Daily Mail Top 50 players ever

It's the same as in post 171 at the top of the current page, as comme's vote had been counted already but I'd established afterwards that Krol was meant to be in his top 100. Only the top 50 count in terms of points and Krol was already an honourable mention.

 

That's ok, the thread is maybe a bit harder to follow now with so many pages. I didn't think about clarifying the fact comme's vote was already counted before but now I have it's easier for everyone to follow. There's a summary of the top 5 for each voter a few pages back too (everyone who voted before comme I think, including yourself Dagoods). Thanks.

 

Would you like to add your top 50 to the votes James?

 

I understand what you're saying - it is impossible to be definitive about listing the top 50 players ever. In addition to comparing players in different era's and different positions there is the factor of how much of the players we've seen, individual opinion and obviously a lot of players will be closely matched anyway. Still, I think it's an interesting exercise. So you're welcome to put your 'best impression' of your top 50 (like we've all done I think) but it's ok if you'd prefer not to for the reasons you stated.

 

Gregoire, you agree with comme's top ten. You are welcome to add another 40 players and cast your vote if you like.

 

Ok, here's another (and final?) adjustment to my ranking. I felt if Pele's allowed to include 125 players in his top 100 then so can I . In bold are the additions I've decided to include that weren't in my previous top 100 or the additional HM's I listed. I'm still making my listing considering mainly peak form and with the exception of training advancements etc considering the older players on an equal playing field so not ranking them higher due to greatness in their own era. Probably some/a lot of you have used different criteria but I think for the purposes of this thread it's fine to have people interpreting top 50 differently - best 50 on peak form, greatest 50 on career basis, most talented 50 or whatever... Perhaps I'm still conservative in my ranking of the older legends but on the other hand it's hard to be totally convinced they should be as high as they are, particularly going back to the 30's and 40's. 4 of my new additions are from that era though, and Piola at least has a little footage to compliment the description of him. It's more minimal (at least what I've seen till now) for Moreno and Sindelar and I haven't found any moving footage for Bican. Nevertheless I'm assessing Bican to be an exceptional enough player from the knowledge I have. I can't be totally sure that my opinion would genuinely have him ahead of Ademir Marques De Menezes for example who is another older star who's on the verge of my 125 (again a small amount of footage plus articles etc) as a player I'd feel could've been a top star in any era. In the end I've added Gerson rather than Falcao - I could've gone the other way round or included both rather than Hassler. I've now mentioned 127 players in total I suppose. There's certainly more than one other who could be mentioned as very close to making my 125 - of course more players from well before I was born but also some more recent players. I've made a few other minor adjustments to my ranking - not many in the top 50 itself although I will reflect the small changes to that top 50 in the overall rankings for this thread.
Ranking to follow within an hour....
Another reason for adjusting my ranking is to bump the thread and advertise it so that a few more might add their top 50's (or more if desired but only the top 50 get points of course). Adjustments are still ok obviously too

 

