*Updated 04/2025
Lists:
Top 100 Goalkeepers of All-Time
Top 100 Centre-Backs of All-Time
Top 50 Right Backs & Top 50 Left-Backs of All-Time
Top 50 Defensive Midfielders & Top 100 Central Midfielders of All-Time
Top 100 Attacking Midfielders of All-Time
Top 100 Wingers/Wide-Forwards of All-Time
Top 100 Second-Strikers of All-Time
Top 100 Strikers/Centre-Forwards of All-Time
Top 50 Players of All-Time
Top Players in every position of the 21st Century
I recently completed a blog which included the Greatest Players of All-Time in every position ( iconicfootball.weebly.com if interested in more stuff ), so I thought I would share some lists here and see what people think.
How the players are assessed:
It goes without saying, the assessment of the players I use will never be as accurate as seeing them play live. I have however put a few years of research into this and refined it as well as I can by collating all the data and opinions available.
I've used a range of factors, which culminates in an assessment of players that I believe works well. Maybe most importantly, it has an accurate correlation to my opinion of players when using it to evaluate players from the modern era, so I trust my research methods.
The evaluation of players is generally based on a players peak over a 4-5 year period. In my opinion, this period is long enough to assess a player's standard, and exhibits a certain level of consistency. However, a long (or short) peak can add to how highly I would rate a player, if they show themselves to be adaptable (or not) to different tactical systems, opponents, levels of pressure, their own physical changes, etc.
Some of the main factors of assessing players (some which play into each other) :
With all these factors, I use as many good sources as I can possibly find. They must all be taken in context. They can be weighted differently depending on the standard of competition, which I evaluated as accurately as I could. The competition can be judged by standard of players, success of clubs in continental competitions, etc. There are sometimes anomalies of a lack of correlation with players' factors, which could be down to things such as the personality of a player, sentimentality, bias and propaganda. I take this into consideration where the information is available.
The time difference between players however isn't a factor I consider - it is too nuanced of an argument. Some may favour modern players who are much faster, stronger, fitter; while some may favour older players who dealt with two-footed tackles, terrible pitches, & innovated aspects of the game. The idea of throwing players into different eras and tactical systems wouldn't work well, so I found it best to judge them on what they are/were relevant to the time.
The Ratings:
I finalised the assessment of each player with a rating to help me catergorise and organise them. There are 3 ranks, Platinum, Gold & Silver, with a level of I-V (roman numerals) within each rank, I being the highest. There would also be ranks below, but they were not needed for this.
Generally speaking:
Platinum V is the minimum level as an 'All-Time Great' player
Gold V is the minimum level as a 'World-Class' player
Silver V is the minimum level for a 'Good' player (perhaps someone who can be a regular in a top-level league)
However, these definitions can vary from person to person. I find that the term 'World-Class' for example is used more often for players in positions that have a lower standard of player, but I wanted to keep it more consistent. For example, the best right-back in the world may not always be one of the best players in the world. The standard in certain positions can also shift across decades - there's no rule for the minimum or maximum number of world-class players in a single position at once.
Below, I've listed the 15 ranks in order, with an example of a modern (where possible) defender, midfielder and forward to give a general idea of the ratings. The example players are rated according to their peak, not necessarily right now.
Platinum I: Lionel Messi
Platinum II: Diego Maradona
Platinum III: Cristiano Ronaldo
Platinum IV: Zinedine Zidane, Marco Van Basten
Platinum V: Paolo Maldini, Andres Iniesta, Romario
Gold I: Bobby Moore, Luka Modric, Robert Lewandowski
Gold II: Roberto Carlos, Andrea Pirlo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Gold III: Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Ruud Van Nistlerooy
Gold IV: Giorgio Cheillini, N'Golo Kante, Diego Forlan
Gold V: Leonardo Bonucci, Arturo Vidal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Silver I: Jordi Alba, Michael Carrick, Lautaro Martinez
Silver II: Alphonso Davies, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Kingsley Coman
Silver III: Dayot Upamecano, Mason Mount, Ollie Watkins
Silver IV: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Dominic Solanke
Silver V: Lewis Dunk, Tomas Soucek, Michail Antonio
...
