100 Greatest Footballers of This Century
It was the ridicule Roy Hodgson received for nominating Javier Mascherano, Phillip Lahm and Manuel Neuer for the Ballon D'Or recently that prompted me to think in depth about this. How odd that, in a World Cup year, it should seem strange that he, an international manager, would highlight three people whose influence on the World Cup final and throughout the tournament was so evidently massive.
Is football really so shallow that it can't see past the glory boys? Well, yes, judging by the history of Ballon D'Or (or World Player of the Year as it was) Top 3s. It's almost all attackers or attacking midfielders. The only defensive players in the Top 3 in the last 25 years are Roberto Carlos, Oliver Kahn, Manuel Neuer and Fabio Cannavaro, with Cannavaro the only one to win.
Rugby's equivalent award is the opposite, going out of its way to tell us that the real stars of the game are not those prancing, point-scoring backs, but the big lumps upfront whom the casual rugby observer only ever sees scrabbling around on the ground.
The unspoken assumption in football is that it's the best players who are the star players, that there is a higher level of skill required to be a great attacker.
It's not my experience at all, growing up. We were earmarked for positions early on. I was an attacking player, but I had no illusions that I'd be remotely capable of being a good central defender, full back or central midfielder, that me and the other attackers were superior to defenders, they just had a different skill set. Why are the qualities of composure, strength, unflappability, consistency, heading, tackling and reading a game so undervalued when it comes to defining the traditional pantheon of footballing greats?
I actually think the skill level and importance is more evenly distributed in football than any number of other sports, like Rugby, American Football and Basketball, where the lynchpin/playmaker very often does tend to be the most versatile and talented, the one the team really can't do without.
So who really have been the most influential, most irreplaceable players of recent times? I had to set a time frame and this century seemed most natural, though I could have said "of the Champions League era" or "of the last 20 years", but the number of players I don't very clearly remember playing would have grown and grown.
So, it starts from the start of 2000. That means it misses France's World Cup win and it misses Man Utd's treble. Players are only judged on their work since 2000. This will account for several players having lower places than they deserve, not just the superstars of the 90s who carried only into the first few years of the 2000s, but also that particular generation of stalwarts whose careers took up two full decades, and who were all pretty marvellous throughout. They're the ones who are especially hard done by in this list.
I'm talking about the likes of Maldini, Del Piero, Giggs, Scholes, Zanetti, Totti. It's slightly different with someone like Brazilian Ronaldo, who created unforgettable memories, who defined the world of football. Ronaldo would be on this list purely on the back of 2002. With, say, Javier Zanetti, there aren't lots of moments where you go "oh, remember what Zanetti did then", it's just that, game after game, year after year, every game you saw him play, he was good, and the measure of his greatness increases exponentially for every extra year of being class.
So I'll put an asterisk by players who would rise far above many others in this list if this were "The Full and Comprehensive Greatest Players of All Time", a list which, you'll be thankful to hear, is beyond me (for now!) ...
Of course, there are also some still playing who we can accept will be far higher in years to come, but I can't put an asterisk by every name, that would be a little silly.
And what's the measure? Well, some account is taken of context, of standing, of journey travelled to get to where they got, but, perhaps sadly, football of the last 20 years has streamlined to the extent those diamonds in the rough are few and far between. The best players have ended up playing for the biggest clubs, most of the best players are South American and European, and based in Europe. African national football hasn't taken off on the world stage like people thought it would, in fact it's peaked a little. The same is probably true of Asian football.
Similarly, back in the day, there used to be these wonder footballers you'd just see once in a blue moon, say in a World Cup qualifier or in a UEFA Cup tie with Sparta Prague, and you might be looking at one of the great unknown footballers in the world and tell all your friends they're missing out on a cult hero. But now, if they were good enough, they'd be at a top club, they'd be a bigger star.
That's not to say that there haven't been stunning players at smaller clubs or from unsuccessful countries, the likes of Juan Roman Riquelme, Mohamed Zidan and Milos Krasic, who thrilled for a while, but if they were true modern greats, they'd have had more success, it's become as simple as that. No more Tom Finneys, not even Matt Le Tissiers.