1 Pele (Brazil)
2 Johan Cruyff (Holland)
3 Diego Maradona (Argentina)
4 Michel Platini (France)
5 George Best (N.Ireland)
6 Marco van Basten (Holland)
7 Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina)
8 Zinedine Zidane (France)
9 Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)
10 Eusebio (Portugal)
11 Bobby Charlton (England)
12 Michael Laudrup (Denmark)
13 Ronaldo (Brazil)
14 Ferenc Puskas (Hungary)
15 Ronaldinho (Brazil)
16 Zico (Brazil)
17 Kenny Dalglish (Scotland)
18 Luis Figo (Portugal)
19 Bobby Moore (England)
20 Dejan Savicevic (Yugoslavia)
21 George Weah (Liberia)
22 Dennis Bergkamp (Holland)
23 Roberto Baggio (Italy)
24 Thierry Henry (France)
25 Lothar Matthaus (Germany)
26 Lev Yashin (Soviet Union)
27 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany)
28 Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine)
29 Stanley Matthews (England)
30 Gerd Muller (Germany)
31 Franco Baresi (Italy)
32 Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany)
33 Tom Finney (England)
34 Peter Schmeichel (Denmark)
35 Garrincha (Brazil)
36 Ruud Gullit (Holland)
37 Paolo Maldini (Italy)
38 Gheorghe Hagi (Romania)
39 Kaka (Brazil)
40 Johan Neeskens (Holland)
41 Cafu (Brazil)
42 Matthias Sammer (Germany)
43 Francesco Totti (Italy)
44 Eric Cantona (France)
45 Raul (Spain)
46 Dragan Dzajic (Yugoslavia)
47 Robert Pires (France)
48 Jairzinho (Brazil)
49 Duncan Edwards (England)
50 Fernando Redondo (Argentina)
51 Gordon Banks (England)
52 Socrates (Brazil)
53 Frank Rijkaard (Holland)
54 Patrick Vieira (France)
55 Romario (Brazil)
56 Gary Lineker (England)
57 Brian Laudrup (Denmark)
58 David Beckham (England)
59 Carlos Alberto (Brazil)
60 Rivaldo (Brazil)
61 Lionel Messi (Argentina)
62 Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina)
63 Claudio Caniggia (Argentina)
64 Glenn Hoddle (England)
65 Paul Gascoigne (England)
66 Ryan Giggs (Wales)
67 Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic)
68 Gaetano Scirea (Italy)
69 Roberto Rivelino (Brazil)
70 Nandor Hidegkuti (Hungary)
71 Tostao (Brazil)
72 Raymond Kopa (France)
73 Gianni Rivera (Italy)
74 Just Fontaine (France)
75 Henrik Larsson (Sweden)
76 Didi (Brazil)
77 Giussepe Meazza (Italy)
78 Ladislao Kubala (Czechoslovakia/Hungary)
79 Jimmy Greaves (England)
80 Denis Law (Scotland)
81 Rob Rensenbrink (Holland)
82 Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
83 Mario Kempes (Argentina)
84 Enzo Scifo (Belgium)
85 Preben Elkjaer (Denmark)
86 Jan Ceulemans (Belgium)
87 John Barnes (England)
88 Kazimierz Deyna (Poland)
89 John Charles (Wales)
90 Gianfranco Zola (Italy)
91 Roger Milla (Cameroon)
92 John Robertson (Scotland)
93 Davor Suker (Croatia)
94 Peter Shilton (England)
95 Paolo Rossi (Italy)
96 Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria)
97 Pierre Littbarski (Germany)
98 Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
99 Juan Schiaffino (Uruguay)
100 Jean Tigana (France)
101 Nils Liedholm (Sweden)
102 Robinho (Brazil)
103 Ruud Krol (Holland)
104 Tommy Lawton (England)
105 Rinat Dasaev (Soviet Union)
106 Sandor Kocsis (Hungary)
107 Dragan Stojkovic (Yugoslavia)
108 Teofilo Cubillas (Peru)
109 Dino Zoff (Italy)
110 Josef Bican (Austria/Czechoslovakia)
111 Josef Masopust (Czechoslovakia)
112 Valentino Mazzola (Italy)
113 Jorginho (Brazil)
114 Neville Southall (Wales)
115 Sepp Maier (Germany)
116 Alessandro Nesta (Italy)
117 Florian Albert (Hungary)
118 Jari Litmanen (Finland)
119 Silvio Piola (Italy)
120 Matthias Sindelar (Austria)
121 Jose Manuel Moreno (Argentina)
122 Fernando Hierro (Spain)
123 Bixente Lizarazu (France)
124 Gerson (Brazil)
125 Thomas Hassler (Germany)

 