The Top 100 Attacking-Midfielders of All-Time
(Platinum II)
1 Diego Maradona ARG
(Platinum IV)
2 Michel Platini FRA
3 Zinedine Zidane FRA
4 Zico BRA
(Platinum V)
5 Bobby Charlton ENG
6 Ruud Gullit NET
7 Andres Iniesta SPA
(Gold I)
8 Gianni Rivera ITA
9 Raymond Kopa FRA
10 Zizinho BRA
11 Rivellino BRA
12 Juan Alberto Schiaffino ARG
13 Valentino Mazzola ITA
(Gold II)
14 Michael Laudrup DEN
15 Sandro Mazzola ITA
16 Kaka BRA
17 Socrates BRA
18 Kevin De Bruyne BEL
19 Teofilo Cubillas PER
20 Nils Liedholm SWE
(Gold III)
21 Gunter Netzer GER
22 Pavel Nedved CZE
23 Wolfgang Overath GER
24 Bernd Schuster GER
25 Kazimierz Deyna POL
26 Zbigniew Boniek POL
27 Gyorgy Orth HUN
28 Gheorghe Hagi ROM
29 Dejan Savicevic MON
30 Ricardo Bochini ARG
31 Ademir Da Guia BRA
32 Jair Da Rosa BRA
33 David Silva SPA
34 Giovanni Ferrari ITA
35 Giancarlo Antognoni ITA
36 Larbi Benbarek MOR
37 Wesley Sneijder NET
38 Paul Gascogine ENG
(Gold IV)
39 Juan Roman Riquelme ARG
40 Pedro Rocha URU
41 Gunnar Gren SWE
42 Fritz Szepan GER
43 Rinaldo Martino ARG
44 Thomas Häßler GER
45 Mesut Ozil GER
46 Rui Costa POR
47 Jan Ceulemans BEL
48 Norberto Alonso ARG
49 Safet Susic BOS
50 Dragan Stojkovic ITA
51 Andreas Moller GER
52 Nicolae Dobrin ROU
53 Glenn Hoddle ENG
54 Deco POR
55 Norberto Mendez ARG
56 Romerito PAR
57 Rai BRA
58 Josep Samitier SPA
(Gold V)
59 Abide Pele GHA
60 Liam Brady IRE
61 Willy Van De Kuiljen NET
62 Dirceu BRA
63 Valentin Ivanov RUS
64 Ermindo Onega ARG
65 Zvonimir Boban CRO
66 Ariel Ortega ARG
67 Rene Petit FRA
68 Miguel Angel Brindisi ARG
69 Antonin Panenka CZE
70 Bernardo Silva POR
71 Krasimir Balakov BUL
72 Mehmet Scholl GER
73 Isco SPA
74 James Rodriguez COL
75 Ernesto Grillo ARG
76 Hristo Bonev BUL
77 Tibor Nyilasi HUN
78 Karl Aage Hansen DEN
79 Phillipe Coutinho BRA
80 Alberto Terry PER
81 David Kipiani GEO
82 Dirceu Lopes BRA
83 Enzo Scifo BEL
84 Jorge Burruchaga ARG
85 Fyodor Cherenkov RUS
86 Ilie Balaci ROU
87 Pablo Aimar ARG
(Silver I)
88 Dimitar Yamikov BUL
89 Renato Cesarini ITA
90 Humberto Maschio ARG
91 Fritz Gschweidl AUT
92 Djalminha BRA
93 Juan Carlos Valeron SPA
94 Julio Cesar Uribe PER
95 Tomas Brolin SWE
96 Ruben Paz URU
97 Luizinho BRA
98 Rafael Martin Vasquez SPA
99 Jimmy Mcllroy NIR
100 Juan Mata SPA
Honourable Mentions:
Frank Arnesen DEN
Santi Cazorla SPA
Bruno Fernandes POR
Julen Guerrero SPA
Tom Lund NOR
Jimmy McMenemy SCO
Gerrie Muhren NET
Juninho Paulista BRA
Leonardo Araujo BRA
David Platt ENG
Asgeir Sigurvinsson ICE
Francisco Valdes CHI
'World-Class' Attacking-Midfielders by Nation (Platinum/Gold):
12 - Argentina
11 - Brazil
8 - Germany
5 - Italy
4 - France , Spain
3 - Belgium , England , Netherlands , Portugal , Romania
2 - Bulgaria , Czech Republic , Denmark , Hungary , Peru , Poland , Russia , Sweden , Uruguay
1 - Bosnia , Colombia , Croatia , Georgia , Ghana , Montenegro , Morocco , Paraguay , Republic of Ireland , Serbia
Lists:
Top 100 Goalkeepers of All-Time
Top 100 Centre-Backs of All-Time
Top 50 Right Backs & Top 50 Left-Backs of All-Time
Top 50 Defensive Midfielders & Top 100 Central Midfielders of All-Time
Top 100 Attacking Midfielders of All-Time
Top 100 Wingers/Wide-Forwards of All-Time
Top 100 Second-Strikers of All-Time
Top 100 Strikers/Centre-Forwards of All-Time
Top 50 Players of All-Time
Top Players in every position of the 21st Century
I recently completed a blog which included the Greatest Players of All-Time in every position ( iconicfootball.weebly.com if interested in more stuff ), so I thought I would share some lists here and see what people think.
