Top 10 Most Talented Players ever?

[Eddy_JukeZ]

If you did a top 10 list of the most talented players ever, does it change much from your actual list?

I suppose this question depends on how one defines talent. I'd say it's just innate and noticeable from the off in every possible footballing aspect(with the ball specifically).

I'd probably put Ronaldinho in my list of most talented players ever, but I wouldn't put him in my actual top 10 list.

 

[hasanejaz88]

Luis Ronaldo has to be number 1 for me, I only start watching football in the late 90s but I've never been as amazed watching a player play than Ronaldo during that time. Messi is ofcourse insanely talented himself but if you compare both at the age Ronaldo was at when he injured his knee (22), and was never the same since, I would say Ronaldo looked the more talented. Messi improved massively in the later years to become to greatest of all time but on talent I still haven't been as amazed as with Ronaldo.

Or it's all just nostalgia and the correct answer is Messi

 

[SilentStrike]

People equate ‘natural talent’ or ‘genetically determined talent’ too much with ball control and dribbling. So the majority of the answers here will be Ronaldinho, Maradona, Messi, Pele, Cruyff etc.

I think natural football talent should be defined much broader. Size and physical strength are also genetically determined. As is vision, reading of the game (intelligence), quick thinking (intelligence), general athleticism.

Probably being very high level versatile is a better indicator of natural talent than the extent to which a ball sticks to your foot.

My answer would be Franz Beckenbauer

 

[SonOfFergie]

Ronaldinho.

 

[Son]

Maradona and Messi. The rest natural talent wise are a level or two below.

Messi in his mid 20’s especially was just absurdly good. He was doing things almost every week nobody has even seen before.

2012 Messi is a higher level than basically anyone else could ever get in football history so far. Not so much his dribbling but his football IQ all round is the best I’ve ever seen

 

[Fortitude]

People equate ‘natural talent’ or ‘genetically determined talent’ too much with ball control and dribbling. So the majority of the answers here will be Ronaldinho, Maradona, Messi, Pele, Cruyff etc.

I think natural football talent should be defined much broader. Size and physical strength are also genetically determined. As is vision, reading of the game (intelligence), quick thinking (intelligence), general athleticism.

Probably being very high level versatile is a better indicator of natural talent than the extent to which a ball sticks to your foot.

My answer would be Franz Beckenbauer

The problem with what you're saying here is that you've gone right to the top of the totem, to players that literally have it all to cartoonish degrees. It's not just how they control a ball or dribble with it, it's they 'see' everything quicker, clearer and interact with their environment at the speed of a supercomputer. They are essentially cheat codes as footballers: superior genetics; better ball control; better ball manipulation; better reading of play (situational awareness); better exploiting of space and so on and so forth.

Separating that level from their talent isn't just a case of removing their technical acumen and they fall in line with the pack - they start way ahead of the pack in the first place, and it's further enhanced by their ability with the ball.

This is often made clear when they lose a step or part of what made them brilliant in the first place - they adapt and still remain top percentile a great example of this being Ronaldo who went from what would probably be classed as the biggest glitch in the matrix football has seen, to an overweight, delimited player with half his agility stripped from him. He still remained a world class striker, who no longer had an endless bag of tricks to pull resources from. Another would be a Giggs at 38+ who could still outplay those in their primes and adapted his whole game to cater to what was supposedly keeping him way ahead of the pack in the first place (ridiculous pace and explosivity into dribbling runs).

Beckenbauer is no further removed from the pack, so it's strange you would highlight him. His natural gifts are off the charts to the point he is generally peered directly with Cruyff as his defensive equivalent.

 

[Scottynaldinho]

If it is assisted talent/altered DNA then Messi.

 

[kaku06]

Ronaldinho. If only he had the dedication of Cristiano to marry with his talent he would surpass Messi easily.