As a reminder and info for any newcomers to the thread, we count the top 50 for each voter (50pts for 1st place down to 1pt for 50th place). These are the current standings now, with the HM's being the players listed or mentioned by posters outside their top 50:
1 Pele 992
2 Diego Maradona 971
3 Johan Cruyff 954
4 Franz Beckenbauer 911
5 Alfredo Di Stéfano 906
6 Ferenc Puskás 875
7 Michel Platini 854
8 Garrincha 830
9 George Best 763
10 Ronaldo 745
11 Eusebio 744
12 Zico 723
13 Bobby Charlton 716
14 Zinedine Zidane 709
15 Gerd Müller 700
16 Marco van Basten 690
17 Lev Yashin 612
18 Paolo Maldini 589
19 Franco Baresi 516
20 Lothar Matthäus 514
21 Romario 487
22 Bobby Moore 484
23 Roberto Baggio 416
24 Didí 415
25 Stanley Matthews 406
26 Ruud Gullit 401
27 Giuseppe Meazza 374
28 Rivelino 346
29 José Manuel Moreno 283
30 Zizinho 265
31 Leonidas 240
32 Dino Zoff 235
33 Ronaldinho 228
34 Lionel Messi 222
35 Raymond Kopa 208
36 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 206
37= Fritz Walter 180
37= Gianni Rivera 180
39 Ladislao Kubala 169
40 Paolo Rossi 167
41 Thierry Henry 166
42 Matthias Sindelar 150
43 Daniel Passarella 141
44 Sandor Kocsis 121
45 Dennis Bergkamp 117
46 Mario Kempes 109
47 Rivaldo 106
48= Johan Neeskens 102
48= Michael Laudrup 102
50 Sandro Mazzola 99
51 Juan Alberto Schiaffino 95
52 Gabriel Batistuta 93
53 Peter Schmeichel 88
54 Kenny Dalglish 86
55 Teófilo Cubillas 83
56 Nilton Santos 80
57 Gordon Banks 78
58 Omar Sivori 77
59= Adolfo Pedernera 74
59= Giacinto Facchetti 74
61 George Weah 73
62 Uwe Seeler 72
63= Falcao 69
63= Luís Figo 69
65 Cafú 68
66 Luis Suarez 65
67 Carlos Alberto 63
68 Duncan Edwards 61
69 Roberto Carlos 59
70 Just Fontaine 57
71 Jozsef Bozsik 56
72 Kaká 55
73 Frank Rijkaard 54
74= Jairzinho 52
74= Gheorghe Hagi 52
76 Jürgen Klinsmann 46
77 Francesco Totti 45
78= Hector Scarone 43
78= Gaetano Scirea 43
80 Hristo Stoichkov 39
81 Josef Bican 38
82 Arsenio Erico 37
83 Luigi Riva 36
84 Matthias Sammer 35
85= Elías Figueroa 34
85= John Charles 34
85= Djalma Santos 34
88 Hugo Sanchez 32
89= Dejan Savicevic 31
89= Lilian Thuram 31
91 Valentino Mazzola 30
92= Gyorgy Sarosi 28
92= Tostao 28
92= Gunnar Nordahl 28
95= Andriy Shevchenko 27
95= Cesar Cueto 27
97= Dragan Dzajic 26
97= Ryan Giggs 26
99= Arthur Friedenreich 25
99= Junior 25
99= Bruno Conti 25
99= José Leandro Andrade 25
103 Jose Nasazzi 24
104 Gianluigi Buffon 23
105 Cristiano Ronaldo 21
106 Mario Zagallo 20
107= Tom Finney 18
107= Francisco Gento 18
109= Socrates 17
109= Domingos da Guia 17
111 Arjen Robben 16
112 Bebeto 15
113= Fabio Cannavaro 14
113= Xavi 14
115= Eric Cantona 12
115= Kevin Keegan 12
115= Piet Keizer 12
115= Claudio Gentile 12
115= Ernst Ocwirk 12
120 Berti Vogts 11
121 Ian Rush 10
122= Emilio Butragueño 9
122= Careca 9
124= Zbigniew Boniek 8
124= Sepp Maier 8
124= Leandro 8
124= Demetrio Albertini 8
128= Enzo Francescoli 7
128= Oliver Kahn 7
128= Alessandro Nesta 7
128= Nils Liedholm 7
132= Raul 6
132= Ruud van Nistelrooy 6
134= Edgar Davids 5
134= Ubaldo Fillol 5
136= Robert Pires 4
136= Gerson 4
136= Wesley Sneijder 4
139= Jorginho 3
139= Hector Chumpitaz 3
139= Roberto Donadoni 3
142= Telmo Zarra 2
142= Gary Lineker 2
142= David Trezegeut 2
142= Fernando Redondo 2
146= Deco 1
146= Marco Tardelli 1