How the players are assessed:
It goes without saying, the assessment of the players I use will never be as accurate as seeing them play live. I have however put a few years of research into this and refined it as well as I can by collating all the data and opinions available.
I've used a range of factors, which culminates in an assessment of players that I believe works well. Maybe most importantly, it has an accurate correlation to my opinion of players when using it to evaluate players from the modern era, so I trust my research methods.
The evaluation of players is generally based on a players peak over a 4-5 year period. In my opinion, this period is long enough to assess a player's standard, and exhibits a certain level of consistency. However, a long (or short) peak can add to how highly I would rate a player, if they show themselves to be adaptable (or not) to different tactical systems, opponents, levels of pressure, their own physical changes, etc.
Some of the main factors of assessing players (some which play into each other) :
- Historical match ratings (eg. Archived newspapers, Calcio)
- Annual or weekly World/League XI's (eg. Kicker Team of the Week/Season, Onze De Onze)
- Individual Award Rankings (eg. Don Balon Award, Balon D'Or)
- Historical statistical based rankings (eg. IFFHS, WhoScored)
- Reputable/respected opinionated lists/data/nominations (eg. World Soccer, FIFPRO)
- Other reputable opinions (eg. Specialist consultants/researchers, fan forums, articles, ex-players)
- Watching footage
- Trophies won
- My own opinion
- Many other smaller factors
With all these factors, I use as many good sources as I can possibly find. They must all be taken in context. They can be weighted differently depending on the standard of competition, which I evaluated as accurately as I could. The competition can be judged by standard of players, success of clubs in continental competitions, etc. There are sometimes anomalies of a lack of correlation with players' factors, which could be down to things such as the personality of a player, sentimentality, bias and propaganda. I take this into consideration where the information is available.
The time difference between players however isn't a factor I consider - it is too nuanced of an argument. Some may favour modern players who are much faster, stronger, fitter; while some may favour older players who dealt with two-footed tackles, terrible pitches, & innovated aspects of the game. The idea of throwing players into different eras and tactical systems wouldn't work well, so I found it best to judge them on what they are/were relevant to the time.
The Ratings:
I finalised the assessment of each player with a rating to help me catergorise and organise them. There are 3 ranks, Platinum, Gold & Silver, with a level of I-V (roman numerals) within each rank, I being the highest. There would also be ranks below, but they were not needed for this.
Generally speaking:
Platinum V is the minimum level as an 'All-Time Great' player
Gold V is the minimum level as a 'World-Class' player
Silver V is the minimum level for a 'Good' player (perhaps someone who can be a regular in a top-level league)
However, these definitions can vary from person to person. I find that the term 'World-Class' for example is used more often for players in positions that have a lower standard of player, but I wanted to keep it more consistent. For example, the best right-back in the world may not always be one of the best players in the world. The standard in certain positions can also shift across decades - there's no rule for the minimum or maximum number of world-class players in a single position at once.
Below, I've listed the 15 ranks in order, with an example of a modern (where possible) defender, midfielder and forward to give a general idea of the ratings. The example players are rated according to their peak, not necessarily right now.
Platinum I: Lionel Messi
Platinum II: Diego Maradona
Platinum III: Cristiano Ronaldo
Platinum IV: Zinedine Zidane, Marco Van Basten
Platinum V: Paolo Maldini, Andres Iniesta, Romario
Gold I: Bobby Moore, Luka Modric, Robert Lewandowski
Gold II: Roberto Carlos, Andrea Pirlo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Gold III: Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Ruud Van Nistlerooy
Gold IV: Giorgio Cheillini, N'Golo Kante, Diego Forlan
Gold V: Leonardo Bonucci, Arturo Vidal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Silver I: Jordi Alba, Michael Carrick, Lautaro Martinez
Silver II: Alphonso Davies, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Kingsley Coman
Silver III: Dayot Upamecano, Mason Mount, Ollie Watkins
Silver IV: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Dominic Solanke
Silver V: Lewis Dunk, Tomas Soucek, Michail Antonio
...
