All time top 5

[Guest PurpleNose]

Same m8. It's a shame he had a poor attitude but what a player he was.

 

He never found that one club to love in Europe like Maradona did. But similarly to Maradona, Boca came before anything else.

[de Tocqueville]

1. Pelé. King of Brazil when the league over there was the strongest in the world along with that of Italy. Much lesser Brazilians players starred in Italy and other European leagues during that era so it's laughable to suggest that he too wouldn't have ruled in Europe. Won three World Cups. Unplayable and changed the world of football forever.

 

2. Diego Maradona.

 

3. Alfredo Di Stefano.

 

4. Johan Cruyff.

 

5. Mané Garrincha.

[Monster Masch]

I'm too young but

 

Zidane

 

Maradona

 

Maldini

 

Pele

 

Ronaldo

[Red Hot]

1, Pele.

2, Maradona

3, Cruyff.

4, Zidane,

5. Usabiao { typo not sure}

[lebron]

1, Pele.

2, Maradona

3, Cruyff.

4, Zidane,

5. Usabiao { typo not sure}

 

Eusebio?

[Red Hot]

Played for Benfica and Portugal in the 66 W/C, not sure of his spelling.

[Joso]

1. Ronaldo

[Pidge]

to be honest, after Puskas (my favourite ever by some way), it's an utter lottery.

 

Come on people, 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary. over 500 goals in 530 games in the league. Including 157 for Real in 180 games. He joined Real at 31! He joined for Hungarian political reasons and not because of Franco, btw. His performance against England in the 50s is the best single performance of all time and the turn in the same game was more sensational than Cruyff's. He had the dribbling skills and the ability to ride tackles (see 2:09 in the below) that Diego had and a bullet of a strike.

 

Best of all he was an ugly, fat little bastard. Love the guy.

 

[jamespp]

Come on people, 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary. over 500 goals in 530 games in the league. Including 157 for Real in 180 games. He joined Real at 31! He joined for Hungarian political reasons and not because of Franco, btw. His performance against England in the 50s is the best single performance of all time and the turn in the same game was more sensational than Cruyff's. He had the dribbling skills and the ability to ride tackles (see 2:09 in the below) that Diego had and a bullet of a strike.

 

Best of all he was an ugly, fat little bastard. Love the guy.

 

 

but was he your era? i think most people are going for people they have seen, its no good me sayin Di Stefano or Beckenbauer because its just heresay

[Pidge]

but was he your era? i think most people are going for people they have seen, its no good me sayin Di Stefano or Beckenbauer because its just heresay

 

No, I've watched plenty of games with him playing though. If this is about players I've actually seen play live then the likes of Gerrard, Macca and even Ashey Cole would probably feature much higher. Fortunately the "all time" aspect of the OP discounts that.

[Stormbringer]

Pele

Cruyff

Moore

Maradona

Best

van Basten

Beckenbaur

Baggio

Rumenigge

Laudrup

Messi

Gullit

 

 

Shit this is impossible!!!!

[lebron]

I'll just judge the players I've watched live/a lot of, 1982/3 and onwards.

 

1. Maradona - by a distance

2. Messi - the only player that is ever likely to upstage no 1

3. Ronaldo - could have been the very best with better guidance and self disipline...

4. Zidane - not a personal favourite, but enjoyable to watch and a medals haul to boot.

5. Think it's a cointoss after that, but surprised that noone has mentioned Matthaus yet. Well, not surprised as most posters on here with English connections would have some trauma connected to German players of the 90s, but his achievements speak for themselves really. Not the most charismatic or eyecatching, but probably one of the most effective players of all time and a born winner. One more reason to hate the Mancs, robbing him of the one medal he didnt win. 150 caps, should have been more if not for a spat with Sammer, German league, Italian league, World Cup, Euro Cup, UEFA cup, Ballon d'or, Fifa player of the year etc...

 

A real personal favourite of mine was Fernando Redondo. His midfield play in the 99/00 season was the best I've seen I think. Injuries and national boycotts making him less of a household name than he should have been.

[Pidge]

A real personal favourite of mine was Fernando Redondo. His midfield play in the 99/00 season was the best I've seen I think. Injuries and national boycotts making him less of a household name than he should have been.

