FourFourTwo ranked their 100 best football players of all time( 2022 version)

[General_Elegancia]

It’s the latest a version of FourFourTwo ranking(2022). It has been published yesterday.

1. ⁠Lionel Messi
2. ⁠Diego Maradona
3. ⁠Cristiano Ronaldo
4. ⁠Pele
5. ⁠Zinedine Zidane
6. ⁠Johan Cruyff
7. ⁠George Best
8. ⁠Franz Beckenbauer
9. ⁠Ferenc Puskas
10. ⁠Ronaldo
11. ⁠Gerd Muller
12. ⁠Alfredo Di Stefano
13. ⁠Michel Platini
14. ⁠Zico
15. ⁠Garrincha
16. ⁠Bobby Charlton
17. ⁠Paolo Maldini
18. ⁠Romario
19. ⁠Giuseppe Meazza
20. ⁠Andres Iniesta
21. ⁠Franco Baresi
22. ⁠Marco van Basten
23. ⁠Eusebio
24. ⁠Xavi
25. ⁠Carlos Alberto
26. ⁠Ronaldinho
27. ⁠Ruud Gullit
28. ⁠Manuel Neuer
29. ⁠Socrates
30. ⁠Raymond Kopa
31. ⁠Lev Yashin
32. ⁠Lothar Matthaus
33. ⁠Stanley Matthews
34. ⁠Valentino Mazzola
35. ⁠Matthias Sindelar
36. ⁠Luis Suarez (born 1935)
37. ⁠Francisco Gento
38. ⁠Bobby Moore
39. ⁠Michael Laudrup
40. ⁠Roberto Baggio
41. ⁠Kenny Dalglish
42. ⁠Paolo Rossi
43. ⁠Nandor Hidegkuti
44. ⁠Gunter Netzer
45. ⁠Gianluigi Buffon
46. ⁠Didi
47. ⁠Rivellino
48. ⁠Kevin Keegan
49. ⁠Thierry Henry
50. ⁠Nilton Santos
51. ⁠Jose Manuel Moreno
52. ⁠Oleg Blokhin
53. ⁠Jairzinho
54. ⁠Gaetano Scirea
55. ⁠Dino Zoff
56. ⁠Juan Alberto Schiaffino
57. ⁠Fritz Walter
58. ⁠Daniel Passarella
59. ⁠Gordon Banks
60. ⁠Gianni Rivera
61. ⁠Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
62. ⁠John Charles
63. ⁠Dixie Dean
64. ⁠Gunnar Nordahl
65. ⁠Johan Neeskens
66. ⁠Denis Law
67. ⁠Sandro Mazzola
68. ⁠Dennis Bergkamp
69. ⁠Jimmy Johnstone
70. ⁠Ronald Koeman
71. ⁠Omar Sivori
72. ⁠Teofilo Cubillas
73. ⁠Dani Alves
74. ⁠Eric Cantona
75. ⁠Jose Andrade
76. ⁠Cafu
77. ⁠Frank Rijkaard
78. ⁠Florian Albert
79. ⁠Luka Modric
80. ⁠Just Fontaine
81. ⁠Josef Masopust
82. ⁠Jimmy Greaves
83. ⁠Hugo Sanchez
84. ⁠Wayne Rooney
85. ⁠Philipp Lahm
86. ⁠Alan Shearer
87. ⁠Allan Simonsen
88. ⁠Sergio Busquets
89. ⁠Hristo Stoichkov
90. ⁠Roberto Carlos
91. ⁠Giacinto Facchetti
92. ⁠Peter Schmeichel
93. ⁠Sandor Kocsis
94. ⁠Luis Figo
95. ⁠Djalma Santos
96. ⁠Javier Zanetti
97. ⁠George Weah
98. ⁠Kaka
99. ⁠Mario Kempes
100. ⁠Gheorghe Hagi

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ranked-the-100-best-football-players-of-all-time/10

 

[General_Elegancia]

Tbh, I have some disagreement with this list, but I want to see what everyone thinks about this list.

 

[Lay]

Maldini ahead of Baresi is interesting. Every Milan fan who I know who’s seen them both puts Baresi ahead. They don’t even think it’s close.