HM's:
Pavel Nedved
Marcel Desailly
Denis Law
Josef Masopust
Jimmy Greaves
Kazimierz Deyna
Rob Rensenbrink
John Robertson
Roger Milla
Preben Elkjaer
Jean Tigana
Jan Ceulemans
Glenn Hoddle
Pierre Littbarski
John Barnes
Enzo Scifo
Claudio Caniggia
Paul Gascoigne
Gianfranco Zola
Davor Suker
Henrik Larsson
David Beckham
Robinho
Johnny Rep
Wolfgang Overath
Paul Breitner
Ademir Marques de Menezes
Angel Labruna
Javier Zanetti
Claude Makalele
Luis Monti
Fernando Peyroteo
Alberto Spencer
Ricardo Zamora
Paul van Himst
Wlodzmierz Lubanski
Abedi Pele
Florian Albert
Nandor Hidegkuti
Peter Shilton
Tommy Lawton
Ruud Krol
Renat Dasayev
Neville Southall
Dragan Stojkovic
Bixente Lizarazu
Fernando Hierro
Jari Litmanen
Silvio Piola
Jose Emilio Santamaria
Zoltan Czibor
Alex James
Roy Keane
Obdulio Varela
Danny Blanchflower
Mario Coluna
Billy Wright
Raimundo Orsi
Kurt Hamrin
Oleg Blokhin
Dixie Dean
Gunther Netzer
Patrick Vieira
Brian Laudrup
Thomas Hassler

 

Just for interest I'm going to see what the standings would be like if instead of using the Daily Mail's top 50 as the basis for the thread I had used a couple of top 30's from Youtube. I'll tally the 2 votes they would have provided plus all of the top 30's voted on this thread and see what the scores would look like:
PS The thread is still open for people to add new top 50's if they wish.

I already posted the 3 videos that make up the top 30 of a user called eckae on comme's Interesting Links thread (on main Beautiful Game forum and his profile but ask if you can't find it and I can re-post if necessary). I think it's maybe the most enjoyable 'greatest football players' compilation video I've come across as well as being a sensible group of players (about as much so as the Daily Mail's list I would think we'd all agree).

I've found another video without actual playing clips but also an interesting and educated top 30 as shown below:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mDn_MlrZDI"]Top 30 Football Players Ever - YouTube[/ame]
In summary (to save time watching it) the players were given the following placings:
1) Diego Maradona
2) Pele
3) George Best
4) Johan Cruyff
5) Ferenc Puskas
6) Alfredo Di Stefano
7) Eusebio
8) Franz Beckenbaur
9) Michel Platini
10) Zinedine Zidane
11) Garrincha
12) Zico
13) Ronaldo
14) Bobby Charlton
15) Gerd Muller
16) Lev Yashin
17) Tom Finney
18) Marco van Basten
19) Paolo Maldini
20) Gabriel Batistuta
21) Duncan Edwards
22) Eric Cantona
23) Roberto Baggio
24) Michael Laudrup
25) John Charles
26) Giussepe Meazza
27) Denis Law
28) Bobby Moore
29) Juan Schiaffino
30) Kenny Dalglish.