 

[Fobal]

People equate ‘natural talent’ or ‘genetically determined talent’ too much with ball control and dribbling. So the majority of the answers here will be Ronaldinho, Maradona, Messi, Pele, Cruyff etc.

I think natural football talent should be defined much broader. Size and physical strength are also genetically determined. As is vision, reading of the game (intelligence), quick thinking (intelligence), general athleticism.

Probably being very high level versatile is a better indicator of natural talent than the extent to which a ball sticks to your foot.

My answer would be Franz Beckenbauer

You are naming players that actually do everything you are describing to an insane degree and if some of them didn't do much defensive duties, it's because their offensive ones were so off the charts that would have been silly to ask them to do it.

Also in the way you put it, almost as totall footballer, versatile, more focus in his mental strength and General among men, Di Stefano was a better and more complete player than Frank too. In fact I will name a player from the older days like Sastre that also had the characteristics of these two.

The thing with Frank, like with some extraordinary Brazilian fullbacks, or some off the charts defenders like Figueroa or Passarella, the Kaiser himself or Lothar. It's that this phenoms are giants of the game because they surpasse the typical requirements for more defensive roles. In most cases because they were "born" in a more offensive role and later they were used in more defensive oriented ones, this gave them the edge.
Yet imagine how silly would have been to make Wild Cards total Genius players like Maradona or Messi the best fullbacks ever or Pele the greatest central defender.

 

[SilentStrike]

The problem with what you're saying here is that you've gone right to the top of the totem, to players that literally have it all to cartoonish degrees. It's not just how they control a ball or dribble with it, it's they 'see' everything quicker, clearer and interact with their environment at the speed of a supercomputer. They are essentially cheat codes as footballers: superior genetics; better ball control; better ball manipulation; better reading of play (situational awareness); better exploiting of space and so on and so forth.

Separating that level from their talent isn't just a case of removing their technical acumen and they fall in line with the pack - they start way ahead of the pack in the first place, and it's further enhanced by their ability with the ball.

This is often made clear when they lose a step or part of what made them brilliant in the first place - they adapt and still remain top percentile a great example of this being Ronaldo who went from what would probably be classed as the biggest glitch in the matrix football has seen, to an overweight, delimited player with half his agility stripped from him. He still remained a world class striker, who no longer had an endless bag of tricks to pull resources from. Another would be a Giggs at 38+ who could still outplay those in their primes and adapted his whole game to cater to what was supposedly keeping him way ahead of the pack in the first place (ridiculous pace and explosivity into dribbling runs).

Beckenbauer is no further removed from the pack, so it's strange you would highlight him. His natural gifts are off the charts to the point he is generally peered directly with Cruyff as his defensive equivalent.

I’m referring more to people attributing dribbling and ball control to ‘natural talent’, whilst they often attribute the skills of a high level midfielder to ‘hard work’. This is however not true I think.

I think therefore when choosing the best natural talent in football versatility is the best measure. Beckenbauer, along with great ball control, had a natural talent for all other elements of the game as well. He really was the ultimate complete footballer excelling in all aspects.

 

[Fobal]

Ronaldinho. If only he had the dedication of Cristiano to marry with his talent he would surpass Messi easily.

Ronnie wasn't even in the realm of Maradona to name another malabarist and player that also focused on makes us enjoy their play or even Ney it's not that far from him in many of RG's technical atributes, yet way more silly was the way this last one managed his carreer in comparison with even a lazy dude RG was (nonetheless RG was still productive till his last day everywhere, the Libertadores with Mineiro was fantastic).
Yet indeed he could and should have had a better carreer but he should had played "better" too, dribbling the same guy twice it's a no no in most cases, Pele would have end scoring in that very same timeframe, being this also a trademark of the best ever.