 

[DrRodo]

Unpopular opinion: zidane was a great, elegant player, who belongs to a top 100 list. But top 5 is ridiculous

 

[BerryBerryShrew]

It's obviously very difficult to compare players across eras so in comparing players from the same era: it is very strange to see Puskas outranking De Stefano (brilliant and all as he was)

 

[altodevil]

Yeah Zidane at five feels way too high

 

[altodevil]

Baggio over Henry?

 

[The Cat]

Figo a bit low?

 

[TheReligion]

United doing well to have Ronaldo and Best in the top ten and seven players in total on the list.

Rooney, Cantona, Schmeichel, Charlton, Law

No other English club gets near

 

[Drizzle]

Unpopular opinion: zidane was a great, elegant player, who belongs to a top 100 list. But top 5 is ridiculous

Broadly agree. Magnificent player to watch, beautiful footballer. But maybe top 20 at best.

 

[Vidyoyo]

No Victor?

 

[BerryBerryShrew]

Just on strikers: Henry getting in at 49, Bergkamp getting in at 68, Cantona at 74, Shearer at 86 but no sign of Lewandowski, Benzema or the most recent Luis Suarez seems a bit weird. Especially when you see Gerd Muller at 11 and Paolo Rossi at 42.

 

[Old Ma Crow]

Ronaldo and Ronaldinho too low, Zidane and Bergkamp too high.

 

[RedRonaldo]

First time I read a list which rank Pele outside of top 3.

Not that I’d complain as all players among top 4 is spot on.

But I wouldn’t rank Zidane higher than Cruyff or Beckenbauer. While Di Stefano on 12th place is rather low too.

 

[Drizzle]

Surprised Cantona sneaks in there but no Giggs. And yes, I idolised Eric and he was a better player than Giggs - for maybe 3 years.

 

[GlasgowCeltic]

No Trent is a surprise

 

[Fortitude]

Stopped reading by 4.

 

[Cypriot]

Well, this doesn't help the Scholes/Gerrard/Lampard debate

 

[FattyFooty]

Its really not that bad.

I would go CR 7 on top spot, Messi second.

And i would actually maybe have Zidane a bit lower.

I also would have Cantona higher. And also had Edwin Van Der sar on the list.

 

[hsbajwa316]

Ronaldo is the stand out for me, also Pele. Both are acclaimed by some as better than C. Ronaldo and Maradonna respectively, so interesting on this to see such a divide/ gap.

 

[Chesterlestreet]

Just on strikers: Henry getting in at 49, Bergkamp getting in at 68, Cantona at 74, Shearer at 86 but no sign of Lewandowski, Benzema or the most recent Luis Suarez seems a bit weird. Especially when you see Gerd Muller at 11 and Paolo Rossi at 42.

Rossi tends to be overrated.

(As does Zidane. He obviously isn't the 5th best footballer of all time.)

 

[The Corinthian]

I find this constant ranking and lists and top 10/20 etc so redundant and pointless. On top of that it’s even more silly if some of the players are still active players.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

No Trent is a surprise

 

[Zlatan Ibrahomovic]

Kaka too low at 98

 

[Vernon Philander]

Modric at 79 is too low, if Iniesta is 20. The gulf is not that large

 

[AndySmith1990]

Top 4 is fine. The rest is highly subjective

 

[BlackShark_80]

Zidane ranked higher than Cruyff, Di Stefano, Platini, and Zico?

 

[ilrm]

1. ⁠Lionel Messi
2. ⁠Diego Maradona
3. ⁠Cristiano Ronaldo
4. ⁠Pele
5. ⁠Zinedine Zidane
6. ⁠Johan Cruyff
7. ⁠George Best
8. ⁠Franz Beckenbauer
9. ⁠Ferenc Puskas
10. ⁠Ronaldo
11. ⁠Gerd Muller
12. ⁠Alfredo Di Stefano

I'm sorry but how is CR7 > Pele? How are Zidane/Puskas/Gerd M > Di Stefano? This is why you can't have absolute rankings. You should put players in tiers.

