As part of the discussion of the greatest athletes from all sports, including soccer, here is one view of the greatest football (soccer) players of the 20th century. This list of the 100 greatest football players of the 20th century was published in the December 1999 issue of World Soccer, an English language football magazine.
Where is Messi? - This list is of the greatest players of the 20th century - so from the years 1900-1999. Messi made his full international debut in 2005, and like the majority of the current top players were not even on the scene when this vote was taken.
The list is based on a readers' poll, in which the voters picked their top 10 players in order of preference, then points were assigned to each vote a player gained, 10 points for a 1st place vote, 9 points for a 2nd place vote etc.
As with all popular polls, the list suffers from some bias including the voters age and where they are from - it is not surprising to find a disproportionate number of English players and some more recent players who are possibly yet to reach their prime (in 1999 anyway).
Anyway, these lists provide a starting point for discussions on the greatest soccer player ever, though an ending point may never be found. A better listing ofthe player of the century is based on votes by the elite players themselves.
| Ranking | Player | Pts. | National Team/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pelé | 5499 | Brazil |
| 2 | Diego Maradona | 3949 | Argentina |
| 3 | Johan Cruyff | 3388 | Netherlands |
| 4 | Franz Beckenbauer | 2780 | West Germany |
| 5 | Michel Platini | 1854 | France |
| 6 | Alfredo Di Stéfano | 1541 | Argentina & Spain |
| 7 | Ferenc Puskás | 1537 | Hungary & Spain |
| 8 | George Best | 1190 | Northern Ireland |
| 9 | Marco van Basten | 1026 | Netherlands |
| 10 | Eusébio Ferreira da Silva | 1022 | Portugal |
| 11 | Lev Yashin | 821 | U.S.S.R. |
| 12 | Bobby Charlton | 680 | England |
| 13 | Ronaldo | 541 | Brazil |
| 14 | Bobby Moore | 539 | England |
| 15 | Gerd Muller | 498 | West Germany |
| 16 | Roberto Baggio | 486 | Italy |
| 17 | Stanley Matthews | 429 | England |
| 18 | Zico | 390 | Brazil |
| 19 | Franco Baresi | 371 | Italy |
| 20 | Garrincha | 361 | Brazil |
| 21 | Paolo Maldini | 345 | Italy |
| 22 | Kenny Dalglish | 334 | Scotland |
| 23 | Gabriel Batistuta | 300 | Argentina |
| 24 | Eric Cantona | 299 | France |
| 25 | Gheorghe Hagi | 293 | Romania |
| 26 | Romario | 257 | Brazil |
| 27 | Jairzinho | 248 | Brazil |
| 28 | Zinedine Zidane | 238 | France |
| 29 | Ruud Gullitt | 221 | Netherlands |
| 30 | John Charles | 212 | Wales |
| 31 | Lothar Mathaus | 202 | West Germany, Germany |
| 32 | Gordon Banks | 178 | England |
| 33 | Jurgen Klinsmann | 168 | Germany |
| 34 | Dennis Bergkamp | 150 | Netherlands |
| 35 | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | 149 | West Germany |
| 36 | Gary Lineker | 134 | England |
| 37 | Giuseppe Meazza | 132 | Italy |
| 38 | Rivelino | 124 | Brazil |
| 39 | Didi | 123 | Brazil |
| 40 | Ian Rush | 109 | Wales |
| =41 | Peter Schmeichel | 104 | Denmark |
| =41 | Paolo Rossi | 104 | Italy |
