Who are the top 10 footballers ever

1- Diego Maradona :

The greatest player of all time, no doubt for me. (More elaborate justification here) Nobody has influenced his teams like Maradona, and that’s the ultimate mission of any player. He led Napoli, who were 1 point away from relegationwhen he arrived, to their only two Serie A titles ever, when Serie A was the best and toughest league in the planet. He also won 5 out of 10 trophies the Italian team have won in their entire history. On international level, he almost single-handedly led Argentina to win World Cup 1986, with the best individual performance in the competition and probably in any competition. Even in terms of skills, Diego basically had the same skills today’s Messi has, just 30 years earlier, in addition to leadership and strong personality, which is the most significant difference between the two.

2- The Brazilian Ronaldo :

The Football Miracle. I don’t want to write too much here (You can right my whole reasoning here), but in short, Ronaldo is a player who was the best player when he should be the best “future talent”, revolutionized football when he should be learning it, made some of the greatest defenders ever look like kids when he was referred to as a “kid”, and beat the odds like no other except for the guy at #1.

Here are some numbers to give you a hint of how outstanding this player was :

• At 21 (By the end of 97–98 season), Ronaldo had an average of 0.88 goal/game in European competitions, having played across 3 different leagues with 3 different teams, none of which was a super side.
• Also at 21, Ronaldo scored 4 goals, made 3 assists and won the tournament’s best player award in World Cup 1998.
• He is the youngest ever to win the Ballon d’Or, winning it twice when he was 19–21 years old.
• Despite injuries ruining his career very early, Ronaldo won 3 Ballon d’Or awards, only less than Messi, who had far, far better circumstances.
• After suffering from 2 career ending injuries and missing nearly 3 yearsof football, Ronaldo came back and scored 8 in World Cup 2002. Still the highest record in one WC tournament since 1970.

I can go on but I think this is enough.

3- Pele :

I will admit that Pele’s case is a tricky one. It’s hard to give exact ranking for someone who played and lived in a drastically different circumstances than most of the rest. Still, winning 3 World Cups (practically 2, since Pele was injured in the first match in the 2nd one), being at the heart of one of the greatest sides ever, and having the goalscoring record Pele has forces you to rank him high. (And NO, he didn’t score so many because “offside didn’t exist”. Offside was always there and it was harder in Pele’s days than it’s now). Scoring 6 goals in 4 World Cup matches and being chosen as the tournament’s best player at 17 isn’t too bad either.

The following players (listed in alphabetical order) fill spots 4 to 7 in some order:

Alfredo Di Stefano :

The star of the all-dominating Real Madrid side which won 8 La Liga titles and 5European Cups. Di Stefano is frequently said to be the most complete player ever, being able to play in almost any position. He had strength, quickness, tactical sense, vision, and of course, goalscoring ability. In addition to his outstanding resume on club level, Di Stefano won Copa America with Argentina, playing his only 6 matches with the team (He played for 3 different national team). Unfortunately, the Real Madrid legend was never able to participate in a World Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo :

The perfectly-designed cyborg among the wizards. Ronaldo is the ultimate goalscoring machine and perhaps the best goalscorer ever, but it doesn’t stop there. At one point of his career (2012 to be exact), Ronaldo was one of the most complete footballers the world has ever seen. He definitely was the most complete attacking player I have ever watched live. He was strong, very fast, skillful, and lethal. In addition to his completeness as a goalscorer (elaborated on in the link above), he could cross like the best wingers, and he could easily dribble past players. Except for free-kicks, dribbling and pace to an extent, all of this is still true about Ronaldo. In addition to all that, CR7 has without a doubt the best off-the-ball movement in the world, if not ever. His genius off-the-ball movement is, in my opinion, the most important among his long list of skills.

Ronaldo is the first and only player ever to win everything there is win both individually and collectively with each of two teams (except for UEFA Super Cup*). On club level, Ronaldo won 4 UCL titles, 5 domestic leagues, and 11 other trophies. On international level, he led Portugal to their first major trophy ever, breaking/equaling several Euro records in the process. On individual level, Ronaldo has won 4 Ballon d’Or awards (5th is coming), 4 golden shoe awards (record), and 2 UEFA best player awards. He also holds the vast majority, and I mean the VAST majority, of UCL goalscoring records and is only second to Messi when it comes to some La Liga records, which is all the more impressive when you consider he operated from a wide position for his entire career until the 2016/17 season.

At this moment, I would put him over Messi, but the final word can only be given when both retire.

Johan Cruyff :

The genius and the revolutionary. Cruyff is widely considered as the most intelligent player to ever play the game. He was to total football, one of the biggest revolutions in football history, what Xavi Hernandez was to tiki-taka : The mastermind and the coach on the pitch. Because of his extraordinary game intelligence and skills, Cruyff could play in any attacking position, which was a necessary requirement in total football which depended on fluid movement and change in positions. Cruyff won a total of 10 domestic leagues with 3 different teams and 3 European Cups in a row, all coming with the legendary Ajax. He led Netherlands to the final of World Cup 1974, winning the best player of the tournament award. He also won the Ballon d’Or for a then-record 3 times.

