The most talented footballers, 1980s onwards for each position:
- Revision 1.1 28/03/2024
- ** denotes legendary all-time talent
- * denotes special talent within position
- many honourable mentions: Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski, David Villa, Gabriel Batistuta, Samuel Eto'o, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andriy Shevchenko, Raúl, Predrag Mijatović, Dennis Bergkamp, Hristo Stoichkov, Wayne Rooney, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, Eric Cantona, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Enzo Francescoli, Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, Mágico González, Franck Ribéry, Gareth Bale, Dejan Savićević, Robert Pirès, Roberto Donadoni, Marco Reus, Ángel Di María, Bruno Conti, John Barnes, Paulo Futre, Kaká, Dragan Stojković, Gheorghe Hagi, Juan Román Riquelme, Rui Costa, David Silva, Safet Sušić, Juan Carlos Valerón, Robert Prosinečki, Sergen Yalçın, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Bernardo Silva, Zvonimir Boban, Paul Gascoigne, Luka Modrić, Toni Kroos, Xabi Alonso, Bryan Robson, Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Steven Gerrard, Edgar Davids, Yaya Touré, N'Golo Kante, Vladimir Jugović, Léo Júnior, Roberto Carlos, Miodrag Belodedici, Rune Bratseth, Ronald Koeman, Thiago Silva, Gheorghe Popescu, Fernando Hierro, Marcel Desailly, Fabio Cannavaro, Giuseppe Bergomi, Ricardo Carvalho, Pietro Vierchowod, Paul McGrath, Ciro Ferrara, Giorgio Chiellini, Alisson Becker, Petr Čech, Thibaut Courtois, Iker Casillas, Walter Zenga, Michel Preud'homme, Francesco Toldo, Ederson
Striker
Ronaldo**
Marco van Basten*
Romário*
Luis Suárez
Thierry Henry
Forward
Lionel Messi**
Roberto Baggio*
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge*
Ruud Gullit*
Rivaldo
Left wing
Cristiano Ronaldo*
Ronaldinho*
Neymar
Eden Hazard
Pavel Nedvěd
Right wing
Luís Figo
Arjen Robben
Gareth Bale
Mohamed Salah
David Beckham
Attacking midfielder
Diego Maradona**
Zico**
Michael Laudrup*
Zinedine Zidane*
Kevin De Bruyne
Playmaker
Michel Platini**
Andrés Iniesta*
Xavi*
Andrea Pirlo*
Paul Scholes
Defensive or box-to-box midfielder
Lothar Matthäus*
Paulo Roberto Falcão
Fernando Redondo
Frank Rijkaard
Sergio Busquets
Right back
Javier Zanetti
Philipp Lahm
Lilian Thuram
Cafu
Dani Alves
Left back
Paolo Maldini*
Andreas Brehme
Antonio Cabrini
Marcelo
Ashley Cole
Sweeper
Franco Baresi*
Gaetano Scirea*
Matthias Sammer
Virgil van Dijk
Rio Ferdinand
Man-marker
Alessandro Nesta*
Jürgen Kohler
Jaap Stam
Nemanja Vidić
Diego Godín
Goalkeeper
Gianluigi Buffon
Manuel Neuer
Edwin van der Sar
Peter Schmeichel
Rinat Dasayev
Top 5 most talented overall
That's a great list Dunk, can't argue with most of those names.
Trying to think of a few additions and slight changes i would make.
Nedved and Beckham i wouldn't rate as highly purely for natural talent, though i'd not argue against them being in a top five overall positional list. I don't think Laudrup or Zidane deserve a star for notable natural talent when you look at some of the AM monsters in the HM list, to me they fit right into that sort of level talent-wise, though again overall for career accomplishments as well as talent they are good picks.
Some additions for the honourable mentions (sticking mainly to creative and attacking midfielders) that i feel fit in by the standard you've set:
Germany 80s+ = Schweinsteiger not personally quite one of the bigger german natural talents for me, more of a slow improver with great mindset, that reached an elite peak once his tactical prowess had reached a certain level, though i'd not argue to remove him. I'd have Littbarski, Hassler, Moller, Thon, Schuster, Effenberg, Bein, Basler, Ballack and Ozil over him for talent, vision, creativity and attacking capability on the ball. Maybe also Thomas Doll (became hugely injury prone, but before that was a very skilled player at least as big a midfield talent as Sammer for East Germany) and Mehmet Scholl. The 80s-mid90s German midfield era was by far their deepest and most technically gifted imo, a lot of those players are stylistically perfectly suited the recent midfield trends of the past 10-15 years, though the managers and football style of the day didn't really take best advantage of it.
Brazil = Socrates. I'd add some of the 90s hugely talented but lunatic/lazier/unlucky underachievers like Edmundo, Djalminha, Alex and Giovanni. Also Rai...yeah he eventually became known more for choking at WC 94, but the guy was a great talent nonetheless, comfortably outshone M.laudrup in the final they played against each other. had he played for almost anyone other than Brazil, he'd have had a very good chance of getting back into the NT after it. Some of the forwards that were unlucky to be in the shadow of Romario and Ronaldo could also be worth a mention, Muller, Elber, Amoroso, etc...
Argentina = Bochini (easily long enough prime to be considered), Pablo Aimar, Marcelo Gallardo, Veron,
Belgium = Luc Nilis...not as good an overall career, but i thought he had as much talent as Bergkamp. Enzo Scifo, Frank Vercauteren, Juan Lozano
Uruguay = Recoba, Ruben Sosa
England = Chris Waddle, Glenn Hoddle, Le Tissier, Wilkins
France = Bernard Genghini, Luis Fernandez, David Ginola, Philippe Vercruysse
Italy = Gianfranco Zola...watched a lot of all-touch comps of his a few years ago as i wasn't as familiar with him as Baggio, Del Piero, Totti and his ability in open play during his Napoli/Parma ( and even Chelsea days ) impressed me more than Del Piero and just as much as Baggio/Totti. Guiseppe Giannini.
Spain = Emilio Butragueno, Rafael Martin Vazquez, maybe Guti but i hated the man.
Netherlands = Gerald Vanenburg
Portugal = Fernando Chalana, maybe Joao Pinto, Paulo Sousa
USSR, Russia, Ukraine = Khoren Oganesyan ( maybe too much 70s crossover) Fyodor Cherenkov, Oleksandr Zavarov, Aleksandr Mostovoy, Viktor Leonenko. I'm overfamiliar with this area compared to other countries and could add a bunch of others i think fit into the HM's if being a lazy underachieving unfit technically gifted waster like Sergen Yalcin, Magico Gonzalez etc... is no disqualifier, but that's enough and those four are the names that would probably get least argument by those that watched them.
misc others = Jari Litmanen, Krasimir Balakov, Mehmed Bazdarevic, Adrien Ilie