The 50 Best Footballers

Definitely. He was absolutely outstanding in his first season. I watched The Bundesliga week in and week out at the time in the German ARD and ZDF. And I remember cleary how good he was during his first season. He was on my list and I think I discarded him because in retrospect he faded rather quickly. However, these rankings should NOT be made in retrospect. They are meant to show what the Football world thought at the time. So my mistake to discard him. He should surely be there. When the list is revised, he will be there. Thanks for the input.

 

THE 70 BEST FOOTBALLERS 1981- HOW IT MIGHT HAVE LOOKED:

GOLD: Diego MARADONA (Argentinos Juniors)
SILVER: Karl-Heinz RUMMENIGGE (Bayern)
BRONZO: ZICO (Flamengo)

4 Michel PLATINI (St. Etienne)
5 Paul BREITNER (Bayern)
6 Bernd SCHUSTER (Barcelona)
7 Kenny DALGLISH (Liverpool)
8 Ruud KROL (Napoli)
9 Oleg BLOKHIN (Dynamo Kiev)
10 SOCRATES (Corinthians)

11 Toninho CEREZO (Atletico Mineiro)
12 Greame SOUNESS (Liverpool)
13 Liam BRADY (Juventus)
14 Zibigniew BONIEK (Widzew)
15 FALCAO (Roma)
16 JUNIOR (Flamengo)
17 Daniel PASSARELLA (River Plate)
18 Uli STIELIKE (Real Madrid)
19 Giancarlo ANTOGNONI (Fiorentina)
20 Jan CEULEMANS (Club Bruges)

21 Bruno PEZZEY (Frankfurt)
22 Gaetano SCIREA (Juventus)
23 REINALDO (Atletico Mineiro)
24 Kevin KEEGAN (Southampton)
25 Hans-Peter BRIEGEL (Kaiserslautern)
26 Alan SIMONSEN (Barcelona)
27 Vladimir PETROVIC (Red Star)
28 Luis ARCONADA (Sociedad)
29 Paolo ISODORO (Gremio)
30 Manfred KALTZ (HSV)

31 Osvaldo ARDILES (Tottenham)
32 Maxime BOSSIS (Nantes)
33 Marco TARDELLI (Juventus)
34 David KIPIANI (Dinamo Tblisi)
35 Bruno CONTI (Roma)
36 Frank ARNESEN (Ajax)
37 Herbert PROHASKA (Inter)
38 JUANITO (Real Madrid)
39 Ramaz SHENGELIA (Dinamo Tblisi)
40 Roberto BETTEGA (Juventus)

41 Peter SHILTON (Nottingham F)
42 Alexandr CHIVADZE (Dinamo Tblisi)
43 Erwin VANDENBERGH (Lierse)
44 Tibor NYILASI (Ferencvaros)
45 Jose Antonio CAMACHO (Real Madrid)
46 Toni SCHUMACHER (FC Cologne)
47 Ramon DIAZ (River Plate)
48 Dominique ROCHETEAU (Paris SG)
49 Ubaldo FILLOL (River Plate)
50 Laszlo FAZEKAS (Antwerp)

51 Karlheinz FÖRSTER (Stuttgart)
52 Klaus ALLOFS (Düsseldorf)
53 Terry McDERMOTT (Liverpool)
54 Hansi MÜLLER (Stuttgart)
55 Alan HANSEN (Liverpool)
56 Horst HRUBESCH (HSV)
57 Eric GERETS (St. Liege)
58 Soren LERBY (Ajax)
59 Felix MAGATH (HSV)
60 Wilfried VAN MOER (Beveren)

61 Jean-Marie PFAFF (Beveren)
62 Jesus ZAMORA (Sociedad)
63 Bryan ROBSON (Manchester U)
64 Antonio CABRINI (Juventus)
65 Mario KEMPES (Valencia)
66 John WARK (Ipswich)
67 Alain GIRESSE (Bordeaux)
68 Claudio GENTILE (Juventus)
69 Dino ZOFF (Juventus)
70 Paolo ROSSI (Juventus)

Player of The Season: 1 Zico 2 Rummenigge 3 Breitner 4 Platini 5 Maradona 6 Krol

Overall, there was no beating Maradona even if Zico and Rummenigge both played one of their best seasons ever. Every journalist, every player, every former player referred to Maradona as the top player in the world. Keegan had an injury-plagued season and there were already calls for him to be dropped from the NT. I put Rossi in as a HM at no. 70 even if he was suspended for another year. I did that because clubs were queuing to get him after his ban and Juve paid big even if he couldn´t play for another year.
Brazil was building a very fine team for the WC 1982 and they are considered the clear favourites for the WC. They were, however, missing perhaps their second-best player in Reinaldo as he was very much injured. He would have been a sure starter.

The English were upset about poor imports holding the young English players back. However, Maradona and Petrovic were referred to as stars they would like to see come. Alan Hansen of Liverpool was starting to get Beckenbauer comparisations and Kenny Sansom was earning rave reviews at LB.