Lionel Messi :

In terms of natural talent, Messi is up there with the Maradonas and Ronaldos (Brazilian). Football looks so natural to him and he makes everything look so easy. In addition to his natural “forward skills”, Messi improved his playmaking skills with every passing year. That resulted in Leo becoming one of the most complete players of all time (If I had to choose a year when that happened, I would say 2015). He could break defenses not only with his extraordinary dribbling, but also with his pin-point through balls. Maybe the most impressive thing about Messi is his near-flawless decision making. Regardless of how much space he has or at what speed he is running, Messi knows when to pass, when to dribble, and when to shoot. In terms of consistency, the only player who can rival or beat Messi is his “rival” : Cristiano Ronaldo. The two have dominated football for the most part of the last decade.

Messi’s resume, just like his skills, is extraordinary. Collectively, counting only the trophies he won as a regular starter, he won 3 UCL titles, 6 domestic leagues, and 16 other trophies. Individually, Messi has won a record 5 Ballon d’Or awards, a joint-record of 4 Golden Shoe awards and a joint-record 2 UEFA best player awards. He is also the king of La Liga when it comes to goalscoring records, and is only second to Ronaldo when it comes to UCL records.

Messi’s only downfall is his failure to win any major trophy outside the outstanding Barcelona team.

IF I had to rank the four at the moment, I would say : Cruyff/Ronaldo than Messi than Di Stefano. I am anything but sure about it though.

8- Franz Beckenbauer.

The revolutionary. That’s what Beckenbauer is most well-known for. He took the sweeper position from someone who is the last wall before the goalkeeper, someone who corrects all mistakes and clear wrong balls to a player that does all that in addition to starting attacks and even continuing them. This, needless to say, requires a large range of skills : Defensive skills, awareness, skill on the ball, excellent passing, excellent decision making.. etc and Franz had them all. He is called “Der Kaiser” (The Emperor) for a reason.

In terms of legacy, Beckenbauer’s is paralleled by a few. On club level, he won 5 Bundesliga titles (4 of them with Bayern), and 3 consecutive European Cups. On international level, he won Euro 1972 and World Cup 1974. Beckenbauer also won 2 Ballon d’Or awards despite being a midfielder.

I feel bad for putting him at 8, but the reason I didn’t rank him higher is that he won pretty much everything he won with another entry in the list, Gerd Muller, which definitely makes everything easier.

9- Xavi Hernandez (You read that right).

The heart, soul, and brain behind the Spanish domination between 2008 and 2012, both on club and international level. Just like Cruyff was total football personified, Xavi was tiki-taka personified. He was a workhorse, covering more distance than any other player in the team, he made an extremely high number of passes, 1+ pass/minute in his prime, he rarely lost the ball, and most importantly, he was extremely intelligent and understood spaces like few others, if any. His work rate, his eagle vision, his perfect unrivaled passing over all ranges, and his decision making made him the perfect conductor of tiki-taka.

Xavi has won 7 La Liga titles, 3 UCL titles, 2 Euro trophies, and 1 World Cup. He, in my opinion, deserved to win Ballon d'Or 2010. It's a shame that such a great never won a major individual award. Xavi playing football in the simplest waypossible with a play style that's not particularly eye-catching leads to people not giving him the credit he deserves. To me, he was the most important player in Spain and Barcelona reign over football.

You can watch long videos about how Xavi utilizes spaces and control the game, but nothing is more telling than his proven effect on his teams. Xavi's prime ended in 2012, with the final against Italy being his last outstanding game, and man did that hurt his teams ! Spain went from the all-dominating side which won 2 Euros and 1 World Cup in a row, the first team ever to do so, to a team that couldn't get through the group stages in the next World Cup and was near-humiliated by Italy in the following Euro. On club level, Barcelona went from the team that either won the UCL or narrowly exited it in the semis in the last 4 seasons, to a team that was absolutely humiliated by Bayern in the semi-final in 2013, and couldn't even reach the semi-final in the following year. If it wasn't for Enrique being smart enough to modify the tactics to adapt to Xavi's absence, playing a more direct game and shifting the weight of the team to the forward line, Barcelona could've been still suffering.

This is no coincidence for sure, and to have such a huge effect on such super teams, you have to be legendary at what you do.

10- Gerd Muller.

The Ultimate Poacher. Outside the area, Muller "couldn't play football". Inside the area, very, very few, if any, are better than him. One way or the other, Gerd Muller will score. Some of his goals might even look awkward, but goals are goals. His positioning is probably second to none, his first touch and his finishing were outstanding too. Because of that, Muller has an exactly 1 goal/game ratio in European Cup, the toughest club competition. His goalscoring rate at World Cup is even higher.

Muller won 5 Bundesliga titles, 3 consecutive European Cups, 1 European Championship, and 1 World Cup, all of which came with Beckenbauer. He also won the Ballon d'Or once.