Methodology for Classifying World Class Players

Campos is like a fur hat version of Higuita. Not nearly the same star power.

100% serious about Briegel. Why?

The whole Dynamo team pretty much is in. Don't see the remaining fringe crew having much of a claim. I don't think there's been a club yet where every member got into my list. That's more of a modern thing.

I'll spare a thought for Duckadam's tough luck, but he's clearly not one of the best goalies of this era. Maybe if his career hadn't ended so abruptly.

 

2015-2020:

So, before I delve further into history, it's time to deliver on the long-awaited 2015-2020 era. With the season turned up the way it has, I don't think the last few months are going to change this list anymore.

What to say about this era? Firstly, this was possibly the most difficult one to figure out. Probably it's partly because it's still going on, and many career trajectories are still up in the air. In five years we'll see if some of the players really deserved their spots here or not.

The other difficulty is what seems like a distinct lack of exceptional players. Particularly the attacking spots have a lot of players that definitely wouldn't have made it in to other eras. Also there are several has-been type players that I could have dropped without any difficulty, if only there were some proper challengers. These findings definitely backs the weak era -argument.

Another interesting curiosity is the fact the player pool is very bottom-heavy for the first time ever. That means more players available on the traditional problem positions of full-back and def-mid. Usually I've had to move players further down the pitch, but this time I would have been more likely to move players up.

This time I also followed the ESM-votes a lot less, and went more with my own gut instinct. I feel like the increased number of votes led to a situation where a higher amount of IMO undeserving players would have slipped into the bottom spots. Would love to hear some feedback, especially if someone specializes in what I call the middle-teams. That's teams that have some players who made the list, but not others.


Goalkeepers:

Alisson (Brazil)
Buffon, Gianluigi (Italy)
Cech, Petr (Czech Rep)
Courtois, Thibaut (Belgium)
De Gea, David (Spain)
Donnarumma, Gianluigi (Italy)
Ederson (Brazil)
Handanovic, Samir (Slovenia)
Lloris, Hugo (France)
Navas, Keylor (Costa Rica)
Neuer, Manuel (Germany)
Oblak, Jan (Slovenia)
Patricio, Rui (Portugal)
Schmeichel, Kasper (Denmark)
Szczesny, Wojciech (Poland)
Ter Stegen, Marc-Andre (Germany)

(Areola, Leno, Trapp, Sommer)

 

2015-2020: Fullbacks

Right:
Alexander-Arnold, Trent (England)
Alves, Dani (Brazil)
Aurier, Serge (Ivory Coast)
Bellerin, Hector (Spain)
Cancelo, Joao (Portugal)
Carvajal, Dani (Spain)
Danilo (Brazil)
Kimmich, Joshua (Germany)
Meunier, Thomas (Belgium)
Piszczek, Lukasz (Poland)
Ramos, Sergio (Spain)
Semedo, Nelson (Portugal)
Sergi Roberto (Spain)
Sidibe, Djibril (France)
Valencia, Antonio (Ecuador)
Walker, Kyle (England)

(Florenzi, Juanfran, Lichtsteiner, Pavard, Ricardo Pereira)

Left:
Alaba, David (Austria)
Alba, Jordi (Spain)
Alex Sandro (Brazil)
Alonso, Marcos (Spain)
Azpilicueta, Cesar (Spain)
Bernat, Juan (Spain)
Filipe Luis (Brazil)
Ghoulam, Faouzi (Algeria)
Guerreiro, Raphael (Portugal)
Kolarov, Alexandar (Serbia)
Kolasinac, Sead (Bosnia)
Kurzawa, Layvin (France)
Marcelo (Brazil)
Mendy, Benjamin (France)
Robertson, Andrew (Scotland)
Vertonghen, Jan (Belgium)

(Blind, Ferland Mendy, Monreal, Rose, Telles)

-The most difficult players to figure out were the Liverpool FBs. Do Robertson and TAA have the required 3 years or not? It seems something like two and a half to me. Since they have such a high profile, I think 2,5 is enough to qualify.

-Had trouble choosing between the Arsenal guys Kolasinac and Monreal for the last spot. Kola made it due to his higher NT-profile.