BEST XI: ARCONADA – KALTZ – KROL – PASSARELLA – JUNIOR – BREITNER – SCHUSTER – MARADONA - PLATINI – RUMMENIGGE - ZICO


GOLDEN BOY:

1 Lothar MATTHÄUS (Mönchengaldbach)
2 Gary SHAW (Aston Villa)
3 Jesper OLSEN (Ajax)
4 Justin FASHANU (Norwich)

 

Thanks for your input - very much appreciated. B-K Cha will surely get in in 1979-80 when I re-visit the list later on. Yes, this is surely a tough challenge to do these rankings. The hard part is NOT to make Player of The Season ranking. With some good research it would not be too much trouble doing that. So, I wanted to do something different with this project. I wanted to know how the players were looked upon OVERALL after each season. THAT is the hard part. Let´s take the 80-81 season which I just posted. Doing research about Player of The Season you´ll find that Zico and Rummenigge were probably the best. So, if you stopped there you would believe they were the two frontrunners. However, they were not. Diego was very much considered the best overall.

 

THE 70 BEST FOOTBALLERS 1982 - How it might have looked:

GOLD: Diego MARADONA (Boca Juniors)
SILVER: ZICO (Flamengo)
BRONZE: Karl-Heinz RUMMENIGGE (Bayern)

4 FALCAO (Roma)
5 Michel PLATINI (St. Etienne)
6 SOCRATES (Corinthians)
7 Bruno CONTI (Roma)
8 Zbigniew BONIEK (Widzew)
9 Paolo ROSSI (Juventus)
10 Bernd SCHUSTER (Barcelona)


11 Giancarlo ANTOGNONI (Fiorentina)
12 Alain GIRESSE (Bordeaux)
13 Paul BREITNER (Bayern)
14 JUNIOR (Flamengo)
15 Gaetano SCIREA (Juventus)
16 Pierre LITTBARSKI (FC Cologne)
17 Oleg BLOKHIN (Dynamo Kiev)
18 Daniel PASSARELLA (River Plate)
19 Kenny DALGLISH (Liverpool)
20 Marco TARDELLI (Juventus)

21 Roberto BETTEGA (Juventus)
22 Karlheinz FÖRSTER (Stuttgart)
23 Maxime BOSSIS (Nantes)
24 Uli STIELIKE (Real Madrid)
25 Hans-Peter BRIEGEL (Kaiserslautern)
26 Jan CEULEMANS (Club Bruges)
27 Greame SOUNESS (Liverpool)
28 Antonio CABRINI (Juventus)
29 Toninho CEREZO (Atletico Mineiro)
30 Marius TRESOR (Bordeaux)

31 Eric GERETS (St. Liege)
32 Claudio GENTILE (Juventus)
33 Rinat DASAEV (Spartak Moscow)
34 Manfred KALTZ (HSV)
35 Bruno PEZZEY (Frankfurt)
36 Fulvio COLLOVATI (AC Milan)
37 Dominique ROCHETEAU (Paris SG)
38 Jesus ZAMORA (Sociedad)
39 EDER Alexio (Atletico Mineiro)
40 Erwin VANDENBERGH (Lierse)

41 Osvaldo ARDILES (Tottenham)
42 Bryan ROBSON (Manchester U)
43 Allan SIMONSEN (Barcelona)
44 Ruud KROL (Napoli)
45 Felix MAGATH (HSV)
46 Trevor FRANCIS (Manchester C)
47 LEANDRO (Flamengo)
48 Jean TIGANA (Bordeaux)
49 Liam BRADY (Juventus)
50 Grezegorz LATO (Lokeren)

51 Soren LERBY (Ajax)
52 Glenn HODDLE (Tottenham)
53 Aleksandra CHIVADZE (Dinamo Tblisi)
54 Kevin KEEGAN (Southampton)
55 Gordon STRACHAN (Aberdeen)
56 Ray WILKINS (Manchester U)
57 Antonio CERECA (Guarani)
58 Walter SCHACHNER (Cesena)
59 Jean-Marie PFAFF (Beveren)
60 Anatoli DEMYANENKO (Dynamo Kiev)

61 Alan HANSEN (Liverpool)
62 QUINI (Barcelona)
63 Wolfgang DREMMLER (Bayern)
64 Daniel BERTONI (Fiorentina)
65 Herbert PROHASKA (Inter)
66 Ramon DIAZ (River Plate)
67 Franky VERCAUTEREN (Anderlecht)
68 Francesco GRAZIANI (Fiorentina)
69 Tibor NYILASI (Austria Vienna)
70 Safet SUSIC (Paris SG)

Player of The Season 1 Zico 2 Falcao 3 Rossi 4 Giresse 5 Conti 6 Boniek 7 Scirea

Overall, Zico became very close to overtake Maradona´s throne. Had Brazil beaten Italy in that famous World Cup game, he would have. However, the World Cup winning manager Enzo Bearzot still considered Maradona the best. So did the Czechoslovakian manager Venglos and so did Rummenigge and many others. Maradona played one outstanding game (vs Hungary) in the World Cup but otherwise flopped. He was still the best, though.

Italy won the World Cup rather surprisingly. They were even missing one of their best players in Bettega. However, Graziani was a fine substitute. In fact many didn’t understand why Bearzot brought Rossi instead of Pruzzo. But his decision clealy came good.

