I voted for Johan Cruyff, with Franz Beckenbauer a close second. There was a lot of other players I wanted to include,(Roberto Baggio,Franco Baresi,Zbignew Boniek,Garrincha,Jarzinho,Jurgen Klinsmann,Paolo Maldini,Gerd Muller,Ronald Koeman,Hristo Stoichkov,Lev Yashin and Zinedine Zidane.)but couldn't. Oh $%&*! I just remembred George Weah!
to me it has to be without a doubt eusebio, not because im portugeuse, but because of what he did...when he did it, and how he did it...i mean at the world cup in 1966, of the tapes of portugal versus england..he was a machine even wiht england hacking at r players legs, breaking the leg of r second besr player...fouling non stop...he still played unbelievable..
The best players ever are Alfredo Di Stefano, Pele and Maradona. Therefore my vote is for Di Stefano. The best player of the last 15 years (Since i have memories), Zinedine Zidane follow by Marco Van Basten.
I voted for beckenbauer because while i think one could make arguments for Cruyff, Platini, di Stefano, and Eusebio as well, Beckenbaeur has the combination of being one of the greatest ever players, and also being one of the greatest ever achievers in the game. The only other player on this list to win a World Cup was Charlton.
jeez how the hell do you keep track of all the players? I mean its th eworld's game, i have trounble with amer. football and baseball
Probably Cruyff and Beckenbaeur were better than him, and I bet Eusebio and Di Stefano would whup his ass. But that was all before my time, havent seen enough games to form my own opinion. So, I vote Platini, excluding Maradona, finest player I've ever seen with my own eyes.
Ferenc Puskas. All time leading international goalscorer - 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary, 5 more games for Spain without scoring. Key player in the two greatest European club sides and captain of one of the best ever international sides. Has as many European Cup Final hat-tricks as all other players combined, and the only player to score four goals in one final. All this for a short fat guy who could only use one foot.
I voted for Di Stefano. However one player did just as much and probably more than the players you listed. GARRINCHA. Pele himself said that he was the best footballer he has ever seen.
Rivelino Jaw-dropping silky smooth moves. Left foot like a cannon. IMO the BEST player on the BEST team ever Brazil 1970 --C
garrincha definetly deserves to be on that lists the guy was brazil in 1962 if he was on the poll id vote for him
Totally irrelevant point IMO. Football was a more attacking, more highscoring game in his time. Can't compare that to the football of later decades.
Not totally irrelevant - all the hat-tricks were scored between 1960 and 1969 and many truly great players did not even manage one during that period (Eusebio, Mazzola, Kocsis, Best, Charlton) and Di Stefano only hit one. Eusebio scored 3 goals in 4 appearances over tha period, Puskas 4 in one game. For Puskas to score 2 hat-tricks even then was a fantastic achievement, especially as he hit them aged 33 and 35.
I vote off the list for Zidaine. I base it on what he has won and how his team does when he is not playing. He has won the world cup, euro championship, champion's league, the domestic championship, the toyota cup ( world club championship) . He needs to move to brazil or argentina to try to win the copaliertadores. And we all saw how france did with him being hurt in world cup 2002. France is a completely different team with him and wiout him in the lineup. I would stack his skills and accomplishments against PELE and MARADONA. By the way , I am not french and in fact I don't like french people , but I will give zidaine his props.
It's a little too soon to say that vmax. Give it time though, I'm sure he'll be right up their with Platini.
Cruyff was the class of the 70's behind Pele. He was part of the total soccer concept introduced by the Dutch and now is a staple of the best teams in the world. To watch him play was to watch someone who played to the top level always.
I think he is already past Platini. Platini never won a world cup. But then in your defense, he probably would have if they would have held the world cup in france in 82 or 86.
I agree he was awesome, in the top 10 for sure. But Di Stefano was a God, dude. He helped modernize the game, the game that Cruyff and the likes took to another level. He was a foundation of the sport. I'm not knocking Cruyff, but as an immortal player Di Stafano was probably better.