So, by and large, I've thought about player's achievements and accolades, and their roles within the teams with which they won big prizes. I haven't used a specific points system, but imagine a rough points system where, say "Starring Role in Winning World Cup" is the maximum, say 20 points, and "being pretty good in a team that wins Champions League" is worth about 10, "winning FA Cup" is worth about 4 and "scoring a great goal in a qualifier I once saw" worth about 2. It goes without saying that "whether I think they were any good or not" is also a very important factor ...
Saying all that, the two "Best Players in the World Today" have, of course, not won a major international tournament. Messi nearly did. Remember in the World Cup Final last summer, he was through, just before half-time I think, and he fired his shot just the other side of the post. And so it was, and the chances are that was his chance. Messi's the best player I've ever seen, I'm pretty certain he's the best player there's ever been, but the width of a post prevented him from being The Greatest That Ever Lived. That's sport.
Here's my list of male footballers, then, from 100 to 1, with fewer surprises than I've led you to believe! Just missing out are Henrik Larsson (who'd have an asterisk), Nemanja Vidic, Juan Roman Riquelme, Lukas Podolski and Anatoliy Timoschuk.
I hope I haven't missed anyone, it's not impossible, I've put this together pretty quickly.
100 - Tim Howard (USA, goalkeeper)
99 - Roberto Carlos (Brazil, defender) *
98 - Rafael Marquez (Mexico, defender)
97 - Pablo Zabaleta (Argentina, defender)
96 - Park Ji-sung (South Korea, midfielder)
95 - Vincent Kompany (Belgium, defender)
94 - Luis Suarez (Uruguay, attacker)
93 - Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina, midfielder)
92 - Robbie Keane (Ireland, attacker)
91 - Neymar (Brazil, attacker)
90 - Marc Van Bommel (Netherlands, defender)
89 - Luka Modric (Croatia, midfielder)
88 - Stiliyan Petrov (Bulgaria, midfielder)
87 - Diego Forlan (Uruguay, attacker)
86 - Paolo Maldini (Italy, defender) *
85 - Giorgio Chiellini (Italy, defender)
84 - Mesut Ozil (Germany, midfielder)
83 - Michael Essien (Ghana, midfielder)
82 - Theo Zagorakis (Greece, midfielder)
81 - Sergio Busquets (Spain, midfielder)
80 - Daniele De Rossi (Italy, midfielder)
79 - Karim Benzema (France, attacker)
78 - Francesco Totti (Italy, attacker) *
77 - Filippo Inzaghi (Italy, attacker)
76 - David Silva (Spain, midfielder)
75 - Bixente Lizarazu (France, defender) *
74 - Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Netherlands, midfielder/defender)
73 - Fernando Torres (Spain, attacker)
72 - Dani Alves (Brazil, defender)
71 - Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands, attacker)
70 - Roberto Ayala (Argentina, defender)
69 - Robert Pires (France, midfielder)
68 - Paul Scholes (England, midfielder) *
67 - Rivaldo (Brazil, attacker) *
66 - Edwin Van der Sar (Netherlands, goalkeeper) *
65 - Luis Figo (Portugal, midfielder) *
64 - Steven Gerrard (England, midfielder)
63 - Angel Di Maria (Argentina, midfielder)
62 - Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal, defender)
61 - Cafu (Brazil, defender) *
60 - Alexis Sanchez (Chile, attacker)
59 - Alessandro Del Piero (Italy, attacker) *
58 - Oliver Kahn (Germany, goalkeeper) *
57 - Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic, midfielder) *
56 - Gilberto Silva (Brazil, midfielder)
55 - David Beckham (England, midfielder) *
54 - Per Mertesacker (Germany, defender)
53 - Ryan Giggs (Wales, midfielder) *
52 - Sergio Aguero (Argentina, attacker)
51 - Cesc Fabregas (Spain, midfielder)
50 - Rio Ferdinand (England, defender)
49 - Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine, attacker)
48 - Raul (Spain, attacker) *
47 - Rino Gattuso (Italy, midfielder)
46 - Patrick Vieira (France, midfielder) *
45 - Lilian Thuram (France, defender) *
44 - Michael Ballack (Germany, midfielder)
43 - Robin van Persie (Netherlands, attacker)
42 - Yaya Toure (Cote D'Ivoire, midfielder)
41 - Gerard Pique (Spain, defender)
40 - Claude Makelele (France, midfielder)
39 - Gareth Bale (Wales, midfielder)
38 - Clarence Seedorf (Netherlands, midfielder) *