For West Germany Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was carrying an injury. That kept him from being one of the stand-out stars as he was supposed to be. Lothar Matthäus had man-marked both Maradona and Zico out of pre-tournament games but he wasn´t yet seen as the world-class box-to-box midfielder he was later to become.

For that very famous Brazil side Waldir Peres and Serginho are often the much-maligned players. However, if you watch the Italy game Toninho Cerezo surely is the villain. Had Reinaldo and Careca been fit, Serginho probably wouldn't have had a game.


BEST XI: DASSAEV – GERETS – SCIREA – FÖRSTER – JUNIOR - TARDELLI – FALCAO – PLATINI - MARADONA – ZICO – RUMMENIGGE
TELE SANTANA (Manager)

GOLDEN BOY:

1 Norman WHITESIDE (Manchester U)
2 Manuel AMOROS (Monaco)
3 Giuseppe BERGOMI (Inter)
4 Ruud GULLIT (Haarlem)

 

Thanks @PDG1978 - The main reason why I hold Hoddle back for these early 80s is due to him being kept firmly out af the NT by Wilkins and Robson. I sure fancy Hoddle and I still remember watching the 1982 FA Cup Final (Spurs vs QPR) with my father and him telling me Hoddle was so good. Maybe it was a bit different back then but I never rate a player who cannot get into the NT too highly. I´m aware of Mühren and Thijssen of course, however, I just felt they weren´t that highly rated outside of England (and maybe Holland) apart from that single phenomenal season they had with Ipswich. Maybe I´m wrong. Trevor Francis is so difficult to rate world-wide, I think. He was surely very highly regarded all over the world. Injuries just kept piling up and this makes it so hard to judge him. I remember clearly he scored both goals out of nothing in Copenhagen in the 2-2 draw in the qualifiers for Euro84. And for that alone I will drop him at least 10 places.... ha..ha..

 

THE 70 BEST FOOTBALLERS 1983 - How it might have looked:

GOLD: ZICO (Flamengo)
SILVER: FALCAO (Roma)
BRONZE: Michel PLATINI (Juventus)

4 Diego MARADONA (Barcelona)
5 SOCRATES (Corinthians)
6 Karl-Heinz RUMMENIGGE (Bayern)
7 Kenny DALGLISH (Liverpool)
8 Bernd SCHUSTER (Barcelona)
9 Alain GIRESSE (Bordeaux)
10 Zbigniew BONIEK (Juventus)

11 Bruno CONTI (Roma)
12 Pierre LITTBARSKI (FC Cologne)
13 Greame SOUNESS (Liverpool)
14 Bryan ROBSON (Manchester U)
15 Rinat DASSAEV (Spartak Moscow)
16 Soren LERBY (Ajax)
17 Paolo ROSSI (Juventus)
18 Jan CEULEMANS (Club Bruges)
19 Karlheinz FÖRSTER (Stuttgart)
20 Toninho CEREZO (Roma)

21 Felix MAGATH (HSV)
22 Maxime BOSSIS (Nantes)
23 JUNIOR (Flamengo)
24 EDER (Atletico Mineiro)
25 Oleg BLOKHIN (Dynamo Kiev)
26 Antonio CABRINI (Juventus)
27 Gaetano SCIREA (Juventus)
28 Daniel PASSARELLA (Fiorentina)
29 Alan SIMONSEN (Vejle)
30 Liam BRADY (Sampdoria)

31 Alan HANSEN (Liverpool)
32 Uli STIELIKE (Real Madrid)
33 Glenn HODDLE (Tottenham)
34 Toni SCHUMACHER (FC Cologne)
35 Ludo COECK (Anderlecht)
36 Eric GERETS (St. Liege)
37 Erwin VANDENBERGH (Anderlecht)
38 Horst HRUBESCH (HSV)
39 Antonio CARECA (Sao Paolo)
40 Ian RUSH (Liverpool)

41 Fernando GOMES (FC Porto)
42 Charlie NICHOLAS (Celtic)
43 Rüdi VÖLLER (Werder Bremen)
44 Giancarlo ANTOGNONI (Fiorentina)
45 Osvaldo ARDILES (Tottenham)
46 Morten OLSEN (Anderlecht)
47 Gordon STRACHAN (Aberdeen)
48 Jesper OLSEN (Ajax)
49 Franky VERCAUTEREN (Anderlecht)
50 Jean-Marie PFAFF (Bayern)

51 Manfred KALTZ (HSV)
52 Safet SUSIC (Paris SG)
53 Paul BREITNER (Bayern)
54 Pietro VIERCHOWOD (Roma)
55 Rafael GORDILLO (Betis)
56 Hans-Peter BRIEGEL (Kaiserslautern)
57 Jean TIGANA (Bordeaux)
58 Marco TARDELLI (Juventus)
59 Ruben PAZ (Internacional)
60 Juan LOZANO (Anderlecht)

61 Manuel AMOROS (Monaco)
62 Luis FERNANDEZ (Paris SG)
63 Juan BARBAS (Zaragoza)
64 Salvatore BAGNI (Inter)
65 Ricardo BOCCHINI (Independiente)
66 Fernando CHALANA (Benfica)
67 Peter SHILTON (Southampton)
68 Lothar MATTHÄUS (Mönchengladbach)
69 Dominique ROCHETEAU (Paris SG)
70 LEANDRO (Flamengo)