The other set of videos was made in 2007 and I think the user acknowledges that he's omitted some players that he considers among the best but weren't as good in terms of available footage (he has mentioned Moore and Maldini) so maybe there is a slight 'attackers' balance to the list. Also in terms of recent players the likes of Messi wouldn't have been considered over their full length of career so far although Ronaldinho would've been past his prime by the time the videos were posted.
Anyway his top 30 was:
1) Johan Cruyff
2) Diego Maradona
3) Pele
4) Zinedine Zidane
5) Alfredo Di Stefano
6) Ronaldo
7) Franz Beckenbaur
8) George Best
9) Michel Platini
10) Garrincha
11) Eusebio
12) Marco van Basten
13) Ferenc Puskas
14) Bobby Charlton
15) Romario
16) Lothar Matthaus
17) Roberto Baggio
18) Dennis Bergkamp
19) Gerd Muller
20) George Weah
21) Zico
22) Luis Figo
23) Kevin Keegan
24) Gianni Rivera
25) Andriy Shevchenko
26) Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
27) Hristo Stoichkov
28) Jimmy Johnstone
29) Oleg Blokhin
30) Michael Laudrup

So before our votes the standings would look like as follows:
1 Diego Maradona 59
2= Pele 57
2= Johan Cruyff 57
4= Alfredo Di Stefano 51
4= George Best 51
6 Zinedine Zidane 48
7 Franz Beckenbaur 47
8= Michel Platini 44
8= Ferenc Puskas 44
8= Eusebio 44
11 Ronaldo 43
12 Garrincha 41
13 Bobby Charlton 34
14 Marco van Basten 32
15 Zico 29
16 Gerd Muller 28
17 Roberto Baggio 22
18 Romario 16
19= Lev Yashin 15
19= Lothar Matthaus 15
21 Tom Finney 14
22 Dennis Bergkamp 13
23 Paolo Maldini 12
24= George Weah 11
24= Gabriel Batistuta 11
26 Duncan Edwards 10
27= Luis Figo 9
27= Eric Cantona 9
29= Michael Laudrup 8
29= Kevin Keegan 8
31 Gianni Rivera 7
32= Andriy Shevchenko 6
32= John Charles 6
34= Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 5
34= Giussepe Meazza 5
36= Denis Law 4
36= Hristo Stoichkov 4
38= Bobby Moore 3
38= Jimmy Johnstone 3
40= Juan Schiaffino 2
40= Oleg Blokhin 2
42 Kenny Dalglish 1.

Over the next days I'll add our votes (top 30's using our existing votes) and see how the standings look and how they compare to the standings of the main votes (top 50's).

 

Thanks. Actually if you or anyone else wants to add a top 30 on it's own rather than a top 50 then I could add that to the other top 30 votes as an additional vote. No problem if you still don't feel comfortable with naming 30 players though, but it is 20 less than required for the main voting in this thread so you might feel more confident with just 30 players to rank.

 

Hmm, looking back at this post perhaps 30 would be more suitable according to your own words but I'll leave it up to you .

 

Adding the top 30 from my own most recent vote:
1) Pele
2) Johan Cruyff
3) Diego Maradona
4) Michel Platini
5) George Best
6) Marco van Basten
7) Alfredo Di Stefano
8) Zinedine Zidane
9) Franz Beckenbaur
10) Eusebio
11) Bobby Charlton
12) Michael Laudrup
13) Ronaldo
14) Ferenc Puskas
15) Ronaldinho
16) Zico
17) Kenny Dalglish
18) Luis Figo
19) Bobby Moore
20) Dejan Savicevic
21) George Weah
22) Dennis Bergkamp
23) Roberto Baggio
24) Thierry Henry
25) Lothar Matthaus
26) Lev Yashin
27) Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
28) Andriy Shevchenko
29) Stanley Matthews
30) Gerd Muller

