It’s that time of the year again. The time when a random (ok, let’s call it ‘well-respected’ if you prefer) football publication makes an “All Time Best” ranking that never fails to create controversy and offend a few people.
FourFourTwo did one of those last month, this time it’s the turn of the ‘Association of Football Statisticians’ to make its Top 100, after studying every fact and figure from the beautiful game over the past 100 years.
Points are given for goals scored by forwards and clean sheets for defenders. Players also get awarded marks for trophies won, captaincy and the level they played at throughout their career.
It should come as no big surprise to see Pelé at nº1 spot (the Brazilian legend totalling 16,799.44 points), but the names and rankings further down the list are bound to raise some eyebrows. The analysis of The Sun highlights the biggest problems in English Premiership terms:
- Manchester United legends George Best, Denis Law and Eric Cantona don’t make the top 100.
- Ali Daei’s 109 goals in 149 games for Iran puts him at 26th – ahead of players like Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho.
- Diego Maradona is ranked only 6th.
The publishers explain to The Sun that Best misses out because he never participated in a World Cup tournament, and had a fairly short career, while Ali Daei won his place by scoring 109 goals in 149 international matches for… Iran.
The Daily Star takes a look the UK players, and finds out that England’s top star is Bobby Charlton in 23rd spot, two places above Scotland’s Kenny Dalglish. David Beckham is 44th, Kevin Keegan at 46th, Gary Lineker 56th, Welsh ace Ryan Giggs 62nd, and Michael Owen 68th. Alan Shearer misses out of the top 100.
Further analysis of the ‘Best 100′ reveals that the top 3 trio is 100% Brazilian (with Ronaldo 2nd and Romario 3rd… and Cafu closing down the Auriverde block at 10th). Figo is 4th, Zidane 5th, and other big names such as Platini (13th), Maldini (15th), Zico (16th), Gullit (18th) and Cruyff (21st) are excluded from the Top 10.
TThe most represented nation is France (with 16 players), followed by Brazil (11), Italy and Germany (10). England totals 7, Argentina 5 (Messi not included).
Also, in terms of overall football career, the most represented European league is the Serie A. Indeed, most of the Top 100 players worked at one point or another in Italy: Serie A totals at least 58 players in that ranking, closely followed by La Liga (44), and the EPL (36). Other represented leagues include the Bundesliga (22), the French Ligue 1 (22), the Dutch Eredivisie (20), and the Portuguese Superliga (5). As for South America, the Campeonato Brasileiro counts 11 players while the Argentine Apertura/Clausura only 8 (most of the Brazilian/Argentine stars obviously beginning their career back home). An interesting note is the total of 13 players who played in the MLS/USL (mostly at the end of their careers), making North America the destination of choice for footballers close to retirement.
As for the Italians, aside from the aforementioned Paolo Maldini the remaining 9 players in the list are Paolo Rossi (43rd), Alessandro Costacurta (49th), Dino Zoff (51st), Alessandro Del Piero (60th), Demetrio Albertini (64th), Giacinto Facchetti (75th), Franco Baresi (77th), Gianni Rivera (78th) and Roberto Baggio (79th).
The Top 100 is revealed in the book Greatest Ever Footballers, on sale next week by Headline publishers for £14.99 (€21.50).
Here’s the full list. Any thoughts?
| 1 |  |
Pelé | (Brazil) |
| 2 |  |
Ronaldo | (Brazil) |
| 3 |  |
Romário | (Brazil) |
| 4 |  |
Luís Figo | (Portugal) |
| 5 |  |
Zinedine Zidane | (France) |
| 6 |  |
Diego Maradona | (Argentina) |
| 7 |  |
Lothar Matthäus | (Germany) |
| 8 |  |
Gerd Müller | (Germany) |
| 9 |  |
Franz Beckenbauer | (Germany) |
| 10 |  |
Cafu | (Brazil) |
.