71 REINALDO (Atletico Mineiro)
72 Anatoli DEMYANENKO (Dynamo Kiev)
73 Fulvio COLLOVATI (Inter)
74 Trevor FRANCIS (Sampdoria)
75 Glenn HYSEN (Göteborg)
76 DIRCEU (Roma)
77 Luther BLISSETT (Watford)
78 Vahid HALILHODZIC (Nantes)
79 Glenn STRÖMBERG (Göteborg)
80 Carlo ANCELOTTI (Roma)
81 Wolfgang ROLLF (HSV)

Player of The Season: 1 Platini 2 Zico 3 Falcao 4 Dalglish 5 Socrates 6 Rummenigge 7 Maradona 8 Magath 9 Robson 10 Strachan. The Award could go to anyone of the three players on the podium. Platini is not my own choice, but I think most people would point to him.


Overall, it certainly is a four-horse race by now. Any of the top 4 could have snatched it and it was a matter of opinion by this stage. Jupp Derwall said “Maradona is still the best and Bernd Schuster is the best German”. Everybody believed Maradona was still the best, however, many also felt that for every phenomenal match he played he also played three below average matches. He surely lacked consistency.


In England – Jimmy Greaves said, “Bryan Robson is surely the best midfielder in Britain if not the world”. Keith Burkinshaw said after his Spurs side - which was expected to be Liverpool´s fiercest rivals - was hammered 3-0 at Anfield. “Kenny Dalglish is the finest striker to emerge since the War”. People were simply in awe of this Liverpool side calling it the best ever in Britain. They even started to get bored by their supremacy. Other than that, the player who was most talked about was without any doubt Charlie Nicholas who hit over 50 goals for Celtic and was wanted by every big club.


In Italy – Juventus had the strongest line-up you´ll see in a while. Newcomers Boniek & Platini started very slowly but by February Platini turned it on and was world-class. The best player – in my opinion – was, however, Falcao as he steered Roma to the Scudetto. On 31th October 1982 Roma had a very difficult match vs Pisa (with a phenomenal Klaus Bergreen who was later sold to Roma). Down 0-1 at halftime every Roma player including world cup winner Bruno Conti didn´t believe they could turn it around. However, Falcao took to every teammate and made them believe and Roma with an inspirational Falcao turned it around in the second with three goals in 11 minutes towards the end. That was the catalyst for the later Scudetto win.


BEST XI: DASSAEV – GERETS – JUNIOR – FÖRSTER – SCIREA – FALCAO – SOCRATES – PLATINI – MARADONA – ZICO – RUMMENIGGE
Ernst HAPPEL (Manager)

GOLDEN BOY:

1 Michael LAUDRUP (Brondby)
2 Norman WHITESIDE (Manchester U)
3 Giuseppe BERGOMI (Inter)
4 Ubaldo RIGHETTI (Roma)
5 John BARNES (Watford)

 

Well, thanks for your input.

I would start by saying something about these rankings of mine.

1) They are not my own opinion.... or at least they are not supposed to be. My objective is to make some rankings which reflects a world-wide opinion. From 1982 backwards I can´t remeber anything myself so these years are purely by research hence by no means my own opinion. From 1982 onwards I start to remember a whole lot myself and of course my own opinion comes into play from then on. But it should be a worldwide opinion.

2) These rankings are NOT Ballon d´Or nor are they Player of The Season. They are who people looked upon as the best players on the planet - overall - not only the season in question.

3) Well maybe Rummenigge said that Zico was his toughest opinion. But in both 1981 and in 1982 he also said "It´s between myself and Maradona who is the best". But a lot of people said a lot of things.

4) Yes, I certainly agree that the Brazil NT of 1981-83 could have a case of having up to seven players in a BEST XI. The goalkeeper, the two centrebacks and the centreforward were nowhere such a team. The seven others could all have a case. I agree. That´s not to say all seven MUST be in that team.

5) Maybe I´m too eurocentric from the positions 20-70, but I believe I´m NOT from the positions 1-20. I you believe that it´s your opinion and I won´t argue with you about that. I just simply disagree based on my research.

6) You know what. I like your input. It´s very welcome. But you should know that I´m also spreading this project around other places than in this forum. I have had people from at least 12 different countries saying the same as you but in regards to the players from their own respective contries. The Spanish, English, Germans, Italians, Brazilians, South koreans and even the Danes where I´m from myself have all asked why a player or multiple players are not represented. That just goes to say that everybody are a little biased toward their countrymen. That´s fair but I´m trying to steer clear from that.

7) If you feel I´m wrong somewhere I would like to know. However, I would need specific names in specific seasons - otherwise it´s useless. I need more Brazilians - I need Zico to be no 1. These kind requests are useless. Which Brazilians do you have in mind and which seasons? Which year(s) do you feel Zico was no. 1? e.t.c. Afterall my objectice is only that my rankings are as accurate as possible as to how the world as a whole saw it.