 

2015-2020: Centre-Backs

Alderweireld, Toby (Belgium)
Boateng, Jerome (Germany)
Bonucci, Andrea (Italy)
Chiellini, Giorgio (Italy)
David Luiz (Brazil)
De Ligt, Matthijs (Netherlands)
De Vrij, Stefan (Netherlands)
Gimenez, Jose (Uruguay)
Ginter, Matthias (Germany)
Glik, Kamil (Poland)
Godin, Diego (Uruguay)
Hummels, Mats (Germany)
Kompany, Vincent (Belgium)
Koscielny, Laurent (France)
Koulibaly, Kalidou (Senegal)
Laporte, Aymeric (France)
Lovren, Dejan (Croatia)
Manolas, Kostas (Greece)
Marquinhos (Brazil)
Martinez, Javi (Spain)
Miranda (Brazil)
Otamendi, Nicolas (Argentina)
Papastathopoulos, Sokratis (Greece)
Pique, Gerard (Spain)
Savic, Stefan (Montenegro)
Silva, Thiago (Brazil)
Skriniar, Milan (Slovakia)
Smalling, Chris (England)
Stones, John (England)
Umtiti, Samuel (France)
Van Dijk, Virgil (Netherlands)
Varane, Raphael (France)

(Albiol, Nacho, Sule)

 

2015-2020: Central Midfielders

Busquets, Sergio (Spain)
Can, Emre (Germany)
Casemiro (Brazil)
Dembele, Moussa (Belgium)
Fabinho (Brazil)
Fernandinho (Brazil)
Henderson, Jordan (England)
Jorginho (Italy)
Goretzka, Leon (Germany)
Gundogan, Ilkay (Germany)
Kante, N'Golo (France)
Keita, Naby (Guinea)
Khedira, Sami (Germany)
Koke (Spain)
Kovacic, Mateo (Croatia)
Kroos, Toni (Germany)
Matic, Nemanja (Serbia)
Matuidi, Blaise (France)
Milinkovic-Savic, Sergej (Serbia)
Milner, James (England)
Modric, Luka (Croatia)
Nainggolan, Radja (Belgium)
Pjanic, Miralem (Bosnia)
Rabiot, Adrien (France)
Rakitic, Ivan (Croatia)
Saul Niguez (Spain)
Thiago Alcantara (Spain)
Verratti, Marco (Italy)
Vidal, Arturo (Chile)
Wijnaldum, Georginio (Netherlands)
Witsel, Axel (Belgium)
Xhaka, Granit (Switzerland)

(Ander, Brozovic, Tolisso)

-Keita, Kovacic and Xhaka I'm not necessarily sold on, but I don't see the subs having a better claim, either.

 

2015-2020: Wingers

Aubameyang, Pierre-Emerick (Gabon)
Bale, Gareth (Wales)
Brandt, Julian (Germany)
Coman, Kingsley (France)
Costa, Douglas (Brazil)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Cuadrado, Juan (Colombia)
Dembele, Ousmane (France)
Di Maria, Angel (Argentina)
Draxler, Julian (Germany)
Griezmann, Antoine (France)
Hazard, Eden (Belgium)
Insigne, Lorenzo (Italy)
Mahrez, Riyad (Algeria)
Mane, Sadio (Senegal)
Martial, Anthony (France)
Messi, Lionel (Argentina)
Mertens, Dries (Belgium)
Muller, Thomas (Germany)
Neymar (Brazil)
Payet, Dimitri (France)
Perisic, Ivan (Croatia)
Rashford, Marcus (England)
Reus, Marco (Germany)
Salah, Mohamed (Egypt)
Sanchez, Alexis (Chile)
Sane, Leroy (Germany)
Silva, Bernardo (Portugal)
Son Heung-Min (South Korea)
Sterling, Raheem (England)
Tadic, Dusan (Serbia)
Willian (Brazil)

(Ferreira-Carrasco, Guedes)

-YFC loses out on a spot due to his decision to go hack it in China midway through this era.