37 - Manuel Neuer (Germany, goalkeeper)
36 - Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands, midfielder)
35 - Wayne Rooney (England, attacker)
34 - John Terry (England, defender)
33 - Alessandro Nesta (Italy, defender) *
32 - Franck Ribery (France, midfielder)
31 - Carles Puyol (Spain, defender)
30 - Ashley Cole (England, defender)
29 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, attacker)
28 - Kaka (Brazil, attacker)
27 - Thomas Muller (Germany, attacker)
26 - Xabi Alonso (Spain, midfielder)
25 - Miroslav Klose (Germany, attacker)
24 - Frank Lampard (England, midfielder)
23 - Sergio Ramos (Spain, defender)
22 - Didier Drogba (Cote D'Ivoire, attacker)
21 - Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy, defender)
20 - Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, attacker)
19 - Javier Zanetti (Argentina, defender/ midfielder) *
18 - Iker Casillas (Spain, goalkeeper)
17 - David Villa (Spain, attacker)
16 - Lucio (Brazil, defender)
15 - Javier Mascherano (Argentina, midfielder)
14 - Ronaldinho (Brazil, attacker)
13 - Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, midfielder)
12 - Zinedine Zidane (France, midfielder) *
11 - Andrea Pirlo (Italy, midfielder)
10 - Gianluigi Buffon (Italy, goalkeeper) *
9 - Andres Iniesta (Spain, midfielder)
8 - Arjen Robben (Netherlands, attacker)
7 - Ronaldo (Brazil, attacker) *
6 - Philipp Lahm (Germany, defender)
5 - Thierry Henry (France, attacker)
4 - Fabio Cannavaro (Italy, defender) *
3 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, attacker)
2 - Xavi (Spain, midfielder)
1 - Lionel Messi (Argentina, attacker)
So, yeah, I see that 5 of my Top 10 are attackers, but at least I've been a little more open-minded about it.
Is football really so shallow that it can't see past the glory boys? Well, yes, judging by the history of Ballon D'Or (or World Player of the Year as it was) Top 3s. It's almost all attackers or attacking midfielders. The only defensive players in the Top 3 in the last 25 years are Roberto Carlos, Oliver Kahn, Manuel Neuer and Fabio Cannavaro, with Cannavaro the only one to win.
Rugby's equivalent award is the opposite, going out of its way to tell us that the real stars of the game are not those prancing, point-scoring backs, but the big lumps upfront whom the casual rugby observer only ever sees scrabbling around on the ground.
The unspoken assumption in football is that it's the best players who are the star players, that there is a higher level of skill required to be a great attacker.
It's not my experience at all, growing up. We were earmarked for positions early on. I was an attacking player, but I had no illusions that I'd be remotely capable of being a good central defender, full back or central midfielder, that me and the other attackers were superior to defenders, they just had a different skill set. Why are the qualities of composure, strength, unflappability, consistency, heading, tackling and reading a game so undervalued when it comes to defining the traditional pantheon of footballing greats?
I actually think the skill level and importance is more evenly distributed in football than any number of other sports, like Rugby, American Football and Basketball, where the lynchpin/playmaker very often does tend to be the most versatile and talented, the one the team really can't do without.
So who really have been the most influential, most irreplaceable players of recent times? I had to set a time frame and this century seemed most natural, though I could have said "of the Champions League era" or "of the last 20 years", but the number of players I don't very clearly remember playing would have grown and grown.
So, it starts from the start of 2000. That means it misses France's World Cup win and it misses Man Utd's treble. Players are only judged on their work since 2000. This will account for several players having lower places than they deserve, not just the superstars of the 90s who carried only into the first few years of the 2000s, but also that particular generation of stalwarts whose careers took up two full decades, and who were all pretty marvellous throughout. They're the ones who are especially hard done by in this list.