| 43 | George Weah | 99 | Liberia |
| 44 | Michael Owen | 90 | England |
| 45 | Just Fontaine | 88 | France |
| 46 | Duncan Edwards | 86 | England |
| 47 | Dino Zoff | 80 | Italy |
| 48 | Hristo Stoichkov | 77 | Bulgaria |
| 49 | David Beckham | 74 | England |
| 50 | Tom Finney | 72 | England |
| 51 | Rivaldo | 71 | Brazil |
| 52 | Claudio Caniggia | 64 | Argentina |
| 53 | Tostao | 63 | Brazil |
| 54 | Frank Rijkaard | 62 | Netherlands |
| 55 | Jose Luis Chilavert | 61 | Paraguay |
| 56 | Kevin Keegan | 60 | England |
| 57 | Paul Gascoigne | 57 | England |
| 58 | Roger Milla | 56 | Cameroon |
| 59 | Michael Laudrup | 55 | Denmark |
| 60 | Andrii Shevchenko | 54 | Ukraine |
| =61 | David Ginola | 53 | France |
| =61 | Glenn Hoddle | 53 | England |
| =61 | Socrates | 53 | Brazil |
| =64 | Roberto Carlos | 52 | Brazil |
| =64 | Alan Shearer | 52 | England |
| 66 | Daniel Passarella | 51 | Argentina |
| 67 | Davor Suker | 50 | Croatia |
| =68 | Dixie Dean | 49 | England |
| =68 | Sandor Kocsis | 49 | Hungary |
| =68 | Juan Alberto Schiaffino | 49 | Uruguay & Italy |
| =68 | Christian Vieri | 49 | Italy |
| =72 | Mario Kempes | 47 | Argentina |
| =72 | Johan Neeskens | 47 | Netherlands |
| =72 | Luigi Riva | 47 | Italy |
| =75 | Jose Nasazzi | 46 | Uruguay |
| =75 | Gunter Netzer | 46 | West Germany |
| =77 | Alessandro Del Piero | 43 | Italy |
| =77 | Carlos Valderrama | 43 | Colombia |
| 79 | Ricardo Zamora | 42 | Spain |
| 80 | Enzo Francescoli | 41 | Uruguay |
| =81 | Edgar Davids | 40 | Netherlands |
| =81 | Francisco Gento | 40 | Spain |
| =83 | Jim Baxter | 38 | Scotland |
| =83 | Falcao | 38 | Brazil |
| =83 | Ryan Giggs | 38 | Wales |
| =83 | Sepp Maier | 38 | West Germany |
| =87 | Zbigniew Boniek | 37 | Poland |
| =87 | Pat Jennings | 37 | Northern Ireland |
| =87 | Gyorgy Sarosi | 37 | Hungary |
| 90 | Giacinto Facchetti | 36 | Italy |
| =91 | Alan Hansen | 34 | Scotland |
| =91 | Raymond Kopa | 34 | France |
| =91 | Bryan Robson | 34 | England |
| =91 | Matthias Sammer | 34 | Germany |
| =95 | Ladislav Kubala | 33 | Czechoslovakia, Hungary & Spain |
| =95 | Neville Southall | 33 | Wales |
| 97 | Gerson | 32 | Brazil |
| =98 | Paulo Futre | 31 | Portugal |
| =98 | Preben Elkjaer | 31 | Denmark |
| 100 | Bebeto | 30 | Brazil |
The Best Soccer Players between 2000 to 2025
We have updated this article and added the list of the best soccer players between 2000 to 2025. Lionel Messi is one of the top players in the world at the moment who made it to this list. Another top player that made it to our list is Cristiano Ronaldo. Here's our full list:
| Ranking | Player | National Team/s | Ballon D'or |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 8 |
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 5 |
| 3 | Ousmane Dembele | France | 1 |
| 4 | Rodri | Spain | 1 |
| 5 | Karim Benzema | France | 1 |
| 6 | Luka Modric | Croatia | 1 |
| 7 | Kaka | Brazil | 1 |
| 8 | Fabio Cannavaro | Italy | 1 |
| 9 | Ronaldinho | Brazil | 1 |
| 10 | Andriy Shevchenko | Ukraine | 1 |
| 11 | Pavel Nedved | Czechia | 1 |
| 12 | Michael Owen | England | 1 |
| 13 | Luis Figo | Portugal | 1 |
