The Athletic is delighted to announce the launch of The Soccer 100, the definitive rating of the greatest male players to have graced the lovely recreation, published by William Morrow.
Our rigorously chosen panel of consultants, that includes award-winning journalists with a long time of expertise masking soccer throughout the world, have voted for and chosen the greatest soccer players of all time.
From these whose methods and flicks have lit up competitions from the World Cup to the Premier League, or adorned the Copa America and Serie A with their objectives or defensive prowess, the guide tells the tales of the greatest to have crossed the white line.
We have a look at those that have left a legacy, whether or not they’re identified for a definite trademark flash of talent — equivalent to Johan’s Cruyff celebrated flip — or if they’ve reinvented ways and even a whole place. We replicate on nationwide icons from Pele to Paolo Maldini, Cristiano Ronaldo to Diego Maradona and, by way of their tales, revisit some of the recreation’s most superb matches and incidents.
Here, lead author Oliver Kay units the scene together with his introduction for the guide.
In the summer time of 1981, six years previous and bitten exhausting by the soccer bug, I used my pocket cash to purchase a guide from a rummage sale.
I by no means knew the guide’s title. By the time I bought my arms on it, it had misplaced its cowl.
But turning its dog-eared pages, inflicting its backbone to creak horribly, felt like coming into one other world. Besides a chronicle of each World Cup from 1930 to 1974, it contained a listing of the greatest players of all time. It was dominated by British players, some of them acquainted, however sprinkled amongst them have been unique names I had by no means seen earlier than, legendary players from far-off lands.
Some had evocative nicknames: Lev Yashin, an acrobatic Soviet goalkeeper dressed in black from head to toe, was the “Black Spider”; Ferenc Puskas, the scourge of goalkeepers and defenses throughout Europe, was the “Galloping Major”; the identify Garrincha, a mesmerizingly gifted Brazilian who had been born with a faulty backbone and crooked legs, meant “Little Bird”.
Greatest of all, the guide stated, was one other Brazilian: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, identified universally as Pele, who had began out kicking a grapefruit round the streets of Sao Paulo. He had received the World Cup 3 times, the first of them as a 17-year-old, and ended up scoring greater than 1,000 objectives in his profession. His nickname? “The King”.
Pele. The King (Alessandro Sabattini / Getty Images)
That treasured guide fell aside in the finish. My previous soccer magazines and sticker albums often went the identical method, having been learn from cowl to cowl many times and once more. I used to be determined to cram my younger mind with data about soccer and footballers. And… what else was there to do? Football was hardly on tv.
More than 4 a long time later, the world may be very totally different for sports activities followers. The alternatives to immerse your self in sport appear boundless. There are TV sports activities stations providing wall-to-wall protection. There are devoted sports activities web sites like The Athletic. There are social media shops the place athletes can talk with their followers at the push of a button. Video-streaming platforms supply prompt entry to simply about any objective of the a whole lot that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have scored in their careers.
But has one thing been misplaced? With a lot consideration and power centered on the right here and now, are we shedding a reference to these tales and people nice names whose contributions have reverberated by the recreation’s history?
That is what The Soccer 100 is about. It is a celebration of 100 of the greatest players in the sport’s history.
In a super world, that final half would learn “the 100 greatest players in the sport’s history” — and maybe will probably be marketed as such — however deep down, we all know it can’t presumably be that.
Football has been performed professionally for a century and a half. It is performed and adopted in each nook of the world. Comparing players in totally different positions, throughout totally different eras, is fraught with issue. How do you even start to rank players whose careers and talent units are as numerous as Giacinto Facchetti, Gordon Banks, Gerd Muller, Zinedine Zidane, and Neymar?
Maradona sailed by England (Staff / AFP by way of Getty Images)
Data was not our pal right here. Comparing eras is made a lot tougher by adjustments in tactical developments, competitors codecs, and even the world map. The proliferation of fixtures, many in opposition to small international locations, has seen so many long-standing worldwide look and objective data toppled over current years. Puskas, Eusebio, Muller, and the relaxation by no means bought the alternative to rack up objectives in opposition to Lithuania, Andorra, San Marino, and the like.
There is likely to be an algorithm that might take appearances, objectives, and trophies received into consideration, however any such appraisal could be as flawed because it was uninteresting. On paper, Diego Maradona’s goalscoring report doesn’t look spectacular, however anybody who watched him in his prime — certainly, anybody who has taken 5 minutes to look at some of these objectives on YouTube — is aware of he scaled heights not often, if ever, reached earlier than or since.
