ended fifth three times, sharing that place twice under Ramsey in 1961 and 1963 and occupying it alone under Eriksson in 2003.

Of the 45 times the award has been made, England have finished in the top five 21 times--twice under Winterbottom, eight times under Ramsey, twice under Greenwood, once under Greenwood/Robson, twice under Robson, once under Robson/Taylor, once under Taylor, once under Venables/Hoddle, once under Hoddle and twice under Eriksson.

They have finished in the top 10 an additional 11 times for a total of 32 times.  They have finished outside the top 10 on 13 occasions.

England regularly finished in the top 10 during Winterbottom's last years, climbed to the heighths under Ramsey, fell out of the top 10 under Revie, returned to the top five for a good part of Greenwood's reign, fell out of the top 10 again for the first half of Robson's tenure but recovered to regain several top-five placings during his last years, fell out of the top 10 once again under Graham Taylor, regained the top five only in the last part of Venables' reign, remained in the top five or just outside it under Hoddle, fell again under Keegan and once again regained the top five under Eriksson in 2001 and 2003, although falling back to 12th in 2002.

Only West Germany/Germany have won more team of the year awards than England and only Spain have won as many.  

Team of the Year Award Rankings by Team 
Team 1st [Shared] 2-5 6-10 Below 10 Top 5 Top 10
West Germany/Germany 11 [1] 17 11 6 28 39
England 5 [1] 16 11 13 21 32
Spain 5 [1] 14 14 12 19 33
France 4 [0] 13 7 21 17 24
Italy 4 [1] 22 7 12 26 33
Holland 4 [1] 9 7 25 13 20
U.S.S.R. 4 [1] - - - - -
Czechoslovakia 3 [0] - - - - -
Denmark 2 [0] - - - - -
Hungary 2 [1] - - - - -
Sweden 2 [1] - - - - -
Austria 1 [0] - - - - -
Norway 1 [0] - - - - -
Yugoslavia 1 [0] - - - - -

Sources

All but the most recent information comes solely from records compiled by Erlan Manaschev, Erik Garin and José Luis Pierrend in the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistical Foundation [RSSSF| Archive.  We have relied on news accounts supplemented by the RSSSF materials for recent years.

Further Information

The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistical Foundation [RSSSF| Archive contains the yearly team rankings and useful overviews.

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