 

THE 75 BEST FOOTBALLERS 1984 - How it might have looked:

GOLD: Michel PLATINI (Juventus)
SILVER: ZICO (Udinese)
BRONZE: Diego MARADONA (Barcelona)

4 FALCAO (Roma)
5 Karl-Heinz RUMMENIGGE (Bayern)
6 Kenny DALGLISH (Liverpool)
7 Jean TIGANA (Bordeaux)
8 Alain GIRESSE (Bordeaux)
9 SOCRATES (Corinthians)
10 Bryan ROBSON (Manchester U)

11 Preben ELKJAER (Lokeren)
12 Ian RUSH (Liverpool)
13 Greame SOUNESS (Liverpool)
14 Enzo FRANCESCOLI (River Plate)
15 Glenn HODDLE (Tottenham)
16 Jesper OLSEN (Ajax)
17 Fernando CHALANA (Benfica)
18 Zbigniew BONIEK (Juventus)
19 Bruno CONTI (Roma)
20 Soren LERBY (Bayern)

21 Jan CEULEMANS (Club Bruges)
22 Julio Cesar ROMERO (Fluminense)
23 Toni SCHUMACHER (FC Cologne)
24 Bernd SCHUSTER (Barcelona)
25 Karlheinz FÖRSTER (Stuttgart)
26 Maxime BOSSIS (Nantes)
27 Morten OLSEN (Anderlecht)
28 Ricardo BOCHINI (Independiente)
29 Frank ARNESEN (Anderlecht)
30 Antonio CABRINI (Juventus)

31 Renato GAUCHO (Gremio)
32 Rinat DASSAEV (Spartak Moscow)
33 JUNIOR (Flamengo)
34 Rudi VÖLLER (Werder Bremen)
35 Luis FERNANDEZ (Paris SG)
36 Daniel PASSARELLA (Fiorentina)
37 Gaetano SCIREA (Juventus)
38 Liam BRADY (Sampdoria)
39 Toninho CEREZO (Roma)
40 EDER (Atletico Mineiro)

41 Antonio MACEDA (Gijon)
42 Paolo ROSSI (Juventus)
43 Michael LAUDRUP (Lazio)
44 Ruud GULLIT (Feyenoord)
45 Trevor FRANCIS (Sampdoria)
46 Patrick BATTISTON (Bordeaux)
47 Hans-Peter BRIEGEL (Kaiserslautern)
48 Juan Antonio CAMACHO (Real Madrid)
49 Jorge BURRUCHAGA (Independiente)
50 CARECA (Sao Paolo)

51 Pierre LITTBARSKI (FC Cologne)
52 Gordon STRACHAN (Aberdeen)
53 Franky VERCAUTEREN (Anderlecht)
54 Lothar MATTHÄUS (Mönchengladbach)
55 Mark LAWRENSON (Liverpool)
56 Alan HANSEN (Liverpool)
57 Salvatore BAGNI (Inter)
58 Roberto DINAMITE (Vasco da Gama)
59 Marco VAN BASTEN (Ajax)
60 Enzo SCIFO (Anderlecht)

61 Peter SHILTON (Southampton)
62 Rafael GORDILLO (Betis)
63 Juan BARBAS (Zaragoza)
64 Johan CRUYFF (Ajax)
65 MIGUELI (Barcelona)
66 Hugo DE LEON (Gremio)
67 Asgeir SIGURVINSSON (Stuttgart)
68 JUANITO (Real Madrid)
69 Ruben PAZ (International)
70 Steve ARCHIBALD (Tottenham)

71 Marco TARDELLI (Juventus)
72 Erwin VANDENBERGH (Anderlecht)
73 Sammy LEE (Liverpool)
74 John BARNES (Watford)
75 Ray WILKINS (Manchester U)
76 Peter HOUTMAN (Feyenoord)

Player of The Season: 1 Platini 2 Zico 3 Falcao 4 Rush 5 Tigana 6 Elkjaer 7 Souness 8 Francescoli 9 Romero 10 Chalana

Overall, this was the crowning of Platini. This was his best season in his entire career. However, I must stress that everything I´ve read, everybody still refers to Maradona as the top player in the world. Despite his troubles I simply was very tempted to have him at no 1 both for 1983 and for 1984 because in most parts he was still considered the best. In the end I chose not to but by doing so I´m actually going against my own research.

Zico was huge at this point. The Serie A was used to having technical players, but they had not seen anything like Zico. He had his debut in the Luigi Ferraris Stadium in Genoa and even the Genoa fans were singing his name and applauding him – just like when the Bernabeu did the same to Ronaldinho in 2005 and Old Trafford to Nazario in 2003. Many felt Roma could have pipped Juventus once again had it not been for Roma´s surge into the European Cup final and for Carlo Ancelotti´s injury. Falcao had another great season, however, in the European Cup final he chose not to take one of the penalties vs Liverpool. That did not sit well in Rome and to an extend started his demise in Rome.

In England they were devasted by the defeat to Denmark in the all important Euro84 qualifier. However, they quickly looked forward to WC86. They thought they still had world-class players in Robson, Hoddle, Sansom, Francis and Shilton to build around. In the U-21 team Steve Hodge of Nottingham F was the most prominent player. Speaking of Hoddle he was at last starting to fulfill his early promise. The last couple of seasons he had not been anything spectacular, and he was even tagged “The nearly man”. His return to prominence coincided with the return of Ossie Ardiles to the Tottenham side.

