Taken from the article below, soccernet.com, 100 Greatest ever players Link GREATEST EVER PLAYERS 1.Pele (Brazil) 2.Ronaldo (Brazil) 3.Romario (Brazil) 4.Luis Figo (Portugal) 5.Zinedine Zidane (France) 6.Diego Maradona (Argentina) 7.Lothar Matthaus (Germany) 8.Gerd Muller (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.Raul (Spain) 18.Ruud Gullit (Holland) 19.Eusebio (Portugal) 20.Ferenc Puskas (Hungary) 21.Johan Cruyff (Holland) 22.Alfredo di Stefano(Argentina) 23.Bobby Charlton (England) 24.Jurgen 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.Andrei Shevchenko (Ukraine) 38.Sepp Maier (Germany) 39.Didier Deschamps (France) 40.Lilian Thuram (France) 41.Enzo Francescoli (Uruguay) 42.Hakan Sukur (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.Ronaldhino (Brazil) 58.Sylvain Wiltord (France) 59.Bebeto (Brazil) 60.Alessandro Del Piero (Italy) 61.Davor Suker (Croatia) 62.Ryan Giggs (Wales) 63.David Trezeguet (France) 64.Demetrio Albertini (Italy) 65.Patrick Vieira (France) 66.Jurgen Kohler (Germany) 67.Laurent Blanc (France) 68.Michael Owen (England) 69.Youri Djorkaeff (France) 70.Frank De Boer (Holland) 71.Emilio Butragueno (Spain) 72.Hugo Sanchez (Mexico) 73.Rudi Voller (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 D. 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 Republic) 98.Edwin van der Sar (Holland) 99.Robert Pires (France) 100.Johan Neeskens (Holland) The best team in the world according to the Association of Football Statisticians* • GK - Peter Schmeichel • LB - Roberto Carlos • CB - Lothar Matthaus • CB - Franz Beckenbauer • RB - Cafu • LM - Johan Cruyff • CM - Zinedine Zidane • CM - Michel Platini • RM - Luis Figo • ST - Ronaldo • ST - Pele *Compiled by taking the highest ranked player relevant to the available positions in standard 4-4-2.
Figo better than Zidane and Maradona.No Ian Rush while Kanu and Jon Dahl Tommasson is in it Rush was a better player than at least half of the names in it, joke of a list lads put together a***ways lets not waste our time debating it.
Soccernet is ESPN's soccer website, enough said. Only suprised Lalas is not in the top 10. that muppet they have Tommy Smyth probably had a hand in it. Part of me suspects a lot of this is based performances in FIFA/Uefa Comps. Would explain Best's exclusion and dare I say it Cantona..... ludicris having Suker, Neville, Lizaru and Ali Daei.
Highest ranked ex-Liverpool is King Kenny at no.25! Henry at only 33, Figo better than Zidane and Maradona, there's loads wrong with this list!
that is one hell of a fxxked up list. klinsman ahead of king kenny and that scum neville even getting a mention makes me laugh
Apparently its compiled using purely statistics (converted into points) with international appearances, goals, medals, etc. earning most points and Im not sure if they include club stats. This is why Ali Daei is ranked so highly (hes scored a bagful of international goals) and Best isnt on the list. I wouldnt bother even looking at the whole list, might aswell pull names out of a hat!
Raul 17th ahead of the likes of Batistuta, Ronaldinho not even in the top 50. I agree with everyone on thinking how Roberto Carlos is so high and ahead of names like Van Basten & Cryuff!