Top 10 greatest club football players of all time

GodShaveTheQueen

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Think this could be really interesting. Post a list of your top 10 greatest club football players of all time. Doesn't have to be 10, a shorter or longer one is fine too.

Not a rule per se - Longevity is as important as peak when it comes to club football.

If there are a decent number of entries, I will try to compute a cumulative ranking at the end.
 

General_Elegancia

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1. Lionel Messi
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
3. Alfredo Di Stefano
4. Pele
5. Johann Cryuff
6. Franz Beckenbauer
7. Ferenc Puskas
8. Diego Maradona
9. Michel Platini
10. Eusebio

Club career: league performances+ international tournaments like UCL/European Cup or Copa Libertadores performances

A person who can make in top10 list must perform well in both stages at the highest level
 
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Synco

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  1. Pelé - Santos
  2. Messi - Barca
  3. Di Stéfano - Real Madrid
  4. Cruyff - Ajax, Barca
  5. Beckenbauer - Bayern
  6. Maradona - Napoli
  7. Cristiano - United, Real Madrid
  8. Eusébio - Benfica
  9. Müller - Bayern
  10. Xavi - Barca
Have prioritised these mythical guys who "made" their clubs.

Baresi, Maldini, Platini, Buffon should be in there - what about making it a top 15 @GodShaveTheQueen?
 

Isotope

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1. Lionel Messi
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
3. Alfredo Di Stefano
4. Xavi
5. Iniesta
6. Beckenbauer
7. Cruyff
8. Pele
9. Puskas
10. Baresi
 
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oneniltothearsenal

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  1. Pele
  2. Di Stefano
  3. Messi
  4. Beckenbauer
  5. Cruyff
  6. Maldini
  7. Cristiano
  8. Baresi
  9. Zico
  10. Maradona
 
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harms

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  1. Lionel Messi
  2. Alfredo Di Stéfano
  3. Cristiano Ronaldo
  4. Pelé
  5. Johan Cruyff
  6. Ferenc Puskás
  7. Eusébio
  8. Franz Beckenbauer
  9. Xavi
  10. Franco Baresi
I have to say, this is extremely tough — much tougher than the usual all-timers list. Pelé's & Maradona's international career makes it much easier to create a normal list and then there's Cristiano who I don't like to put too high on those lists but his club career is almost impeccable...

Lionel Messi: peak, longevity, success at both continental and domestic football; while his claim to be the absolute GOAT comes a bit short for me due to his international career, club-wise I think he's pretty much unmatched
Alfredo Di Stéfano: lacks even a resemblance of a proper international career (even though he had managed to win a South American Championship), but club-wise he's almost unmatched. Seamlessly replaced Pedernera at La Maquina, absolutely dominated the money-filled Colombian league and then, of course, his stint at Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo: his club career is incredible, especially in continental competitions. I'm not the biggest fan but I think club-wise he's almost unmatched. He's also probably the most influential player in Champions League's history...
Pelé: I'm probably underrating him a bit but I really struggle to place all of the guys who deserve to be absolutely up there. I'm probably struggling due to my European bias
Johan Cruyff: I do think that maybe he slightly lacks in pure longevity at an all-time level... but he was so key in forming both Ajax & Barça's identities and even has that successful feck you story with Feyenoord later on
Ferenc Puskás: just complete domination everywhere he played; if European Cup was introduced sooner, I wonder how placed higher up this list he would've been — as things stand now his Hungarian stint where he was at his absolute peak is almost non-existent in public's perception
Eusébio: I wouldn't place him in my overall top-10 but club-wise he was absolutely humongous. It's quite ridiculous that he had only won one European Cup but let's all blame Guttmann's curse for that
Franz Beckenbauer: I actually have some issues with his club career since at some point his Bayern decided to ignore domestic football more or less altogether. In continental competitions they were massive and, of course, the general standing of Bayern as German's number one club has a lot to do with him. It's a shame that Müller doesn't make my top-10, he's obviously very close to Kaiser in terms of his influence but I had to pick one
Xavi: the most influential midfielder in club's football history? He certainly beats Matthäus on this one
Franco Baresi: had to pick someone from that Milan side and I'm going to give credit to Baresi's crazy longevity. Maldini was an option too (and he also caught some of the 00's success) but I rate Franco a notch higher overall

Honorable mentions (and why they haven't made it):
Diego Maradona: longevity, mostly. For quite a long time he was the next big thing a bit like Neymar — his early games in Argentina shows you just how special of a talent he was but it was Argentina (so, a minus from the pro-European bias point of view), he was really good at Barça (but not properly all-time good) and then comes Napoli where his 2 league titles and UEFA Cup are among the biggest achievements of any footballer on a club level... but ultimately it wasn't a decade and a half of pure domination
Michel Platini: I can't even say why not. He easily could've made it but spending a lot of his younger days in France and more or less switching off after Heysel kinda hurt his legacy when he competes with the absolute monsters from the list above
Zico: again, European bias + maybe a bit of an issue with his longevity? @oneniltothearsenal will be certain to correct me if I'm wrong on that
Gerd Müller: I had to pick one from the German pairing and picked Kaiser
Paolo Maldini: same as with Müller
Bobby Charlton: with only 5 major trophies he shouldn't be that high up the list but we all know the story
Gianluigi Buffon: absolutely synonymous with Juventus and stayed even for the Serie B stint... maybe Neuer can challenge him for the most influential club goalkeeper of all-time?

