1).Xavi Hernandez: Fifa Ballon D’or

Arguably the best midfielder ever, no one can deny Xavi’s majesty. While it is no longer news that he was not third time lucky at the Fifa ballon d’or, you can’t help but wonder what would have happened if there had been no magical Messi. Xavi is the heart of Barcelona and Spain, when Xavi is not playing Barca look like talented school boys even with the diminutive Argentine playing. His critics will argue he doesn’t score nor assist much; yeah! except he averages over a hundred passes per game and has won everything there is to win except of course the Fifa ballon d’or and th confederations cup if you count it.

2).Ferenc Puskas: The 1954 World Cup

Caps 85 (84 goals)
Clubs Kispest Budapest , Honved Budapest, Real Madrid-Apps 262(242 goals)
The Hungarian ‘little canon’ is probably the best pure striker ever, i mean his statistics speaks for themselves.
3x European Cup, 1x Intercontinental Cup, 5x Spanish Championship , 1x Spanish Cup, 5x Hungarian Championship, 4x Top scorer Hungarian League, 4x Top scorer Spanish League.
With all this stats, he never won a world cup, the closest he came was in the 3 -2 loss of Hungary to Germany at the 1954 world cup, never mind he was also part of the all-conquering madrid squard which included Alfredo di Stefano that won 5 consecutive european cups(1956-1960)

3).Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima: The Uefa Champions League


Il Fenomeno (the phenomenon) one of the greatest footballers ever who perhaps will fondly be remembered for his 2002 world cup final exploits in which he turned in a performance of the highest quality and turned the legendary Oliver Kahn to ordinary. He owns the record for the most goals scored in a world cup (15), breaking Gerd Muller’s of 14 in 2006. He has won the most number of Fifa world player awards,tied with Zidane (3 each).
The phenomenon has turned out for clubsides barca, madrid, milan, inter milan, cruzeiro, psv, corinthians and made a total of 343 apps, scoring 242 times. For brazil, he has been capped 98 times scoring 62 goals.

4). Thierry Henry: The Ballon D’or

Titi va va voom is the record goalscorer of Arsenal football club having scored a total of 226 goals in 369 appearances before his fairytale return on monday. He has won everything there is to win in football, winning the world cup in 1998, euro 2002, as well as being part of the all-conquering Barcelona team that won all six trophies in 2009.

5). Johan Cruff: The 1974 World Cup


The architect of this Barcelona side . Everything Barca has become is down to his brilliance as a player and as an adviser. We can rightly say he gave us Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta, and of course Messi through his idea that Barca have a prototype of Ajax’s own academy (La masia). He was part of the star studded Ajax team that had won three european cups in a row 1971-1973 . The 1974 world cup was seen as the moment Holland was going to take its place among the great nations, and having thrashed Argentina 4-0 and Brazil 2-0, but despite taking a second minute lead in the final before West Germany had touched the ball they would go on to lose 2-1 to their bitter rivals.

source: http://shoutonpaper.com/featured/the-greatest-footballers-that-never-were

i dont understand this list.

[img]http://www.freesmileys.org/custom/image/grey%5E_%5Earial%5E_%5E0%5E_%5E0%5E_%5EBERCELONA FOR LIFE%5E_%5E.gif[/img]

Thierry Henry was never good enough to with the Ballon D'or,

The world cup 1998 - he was a back up striker to both Stephane Guivach and Christophe Duggary who got injured thats why Henry played and when Duggary was fit Henry was benched, Yes he did alot for Arsenal but when it matters he always come short, the further Arsenal gets in the Champions League the more likely he disappears, it took Zidane to come out of retirement when it looked like France might reach the 2006 World Cup.


Xavi - is an interesting one but remember he was the player of the tournament at EURO 2008, he is the heart beat of both Barca and Spain but when your looking for the WOW! moment am sorry Messi holds that candle.


Ferenc Puskas - I cant say much but I was led to believe that Di Stephano was the better of the 2 madrid stars

@OP i disagree to agree wit ur comment on Xavi. U mean he is better than Ronaldinho, Zinedine Zidane. He cannot match those two in terms of dribles, passess, scoring, skills and creativity. i saw this articule last week on goal.com and i concluded that the writter started watchin football in 2010

^
lmao!!

Messi did extremely well in South-Africa 2010 despite d fact he didn't score a goal, but He was instrumental to most of thier goals.