The Top 100 Attacking-Midfielders of All-Time
(Platinum II)
1 Diego Maradona ARG
(Platinum IV)
2 Michel Platini FRA
3 Zinedine Zidane FRA
4 Zico BRA
(Platinum V)
5 Bobby Charlton ENG
6 Ruud Gullit NET
7 Andres Iniesta SPA
(Gold I)
8 Gianni Rivera ITA
9 Raymond Kopa FRA
10 Zizinho BRA
11 Rivellino BRA
12 Juan Alberto Schiaffino ARG
13 Valentino Mazzola ITA
(Gold II)
14 Michael Laudrup DEN
15 Sandro Mazzola ITA
16 Kaka BRA
17 Socrates BRA
18 Kevin De Bruyne BEL
19 Teofilo Cubillas PER
20 Nils Liedholm SWE
(Gold III)
21 Gunter Netzer GER
22 Pavel Nedved CZE
23 Wolfgang Overath GER
24 Bernd Schuster GER
25 Kazimierz Deyna POL
26 Zbigniew Boniek POL
27 Gyorgy Orth HUN
28 Gheorghe Hagi ROM
29 Dejan Savicevic MON
30 Ricardo Bochini ARG
31 Ademir Da Guia BRA
32 Jair Da Rosa BRA
33 David Silva SPA
34 Giovanni Ferrari ITA
35 Giancarlo Antognoni ITA
36 Larbi Benbarek MOR
37 Wesley Sneijder NET
38 Paul Gascogine ENG
(Gold IV)
39 Juan Roman Riquelme ARG
40 Pedro Rocha URU
41 Gunnar Gren SWE
42 Fritz Szepan GER
43 Rinaldo Martino ARG
44 Thomas Häßler GER
45 Mesut Ozil GER
46 Rui Costa POR
47 Jan Ceulemans BEL
48 Norberto Alonso ARG
49 Safet Susic BOS
50 Dragan Stojkovic ITA
51 Andreas Moller GER
52 Nicolae Dobrin ROU
53 Glenn Hoddle ENG
54 Deco POR
55 Norberto Mendez ARG
56 Romerito PAR
57 Rai BRA
58 Josep Samitier SPA
(Gold V)
59 Abide Pele GHA
60 Liam Brady IRE
61 Willy Van De Kuiljen NET
62 Dirceu BRA
63 Valentin Ivanov RUS
64 Ermindo Onega ARG
65 Zvonimir Boban CRO
66 Ariel Ortega ARG
67 Rene Petit FRA
68 Miguel Angel Brindisi ARG
69 Antonin Panenka CZE
70 Bernardo Silva POR
71 Krasimir Balakov BUL
72 Mehmet Scholl GER
73 Isco SPA
74 James Rodriguez COL
75 Ernesto Grillo ARG
76 Hristo Bonev BUL
77 Tibor Nyilasi HUN
78 Karl Aage Hansen DEN
79 Phillipe Coutinho BRA
80 Alberto Terry PER
81 David Kipiani GEO
82 Dirceu Lopes BRA
83 Enzo Scifo BEL
84 Jorge Burruchaga ARG
85 Fyodor Cherenkov RUS
86 Ilie Balaci ROU
87 Pablo Aimar ARG
(Silver I)
88 Dimitar Yamikov BUL
89 Renato Cesarini ITA
90 Humberto Maschio ARG
91 Fritz Gschweidl AUT
92 Djalminha BRA
93 Juan Carlos Valeron SPA
94 Julio Cesar Uribe PER
95 Tomas Brolin SWE
96 Ruben Paz URU
97 Luizinho BRA
98 Rafael Martin Vasquez SPA
99 Jimmy Mcllroy NIR
100 Juan Mata SPA
Honourable Mentions:
Frank Arnesen DEN
Santi Cazorla SPA
Bruno Fernandes POR
Julen Guerrero SPA
Tom Lund NOR
Jimmy McMenemy SCO
Gerrie Muhren NET
Juninho Paulista BRA
Leonardo Araujo BRA
David Platt ENG
Asgeir Sigurvinsson ICE
Francisco Valdes CHI
'World-Class' Attacking-Midfielders by Nation (Platinum/Gold):
12 - Argentina
11 - Brazil
8 - Germany
5 - Italy
4 - France , Spain
3 - Belgium , England , Netherlands , Portugal , Romania
2 - Bulgaria , Czech Republic , Denmark , Hungary , Peru , Poland , Russia , Sweden , Uruguay
1 - Bosnia , Colombia , Croatia , Georgia , Ghana , Montenegro , Morocco , Paraguay , Republic of Ireland , Serbia
