This is my own list. Similarity to Goalkeeper. Defenders are usually rated below offensive positions. This is researched for best DFs of the world since 1930 to present. Some ranking base on best ranking of DF in Ballon'Dor or FIFA world player of the year and even UEFA Champion League best defender. 1930 Jose Nasazzi 1931 Jacinto Quincoces 1932 Jacinto Quincoces 1933 Luis Monti 1934 Luis Monti 1935 Jose Nasazzi 1936 Paul Janes 1937 Paul Janes 1938 Domingos Da Guia 1939 Domingos Da Guia 1940 - 1946 No Assessment Due To WWII 1947 Niel Franklin 1948 Mario Rigamonti 1949 Niel Franklin 1950 Schubert Gambetta 1951 Billy Wright 1952 Billy Wright 1953 Nilton Santos 1954 Jose Santamaria 1955 Nilton Santos 1956 Nilton Santos 1957 Nilton Santos 1958 Jose Santamaria 1959 Jose Santamaria 1960 Djalma Santos 1961 Djalma Santos 1962 Karlheinz Schnellinger 1963 Karlheinz Schnellinger 1964 Silvio Marzolini 1965 Giacinto Facchetti 1966 Bobby Moore 1967 Giacinto Facchetti 1968 Giacinto Facchetti 1969 Carlos Alberto 1970 Bobby Moore 1971 Franz Beckenbauer 1972 Franz Beckenbauer 1973 Franz Beckenbauer 1974 Franz Beckenbauer 1975 Franz Beckenbauer 1976 Daniel Passarella 1977 Elias Figueroa 1978 Daniel Passarella 1979 Ruud Krol 1980 Daniel Passarella 1981 Ruud Krol 1982 Gaetano Scirea 1983 Gaetano Scirea 1984 Alan Hansen 1985 Gaetano Scirea 1986 Manuel Amoros 1987 Giuseppe Bergomi 1988 Frank Rijkaard 1989 Franco Baresi 1990 Andreas Brehme 1991 Franco Baresi 1992 Franco Baresi 1993 Franco Baresi 1994 Paolo Maldini 1995 Paolo Maldini 1996 Matthias Sammer 1997 Roberto Carlos 1998 Lilian Thuram 1999 Jaap Stam 2000 Alessandro Nesta 2001 Alessandro Nesta 2002 Roberto Carlos 2003 Paolo Maldini 2004 Paolo Maldini 2005 Paolo Maldini 2006 Fabio Cannavaro 2007 Fabio Cannavaro 2008 John Terry 2009 John Terry 2010 Maicon *Remark : Luis Monti was responsible as marker very much in his late career so I consider him as defender in 1933 and 1934.
I understand you put him as the best of 2006 by his first semester and his performance at the World Cup, but for 2007 I'd say he was very bad playing for Real Madrid, very far to be one of the best 10 defenders that year. For 2008 I'd say Rio Ferdinand was better than him. That year he was a key player for Manchester United to win the FA Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.
Was really Paolo Maldini the best defender of the year during that period?, I could remember him playing very good to his age, but not so great. At least I'd select to Gianluca Zambrotta to 2003 and Roberto Ayala to 2004.
I really don't know who should be the best in 2007 so I just base on FWPY ranking. It is no way Rio is the best defender in 2008. Trophy is nothing to rate him. Rio did so many mistake in the late season. Fortunately, his team is good enough to compensate his perofrmance.
Put simply, what's the point? There is not sufficient information available to make a good judgement for the likes of 1931 or 1953. So what's it based on and what's the point? Like others say, if it's not even possible to get 2008 right, there's no point in looking back much further because the system is massively flawed.
Maldini won Bronze Ball Ballon'Dor in 2003, won Series A defender of the year in 2004 beat Nesta and Cannavaro, won 6th place Ballon'Dor in 2005.
yes, the list is not easy to do exact year for the 1930s to the 1950s but at least I know period of the prime of world legendary defender. I use this combine with thier achievement of trophy. Surely, it cannot be 100 percent true but it is good to make investigation of possibility.
