Guardian's World Cup top 100 Footballers of all time

Top 20
1.Pele
2.Maradona
3.Beckenbauer
4.Ronaldo
5.Zidane
6.Cruyff
7.Matthuas
8.Muller
9.Garrincha
10.Platini
11.Eusebio
12.Maldini
13.Jairzinho
14.Charlton
15.Xavi
16.Romario
17.Fontaine
18.Rossi
19.Zoff
20.Moore


33. Cristiano Ronaldo
51. Messi
64. Puyol
65. Iniesta
84. Sneijder
95. Lahm

http://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2014/may/27/the-world-cups-top-100-footballers-of-all-time-interactive

Also, which footballers could you see forcing themselves into this list after this World Cup?

Another list?! Why is Cristiano (yes, Cristiano Ronaldo) higher than Rummenigge, Passarella, Banks, Boniek, Buffon, Nilton and Djalma Santos, Tostao, Brehme, f-ing WC final Hattrick man Hurst, Stoichkov, Mr. 11 WC goals Kocsis, Vava?!

Why is Messi doing in that list at all? He has done literally nothing of any note at two World Cups despite his legendary status at Barcelona and club football.

Puyol was a stand out defender in Spain's WC winning team, scoring the goal to send them in the final in the semis. Could argue he earns his spot somehow.

Sneijder and Lahm, ugh, not even gonna bother....

Pretty sure Lothar voted against his fellow Germans so he could be the highest rated among them lol.

I actually have no issues with the names mentioned but the order is debatable.

Zealous wrote:Pretty sure Lothar voted against his fellow Germans so he could be the highest rated among them lol.

Didn't work. He didn't get past Kaiser Franz

Lahm   

Ok, he is a great fullback but a bizarre inclusion in my opinion

Shouldn't Cannavaro be somewhere high up on that list, absolutely beasted in 2006 and conceded like 0 goals from open play on the way to winning it

The top 6 is fair enough. After that

M99 wrote:The top 6 is fair enough. After that

Come on, "kleines, dickes Müller" (=short fat Müller)  is okay up there, too!

I dont know what hurts worse reading that. My heart, my eyes or my brain.

Can I just say, something which continues to go untalked about...Garrincha was probably the best player for Brazil in 2 WC wins. Without question 1 and no less than 2nd best (behind Didi, not Pele) in another.

No, career vs career he wasnt better than Pele like some rare few do suggest.

But in 58, they were 1-0 down to Sweden in the final before he, not Pele created both the goals to bring it to 2-1. Pele made it 3-1 and then 5-2 (if done today would be called stat padding/front running/Cristiano special, though for me that would be stupid to say about a teenager who scored 5 goals in the tournament whichever way you wish to slice it).

And in 62...well

Pele was out injured, and he dominated, his best performances ever. Scored 4 in two separate games and more importantly, won player of the tournament as Brazil won, basically without Pele.

Even as "high" as 9 is a slap in the face.

Only thing I will comment on because I feel like most can figure out for themselves the problems with this list.

I think numbered lists are BS. Any decent list should use tiers, not numbers.

Here is another problem: Only a single player from Italy 2006. No Pirlo, and no Buffon. IMO, both players were better than Cannavaro, and it was injury to them that cost Italy in 2010. Actually, Del Piero makes the list but not those two. Bloody Genaro Gattuso and Materratizi deserve it more than ADP.

In fact, there is a significant lack of Italian players overall. Then you have players like CR and Messi who imo never justified their WC particpitation to be among the top 100.

Also, the list is heavily biased towards goalscorers and offensive players. Outside of Beckenbaur, there is no other defensive player in top 10, and only 3 in top 20.

Here is a number of points to consider as well:
-Maldini is higher than any Italian WC winner, and I love Maldini.
(In fact, this makes me think whomever compiled this list thought he played in 2006).
-Thuram, who saved France's ass against a better Croatia side, and was arguably their greatest player in 1998 is not even in top 30.
-Highest Spain 2010 player is Xavi, who imo was the least effective and important from Spain's stars. I would put Puyol, Ineista, Iker, Villa, then Xavi in the list. Xavi is 15, while both Puyol and Ineista are 64 and 65.
-Messi and CR are in the list. That immediately discredits this list as a WC list.

I think that peles place at n1 is largely cemented by 2 things

1: To the casual supporters who don't know anything about it, the fact he won 3 world cups is enough even though the reality is he had diddly squat to do with one of them.

2. The romantic aspect of playing in, winning, and scoring in the final (a wonder goal), of a world cup, as a 17 year old. I mean that's about as fairy tale esque as you can get in football.