 

2015-2020: Attacking Midfielders

Alli, Dele (England)
Coutinho, Philippe (Brazil)
De Bruyne, Kevin (Belgium)
Dybala, Paulo (Argentina)
Eriksen, Christian (Denmark)
Fernandes, Bruno (Portugal)
Firmino, Roberto (Brazil)
Iniesta, Andres (Spain)
Isco (Spain)
Mkhitaryan, Henrikh (Armenia)
Pogba, Paul (France)
Ramsey, Aaron (Wales)
Rodriguez, James (Colombia)
Silva, David (Spain)
Ziyech, Hakim (Morocco)
Özil, Mesut (Germany)

(Fabregas, Lemar)


Centre-Forwards

Aguero, Sergio (Argentina)
Benzema, Karim (France)
Cavani, Edinson (Uruguay)
Dzeko, Edin (Bosnia)
Giroud, Olivier (France)
Higuain, Gonzalo (Argentina)
Icardi, Mauro (Argentina)
Immobile, Ciro (Italy)
Kane, Harry (England)
Lacazette, Alexandre (France)
Lewandowski, Robert (Poland)
Lukaku, Romelu (Belgium)
Mbappe, Kylian (France)
Suarez, Luis (Uruguay)
Vardy, Jamie (England)
Werner, Timo (Germany)

(Falcao)

-Shockingly low number of CF-types, even if I threw a couple into the winger-section. Subs bench is just crickets, too.

 

1920-1925

The project resumes! As I explained in the other thread, I'm going through old newspaper match reports in order to get the information I need to finish my project. We pick up again from the early 20s, and will move forward until we've reached the late 50s.

I'd like to give a shout out to @msioux75 , without whom this wouldn't have been possible. Since I don't have any access to SA-reports, I'm using his fine rankings to determine which American players are worthy of inclusion.

So, the important question is how does my methodology hold in a completely different era? Quite well, you'll be happy to find out. The early 20s come off as a weak-ish era, where I had to really squeeze it to fill up the last few spots on most positions, but for the most part the system holds. I had to be a bit more lax in my 3-year rule to increase the star power. Mostly this means including the Uruguayan Olympic stars who didn't emerge internationally until the 23-24 season. Since they turned out to be such huge stars, I think it's safe to assume the quality was already there even before they got their first caps.

It's been a challenge trying to balance all the different areas of football that rarely meet in this era. As I've mentioned before, the evidence seems to suggest that the European amateur nations don't consider themselves to be on par with the pros. That means the majority of the players on this list could actually have been Brits. Since most of them have barely any kind of online trace and don't show up in my research at all, it's easier to consider the Brits to just be part of a great generation, rather than taking up the majority of the spots. Basically what I did was include the continental player that I felt were worthy of being here, and filled up the rest of the spots with Brits.

If there's an expert on 20s English players, I'd love to hear their insight. Specifically on how the Welsh and Irish players might have been viewed at club level.



Goalkeepers:

Chayrigues, Pierre (France)
De Bie, Jean (Belgium)
Farquharson, Tom (Ireland)
Harper, Bill (Scotland)
Lindberg, Sigge (Sweden)
Mazali, Andres (Uruguay)
Ostricek, Karl (Austria)
Plattko, Ferenc (Hungary)
Pulver, Hans (Switzerland)
Scott, Elisha (Northern Ireland)
Stuhlfauth, Heinrich (Germany)
Taylor, Ted (England)
Tesoriere, Americo (Argentina)
Zamora, Ricardo (Spain)
Zander, Robert (Sweden)
Zsak, Karoly (Hungary)

I feel like there maybe should be another English keeper here, but no one stood out.

 

1920-1925: Full-Backs

Right:
Benincasa, Jose (Uruguay)
Bidoglio, Ludovico (Argentina)
Celli, Adolfo (Argentina)
Cresswell, Warney (England)
Denis, Harry (Netherlands)
Fogl, Karoly (Hungary)
Hojer, Antonin (Czechoslovakia)
Longworth, Ephraim (England)
Mandi, Gyula (Hungary)
Marshall, Jack (Scotland)
Nasazzi, Jose (Uruguay)
Popovic, Alexander (Austria)
Rosetta, Virginio (Italy)
Swartenbroeks, Armand (Belgium)
Tarp, Fritz (Denmark)
Urdinaran, Antonio (Uruguay)

