The Top 5 players in the world in every 5-year period

So I am trying to come up with a list of the Top 5 players in the world in every 5-year period, since 1930.

I find that rankings that encompass a period of 10 years are very inaccurate, since a lot can change in a whole decade and there are many players that reach their peaks in the transition from one decade to the next.

I am pretty certain about the best options for the periods of 1940-45 and 1945-50, but I am still figuring out who would top the lists for the 1930-35 and 1935-40 periods.

Anyway, this would be the ranking for 1940-45:
1) José Manuel Moreno (ARG)
2) Leônidas da Silva (BRA)
3) Josef Bican (AUS)
4) Adolfo Pedernera (ARG)
5) Zizinho (BRA)

This would be the one for 1945-50:
1) Zizinho (BRA)
2) Valentino Mazzola (ITA)
3) Ademir de Menezes (BRA)
4) Telmo Zarra (SPA)
5) Jair Rosa Pinto (BRA)

Not sure if Stanley Matthews was peaking here or if he would be better suited for the 1950-55 period.

The ranking for 1950-55 would look something like this:
1) Ferenc Puskás (HUN)
2) Alfredo Di Stéfano (ARG)
3) Stanley Matthews (ENG)
4) Juan Alberto Schiaffino (URU)
5) Sándor Kocsis (HUN)

 

All due respect to your list here, but Sastre simply cannot be put above Leônidas in the period of 1939 to 1945. They both played for São Paulo FC from 1943 onwards and the team's main star was always Leônidas (who, by the way, was the top scorer and named best player of the 1938 World Cup).

And Stanley Matthews was hardy playing football during the war years.

As for the period of 1944 to 1950, it is pretty much impossible not to have Zizinho and Ademir de Menezes in the Top 3. They were THE top players for the Brazil national team that dominated South America in 1949 and crushed everyone at the 1950 World Cup, up to the surprising loss in the final.

They were both far superior to Puskas in the 1940s decade.

Out of the players performing in Europe, I would only put Mazzola in their level in that period.

 

Suárez above Garrincha is pretty bold for that period. And Di Stéfano was past his prime.

This is THE period of dominance by Pelé and Garrincha in world football.

 

Argentina was PAST its prime by 1947-48. Many of its best players were fleeing to Colombia (including Di Stéfano) and the period of Brazilian dominance was just starting. The 1949-50 Brazil national team is widely regarded as THE FIRST superteam Brazil was able to assemble (one decade before winning its first WC).

Brazil was OUSTANDING in the 1949 Copa América and arrived at the 1950 Word Cup as THE top team to win it. They were by FAR the favorites to be champions and, indeed, the team smashed everybody all the way to the final (in which Brazil only needed a draw against Uruguay to be champion).

It was a team full of superstars all over.

 

Matthews was playing exhibition matches during that period.

And Leônidas was THE top player in Brazil back then, piling up titles for both Flamengo and São Paulo. His arrival at SPFC completely put the club at a whole different level.

To say Brazil had a "weak league" is to know very little about the history of football. South American football was just as good as European football back then, probably even BETTER.

And it was like that all the way to the 80s and 90s, when the financial disparity started to show.

Argentina had the most powerful national team in the world from 1941 to 1946-47 and Brazil was the powerhouse from 1949-50 (one decade before it became World Champion in 1958). And all the players played in their own countries.

 

Clearly, you don't have much knowledge on Brazilian football.

Between 1961 and 1964, Garrincha won 2 Carioca Championships (which were highly important back then) and 2 Rio-São Paulo Tournaments (which was the closest you could get to being Brazilian champion).

A state tournament from São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro is more competitive than the Spanish League. Paulista and Carioca Tournaments have 4 competing big clubs each. The Spanish league has 2 competing big clubs. Half the amount.

It is a very uneducated opinion to think European leagues were superior to South American leagues back in the 1960s. It was literally the OPPOSITE.

If you doubt that, then just check where the players who won THREE out of 4 World Cup titles for Brazil between 1958 and 1970 were performing. Literally ALL of them played in Brazil, for Brazilian clubs.

 

Brazil won the Southamerican Cup by a LANDSLIDE in 1949 and SMASHED everybody before losing to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final (when it could have been champion with a simple draw due to its much superior campaign).

Your comment makes as much sense as to say that Hungary was not the favorite to win the World Cup title in 1954 or that the Netherlands were not the favorites in 1974 because they lost the final game.

Being the best team does not necessarily mean winning the title at the end, automatically.

 

He is clearly European.

But credits to him for putting Moreno on top (I agree with him there) and including Pedernera (who was superior to Labruna).

Although the absence of Leônidas is, of course, unforgivable.

And I would also include Zizinho, who won 3 consecutive Carioca titles with Flamengo in 1942-43-44 and was already becoming THE superstar o Brazilian football by then (displacing Leônidas by the mid-1940s).

 

As stated previously, Argentinian football entered a period of decline after 1946-47. The famous "La Máquina" of River Plate was no more by 1948, when it lost the FIRST Southamerican club competition ever to Vasco da Gama led by Ademir de Menezes.

Your mistake is to believe that the superstars of Brazilian football from the 1950 World Cup only showed up that very same year, when they were actually being protagonists in Brazil and in South America at club level many years BEFORE the World Cup happened, during the 1940s.

Zizinho had already led Flamengo to 3 consecutive Carioca titles in 1942-43-44 and Ademir de Menezes was the leading figure of the legendary Vasco da Gama of the mid-to-late 1940s that was crowned South American Champion in 1948.

Jair Rosa Pinto, Tesourinha, Danilo Alvim... all of them were piling up titles and accolades YEARS before the 1950 World Cup was disputed.

But you seem to believe that they only appear on the scene in 1950.

 

The fact that you dispute the importance of the Carioca Tournament (and State Tournaments in general) in Brazil in mid-1940s will obviously make us suspicious of your knowledge on Brazilian football.

Those were practically the ONLY competitions played in the whole country throughout that decade by ALL the clubs. All the main players in Brazil competed in those championships, including the ones that were World Cup finalists in 1950.

 

If we narrow it down even further, then I believe it would make more sense to name the best players of every year/season. Like a Ballon d'Or.

 

Nice one. Disagree with some picks (Jair Rosa Pinto should be in the Top 3 in 1951 and Rivellino should at least be mentioned somewhere in the 1970s), but it looks nice overall.

Do you know if there is a similar one for the "world team of they year"?

That would be interesting too.