Oh!, well, if you're basing on the FWPY ranking I understand your list mate, but actually, I'd say that ranking is very awful apart of the best player (even sometimes I think the best player is also wrong). I don't think Fabio Cannavaro have any possibility to be considered the best defender in 2007. About Rio Ferdinand, I remember him as one of the best players of Manchester United and was in my best eleven that year. Actually, I think between 2007 and 2008 was arguably the highest peak of performance of him, just only after that he decreased his level.
I understand if you put him considering the individual awards, but, for example, I don't think Paolo Maldini deserved the Bronze Ball in 2003 neither he was better than Nesta in 2004. I think it's considerably clear that Maldini won those considerations by his respectable figure and for the devotion as a legendary and veteran player who still was playing at the high level, but not because he was really the best defender objectively.
I'm agree if we rely in the individual awards, I'd say there is a lot of wrong considerations. But if we try to follow many old matches I feel we can make an own idea. For 1931 I believe Quincoces is right, he was very good at his first season in Real Madrid and was part of the arguably best defensive line in Europe alongside Ciriaco, meanwhile the best defender in South America was Nasazzi and that wasn't one of his best years playing for Bella Vista.
In the biggest game of 1931 Quincoces was part of a Spanish team thrashed 7-1 by England at Highbury. Real Madrid finished 6th in La Liga which was itself hardly the strongest league in the world, albeit with the best defensive record. These aren't conclusive, but they certainly don't stand out to me as things that would indicate the world's best defender.
To that game Quincoces was injured despite he finally played and Ciriaco didn't play. His replacement, Ramón Zabalo, was awful that game and Zamora was erratic in the goal. The pair Quincoces and Ciriaco wasn't part really to that game and was the worst match of Spain (at overall) during that year. That's wrong mate, you're thinking about the season 1930/31 and not about the year 1931, what it's different. Jacinto Quincoces wasn't part of the last semester of that Real Madrid what finished 6th, during his first 6 months that year he played for Deportivo Alavés being champion of the second division and with the less beaten defense. Then he was transferred to Real Madrid and played for the next 6 months of that year for them without losing a single game and being the first part of their championship that season with the less beaten defense again. Quincoces and Ciriaco were at that moment alongside Zamora regarded as the best defensive system of Europe in Real Madrid, all of them in their highest peak, despite at overall Spanish league wouldn't the best in the world or even defensively by the rest of the teams.
I've not seen anything I can recall suggesting Quincoces was injured and I did quite a bit of research on that gamr recently. Why did he play if injured? It's not like Spain were on a tour. So he played most of the season in the second division, and he's being named the best defender in the world. Again, what is the actual evidence to support this?
Sometime ago I could watch the resume of that match from a clip (not just the highlights as nowadays, but the film version was ready to the movie theaters as usual at this time) and the Spanish narrator specified in a moment that Quincoces had forced his presentation despite a knee injury. Again, I'm not referring about a season mate, but the whole year 1931. Talking about the first semester of that year when he was playing for Deportivo Alavés, despite it may seem strange currently, I'd say the differences between the Spanish first and the second division weren't so far by individualities at that time (at least for Alavés what was regarded as one of the best Spanish squads since 1927/28). Actually, you could get an idea about how Quincoces shinning still from the second division as well he was a regular starter player from Spain since 1928, 3 years before he started to play in the first division (also playing in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam).
Another great list Dearman However I share similar view as of PeruFC that: - 2004: Nesta was a better defender and well more deserved than Veteran Maldini - 2007: Canavaro was well "exposed" to Liga attackers in first half season, remember? Either Nesta or Dani Alves were better (1st great season at Barca) just that their team did not win jack, so Cannavaro was overated. - 2009: Well Puyol should deserve one time for his consistency at Barca; even Vidic could be well recognized (Terry was still solid but not like excellent that year) ... predict ... - 2011: should belong to Dani Alves with his contribution (unsung hero) at Barca as 2nd best in direct assists and countless chances making.
Even if Quincoces was the best defender in Spain at that time, which I won't question - how do we know that he was better than defenders from Great Britain, Austria, Italy, Czechoslovakia or Argentina and Uruguay?