Speaking of the defeat to Denmark it was no shame as we later learned. This was the best Denmark side in history. By this point Allan Simonsen was still general with Jesper Olsen the emerging superstar. So much, that the English called ham The New George Best when Manchester U signed him – and they truly believed he would be. However, we would come to know that the true stars were Elkjaer, Laudrup, Arnesen, Lerby and captain of the side Morten Olsen. Laudrup ended up at Juventus and being loaned out to Lazio, however, he was so close to joining Liverpool. So close that he at one point was sure Anfield would be his next destination.

BEST XI: SCHUMACHER – BATTISTON – CABRINI – FÖRSTER – BOSSIS - FALCAO – TIGANA – PLATINI – MARADONA – ZICO – RUMMENIGGE
Giovanni TRAPPATONI (Manager)

GOLDEN BOY:

1 Michael LAUDRUP (Lazio)
2 Marco VAN BASTEN (Ajax)
3 Enzo SCIFO (Anderlecht)
4 Roberto MANCINI (Sampdoria)
5 Gerald VANENBURG (Ajax)
6 Stewart ROBSON (Arsenal)

 

Perfect @PDG1978 - great addition. Thanks a lot. Let me comment.

1) Cruyff - As you saw I had him at #64 for 1984. He probably had a season which could warrant even more. However, as the rankings are overall I would compare Cruyff´s 1983/84 season with Messi having a splendid season in 2 or 3 years time. If that were to happen to Messi, he will NOT be higher ranked than #64 by then, so Cruyff couldn´t get any higher in 1984.

2) Hoddle - When I revise my rankings he will probably get treated a little better for the years 1980 and 81. I´ll admit to having somewhat underestimated him for these early years. However, the 1983/84 is the only season thereafter where (according to my research) managers/journalist/fans didn´t get frustated with him due to not fulfilling his early promise. I even read he was looked upon as a player who got his managers the sack. That sounds crazy but the thought was that the Tottenham board told their managers - "Look you have Glenn Hoddle in his prime - you better get something out of this team". The trouble was that Hoddle was not good enough/working hard enough in order to carry the Spurs team on his shoulders as would be expected. I´m still not completely sure where to put him in 1986+87+88 - I´ll get to that. But for 1983+1985 (and to an extend 1982) he was not that highly regarded (at least not according to my research).

3) Thorbjorn Nilsson - Well - I´ll lay down flat. My mistake. Of course he should be in for 1982. I actually remember him! I disregarded him at first due to the feeling that he was a "One Season Wonder". However, he was not. Even if he was, we wouldn´t know by August 1982 that he would be and these rankings should not been seen as retrospective rankings. They should be how the world looked upon it at the time. Nilsson surely enters the list in 1982. I´m not quite sure he would for other seasons though. He was big in Scandinavia but one also has to remember that he didn´t quite make it outside of Sweden.

 

Look that is an awesome response. Just what I was looking for. I might agree on some/most of your opinions - some I will probably never agree on. But nonetheless this is truly a great response. I will certainly look into every bit of your comments and see if I believe you might be right in some of the cases. I will thank you for this because as I said - my main objective is that my rankings should end up being as true to reality as possible.

 

THE 75 BEST FOOTBALLERS 1985 - How it might have looked:

GOLD: Michel PLATINI (Juventus)
SILVER: Diego MARADONA (Napoli)
BRONZE: Preben ELKJAER (Verona)

4 ZICO (Udinese)
5 Karl-Heinz RUMMENIGGE (Inter)
6 Zbigniew BONIEK (Juventus)
7 Ian RUSH (Liverpool)
8 Jean TIGANA (Bordeaux)
9 Alain GIRESSE (Bordeaux)
10 Bernd SCHUSTER (Barcelona)

11 CARECA (Sao Paolo)
12 Pierre LITTBARSKI (FC Cologne)
13 Bryan ROBSON (Manchester U)
14 Julio Cesar ROMERO (Fluminense)
15 Enzo FRANCESCOLI (River Plate)
16 SOCRATES (Fiorentina)
17 Soren LERBY (Bayern)
18 Toninho CEREZO (Roma)
19 Gaetano SCIREA (Juventus)
20 Michael LAUDRUP (Lazio)

21 Rudi VÖLLER (Werder Bremen)
22 Ruud GULLIT (Feyenoord)
23 Rinat DASSAEV (Spartak Moscow)
24 Jan CEULEMANS (Club Bruges)
25 Hans-Peter BRIEGEL (Verona)
26 Luis FERNANDEZ (Paris SG)
27 JUNIOR (Torino)
28 Marco VAN BASTEN (Ajax)
29 Lothar MATTHÄUS (Bayern)
30 FALCAO (Roma)