Rivera, L. Suárez and Iniesta would probably make up the rest of my top-20
 

Šjor Bepo

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Probably lacks that elite, elite level of the GOATs but Carlos Tevez club career is nothing short of breathtaking and if he was playing in some of the previous era and had that resume alongside his highlight reel and actual performances, specially in big games he would be appreciated much more.

First stint at Boca - League, Copa Libertadores
Corinthians - League - in his only full season there wins the league as comfortably the best player of the competition, fan favorite as argentinian in the brazilian club
West Ham - saves them from relegation
Man United - key player in arguably greatest team in club history - 2 Leagues, Champions League and one defeat in CL Final
Man City - League, FA Cup - pretty much puts them on the map
Juventus - 2 Leagues in 2 years, Cup and CL Final again
First Boca comeback - League and Cup double in his only season
Shenghai - Cup
Second Boca comeback - 3 leagues
 

harms

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Zanetti, Giggs, Facchetti, etc. are probably worth a should as well if we're looking at top 1 club men.
I thought about them too (add Gento to that list) but you probably need to be the best player in the world to make it to top-10. Maldini, Baresi, Xavi etc. at least were close to that at their best, not sure about the rest.

The likes of Alves also deserve a shout simply for the amount of the trophies (and he was absolutely crucial to Sevilla and Barça, at least).
 

GodShaveTheQueen

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1. Alfredo Di Stefano
2. Lionel Messi
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
4. Pele
5. Cruyff
6. Beckenbauer
7. Ferenc Puskas
8. Eusebio
9. Xavi
10. Franco Baresi
11. Zico
12. Diego Maradona
13. Michel Platini
14. Gerd Muller
15. Francisco Gento
16. Paolo Maldini
17. Andres Iniesta
18. Frank Rijkaard
19. Luis Suarez Miramontes
20. Gaetano Scirea

My criteria was -

Longevity + Peak > Absolute peak with decent longevity > Tier 2 peak + absolute longevity > dominance with multiple clubs > Pure longevity
 

Šjor Bepo

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Once again Kopa is forgotten, whenever i watched the two of them he was more impressive then Gento. Also did it for a team without superstars before a move to Madrid.
 

harms

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Once again Kopa is forgotten, whenever i watched the two of them he was more impressive then Gento. Also did it for a team without superstars before a move to Madrid.
Well, he didn't play for Madrid that long despite being a better player. Reims is harder to judge though.
 

Šjor Bepo

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Well, he didn't play for Madrid that long despite being a better player. Reims is harder to judge though.
True but thats the case with plenty of others that get mentioned and are on the list.
 

oneniltothearsenal

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Zico: again, European bias + maybe a bit of an issue with his longevity? @oneniltothearsenal will be certain to correct me if I'm wrong on that
He just missed my list and I don't think longevity is much of a factor except against some of the beasts at the top of this list (like Pele, Maldini, Messi, and CR). I'd say Zico has a solid 9-10 years at the top of his game from 1974-1984 or so and especially if we account for the difference in training, nutrition and medical that's probably as good as Xavi 2005-2015 - which is something we have to account for as Messi and Cristiano have benefited from the absolute best of those three factors in ways that Pele and Di Stefano could only dream about. That's part of why I have Messi below both of them and Cristiano lower on the list. Heck, writing this convinced to adjust my list so thanks for the tag.
 

harms

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He just missed my list and I don't think longevity is much of a factor except against some of the beasts at the top of this list (like Pele, Maldini, Messi, and CR). I'd say Zico has a solid 9-10 years at the top of his game from 1974-1984 or so and especially if we account for the difference in training, nutrition and medical that's probably as good as Xavi 2005-2015 - which is something we have to account for as Messi and Cristiano have benefited from the absolute best of those three factors in ways that Pele and Di Stefano could only dream about. That's part of why I have Messi below both of them and Cristiano lower on the list. Heck, writing this convinced to adjust my list so thanks for the tag.
That's kinda what I felt, yes. The standards for longevity became absolutely ridiculous where even 10 years at the top isn't enough, you need to dominate since your late teens and up until mid 30's at the very least!