 

Great shout. The proto-Xabi. Real selling him was the biggest mistake of the whole period. They sold Makelele and Cambiasso at around the same time and then wondered why they were getting overpowered in the middle.

 

Taught me that selling the central distributor of a team isn't a good plan... Which brings us back to Xabi.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'm just going to include players that i've actually seen a lot of. As highly as I regard them, choosing the likes of Maradona, Pele or even Platini is basically just going on what I have heard, for all I know everyone else could be wrong.

 

1. Zinedine Zidane

2. Lionel Messi

3. Ronaldo (the real one)

4. Xavi

5. Thierry Henry

 

There's a couple of Liverpool players (Stevie and Fowler) I was tempted to include, but I couldn't decide and excluded them to make sure it was my top 5 without any bias.

[Big Lee]

1.Best

2.Pele

3.Maradona

4.Messi

5.Zidane

[Superfly]

Maradona

Cruyff

Beckenbauer

Ronaldo(the original one)

Van Basten

 

Honourable mention for King Kenny. I notice a lot of people picking Zidane in their lists. Dalglish at his peak was a better player than Zidane IMHO.

[razor]

I can't believe I just bothered to read this thread. I should have known better.

 

Babeto, Rummenegge and Laudrup better than Kenny Dalglish?

 

Does anyone understand / watch football?

 

I'm angry and I'm off. Unbelievable.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

All down to personal preference and being able to witness said players. I'm not adding current players as i believe they need to finish their careers first.

 

1) Johan Cruyff. Naturally gifted beyond belief. He was also fast on his feet which made it impossible to defend against at times. he could play up front as a striker but was just as dangerous on the wing or playing in a deeper role. looking back at the time he played he was by far the most all round technically gifted player.

 

2) Maradona. Pains me to say it but the chubby little cheating fucker was a great player. Like Cruyff he had a great technique, low centre of gravity helped him just swerve past opposition players. Bit of a moody fucker and Cruyff pips him in my top 5 because Maradona was a crazy cunt and still is. Not as much as a team player as Cruyff.

 

3). Pele. Only got to witness the back end of his career but have had the pleasure of seeing footage of his earlier career. He had dribbling skills and tremendous goalscoring ability, at the end of the day he scored goals...all good strikers do. But he was special.

 

4). Beckenbauer. I have to have this bloke in my top 5 being as i was a defender myself. he basically changed how players defended back then. comfortable at bringing the ball out of defence and solid in the tackle. he was a sweeper type player long before the name was given to the role he played.

 

5.) I'm thinking of Eusebio, Stefano, Puskas, etc etc.... but all a bit before my time and not fair to judge.

 

so my final spot goes to Zidane... He was a great playmaker who not only scored fantastic goals but also fed the forwards. Strong in the tackle and also old twinkle toes at bypassing an incoming tackle. Far better than that arrogant cunt Platini IMO.

[Mathewbet1]

Maradona

Pele

Messi

Zidane

Maldini

[Pidge]

Del Piero became Juventus' all-time leading league scorer yesterday. Great player.

[CTorres17]

Messi: Best player in the world in my opinion currently and ever despite his horrible luck at South Africa.

Dihno : I hate brazil but I enjoy watching him play with that smile of his truelly shows his love and passion for the game.

Maradona: My pick instead of Pele even though he abused drugs he did sick runs by himself as a player I give him an A but manager F-.

Batistuta: One of the best strikers Argentina has ever had.

Hagi: Wonderful Romo.

[Red Nick]

1 Souness (the complete Silk and Steel player)

2 Maradonna

3 Zidane

4 Cruyff

5 Pele

[MOGLET]

Pele

Cruyf (spelling)

King Kenny

Clem, who said it had to be outfield players?

Cantona

 

 

Shame on those who didnt put one of our own in that mix.

[Guest San Don]

Pele

Cruyff

Best

Beckenbauer

Moore

 

special mention for Banks.

[Guest TesticleOReilly]

This is like watching a sponsored copy&paste Wiki marathon.

 

In no particular order:

 

Ronaldo (the real one)

Bergkamp

Van Basten

Maradonna

Zidane

 

Honourable mentions to Hagi, Stoichkov, and Mr Dalgish.