Top 15 Football Players Ever

check the video only with players of the last 20 years: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yHo3D-2Y9o&feature=youtu.be

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FINAL LIST (up to 2012):

01. Pelé
02. Maradona
03. Cruyff
04. Di Stefano
05. Puskas
06. Garrincha
07. Beckenbauer
08. Meazza
09. Zidane
10. Ronaldo
11. Van Basten
12. Romário
13. Eusébio
14. Platini
15. Gerd Müller

Well, this is a list of fifteen players only, so many people are left out;

# From my perception, these guys are REALLY the 15 greatest in the history. However, I DO NOT put the players in a fixed position: I place them in groups - and among them everything is debatable - as follow:


MYTHS: Pelé and Maradona.

The two main icons of football, the great references of the sport. Their names always share opinions on "who was the best", be it in fans, in former/current players or in journalists' opinions. Maradona won the World Cup with the best performance in all-time and transformed Napoli into a great team; Pelé is the all-time top winner of WCs and was the leader of Santos in the early 60s, one of the greatest teams ever.

Pelé stays ahead for two main reasons: he was more complete and had a longer period of hegemony.


KINGS: Cruyff, Di Stefano, Puskas, Garrincha and Beckenbauer.

The 5 players who can really be considered almost in Pelé/Maradona's level: Cruyff revolutionized the football; Puskas did something alike 20 years before; Di Stefano was one of the most complete ever; Garrincha won 1962 WC alone, similarly to Maradona; and Beckenbauer managed to be the best even playing as a defensor.

Why they are not in the first level: 1) because they didn't reach the same level of popularity and hadn't turn up into idols as Pelé & Diego did; 2) except for Beckenbauer, they haven't achieved the same success both in their clubs and national teams (in the case of the german, because of his field position, he shared his individual importance with Muller both in Bayern and West Germany).


PRINCES: Zidane, Meazza, Van Basten, Ronaldo, Eusébio, Romário, Platini and Gerd Müller.

All of them were fantastic, representing a lot for their countries. In my opinion, Zidane and Meazza are the most outstanding from these 8: Zizou against Brazil in 2006 is maybe the best individual match of the last 20 years, and Meazza won 2 out 2 WCs; The others were all sublime forwards and it's all a matter of preference to choose one or another.

Why they are not in the second group: even though they have reached a huge success through their carreers, they didn't contribute to the game the same way the previous seven did, in terms of history. And none of them could stablish a dominance as the first groups.

PS¹: Nowadays, I'd take George Best out of the 15 (and replace him by Gerd Müller, a player who achieved everything and was maybe the most prolific goalscorer of all-time - more than Pelé or Romário) because, despite his truly amazing talent, his carreer didn't last long, and also he had a short period on top.

PS²: Romário can be placed maybe on 11th or 12th position, fighting very hard with Van Basten and slightly below Ronaldo.
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§ I decided to have Lev Yashin out of the list in order to concentrate into the outfield players, but I will give him an hounor mentioning, because he is and will always be the best goalkeeper of all-time.

§ I deeply believe that Lionel Messi could already be easily placed among the 15, and that in the future he'll be remembered as one of the 10, maybe 5 greatest ever. However, once he is still 24 years old and might not achieve everything in his carreer, I still keep him out.

§ Other GIANTS that could be among the 20: George Best, Zico, Bobby Charlton, Roberto Baggio, Just Fontaine, Stanley Matthews, Lotthar Matthäus and Matthias Sindelar.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Pele
• Maradona
• Cruyff
• Puskas
• Di
• Stefano
• Beckenbauer
• Garrincha
• Zidane
• Giuseppe
• Meazza
• Ronaldo
• Fenomeno
• R9
• Romario
• Marco
• Van
• Basten
• George
• Best
• Eusebio
• Michel
• Platini
• Soccer
• Players
• Zico
• Gerd
• Muller
• Lothar
• Matthaus
• Stanley
• Matthews
• Bobby
• Charlton
• Lev
• Yashin
• Lionel
• Messi
• Roberto
• Baggio
• Football
• Futebol
• Fútbol
• Calccio

[7bcity]

SAN MARCO!!! if he could play more he would be best player ever

but he had to stop because of his ankle

what a shame Milan won the cup 4 times in a row because of him

[sennafanbr]

@7bcity he was really amazing! one of mmy top 5 favorite players, along with zidane, messi, puskas and cruyff!

[sennafanbr]

@sennafanbr and Maradona...

[062993820]

wer is messi

[sennafanbr]

@062993820 he is coming... I said in the text that probably he will be remembered as a top 5, but he is still only 24y9m old...

[91gaganchill]

1.pele 2.maradona 3.cryuff 4.di stefano 5.beckenbauer 6.garrincha 7.puskas 8.meazza 9.zidane 10.r9 11.van basten 12.eusebio 13.platini 14.zico 15.gerd muller

[sennafanbr]

@91gaganchill excelent list!

[lukio583]

@franxter911 gerd muller is not better than pele maradonna or cruyff so why would he be in the top 3

[ABOODY86931]

BEST 10 PELE BLATINE MARADONA ZICO BECKUNBUR RONALDINHO ZIDAN RONALDO BECKHAM DEL PIERO 

[SuperFootballKnowled]

wheres heskey lol