We determined to place it right down to a vote amongst 10 of our most skilled soccer writers and editors. We began by proposing each nice participant we may assume of, even when that meant trawling the history books and former lists of this nature. We then solid a vote in which every of us proposed our high 100, in order, with factors awarded for every rating place. We put the outcomes right into a spreadsheet, checked out them… and gasped: “How is he below him?” Seconds later, one other gasp: “How is he not in the top 100?”
We debated whether or not it would, on reflection, be price deciding the rankings by committee as an alternative. But no, we caught with the authentic vote, placing our numerous gripes to 1 facet, and went off to jot down the tales of 100 males who’ve left an indelible impression on the recreation.
And sure, they’re all males. Women’s soccer is booming, its recognition rising by the yr, and it’s hoped that in time we’ll produce a guide about Mia Hamm, Marta, Aitana Bonmati, and the greatest players in the girls’s recreation. But this one is about the males’s recreation, a companion to The Baseball 100, The Football 100, and The Basketball 100.
Similarly, the choice very a lot targeting what these players delivered on the pitch. Some in their quantity have courted controversy off it — wealth and fame have introduced their very own pitfalls — however this was by no means designed to be an evaluation of their characters.
Rather, it’s an appreciation of their high quality as footballers and the brilliance they supplied on the greatest stage.
Messi celebrates scoring in opposition to Arsenal in the 2010 Champions League quarter-final (Josep Lago / AFP by way of Getty Images)
All of this brings us to our high 100 and the want for us to apologize to some fantastic players who didn’t make the reduce. The lengthy checklist prolonged to a whole lot of players, anybody of whom would have been a worthy inclusion in this guide. But we may have turned this into The Soccer 200 — and left the rankings out of it, in the pursuits of diplomacy — and it might nonetheless have upset individuals.
The issue was outlined by John Hollinger in The Basketball 100 when he identified that “if we’re covering more than 75 years’ worth of players, more or less, and only naming 100, that’s basically one player a year”.
Consider soccer’s longer history, its world attain, and the depth and richness of the recreation’s tradition in so many international locations throughout the world — and the activity turns into even tougher.
There was discomfort once we realized solely three players from Africa, one from North America, and none in any respect from Asia or Oceania had made our high 100. We briefly questioned whether or not there was a case for placing the voting course of to 1 facet in pursuit of a wider geographical unfold. Landon Donovan (USA), Abedi Pele (Ghana), Harry Kewell (Australia), and Son Heung-min (South Korea) are players of world renown, however deciding on players on geographical grounds would have been in opposition to the spirit of the train, and there have been extra contentious omissions than theirs.
Some of the recreation’s first actual stars, equivalent to the Argentinian ahead Jose Manuel Moreno and the prolific Austrian-Czechoslovakian striker Josef Bican, fell by the wayside. It is gratifying that Dixie Dean, Giuseppe Meazza, and Matthias Sindelar made it since their tales, written by Michael Walker, James Horncastle, and Mark Critchley, respectively, are amongst the most compelling in the guide.
Inevitably, there’s a slant towards the trendy period, however it doesn’t appear to increase to the modern-day. Two of our high 5 are nonetheless enjoying at the time of writing (albeit in the twilight of their superb careers… sure, you recognize the two), however just one different present participant made our high 30. It most likely says one thing about the issue of evaluating modern players that he, Kylian Mbappe, might need been ranked decrease had our poll been held just a few months later after a tough begin to his Real Madrid profession.
The solely different present players who made The Soccer 100 are effectively into their 30s. In time, the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Rodri may earn the form of reverence that has been bestowed on Luka Modric and Karim Benzema towards the finish of their careers. So may, for instance, Erling Haaland, Vinicius Junior, or Lamine Yamal in years to return, however you by no means can inform.
As for English soccer’s “golden generation” of the 2000s, just one of them makes The Soccer 100. David Beckham is one of the most well-known athletes on the planet. But amongst the high 100 footballers of all time? Sorry, Becks.
There are 15 Brazilians amongst our choice, greater than every other nation, however arguably, there may have been no less than one other 5. There was no place for Sergio Ramos, the defensive linchpin of the Real Madrid group that dominated the Champions League in the 2010s. We couldn’t discover room for both Spain’s celebrated Luis Suarez or his Uruguayan namesake; there was an argument for together with each.
Alfredo Di Stefano in 1956 (Staff / AFP by way of Getty Images)
There is one thing significantly enduring about that technology of athletes who lit up a world rising from the darkness of world battle: Wilt Chamberlain in basketball, Willie Mays in baseball, Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson in boxing. The identical is true of soccer: Alfredo Di Stefano, Puskas, Yashin, names that cropped up in the sports activities press after which, very often, appeared in grainy footage on tv screens as worldwide competitions started to achieve prominence.