31 Bruno CONTI (Roma)
32 Toni SCHUMACHER (FC Cologne)
33 Karlheinz FÖRSTER (Stuttgart)
34 Morten OLSEN (Anderlecht)
35 Maxime BOSSIS (Nantes)
36 Greame SOUNESS (Sampdoria)
37 Hugo SANCHEZ (Atletico Madrid)
38 Glenn HODDLE (Tottenham)
39 Fernando Gomes (FC Porto)
40 Daniel PASSARELLA (Fiorentina)

41Oleg BLOKHIN (Dynamo Kiev)
42 Emilio BUTRAGUENO (Real Madrid)
43 Oleg PROTASOV (Dnipro)
44 Jean-Marie PFAFF (Bayern)
45 Alexander ZAVAROV (Dynamo Kiev)
46 Igor BELANOV (Dynamo Kiev)
47 Manuel AMOROS (Monaco)
48 LEANDRO (Flamengo)
49 Alan HANSEN (Liverpool)
50 Renato GAUCHO (Gremio)

51 Enzo SCIFO (Anderlecht)
52 Jorge BURRUCHAGA (Nantes)
53 Frank ARNESEN (Anderlecht)
54 Walter CASAGRANDE (Corinthians)
55 Antonio CABRINI (Juventus)
56 Franky VERCAUTEREN (Anderlecht)
57 Rafael GORDILLO (Betis)
58 John BARNES (Watford)
59 Claudio BORGHI (Argentina Juniors)
60 Neville SOUTHALL (Everton)

61 Klaus ALLOFS (FC Cologne)
62 Frank RIJKAARD (Ajax)
63 Ray WILKINS (AC Milan)
64 EDER (Atletico Mineiro)
65 Alessandro ALTOBELLI (Inter)
66 Mark HATELEY (AC Milan)
67 Mark HUGHES (Manchester U)
68 Trevor STEVEN (Everton)
69 Jorge VALDANO (Real Madrid)
70 MIGUELI (Barcelona)
70 Peter REID (Everton)

Player of The Season: 1 Platini – 2 Maradona – 3 Elkjaer – 4 Schuster 5 Boniek 6 Romero 7 Careca 8 Tigana 9 Briegel 10 Southall

Zico had a terrible season, however, his rep wasn´t gone yet. Denmark played some of the most beautiful football seen since Brazil 1982. I actually believe Michael Laudrup was as good in 1985+1986 as he was in his so-called peak, however, he needed to get away from the defensive Serie A to get the world soccer fully to appreciate it. Some very interesting young guns were emerging.


BEST XI: DASSAEV – AMOROS – FÖRSTER – SCIREA – JUNIOR – TIGANA – SCHUSTER – MARADONA – PLATINI - ELKJAER – ZICO
TRAPPATONI (Manager)

GOLDEN BOY:

1 Enzo SCIFO (Anderlecht)
2 Paolo FUTRE (FC Porto)
3 Gheorghe HAGI (Sportul)

 

Thanks a lot. I appreciate these kind of input very much.

First and foremost I would like to remind you that my rankings are not based solely on the season in question. My rankings are an overall reputation of the players after the season (1st August).

Burruchaga: I completely agree that Burruchaga was better in 1984/85 than my ranking of him suggests. But I’m not sure his overall rep was better yet by this point. Certainly not in Europe. However, I’m willing to listen so I will move Burruchaga slightly up in the rankings when I revise the rankings later on.

Briegel: He was considered HUGE by 1st August 1985 - at least in Europe. The German Panzer was even considered a better option than Junior at LB at this point in Europe. However, as the rankings are not European but Worldwide I had already chosen Junior as the LB and I’m willing to take into account that Briegel probably wasn’t that revered outside of Europe. So I will move him down a little.

Great notes - Thanks again.

 

The 86 Best Footballers - 1986 - How it might have looked:

GOLD: Diego MARADONA (Napoli)
SILVER: Michel PLATINI (Juventus)
BRONZE: Preben ELKJAER (Verona)

4 CARECA (Sao Paolo)
5 Gary LINEKER (Everton)
6 Ruud GULLIT (PSV)
7 Marco VAN BASTEN (Ajax)
8 Emilio BUTRAGUENO (Real Madrid)
9 Michael LAUDRUP (Juventus)
10 Igor BELANOV (Dynamo Kiev)

11 Jean TIGANA (Bordeaux)
12 Ian RUSH (Liverpool)
13 Hugo SANCHEZ (Real Madrid)
14 Enzo FRANCESCOLI (River Plate)
15 Jorge BURRUCHAGA (Nantes)
16 Alain GIRESSE (Marseille)
17 Jan CEULEMANS (Club Bruges)
18 Oleksandr ZAVAROV (Dynamo Kiev)
19 Soren LERBY (Bayern)
20 Enzo SCIFO (Anderlecht)

21 Bryan ROBSON (Manchester U)
22 Manuel AMOROS (Monaco)
23 Bernd SCHUSTER (Barcelona)
24 Glenn HODDLE (Tottenham)
25 Luis FERNANDEZ (Paris SG)
26 Toni SCHUMACHER (FC Cologne)
27 Karl-Heinz RUMMENIGGE (Inter)
28 Julio Cesar ROMERO (Fluminense)
29 Morten OLSEN (Anderlecht)
30 SOCRATES (Flamengo)