Tier 1: Messi, Maradona, CR7, Pele

Tier 2: Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Di Stefano, Eusebio, Manuel Neuer

Tier 3: Zidane, George Best, Puskas, Ronaldo Luis, G Muller, Platini, Garrincha, Charlton, Maldini, ⁠Romario, Meazza, Iniesta, Baresi, van Basten, Xavi, Gullit, Matthaus, Valentino Mazzola, Bobby Moore, Michael Laudrup, Roberto Baggio, Kenny Dalglish, Gianluigi Buffon, ⁠Didi, Thierry Henry, Gaetano Scirea, Dixie Dean, Gunnar Nordahl, Johan Neeskens, Luka Modric, Frank Rijkaard, Jimmy Greaves, Dino Zoff, Hristo Stoichkov, Roberto Carlos, Giacinto Facchetti, Peter Schmeichel, Luis Figo, Yashin

Tier 4: Zico, Carlos Alberto, Ronaldinho, ⁠Socrates, Kopa, Matthews, Sindelar, ⁠Luis Suarez (born 1935), Francisco Gento, Paolo Rossi, Nandor Hidegkuti, Gunter Netzer, Rivellino, Kevin Keegan, Nilton Santos, Jose Manuel Moreno, Jairzinho, Schiaffino, Fritz Walter, Passarella, Denis Law, Gordon Banks, Gianni Rivera, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, John Charles, Sandro Mazzola, Dennis Bergkamp, Jimmy Johnstone, Ronald Koeman, Omar Sivori, Dani Alves, Eric Cantona, Cafu, Just Fontaine, Josef Masopust, Hugo Sanchez, Wayne Rooney, Philipp Lahm, Alan Shearer, Sergio Busquets, Sandor Kocsis, Djalma Santos, Javier Zanetti, George Weah, Kaka

Tier 5: ⁠Oleg Blokhin, Teofilo Cubillas, Jose Andrade, Florian Albert, Allan Simonsen, Mario Kempes, Gheorghe Hagi

My world XI (4-2-3-1):

-------------------------------------------Neur
Carlos Alberto ----------Baresi ------- Beckenbauer --------------- Maldini
---------------------------------Rijkaard ----- Matthaus
--------- Messi --------------------- Maradona -------------------CR7
----------------------------------------- Pele

 

[JJ12]

Modric and Henry too low

 

[TMDaines]

Zidane continues to be wildly overrated.

 

[TheReligion]

Trent, Big Virgil, Robertson the glaring omissions

 

[Lay]

Michael Owen who claims VVD is the greatest defender of all time, has missed out. Shocking!

 

[Isafim]

Anything other than Pele in the top 1 is crazy. Pele is unquestionably the best in history. Top 2 and 3 are Cristiano and Messi. The order doesn't matter. It's debatable. I just think it's wrong to put someone between the two. 4, 5 and 6 are Cruijff, Di Stefano and Maradona. The order doesn't matter. It's debatable. This list has several aberrations. A real joke.

 

[JeffFromHK]

United fan but I think George Best ranked at No. 7 is way too high. He was not better than the like of Beckenbauer, Puskas, ⁠Ronaldo (#9) or Di Stefano, or even his teammate Charlton, in his shortlived peak (even if we neglect his poor longevity). He deserves somewhere 15-20, or even 20-25 more.

 

[Oranges038]

No VVD at all.

Thought he was the best defender ever.

These lists as always are subjective. No way should Zidane be top 5.

 

[V.O.]

Zidane continues to be wildly overrated.

That does seem like the biggest outlier in the list.

You can read about 20 names after Zidane's and think it's a complete joke that he's ranked above a single one of them, let alone all of them. Cruyff, Best, Beckenbauer, Puskas, Di Stefano... I mean ffs

 

[TheReligion]

You’re all mad

Zidane was a sensational player

 

[Dumbstar]

United doing well to have Ronaldo and Best in the top ten and seven players in total on the list.

Rooney, Cantona, Schmeichel, Charlton, Law

No other English club gets near

Agree, shocked to see so many but I can't argue against them either, obviously. I'd expect to see those Utd teams win a lot more in Europe to be fair. I guess Ronaldo has but on his own.

 

[TheReligion]

Agree, shocked to see so many but I can't argue against them either, obviously. I'd expect to see those Utd teams win a lot more in Europe to be fair. I guess Ronaldo has but on his own.

I think you could actually argue that a few more should be on the list really. Scholes, Giggs etc

 

[V.O.]

You’re all mad

Zidane was a sensational player

Yeah, he was, and so were Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho - which is the kind of level he should be being discussed at. Not putting him above fecking Cruyff, Best, Beckenbauer, Di Stefano etc.