As part of the events marking UEFA’s Golden Jubilee, European football’s governing body has conducted a poll of its website users to establish the 50 best European players of the past 50 years.

List of nominations
There have been plenty of surveys conducted by various experts down the years, but this time the vote was taken by the people who really know the game – you, the fans. To help you, we assembled a list of 250 players from across the five decades of UEFA’s existence.

Favourite players
The nominations were based on performances in domestic and European club competitions, as well as UEFA European Championships and FIFA World Cups. Voters were asked to select their favourite ten players from each of the five decades of UEFA's existence.

Results
In the end, a total of nearly 150,000 people took part, producing in excess of 7,000,000 votes. The final 50 is a fascinating mix of era, playing position and nationality. The results will be revealed on uefa.com day by day over the coming weeks, culiminating in April with the announcement of the No1 European player of the past 50 years.

Maldini Opens Top Ten Countdown

Monday, 05 April 2004

Two of Italian football's most famous names, Paolo Maldini and Paolo Rossi, featured in UEFA's Jubilee poll last week along with the legendary Hungarian Ferenc Puskás.

European Cup winner
The countdown entered the top ten with Maldini, a four-times European Champion Clubs' Cup winner with AC Milan, ranked tenth in the poll. Puskás, a European Cup winner himself with Real Madrid CF, was in eleventh place and Rossi, Italy's hero in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, in 12th.

* Paolo Rossi
Rossi knew the best and worst that football can offer. He went from villain to hero in 1982 when just months after the end of a suspension for his alleged role in a match-fixing scandal, he struck six goals as Italy won the World Cup in Spain, including the first in the 3-1 final victory over the Federal Republic of Germany. Rossi, whose World Cup exploits earned him the European Footballer of the Year award, later won both the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the European Cup with Juventus FC. He received 91,194 votes.

* Ferenc Puskás
Puskás, the 'galloping major', was captain of the Hungary team who dominated the early 1950s, winning Olympic gold in 1952 and reaching the 1954 World Cup final where they lost to West Germany. Puskás scored 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary before quitting his country after the 1956 revolution. He joined Real Madrid where he won the European Cup in 1959/60, scoring four times in the 7-3 final defeat of Eintracht Frankfurt, and went on to play for Spain. Puskás collected 94,361 votes.

* Paolo Maldini
Maldini is a one-club man who, at 35, is still playing a key role at the heart of the Milan defence. Son of a former Milan captain, Cesare, he made his debut for the Rossoneri in 1985 and followed in his father's footsteps by winning the European Cup in 1989, 1990, 1994 and 2003, when he lifted the trophy as captain. He has also enjoyed numerous domestic successes with Milan and was a defensive cornerstone as Italy reached the finals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2000™, making 126 international appearances in total. His 95,497 votes made him the first player in the top ten.