I've seen no mention of this in any of the English newspaper reports of the game. Regardless, it doesn't really matter if he played injured or not. In the biggest game of his year he got beaten 7-1. Steve Bull played for England despite playing in the second division and he did very well there. It didn't mean that he was the best striker in the world. Not only is it dubious that the Spanish league was among the best in the world (the national team certainly weren't and they had none of the imports that bolster the league today), but he was playing for half the year in the second flight. I mean seriously, where is the evidence that he was the best at the time? It's just a complete guess. For instance if he'd picked Virginio Rosetta who captained Juve to the 1930-1 and 1931-2 Serie A titles, or Eddie Hapgood who was outstanding in Arsenal's 1930-1 title and played conistently for England, then it would still be dubious because there is so little evidence, but it could at least be reasonable.
You clearly didn't watch him that season. Defence was the main reason for the double, and it was one of his best seasons for us. He played around 50 matches with around 29 goals being conceded, and the whole team played with more assurance when he was on the pitch. He was right up there for best defender that season.
To make individual comparisons I believe you first need to separate those who are specially mentioned as the most outstandings and then compare them. To 1931, by all the special mentions you could find by many resources you'll a poll of some candidates as José Nasazzi from Uruguay, Severino Minelli from Switzerland, Virginio Rosetta and Umberto Caligaris from Italy, José della Torre from Argentina, Eddie Hapgood from England, Milutin Ivkovic from Yugoslavia and Jacinto Quincoces and Ciriaco from Spain. Then, how you could make your own idea about who was better?, like any other, watching their matches and analyzing their summaries. For all of them, as prominent and even international, you can check audiovisual material from many matches and you can read the summaries of many analysts of the time to make your own idea, as I did.
I remember the unmistikable image of Quincoces when the narrator mentioned his recent knee injury. If it's right, wouldn't be an irrelevant fact, but would mean that he played conditioned by that injury. Regardless, even if you believe he played fit, nor would be the matter that Spain lost 7-1, but how he played individually (because we're talking about Quincoces in 1931 and not about Spain in 1931). Watching the material of the game and viewing how played Zabalo and Zamora, I believe it's not so difficult to understand why they were crushed. To their time, if 1 of the defenders and the goalkeeper were bad was a disaster because there were only 3 defensive players at the back line against a 5-man offensive line. Actually, I don't remember any error of Quincoces filmed, a poor coverage or even a bad pass. The final score just could only impress you if you get a group idea, but not by individual performances. But not only that, even in the extreme case you consider that he really played bad that game in good conditions, we're talking about a single match in the whole year. You can find many resources about how he played great for Deportivo Alavés and Real Madrid in that period and formed a very known pair with Ciriaco not only in Spain, but in Europe with Zamora at the goal. Actually, I could say by sure Zamora played bad that game, but still was a great year to him playing for Espanyol and Real Madrid and very probably was very similar at the level of Combi for the best goalkeeper of the year.
It's a very bad example mate. First, Steve Bull wasn't ever a famous player of the English national team, not even a regular starter, while Quincoces established himself as a regular starter and one of the highly regarded players of Spain alongside Zamora, Cilaurren, his partner Ciriaco and then Lángara. Then, you maybe need to understand the huge difference between the comparisons of the level of the first and the second division of Spain in lately 20's and early 30's and England in lately 80's and early 90's (from is your example of Steve Bull). In Spain, the Liga Española and its divisions were just only created in 1929 and started from the 1929/30 season. Teams to each divisions were selected by the technician to have reach a final match cup during the amateur time, what was very irregular to determine the level of the teams at that moment. That's the reason because teams as Celta de Vigo, Real Betis, Valencia, Sevilla, Real Oviedo and even Deportivo Alavés were selected to the second division while Atlético Madrid, CE Europa or Arenas Club were selected to the first division being clearly at that time inferior clubs than the first mentioned. For 1930/31 season, you couldn't identify really a clear difference of level between the Spanish first and second division, what couldn't be understood if you think just only in modern times and don't place yourself on stage at the time referred. So, for that reason, yes, Quincoces could be the best European defender even playing in the Spanish second division at that time, what would be really an absurd idea thinking about Steve Bull in lately 80's.
Whatever you want to tell yourself. Quincoces was the best in 1931, John Terry was the best in 2008. Fine, that's settled then.