I'm talking about the likes of Maldini, Del Piero, Giggs, Scholes, Zanetti, Totti. It's slightly different with someone like Brazilian Ronaldo, who created unforgettable memories, who defined the world of football. Ronaldo would be on this list purely on the back of 2002. With, say, Javier Zanetti, there aren't lots of moments where you go "oh, remember what Zanetti did then", it's just that, game after game, year after year, every game you saw him play, he was good, and the measure of his greatness increases exponentially for every extra year of being class.
So I'll put an asterisk by players who would rise far above many others in this list if this were "The Full and Comprehensive Greatest Players of All Time", a list which, you'll be thankful to hear, is beyond me (for now!) ...
Of course, there are also some still playing who we can accept will be far higher in years to come, but I can't put an asterisk by every name, that would be a little silly.
And what's the measure? Well, some account is taken of context, of standing, of journey travelled to get to where they got, but, perhaps sadly, football of the last 20 years has streamlined to the extent those diamonds in the rough are few and far between. The best players have ended up playing for the biggest clubs, most of the best players are South American and European, and based in Europe. African national football hasn't taken off on the world stage like people thought it would, in fact it's peaked a little. The same is probably true of Asian football.
Similarly, back in the day, there used to be these wonder footballers you'd just see once in a blue moon, say in a World Cup qualifier or in a UEFA Cup tie with Sparta Prague, and you might be looking at one of the great unknown footballers in the world and tell all your friends they're missing out on a cult hero. But now, if they were good enough, they'd be at a top club, they'd be a bigger star.
That's not to say that there haven't been stunning players at smaller clubs or from unsuccessful countries, the likes of Juan Roman Riquelme, Mohamed Zidan and Milos Krasic, who thrilled for a while, but if they were true modern greats, they'd have had more success, it's become as simple as that. No more Tom Finneys, not even Matt Le Tissiers.
So, by and large, I've thought about player's achievements and accolades, and their roles within the teams with which they won big prizes. I haven't used a specific points system, but imagine a rough points system where, say "Starring Role in Winning World Cup" is the maximum, say 20 points, and "being pretty good in a team that wins Champions League" is worth about 10, "winning FA Cup" is worth about 4 and "scoring a great goal in a qualifier I once saw" worth about 2. It goes without saying that "whether I think they were any good or not" is also a very important factor ...
Saying all that, the two "Best Players in the World Today" have, of course, not won a major international tournament. Messi nearly did. Remember in the World Cup Final last summer, he was through, just before half-time I think, and he fired his shot just the other side of the post. And so it was, and the chances are that was his chance. Messi's the best player I've ever seen, I'm pretty certain he's the best player there's ever been, but the width of a post prevented him from being The Greatest That Ever Lived. That's sport.
Here's my list of male footballers, then, from 100 to 1, with fewer surprises than I've led you to believe! Just missing out are Henrik Larsson (who'd have an asterisk), Nemanja Vidic, Juan Roman Riquelme, Lukas Podolski and Anatoliy Timoschuk.
I hope I haven't missed anyone, it's not impossible, I've put this together pretty quickly.
