98. Kaka (Brazil)
97. George Weah (Liberia-Africa)
94. Luis Figo
90. Roberto Carlos-, Wayne Rooney 84, Suarez, Romario, etc

6. Zinedine Zidane
There's a common conception in football that the most creative talents also tend to be the least efficient; that style comes at the expense of steel. It’s what constitutes the idea of the luxury player. Zidane was the most luxurious player possible and yet combined it with towering levels of competitive resolve: a heady cocktail of technique, grace, competitiveness and the uncanny ability to pick his moments with aplomb.

For a player whose basic function was to facilitate and create, and who was far from a prolific scorer, he was remarkably decisive – as evidenced by goals in two separate World Cup finals and an astonishing winner in a Champions League final for Real Madrid in 2002.

5. Johan Cruyff
Two months after making his first-team debut, Cruyff met former PE teacher Rinus Michels. Together, the pair invented Total Football. Wingers and overlapping full-backs kept the pitch wide, defenders were encouraged to bring the ball out from the back (if a midfielder dropped to cover the space) and the centre-forward – usually Cruyff – could roam free as Michels’ on-field conductor.

It worked. Cruyff won 20 major honours – including three successive European Cups from 1971 to 1973 – before a player revolt had him banished to Barcelona. Not content with revolutionising one club, El Salvador (the saviour) did so again, winning the Catalans’ first Liga title for 14 years. Nobody could match his speed, vision or eye for goal.

Part of arguably the best team never to win the World Cup in 1974 – the Netherlands lost 2-1 to West Germany in the final, having gone 1-0 up without the hosts touching the ball – Cruyff may not have reached his peak with his national team, but that only adds to his allure.

He retired in 1978, aged 31, and refused to go that summer’s World Cup. The following year, however, he was back, having lost the vast majority of his fortune in a pig farm venture in Catalonia. Spells in America for the Los Angeles Aztecs and Washington Diplomats followed, as did a trophy-laden return to Ajax and even a season at their bitter rivals Feyenoord.

“Cruyff always seemed to be in control. He made things happen,” said Rudi van Dantzig, a long-time collaborator of the great ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, himself a close friend of Cruyff’s. “There was something very dramatic about him, like a Greek drama – life or death, almost, even when they played ordinary Dutch League games.”

Career highlight: Getting a turn named after him, after confusing the hell out of Jan Olsson against Sweden at the 1974 World Cup.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo
When Ronaldo became the first player ever to score in five World Cups, two days after Argentina opened their 2022 campaign with a shock defeat to Saudi Arabia, he hoped it would be the start of his bid to stand above Lionel Messi forever. Instead, things unravelled irreparably in just a few weeks.

While Messi went on to win the World Cup, Ronaldo found himself dropped by Portugal, eliminated by Morocco, then seemingly unwanted by Europe’s top clubs after not so much burning his bridges at Manchester United, as blowing them to pieces with a barrage of Piers Morgan-loaded HIMARS missiles.

3. Diego Maradona
How do you separate the three greatest footballers of all time? Any of them would have been worthy winners, but we can only pick one.

Longevity, goals and trophies are where Lionel Messi and Pele arguably have the slight edge but, boy, Maradona was exciting. The Argentine was the rebel who produced possibly the most iconic individual goal ever scored, on the way to maybe the greatest World Cup triumph of all in 1986. A man who’s been deified in both his homeland and the Italian city of Naples.

2. Pele
At the age of 17, in 1958, Pele became the youngest player to feature in a World Cup final. He scored six times in Sweden, including a semi-final hat-trick and two more in the final. It was to be the first of three World Cup trophies he brought back home as an answer to those tears he saw running down his dad’s face.

His contribution in 1962 was minimised by injury, while the persistent fouling of him in 1966 made him swear that it would be his last World Cup. He didn’t stick to it. He was convinced into returning for a fourth tournament in 1970 and became part of one of the best attacks ever compiled – alongside Tostao, Jairzinho, Rivellino, Clodoaldo and Gerson. While Jairzinho top-scored, Pele added four more to his World Cup tally.

1. Lionel Messi
The history books will laud Messi, and yet their limitations will do him a disservice. In 20 years, young football fans will read about a messianic figure whose brilliance stunned the world, shattered a litany of records and started an era of dominance… but not until they watch the videos will they get an idea of what they have missed.

The quantity of his goals pale in comparison with their beauty. The goal of the month may not even make his top 20, be it a solo run, a bending free-kick, a cheeky lob, a golf putt finish or a thunderous missile.

By now most know his story: how expensive medicine for a growth hormone deficiency led him from his home town Rosario to Barcelona, where his 2004 debut started an era of brilliance. He has been voted into the world's top three players for 10 years, and in the top two for nine.

It’s one thing to reach the top, quite another to stay there. There are fans well into their 20s who have never known a world in which Messi is not spellbinding us on a weekly basis.

Only by evolution has Messi managed to maintain his level. The livewire dribbler has become a mature playmaker who now dictates play while still proving decisive in the final third. Never has Messi, now in his 30s, better balanced playmaking, dribbling and goalscoring.

As Javier Mascherano has said, he is three players in one. You could argue that one of the greatest goalscorers of all time is also the best passer, and you would not lack evidence to support your claim.

In the meantime, pundits, fans and writers will try to express his greatness with words and metaphors. They will all fail, as will the article you are reading now. The best we can do is listen to Pep Guardiola, who said: “Don’t write about him, don’t try to describe him. Just watch him.”

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/ranked-the-100-best-football-players-of-all-time/ar-AA12Mth3?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=a85d5c0703cd45868200a626531ae57a&ei=10

Messi, the Goat

What of the other list from 6 to 95 ?

I think this is a personal opinion

Messi is the goat but does that will come here to cry on behalf of Ronaldo,,, please carry your cry and go to hell

Ola9ja23:
I think this is a personal opinion

How can it be a personal Opinion?

The player with the highest goals contribution (Goals +Assists) ever is Messi.

The Player with highest Man of the Match Awards ever is Messi.

The Player with highest personal awards in football history is Messi.

The Player with highest number of trophies is Messi=44 trophies/laurels.

The player that won all national awards- Junior World Cup, Olympic Gold Medal, Continental tournament and World Cup is Messi.

If you have another player who beats this record, please mention that person.

N.B: Remember not to mention just one skill or one area of strength eg goals only or dribbling only.