| 11 | Roberto Carlos | (Brazil) |
| 12 | Marco van Basten | (Holland) |
| 13 | Michel Platini | (France) |
| 14 | Rivaldo | (Brazil) |
| 15 | Paolo Maldini | (Italy) |
| 16 | Zico | (Brazil) |
| 17 | Raúl | (Spain) |
| 18 | Ruud Gullit | (Holland) |
| 19 | Eusébio | (Portugal) |
| 20 | Ferenc Puskás | (Hungary) |
| 21 | Johan Cruyff | (Holland) |
| 22 | Alfredo di Stefano | (Argentina) |
| 23 | Bobby Charlton | (England) |
| 24 | Jürgen Klinsmann | (Ger) |
| 25 | Kenny Dalglish | (Scotland) |
| 26 | Ali Daei | (Iran) |
| 27 | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | (Ger) |
| 28 | Gabriel Batistuta | (Argentina) |
| 29 | Michael Laudrup | (Denmark) |
| 30 | Hristo Stoichkov | (Bulgaria) |
| 31 | Dennis Bergkamp | (Holland) |
| 32 | Frank Rijkaard | (Holland) |
| 33 | Thierry Henry | (France) |
| 34 | Pavel Nedved | (Czech Rep) |
| 35 | Gheorghe Hagi | (Romania) |
| 36 | Peter Schmeichel | (Denmark) |
| 37 | Andriy Shevchenko | (Ukraine) |
| 38 | Sepp Maier | (Germany) |
| 39 | Didier Deschamps | (France) |
| 40 | Lilian Thuram | (France) |
| 41 | Enzo Francescoli | (Uruguay) |
| 42 | Hakan Åžükür | (Turkey) |
| 43 | Paolo Rossi | (Italy) |
| 44 | David Beckham | (England) |
| 45 | Jean-Pierre Papin | (France) |
| 46 | Kevin Keegan | (England) |
| 47 | Marcel Desailly | (France) |
| 48 | Oliver Kahn | (Germany) |
| 49 | Alessandro Costacurta | (Ita) |
| 50 | Clarence Seedorf | (Holland) |
| 51 | Dino Zoff | (Italy) |
| 52 | Patrick Kluivert | (Holland) |
| 53 | Jari Litmanen | (Finland) |
| 54 | Daniel Passarella | (Arg) |
| 55 | Bixente Lizarazu | (France) |
| 56 | Gary Lineker | (England) |
| 57 | Ronaldinho | (Brazil) |
| 58 | Sylvain Wiltord | (France) |
| 59 | Bebeto | (Brazil) |
| 60 | Alessandro Del Piero | (Italy) |
| 61 | Davor Å uker | (Croatia) |
| 62 | Ryan Giggs | (Wales) |
| 63 | David Trezeguet | (France) |
| 64 | Demetrio Albertini | (Italy) |
| 65 | Patrick Vieira | (France) |
| 66 | Jürgen Kohler | (Germany) |
| 67 | Laurent Blanc | (France) |
| 68 | Michael Owen | (England) |
| 69 | Youri Djorkaeff | (France) |
| 70 | Frank De Boer | (Holland) |
| 71 | Emilio Butragueño | (Spain) |
| 72 | Hugo Sánchez | (Mexico) |
| 73 | Rudi Völler | (Germany) |
| 74 | Djalma Santos | (Brazil) |
| 75 | Giacinto Facchetti | (Italy) |
| 76 | Kanu | (Nigeria) |
| 77 | Franco Baresi | (Italy) |
| 78 | Gianni Rivera | (Italy) |
| 79 | Roberto Baggio | (Italy) |
| 80 | Oscar Ruggeri | (Argentina) |
| 81 | Gheorghe Popescu | (Romania) |
| 82 | Jon Dahl Tomasson | (Denmark) |
| 83 | Raymond Kopa | (France) |
| 84 | Carlos Valderrama | (Colombia) |
| 85 | Rui Costa | (Portugal) |
| 86 | Gary Neville | (England) |
| 87 | Edgar Davids | (Holland) |
| 88 | Claudio Taffarel | (Brazil) |
| 89 | Paul Scholes | (England) |
| 90 | Diego Simeone | (Argentina) |
| 91 | Bryan Robson | (England) |
| 92 | Roy Keane | (Rep of Ireland) |
| 93 | Brian Laudrup | (Denmark) |
| 94 | Henrik Larsson | (Sweden) |
| 95 | Fabien Barthez | (France) |
| 96 | Michael Ballack | (Germany) |
| 97 | Jan Koller | (Czech Rep) |
| 98 | Edwin van der Sar | (Holland) |
| 99 | Robert Pirès | (France) |
| 100 | Johan Neeskens | (Holland) |
Marco Pantanella writes on the mCalcio blog
this list is not true??!!!why roberto baggio is not the first 10 tp players??!!why fransesco totti is not in the list???this list is fake,
but being the name of ali daei is amazing,the best player of asia century
even in iran,no body takes ali daei serious,he scored over a 100 goals,true,but against bottom Asian teams in world cup or Asian Cup qualifiers.he doesn’t deserve a spot in this list,imo
IMBRAHIMOVIC where is he.. he is in top 25 omg suck list!