Left:
Bearzotti, Florindo (Argentina)
Blicher, Steen (Denmark)
Blum, Josef (Austria)
Caligaris, Umberto (Italy)
De Vecchi, Renzo (Italy)
Dittrich, Vincenz (Austria)
Fogl, Jozsef (Hungary)
Foglino, Adolfo (Uruguay)
Perner, Antonin (Czechoslovakia)
Poirier, Ulises (Chile)
Ramseyer, Rudolf (Switzerland)
Salem, Ahmed (Egypt)
Tejera, Domingo (Uruguay)
Vallana, Pedro (Spain)
Verbeeck, Oscar (Belgium)
Wadsworth, Sam (England)


-Salem is an interesting case. Normally I wouldn't include an Egyptian player, for the simple fact they're so disconnected from the footballing mainstream it doesn't seem right to include their player based on just a couple of games. However, Salem was simply so highly-rated after the 1924 Olympics I felt compelled to include him.

-Ramseyer is hard to figure out. He spent the majority of this era as a mediocre winger, but transformed into a quality FB in time for the Olympics. I eventually opted to include him for this era.

 

1920-1925: Halfbacks

-What I will be doing with the halfbacks is just include them all in a huge block. It doesn't seem meaningful to split them into right, left and center when they're all interchangeable.

Amilcar Barbuy (Brazil)
Andersen, Gunnar (Norway)
Andrade, Jose Leandro (Uruguay)
Barbieri, Ottavio (Italy)
Barton, Percy (England)
Blum, Zoltan (Hungary)
Brandstätter, Josef (Austria)
Bromilow, Tom (England)
Burlando, Luigi (Italy)
Fleitas Solich, Manuel (Paraguay)
Fortes, Agostinho (Brazil)
Friberg, Sven (Sweden)
Fässler, Paul (Switzerland)
Gamborena, Francisco (Spain)
Geyer, Karl (Austria)
Grimsdell, Arthur (England)
Guttmann, Bela (Hungary)
Halvorsen, Asbjorn (Norway)
Hugues, Francois (France)
Kalb, Hans (Germany)
Kean, Fred (England)
Keenor, Fred (Wales)
Kertesz, Vilmos (Hungary)
Kolenaty, Frantisek (Czechoslovakia)
Kurz, Karl (Austria)
Laursen, Valdemar (Denmark)
Le Fevre, Andre (Netherlands)
McMullan, Jimmy (Scotland)
Medici, Secundo (Argentina)
Meiklejohn, David (Scotland)
Meana, Manuel (Spain)
Moss, Frank (England)
Muirhead, Tommy (Scotland)
Nitsch, Leopold (Austria)
Obitz, Gabor (Hungary)
Pena, Jose Maria (Spain)
Pesek, Karel (Czechoslovakia)
Petit, Rene (France)
Samitier, Josip (Spain)
Schmiedlin, Paul (Switzerland)
Seddon, James (England)
Seifert, Emil (Czechoslovakia)
Solari, Emilio (Argentina)
Vanhalme, Florimond (Belgium)
Vanzzino, Jose (Uruguay)
Viola, Jozsef (Hungary)
Wilson, George (England)
Zibechi, Alfredo (Uruguay)

 

1920-1925: Wingers

-As usual, wingers are a weaker lot than inside-forwards. So anyone who was tried out as a winger around this time qualifies.

Right:
Archibald, Sandy (Scotland)
Braun, Jozsef (Hungary)
Calomino, Pedro (Argentina)
Chedgzoy, Sam (England)
De Natris, Jan (Netherlands)
Dewaquez, Jules (France)
Gradin, Isabelino (Uruguay)
Morocutti, Wilhelm (Austria)
Nemes, Sandor (Hungary)
Piera, Vicente (Spain)
Sedlacek, Josef (Czechoslovakia)
Somma, Pascual (Uruguay)
Tarasconi, Domingo (Argentina)
Urdinaran, Santos (Uruguay)
Wenzel, Rune (Sweden)
Wondrak, Karl (Austria)

Left:
Acedo, Txomin (Spain)
Bastin, Desire (Belgium)
Campolo, Antonio (Uruguay)
Cevenini, Luigi (Italy)
Dubly, Raymond (France)
Hirzer, Ferenc (Hungary)
Jeny, Rudolf (Hungary)
Kock, Putte (Sweden)
Morton, Alan (Scotland)
Onzari, Cesareo (Argentina)
Orsi, Raimundo (Argentina)
Romano, Angel (Uruguay)
Tunstall, Fred (England)
Vizard, Ted (Wales)
Wesely, Ferdinand (Austria)
Wieser, Gustav (Austria)

-Gradin is a weird player. An all-time great that had already switched over to track and field in his early 20s? I'm not sure if he should be included by this era, but I'm kind of in the need for wingers.