100 - Tim Howard (USA, goalkeeper)
99 - Roberto Carlos (Brazil, defender) *
98 - Rafael Marquez (Mexico, defender)
97 - Pablo Zabaleta (Argentina, defender)
96 - Park Ji-sung (South Korea, midfielder)
95 - Vincent Kompany (Belgium, defender)
94 - Luis Suarez (Uruguay, attacker)
93 - Maxi Rodriguez (Argentina, midfielder)
92 - Robbie Keane (Ireland, attacker)
91 - Neymar (Brazil, attacker)
90 - Marc Van Bommel (Netherlands, defender)
89 - Luka Modric (Croatia, midfielder)
88 - Stiliyan Petrov (Bulgaria, midfielder)
87 - Diego Forlan (Uruguay, attacker)
86 - Paolo Maldini (Italy, defender) *
85 - Giorgio Chiellini (Italy, defender)
84 - Mesut Ozil (Germany, midfielder)
83 - Michael Essien (Ghana, midfielder)
82 - Theo Zagorakis (Greece, midfielder)
81 - Sergio Busquets (Spain, midfielder)
80 - Daniele De Rossi (Italy, midfielder)
79 - Karim Benzema (France, attacker)
78 - Francesco Totti (Italy, attacker) *
77 - Filippo Inzaghi (Italy, attacker)
76 - David Silva (Spain, midfielder)
75 - Bixente Lizarazu (France, defender) *
74 - Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Netherlands, midfielder/defender)
73 - Fernando Torres (Spain, attacker)
72 - Dani Alves (Brazil, defender)
71 - Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands, attacker)
70 - Roberto Ayala (Argentina, defender)
69 - Robert Pires (France, midfielder)
68 - Paul Scholes (England, midfielder) *
67 - Rivaldo (Brazil, attacker) *
66 - Edwin Van der Sar (Netherlands, goalkeeper) *
65 - Luis Figo (Portugal, midfielder) *
64 - Steven Gerrard (England, midfielder)
63 - Angel Di Maria (Argentina, midfielder)
62 - Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal, defender)
61 - Cafu (Brazil, defender) *
60 - Alexis Sanchez (Chile, attacker)
59 - Alessandro Del Piero (Italy, attacker) *
58 - Oliver Kahn (Germany, goalkeeper) *
57 - Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic, midfielder) *
56 - Gilberto Silva (Brazil, midfielder)
55 - David Beckham (England, midfielder) *
54 - Per Mertesacker (Germany, defender)
53 - Ryan Giggs (Wales, midfielder) *
52 - Sergio Aguero (Argentina, attacker)
51 - Cesc Fabregas (Spain, midfielder)
50 - Rio Ferdinand (England, defender)
49 - Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine, attacker)
48 - Raul (Spain, attacker) *
47 - Rino Gattuso (Italy, midfielder)
46 - Patrick Vieira (France, midfielder) *
45 - Lilian Thuram (France, defender) *
44 - Michael Ballack (Germany, midfielder)
43 - Robin van Persie (Netherlands, attacker)
42 - Yaya Toure (Cote D'Ivoire, midfielder)
41 - Gerard Pique (Spain, defender)
40 - Claude Makelele (France, midfielder)
39 - Gareth Bale (Wales, midfielder)
38 - Clarence Seedorf (Netherlands, midfielder) *
37 - Manuel Neuer (Germany, goalkeeper)
36 - Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands, midfielder)
35 - Wayne Rooney (England, attacker)
34 - John Terry (England, defender)
33 - Alessandro Nesta (Italy, defender) *
32 - Franck Ribery (France, midfielder)
31 - Carles Puyol (Spain, defender)
30 - Ashley Cole (England, defender)
29 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden, attacker)
28 - Kaka (Brazil, attacker)
27 - Thomas Muller (Germany, attacker)
26 - Xabi Alonso (Spain, midfielder)
25 - Miroslav Klose (Germany, attacker)
24 - Frank Lampard (England, midfielder)
23 - Sergio Ramos (Spain, defender)
22 - Didier Drogba (Cote D'Ivoire, attacker)
21 - Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy, defender)
20 - Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon, attacker)
19 - Javier Zanetti (Argentina, defender/ midfielder) *
18 - Iker Casillas (Spain, goalkeeper)
17 - David Villa (Spain, attacker)
16 - Lucio (Brazil, defender)
15 - Javier Mascherano (Argentina, midfielder)
14 - Ronaldinho (Brazil, attacker)
13 - Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, midfielder)
12 - Zinedine Zidane (France, midfielder) *
11 - Andrea Pirlo (Italy, midfielder)
10 - Gianluigi Buffon (Italy, goalkeeper) *
9 - Andres Iniesta (Spain, midfielder)
8 - Arjen Robben (Netherlands, attacker)
7 - Ronaldo (Brazil, attacker) *
6 - Philipp Lahm (Germany, defender)
5 - Thierry Henry (France, attacker)
4 - Fabio Cannavaro (Italy, defender) *
3 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, attacker)
2 - Xavi (Spain, midfielder)
1 - Lionel Messi (Argentina, attacker)
So, yeah, I see that 5 of my Top 10 are attackers, but at least I've been a little more open-minded about it.
Wonderful stuff David.
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