Standings for top 30 votes after mine:
1= Diego Maradona 87
1= Pele 87
3 Johan Cruyff 86
4 George Best 77
5 Alfredo Di Stefano 75
6= Zinedine Zidane 71
6= Michel Platini 71
8 Franz Beckenbaur 69
9 Eusebio 65
10= Ferenc Puskas 61
10= Ronaldo 61
12 Marco van Basten 57
13 Bobby Charlton 54
14 Zico 44
15 Garrincha 41
16 Roberto Baggio 30
17 Gerd Muller 29
18 Michael Laudrup 27
19= Luis Figo 22
19= Dennis Bergkamp 22
21= Lothar Matthaus 21
21= George Weah 21
23 Lev Yashin 20
24= Romario 16
24= Ronaldinho 16
26= Kenny Dalglish 15
26= Bobby Moore 15
28 Tom Finney 14
29 Paolo Maldini 12
30= Gabriel Batistuta 11
30= Dejan Savicevic 11
32 Duncan Edwards 10
33= Eric Cantona 9
33= Andriy Shevchenko 9
33= Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 9
36 Kevin Keegan 8
37= Gianni Rivera 7
37= Thierry Henry 7
39 John Charles 6
40 Giussepe Meazza 5
41= Denis Law 4
41= Hristo Stoichkov 4
43 Jimmy Johnstone 3
44= Juan Schiaffino 2
44= Oleg Blokhin 2
44= Stanley Matthews 2

HM's (counting as those between 31-50 on full votes):
Franco Baresi
Jurgen Klinsmann
Peter Schmeichel
Ruud Gullit
Gheorghe Hagi
Kaka
Johan Neeskens
Cafu
Matthias Sammer
Francesco Totti
Raul
Dragan Dzajic
Robert Pires
Jairzinho
Fernando Redondo

Next I'll add the current votes of the others to re-vote (Peru, Kyle and schwuppe I think) before working through everyone else's in order.

 

Thanks for your opinion .
As you can see the creator of one of the Youtube videos did have him at number 6 (if you want to see the video including some great goals by Ronaldo it is part 3 with the players from 10-1 - you can find it a few pages into comme's Interesting Links thread).
If you want to add a vote you can if you come up with 30 players, or even 50 for a full vote for the original topic. I guess maybe you're still finding out about a lot of the great players though including from the last few decades (especially from outside Brazil) even though you probably know more about current players than myself (and especially Brazilians ).

 

I'm going to check with Peru FC because this ranking as on one of schwuppe's threads may be his most recent that I should use for his current top 30/50:

 

I'll add these two votes onto the new top 30 vote results sometime today.

 

I appreciate your opinion and some people did think that before his injury Ronaldo was on course to be one of the very best ever; some like yourself think he was anyway based on his form at that time or even if judging his career as a whole because of his achievments in the World Cup.

I think you might be exagerating the gap between 60's defenders and modern day defenders though - there were more goals back then and even moreso in the 50's with more attacking formations but don't forget the likes of Franz Beckenbaur and Bobby Moore played in the 60's and were very fine defenders as well as great players generally. Some defenders I haven't included in my list but I understand were exceptional players include Djalma Santos, Nilton Santos (both Brazilian) and Elias Figueroa of Chile. As you can see the likes of these players have quite a few votes on this thread.

For my own vote I went more with prime form/ability than anything and didn't allow for greatness in own era preferring to try my best to assess the inherant qualities of the players so although I've been keenly learning about a lot of old players I do have quite a lot of recent players towards the top....however even though I'm not as familiar with Neymar as yourself and some others I do find it hard to believe he would've been effectively as good as Pele if they'd both played in the 60's or in the 00's for that matter. I think you might come to appreciate the qualities of older players more the more you learn about them, and even come to think that defending was better than you are thinking it was now .