 

1920-1925: Inside-Forwards

-Like with the half-backs, the three inside-forward positions are for the most part interchangeable in this era. I'm including them in bulk.

Abegglen, Max (Switzerland)
Alcantara, Paulino (Spain)
Arellano, David (Chile)
Baloncieri, Adolfo (Italy)
Bradford, Joe (England)
Buchan, Charlie (England)
Cairns, Tommy (Scotland)
Carmelo Goyenetxea (Spain)
Cea, Pedro (Uruguay)
Chambers, Harry (England)
Cunningham, Andy (Scotland)
Davies, Len (Wales)
Davies, Stan (Wales)
Dvoracek, Jan (Czechoslovakia)
Fischera, Adolf (Austria)
Friedenreich, Arthur (Brazil)
Gallacher, Patsy (Ireland)
Gillespie, Billy (Ireland)
Gundersen, Einar (Norway)
Harder, Otto (Germany)
Irvine, Bobby (Ireland)
Janda, Antonin (Czechoslovakia)
Karlsson, Herbert (Sweden)
Kaufeldt, Per (Sweden)
Kelly, Bob (England)
Konrad, kalman (Hungary)
Kuthan, Richard (Austria)
Libonatti, Julio (Argentina)
Molnar, György (Hungary)
Neco (Brazil)
Nicolas, Paul (France)
Nielsen, Poul (Denmark)
Orth, György (Hungary)
Pataky, Mihaly (Hungary)
Piendibene, Jose (Uruguay)
Rohde, Michael (Denmark)
Santamaria, Aristodemo (Italy)
Scarone, Hector (Uruguay)
Schaffer, Alfred (Hungary)
Schlosser, Imre (Hungary)
Seed, Jimmy (England)
Seoane, Manuel (Argentina)
Sesumaga, Felix (Spain)
Swatosch, Ferdinand (Austria)
Uridil, Josef (Austria)
Vanik, Jan (Czechoslovakia)
Walker, Billy (England)
Wilson, Andy (Scotland)


-Irvine is the player I'm least sure about. One of the greatest players, or just great for Ireland? I might replace him with Germany's Adolf Jäger. Stan Davies is another the jury is still mostly out on.

-Carl Hansen was close to making it, but seems to have had an injury-riddled career in Scotland.

 

The problem for Carricaberry is his lack of caps. I guess it was another case of playing in the wrong league, but it's hard to include a player whose only contribution was at an amateur league. Since he's a winger, I could indeed swap him for Gradin. Late 20s might be better suited for him, but even then I'm wondering about the low number of caps? Was there a particular reason behind this?

Santamaria's main problem is his age. He was already a veteran here, having lost his best years in the war. Still, he had enough good games in this era for me to add him. Not the most obvious choice, I admit.

Petrone is short on seasons and the other two on caps, yeah. I feel for this era I've already used up all my attacking options for non-British players. Even the Brits start melding into a blur, where it's really hard to make a case for any individual over the others.

 

I decided to drop Pavard over lack of seasons. Before WC-18 he was still playing second fiddle to Sidibe. Yes, technically he does have the required three seasons, but even then I like to save the incomplete spots to players who absolutely deserve it (like the Liverpool FBs). Pavard played most of this era for lowly Stuttgart. I would assume he'll make it in for the next era, whereas Sidibe probably peaked in this one.

Tolisso has similar problems. He's barely played at all the last few seasons, while the others were only for Lyon. Rabiot at least had an important role for one of the biggest clubs around, even if the NT-coach didn't fancy him.

 

From what I read, Cevenini was by far the top guy in the early 20s. But Santamaria didn't come off as that far behind Baloncieri, who peaked more in the late 20s. Ferraris didn't stand out in any way. Did some hardcore Juventino tell you that?

Would you suggest anyone in particular to replace them?