Ronaldo is number 1.
Why ?
Pele scored goals in BRAZIL, where he was protected.
He did not come to europe where it is much harder and play.
Ronaldo’s achievements are greater then peles.
Stop having rose tinted glasses and believeing pele was the best, because he was NOT better than Ronaldo.
Why not Maradona ?
Drug cheating performance enhancing player, Ronaldo did no such thing and his talent was their to see.
World player of the year twice by the age of 20, not even Messi, Zidane, Ronaldinho or any other footballer will achieve that feat.
People forget how good Ronaldo was.
1996-1999 and 2002-2005 Ronaldo was the best player to have ever played the game fact.
Everyone needs to sit and and take notice of this great because it is a disgrace to dismiss him and say he is not in the same class as Pele/Maradona.
Maldini and Cannavaro have gone on record as saying Ronaldo is the only player they have ever played against that reminds them of Maradona, and Maldini played against Maradona.
Zidane himself said Ronaldo is the best player to play the game, so who are you jokers to come here and say you know more than football coaches and players ?
ronaldo is smply da best
a lot of you guys say that this list is crap and one of the flaws most of you seem to point out is that ronaldo is second on the list but if this list was made purely based on talent and ability , ronaldo would be in the first spot by miles. i dont mind some of you objecting but i advice you watch a few videos of him in youtube ,then if you were completly truthful and unbias i’m sure you would agree with me
u guys are a little bit biased in ur judgement, a top 100 list without cantona and jay jay is not ok and i feel maradona is meant to be on top
wow! wat a list. my list
maradona
pele
zizu
platini
cantona
I BET ON ANYTHING if these ELEVEN played together even now, they will screw any team, anywhere, anytime
END of Discussion
Ryan Giggs
David Beckham
Paul Scholes
Roy Keane
Eric Cantona
Gary Neville
Petr Schmeichel
Wayne Rooney
Rio Ferdinand
Dennis Irwin
Jaap Stam
My god where is Cristiano Ronaldo??????????
Also forget to put Gerrad,kaka,cantona,Nesta,lampard,robben,nistelrooy,zico…..
Y THE HELL IS HENRIK LARSSON ALL THE WAY DOWN AT 94 WHEN HE IS ONE OF THE GREATEST FOOTBALL LEGENDS IN THA WORLD
Holy shit where is Cristiano ronaldo, geaorge best, maradona 6? ronaldo 2? what kinda crackhead are you ?!?!?!? my Nephew who is 5 years old could probably put together a better list. Or is this some poor attempt at a joke?
how on gods green earth can u have players like Sylvain Wiltord, kanu,beckham and Frank De Boer ahead of roy keane a man who drove united to so many leagues and cups and why is the likes of liam brady and nesta and many many more not some where up here…i think pele made this or something like this and it was terrible might be this and 4 that i hate him hes a sell out
also jhonney gilles:D
Poor poor way of determining who is the best. There were some great defenders and goalkeepers back in the day yet they don’t get a look in just because they didn’t score enough goals. Joke!
They should have split it up into sections: defenders, midfielder, strikers, wingers and used different statistics to find out who is the best in each position. That way it would have been done fairly. How can you compare a striker with a goal keeper?
well i dont believe in the list i think its a childsplay
well i thik it could go this way
1. Maradona
2. Pele
3. Cruyff
4. Platini
5. Zidane
6. Gerd muller
7. Rossi
8. Van Bastern
9. George Best
10.Ronaldinho
11.Beckenbuer
12.matheus
13.De stefano
14.Ronaldo
15.Cantona
I dont think Kanu can even appaer on Africans best 10 at all times whiles we have players like
ROGGER MILLER (cam.)GEORGE WEAH (lib.)ABEDI PELE (ghana)KALUSHA BUALLA (zam.)YEKINI (nig.)NFUM (ghana) etc PLEASE CHANGE THE LIST NOW