31 JUNIOR (Torino)
32 Zbigniew BONIEK (Roma)
33 Jean-Marie PFAFF (Bayern)
34 Rudi VÖLLER (Werder Bremen)
35 Paolo FUTRE (FC Porto)
36 Antonio ALZAMENDI (Penarol)
37 MICHEL (Real Madrid)
38 Jorge VALDANO (Real Madrid)
39 Lothar MATTHÄUS (Bayern)
40 Rinat DASSAEV (Spartak Moscow)

41 Karlheinz FÖRSTER (Stuttgart)
42 Frank ARNESEN (PSV)
43 ZICO (Flamengo)
44 Oleg KUZNETZOV (Dynamo Kiev)
45 Gaetano SCIREA (Juventus)¨
46 Alessandro ALTOBELLI (Inter)
47 Gheorghe HAGI (Sportul)
48 Hans Peter BRIEGEL (Sampdoria)
49 Maxime BOSSIS (RC Paris)
50 Oscar RUGGERI (River Plate)

51 Andreas BREHME (Kaiserslautern)
52 Mark HUGHES (Manchester U)
53 Klaus ALLOFS (FC Cologne)
54 Fernando GOMES (FC Porto)
55 Julio CESAR (Guarani)
56 Frank RIJKAAARD (Ajax)
57 Patrick BATTISTON (Bordeaux)
58 Gordon STRACHAN (Manchester U)
59 Pavlo YAKOVENKO (Dynamo Kiev)
60 Daniel PASSARELLA (Fiorentina)

61 Neville SOUTHALL (Everton)
62 Fernando DE NAPOLI (Avellino)
63 Sergio BATISTA (Argentinos Juniors)
64 Claudio BORGHI (Argentinos Juniors)
65 Peter SHILTON (Southampton)
66 MÜLLER (Sao Paolo)
67 Lajos DETARI (Honved Budapest)
68 Alan HANSEN (Liverpool)
69 Anatoly DEMYANENKO (Dynamo Kiev)
70 Eric GERETS (PSV)

71 Paul McGRATH (Manchester U)
72 Jan MOLBY (Liverpool)
73 Peter BEARDSLEY (Newcastle)
74 Yannick STOPYRA (Toulouse)
75 Franky VERCAUTEREN (Anderlecht)
76 ELZO (Atletico Mineiro)
77 Oleg PROTASOV (Dnipro)
78 Jose Luis BROWN (Deportivo Espanol)
79 Steve HODGE (Aston Villa)
80 JOSIMAR (Botafogo)

81 Manuel NEGRETE (Pumas)
82 Nico CLAESEN (St. Liege)
83 Giuseppe BERGOMI (Inter)
84 Chris WADDLE (Tottenham)
85 Trevor STEVEN (Everton)
86 Jean-Pierre PAPIN (Club Bruges)


Player of The Season: 1 Maradona 2 Belanov 3 Lineker 4 Careca 5 Butragueno 6 Burruchaga 7 Elkjaer 8 Amoros 9 Laudrup 10 Zavarov

BEST XI: SCHUMACHER – AMOROS – BRIEGEL – FÖRSTER – OLSEN - TIGANA – BURRUCHAGA – GULLIT - PLATINI – MARADONA – ELKJAER
VALERIY LOBANOVSKYI (Manager)

Goalkeeper – Had it not been for some terrible blunders at the biggest stage (The World Cup Final) Harald Schumacher would have been the sure choice. Not that his rivals (Pfaff, Dassaev, Shilton, Southall, Bats) were bad. They were all world-class. Schumacher was just phenomenal. His errors in that final let Dassaev and especially Pfaff in for a shout though. The English even truly believed Shilton was still the best. They even pitted him up for at GOAT fight against Gordon Banks where he forced a draw in a battle of being crowned the best ever. Outside England he was not no. 1 though. But the French also believed Bats was the best. But worldwide it was Schumacher – and if not it was Pfaff.
In midfield this was Lerby´s peak. He was truly world-class. I even contemplated putting him in the XI.

In Russia Zavarov beat Belanov to the Russian player of the year gong even if Belanov won The Ballon d´Or. I also believe Zavarov was the better player of the two but when you perform at the WC like Belanov did you´re bound to be held in high regards world-wide.

Careca was considered the best Brazilian by now. However, there were also good reviews for Alemao, Elzo, Müller and Julio Cesar.

In England they were delighted with their new Strikeforce Lineker/Beardsley. However, they admitted they were nothing like the reference point – Elkjaer-Laudrup yet. In the English First Division Lineker was voted the most exciting player followed by Frank McAvennie and Jan Molby.

Regarding the GOAT debate: Maradona was by now widely regarded as the second-best player in history. Only a certain O´Rei stood above him. That was the general opinion. So, I´m just saying – If Maradona already in 1986 - even before he had even won a Scudetto with Napoli yet – was regarded above Di Stefano, Best, Cruyff, Charlton, Beckenbauer and Puskas (who were referred to as the next in line) so here in 2025 he MUST be ranked before them – right!?


GOLDEN BOY:

1 Enzo SCIFO (Anderlecht)
2 Paolo FUTRE (FC Porto)
3 ROMARIO (Vasco da Gama)