FIFA Order of Merit


The FIFA Order of Merit is the highest honour awarded by FIFA. The award is presented at the annual FIFA congress. It is normally awarded to people who are considered to have made a significant contribution to :association football.
At FIFA's centennial congress they made one award for every decade of their existence. These awards were also handed out to fans, organisations, clubs, and one to African Football. These were referred to as the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit.
The winner does not have to be directly involved with football to receive it. One such notable non-footballing personality was Nelson Mandela who won it for bringing South Africa back to international football.

Recipients

Personalities directly involved in football

Players

RecipientYearNationalityNotes
Franz Beckenbauer*1984, 2004Centennial Award in 2004
Bobby Charlton1984
Pelé1984, 2004Centennial Award in 2004
Dino Zoff1984
Lev Yashin1988
Antonio Carbajal1992
Stanley Matthews1992
Francisco Varallo1994
Alfredo Di Stéfano1994
Fritz Walter1994
Ferenc Puskás1994
Eusébio1994
Just Fontaine1994
Gunn Nyborg1994
Obdulio Varela1994
Zico1996
Bobby Moore1996
Salif Keita1996
Michelle Akers1998
Larbi Benbarek1998
Gilmar1998
Gerd Müller1998
Ivan Toplak2000
David Kipiani2002
Pradip Kumar Banerjee2004Centennial Award in 2004
Muhammad Umer2004Centennial Award in 2004
Hafizuddin Ahmed2004Centennial Award in 2004
Lee Ramoon2004
Paolo Maldini2008
Johan Cruyff*2010
Steve Sumner2010Centennial Award in 2004
Alcides Ghiggia2010

Managers

RecipientYearNationalityNotes
Franz Beckenbauer*1984, 2004Centennial Award in 2004
Helmut Schön1984
Mário Zagallo1992
Karl-Heinz Weigang1998
Miljan Miljanić*2002
Valeriy Lobanovskyi2003
Sein Hlaing2004
Bobby Robson2009Emerald Award
Kazimierz Górski*2006
Nodar Akhalkatsi2008
Johan Cruyff*2010
Winston Chung Fah2012
Óscar Tabárez2012

Administrators

RecipientYearNationalityNotes
Stanley Rous*1984
Mihajlo Andrejević1984
Paulo Machado de Carvalho1987
Ferdinand Hidalgo1987
Teófilo Salinas Fuller1987
Marat Gramov1987
João Lyra Filho1988
Pedro Escartín1988
Yidnekatchew Tessema1988
K. Ziauddin1992
Shizuo Fujita1992
Juan José Russo1992
Abdel Aziz Mostafa1992
Arthur George1994
Chen Chengda1994
Abdel Halim Mohamed1994
Gene Edwards1994
Vitali Smirnov1995
Maurice Burlaz1996
Henry Fok1998
Julio Grondona1998
Vyacheslav Koloskov1998
Bert Millichip1998
Guillermo Cañedo de la Bárcena1998
Abilio d'Almeida2000
Josep Lluís Núñez2000
Nabon Noor2000
Azrikam Miltchan2000
Horace Burrell2000
Faisal bin Fahd2000
Etubom Oyo Orok Oyo2000
Nikita Simonyan2000
Juan Antonio Samaranch2001
José Ermírio de Moraes Filho2002
Jim Fleming2002
Mohamed Khalil El Deeb2002
Santiago Bernabéu2002
Miljan Miljanić2002
Hans Ernst Bangerter2002
René Hüssy2002
Miljan Miljanić*2002
Johnny Warren2004Centennial Award in 2004
João Havelange2004Centennial Award in 2004
Jules Rimet2004Centennial Award in 2004
Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah2004
Jan Peeters2006
Issa Hayatou2006
Egidius Braun2006
Oscar Thamar Torres2006
Saburō Kawabuchi2006
Hamzah Abu Samah2006
Guyedre Wamedjo2006
Per Ravn Omdal2006
Kazimierz Górski*2006
Aleksei Paramonov2006
Alan Rothenberg2006
Nicolás Abumohor2008
Zhang Jilong2008
Isaac David Sasso Sasso2008
Nodar Akhalkatsi2008
Helen Leuthardt-Petermann2008
Leszek Rylski2009Ruby Award*
Lisle Austin2010
Holger Obermann2010
Junji Ogura2010
Molefi Oliphant2010
Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder2012
György Szepesi2012
Ahmad Shah of Pahang2012
Godfried Foli Ekue2012

'' *in diamond, ruby or emerald''