I can kind of get that, but still, he only has 1 golden ball for a "best performance", in 1970, same as maradona. And maradonas golden ball performance was better

Messi being in this list at all

I cant see the full list, i hope iniesta is ranked there somewhere. It aint that fresh in my mind now but I remember thinking iniesta should have won the 2010 golden ball, and he scored the last minute winning goal ffs

Oh shit just noticed hes at n65 loooool

*bleep*

how cristiano ronaldo ended up over almost everyone from todays modern game except for Xavi is out of this world..
2 goals is all it takes apparently to make the top 35

lol at iniesta being so low

2 goals

Donuts wrote:how cristiano ronaldo ended up over almost everyone from todays modern game except for Xavi is out of this world..
2 goals is all it takes apparently to make the top 35

lol at iniesta being so low

2 wc goals of cronaldo was more significant to the person who done this list than iniesta winning goal in 2010 finale

EL Patron wrote:Lahm   

Ok, he is a great fullback but a bizarre inclusion in my opinion

the guy has been world class every game he plays, and this is his what 4th world cup??
he deserves a mention, certainly deserves a higher spot then most of the people even in the list.

The Franchise wrote:Can I just say, something which continues to go untalked about...Garrincha was probably the best player for Brazil in 2 WC wins. Without question 1 and no less than 2nd best (behind Didi, not Pele) in another.

No, career vs career he wasnt better than Pele like some rare few do suggest.

But in 58, they were 1-0 down to Sweden in the final before he, not Pele created both the goals to bring it to 2-1. Pele made it 3-1 and then 5-2 (if done today would be called stat padding/front running/Cristiano special, though for me that would be stupid to say about a teenager who scored 5 goals in the tournament whichever way you wish to slice it).

And in 62...well

Pele was out injured, and he dominated, his best performances ever. Scored 4 in two separate games and more importantly, won player of the tournament as Brazil won, basically without Pele.

Even as "high" as 9 is a slap in the face.

Only thing I will comment on because I feel like most can figure out for themselves the problems with this list.

Excellent comments dani. Let me also add that after Maradona 86, Garrincha 62 is probably the greatest ever world cup performance.

Lord Spencer wrote:I think numbered lists are BS. Any decent list should use tiers, not numbers.

Here is another problem: Only a single player from Italy 2006. No Pirlo, and no Buffon. IMO, both players were better than Cannavaro, and it was injury to them that cost Italy in 2010. Actually, Del Piero makes the list but not those two. Bloody Genaro Gattuso and Materratizi deserve it more than ADP.

In fact, there is a significant lack of Italian players overall. Then you have players like CR and Messi who imo never justified their WC particpitation to be among the top 100.

Also, the list is heavily biased towards goalscorers and offensive players. Outside of Beckenbaur, there is no other defensive player in top 10, and only 3 in top 20.

Here is a number of points to consider as well:
-Maldini is higher than any Italian WC winner, and I love Maldini.
(In fact, this makes me think whomever compiled this list thought he played in 2006).
-Thuram, who saved France's ass against a better Croatia side, and was arguably their greatest player in 1998 is not even in top 30.
-Highest Spain 2010 player is Xavi, who imo was the least effective and important from Spain's stars. I would put Puyol, Ineista, Iker, Villa, then Xavi in the list. Xavi is 15, while both Puyol and Ineista are 64 and 65.
-Messi and CR are in the list. That immediately discredits this list as a WC list.

Very nice post. I'll comment on a few points.

I won't say Pirlo and Buffon were better than Cannavaro but they were the three best and those two just had to be in the list.

Thuram deserves to be much higher I agree.

I admire Xavi as much as humanly possible but 15 is way too high for him for reasons similar to what you said. If playing in more world cups is raising him higher that is hardly convincing.

From Spain there should certainly be some players and the five you highlighted are the very ones I would place there with the order somewhat debatable.

DuringTheWar wrote:I cant see the full list, i hope iniesta is ranked there somewhere. It aint that fresh in my mind now but I remember thinking iniesta should have won the 2010 golden ball, and he scored the last minute winning goal ffs

So glad to see that someone said this. One of the biggest fallacies in world cup history and one that irritates me beyond measure is the thought that all Iniesta did in WC 2010 was score the winning goal in the final. He was Spain's most decisive player in the most crucial of matches and moments. Messi said just the same thing that he should have won the golden ball. I am not saying he definitely should have but among several close candidates he had a case. They have ranked him at #65 which I think is too low. The only point against him is that he effectively played in only one world cup but then so did Cruyff.

guest_07 wrote:2 goals

Donuts wrote:how cristiano ronaldo ended up over almost everyone from todays modern game except for Xavi is out of this world..
2 goals is all it takes apparently to make the top 35

lol at iniesta being so low

2 wc goals of cronaldo was more significant to the person who done this list than iniesta winning goal in 2010 finale

To add to what you all said one of Cristiano's goals was against North Korea and the other I don't remember. In WC 2010 he was the biggest flop among big name players and in WC 2006 he was a fancy dandy who just showboated. In comparison he's been better in the Euros - 2004, 2008 and 2012.

Also Rivaldo being lower than Ronaldinho makes no sense. Rivaldo had a big part to play in reaching the WC 1998 final when Ronaldinho wasn't even there. In WC 2002 Rivaldo was arguably better than Ronaldinho who was still young and sheltered by the elder Rs who were the MVPs. In WC 2006 Rivaldo wasn't there while Ronaldinho was the biggest big name flop of the tournament. #23 is way too high for him while Rivaldo could be higher.

Why does anyone try and make a top 100 list of anything ? Too many to ever be even remotely accurate