Welcome to the Guardian's choice of the World Cup's top 100 footballers. Led by Lothar Matthäus and Zico, our international panel of 40 experts compiled a countdown of the finest players to grace the globe's greatest sporting event. You can see who the judges are and read how we compiled the list here. Starting with No1 in the top left corner, click on the individual players to read more about them.

• Barney Ronay on the difficulties and joys of selecting his list

• DATA: a full breakdown of how the judges voted