The thing with him is as entertaining as he was, it's that he didn't had the urge and scoring ability of Pele, nor the ability in tight spaces and resolution of Messi, Zico, Diego, he also not few times had to resolve with a marvelous trick and stop, because he couldn't see the better play or couldn't do it at the paced required and when he lost just a bit, not much, of his power and pace, he dropped quite a few levels (still being fantastic of coruse, still a phenom) but closer to the marvelous Djalmina than a Pele or Zico.

Don't get me wrong I love the guy, we all love the guy, but like R9 too, sometimes the "ifs" with these two go to far, even as wonderfull as they were. At the same time Zico and even Ney (with all his faults) are at some point sadly underapreciated.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Rooney would be up there. That wonder goal against Newcastle when he’s arguing with the referee and then just jogs up the pitch and smashes in goal of the season on instinct. Pure talent.

 

[Duane Dibley]

A Manchester United forum and nobody's mentioned George Best.

 

[Fortitude]

I’m referring more to people attributing dribbling and ball control to ‘natural talent’, whilst they often attribute the skills of a high level midfielder to ‘hard work’. This is however not true I think.

I think therefore when choosing the best natural talent in football versatility is the best measure. Beckenbauer, along with great ball control, had a natural talent for all other elements of the game as well. He really was the ultimate complete footballer excelling in all aspects.

Yes, but even then, it wouldn't work because the players you referred to have consummate mastery of not just their skills but an intrinsic and fundamental understanding of the game that always, always gives them an age before they even kick a ball. It's a rare player indeed who is relatively mindless as opposed to using their talent in perfect harmony with the environs in which they are performing. In that sense, ironically, it's Beckenbauer who becomes more obvious in aiding the laymen to understand the abnormality of what he's doing because it's so distinctly removed from the norm, whereas with the attacking players, a lot of the nuance is lost as we tend to focus more on the aspects of ball-handling you're referring to, and it is often, only with the aid of replays and frame by frame walkthroughs that we see the subtlety they have applied before all the wow stuff begins.

As I said before, Cruyff and Beckenbauer are eternally twinned basically as Yin and Yang and two sides of the same coin operating in different areas of the pitch. Beckenbauer's actual on the ball talent is just as absurd as the players you mention, why? Because through the lens of a defender or defensive player, he is still so far ahead of the next player down that it is an absurdity and his 'natural talent' has been the hardest for any other player to emulate because whilst there's been many contenders to greatest #9 or #10 of all-time, there hasn't ever been a direct challenger to Beckenbauer, not even close. But to my point with this paragraph: the aforementioned have always been twinned as the same, switched - how is Beckenbauer any more complete than Cruyff, for example? They are essentially renowned for doing the same thing on opposing sides of the halfway line, and what one can do on the other side, the other can do equally well.

'Completeness' in and of itself is a different discussion to what's being posed, and the likes of Gullit, Di Stefano and so forth then enter the fray.

 

[Gehrman]

A Manchester United forum and nobody's mentioned George Best.

Good shout. He still makes my top 10 though.

 

[Alpha 1]

Ronaldinho. If only he had the dedication of Cristiano to marry with his talent he would surpass Messi easily.

Ronaldinho was more entertaining but when you consider the most important things in football i.e scoring, creating, and dribbling Messi is more naturally talented. Ronaldinho was undoubtedly amazing though.

From the ones I've seen:
1. Messi
2. Maradona
3. R9
4. Ronaldinho
5. Neymar
6. Hazard
7. Iniesta
8. Baggio
9. Henry
10. Cristiano/Rooney/Robben

Neymar is ludicrously talented although he never managed to impact his team the way others did due to multiple factors. Hazard was another one, just a poor trainer. Cristiano absolutely maximised on his ability and focused on goals.

 

[VARsenal]

In no particular order, Messi, Ronaldo phenomeno, Zidane, Maradona and Ronaldinho are easily top 10

 

[Nicoteiro]

I would say Iniesta for me. Simply because he just looks like a guy who works in an office. His skills are mesmerizing.

There's a lot of physical atributes in Messi, Maradona, although their talent is there. Perhaps Messi's ability to dribble with the ball glued to his feet is unmatched.