Their greatness is ready in stone. The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the recreation’s world governing physique, has named annual awards in honor of Yashin (greatest male goalkeeper) and Puskas (greatest objective). EA Sports’ long-running soccer franchise permits avid gamers to play with an “Ultimate Team” that includes the likes of Yashin, Puskas, Eusebio, and Pele (although not Maradona, for licensing causes).
Such tributes deliver a level of identify recognition that may in any other case be misplaced, however with them comes a hazard that they’re decreased to a mere reference level. Tim Spiers’s chapter on Yashin brings the goalkeeper’s story to life in a method that, frankly, an “Ultimate Team” animation of him can’t start to.
Rather than a collection of profiles, we wished to inform the players’ tales in a extra different method. Jack Lang wrote about Garrincha’s signature transfer; Phil Hay explored Johan Cruyff’s genius by the eyes of Swedish defender Jan Olsson, the man on the improper finish of the Cruyff Turn; Sarah Shephard centered on the “otherness” of Socrates, the chain-smoking Brazilian medic; Michael Cox microanalyzed Maradona’s brilliance by the prism of a career-defining efficiency in opposition to England at the 1986 World Cup; Daniel Taylor went to the Portuguese island of Madeira to study extra about its favourite son, Cristiano Ronaldo; Nick Miller wrote about the objective for Santos in opposition to Flamengo in 2011 that introduced Neymar as Brazil’s latest fenomeno.
The imperious Cruyff (Werner Baum/image alliance by way of Getty Images)
We have been fortunate sufficient to interview some of our topics. I spoke with Kenny Dalglish. Greg O’Keeffe went to Denmark to satisfy Michael Laudrup. Felipe Cardenas had an viewers with Mario Kempes, the Argentinian goalscoring hero of the 1978 World Cup. Adam Crafton recalled a riotous afternoon in the firm of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. George Caulkin wrote from the coronary heart about Alan Shearer, as soon as his idol, now an in depth pal.
It’s not all sweetness and light-weight. I wrote about how the Munich air tragedy hung over Sir Bobby Charlton all through his illustrious profession; Jacob Whitehead explored the trauma that overshadowed Marco van Basten’s goalscoring exploits in his personal thoughts, if no person else’s; Mark Critchley dug deep in search of the reality about Sindelar, whose loss of life in 1939, as a logo of the Austrian resistance motion, has been a supply of intrigue for many years.
That is the factor. This guide is about the tales. The rankings? Not a lot, we hope. To quote Joe Posnanski in The Baseball 100, “I don’t care about the rankings. Every one of these players has a fascinating story — about persistence, about confidence, about pure talent, about amazing moments, about the lengths people will go to to become quote-unquote ‘great’.”
Can there ever be a definitive verdict on the greatest footballer of all of them? Even throughout Pele’s prime, some would argue for Di Stefano, Puskas, Garrincha, or, later, Franz Beckenbauer or Cruyff. Maradona scaled breathtaking heights with Argentina and Napoli in the Nineteen Eighties, however his profession was pockmarked by controversies and in the end curtailed by a self-destructive nature. It’s sophisticated.
For all the fluctuations and contentious omissions from this checklist, although, the alternatives increased up have been extra settled. There was a transparent high 20, a transparent high 12, and a transparent high six of (and let’s preserve them in chronological order to keep away from any spoilers): Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Messi. To return to an earlier level, these names are set in stone.
It was by no means going to be a unanimous alternative, however for The Soccer 100, we settled on a No 1, a alternative that displays not simply greatness however sustained greatness: era-defining greatness, jaw-dropping greatness, the sort of greatness that may go away you feeling like you’re watching soccer from one other dimension.
Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid (Javier Soriano/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Again, it comes again to one thing Posnanski wrote in The Baseball 100, this time about his No 1, Mays. “To watch him play, to read the stories about how he played, to look at his glorious statistics, to hear what people say about him is to be reminded why we love this odd and ancient game in the first place,” he wrote. “Willie Mays has always made kids feel like grown-ups and grown-ups feel like kids. In the end, isn’t that the whole point of baseball?”
Posnanski may simply be writing about soccer there. He may actually be writing about Messi, Ronaldo (both model), Maradona, Cruyff, Pele, or so many others featured in this guide.
And sure, that’s the complete level of sport. It can really feel like such a severe enterprise lately, compromised by political and industrial pursuits, however at its coronary heart, it’s nonetheless the standard recreation we fell in love with, illuminated by comic-book heroes, unusual individuals with the energy to do extraordinary issues. This guide is about them.
Excerpted from The Soccer 100 by Oliver Kay & James Horncastle with The Athletic soccer employees, revealed by William Morrow and out there now in the United States and for pre-order in the United Kingdom.
Copyright © 2025 by The Athletic Media Company. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins publishers.