But Iniesta looks so normal to me as a guy, and then you watch him play and he was magical.

 

[lex talionis]

Pele was actually quite talented, both as a teenager and in his 30s. The GOAT discussion being closely related, it’s hard to imagine any footballer being more “talented” than Pele, though obviously Messi is right there with him.

 

[Fobal]

I would say Iniesta for me. Simply because he just looks like a guy who works in an office. His skills are mesmerizing.

There's a lot of physical atributes in Messi, Maradona, although their talent is there. Perhaps Messi's ability to dribble with the ball glued to his feet is unmatched.

But Iniesta looks so normal to me as a guy, and then you watch him play and he was magical.

What a player Andresito

Yet it doesn't work that way, there were players like Cannigia or Piojo Lopez or even a current real phenom like Mbappe qith equal or even more pace and power than the ones you've mentioned and they didn't/doesn't have the technical, nor reading, control and ability at such pace that the ones you've mentioned.

The combination of so many technical and mental atributes of the usual suspects, with the addition of being special in the phsyical department it's what makes what they are.

From the normal ones that can do less and with less speed and power, Iniesta is indeed fantastic, Bochini was another case, these fellas look like office workers and that makes them trully appealing and also BTW, deceiving, because they had quite pace in them when younger.

And there is sthg else that it's perhaps the less talked atribute of Pele, Maradona, Messi and such...the manage of time and space, the awarness of their enviroment that combined with the effortless technique to pull out what they imagined, made them so extraordinary, while it's a,lot harder to do lots of their plays at such intensity and in such convoluted situations.

 

[Redplane]

Modric, Seedorf, Scholes, Pirlo, KdB, Bergkamp, Iniesta to name a few. Not because they scored the most goals or even had the most assists but because they made a team tick. People that are the team in some ways. Talent to me is to be both invisible and omni present.

 

[Stack]

A Manchester United forum and nobody's mentioned George Best.

We are at that point where naturally the players from what some would now think of as the distant past get forgotten or slip down lists. Its just a function of time and newer generations coming though who have never truely experienced past players.
I grew up watching him and for me he would be in the top 3 or 4 of the "naturally talented" metric. However there have been a lto of those players in the following years and so many people will have grown up watching some of those players and so Best will by the natural order of things slip down the various lists. I mean I never hear Sir Stanley Mathews mentioned these days and when I was a kid he was a legend that i never got to see but I heard about him all the time. Time moves on and my heroes slowly fade away as the new heroes are relevant and current.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

George Best is top 5 on talent alone.

 

[Scandi Red]

I can't make a top 10 list, but I reckon number one would be Messi or Ronaldinho. My brain says Messi, my heart says Ronaldinho. They are both wizards we'll never see the likes of again. It's all about efficiency and limiting mistakes these days.

 

[Stack]

I can't make a top 10 list, but I reckon number one would be Messi or Ronaldinho. My brain says Messi, my heart says Ronaldinho. They are both wizards we'll never see the likes of again. It's all about efficiency and limiting mistakes these days.

We will see their likes again. New wizards appear and have been throughout football. We have been through periods of efficiency and limiting mistakes before, over time we discover the way to beat it is by allowing individual brilliance to flourish. This is why whenever a new exceptional player appears I get a buzz. There will be more.

 

[harms]

1. Maradona
2. Messi
3. Pelé
4. L. Ronaldo
5. Best
6. Cruyff
7. Ronaldinho
8. Beckenbauer
9. Zico
10. M. Laudrup

van Basten, Zidane, Di Stéfano, Gullit, Baggio, Neymar are probably up there. Natural talent usually equates with how well you can manipulate the ball in my eyes, so a lot of other components that are still a crucial part of natural footballer's progression are excluded. That is why I struggled do get any defenders (and barely any midfielders) in, although Maldini is the obvious choice for the perfect defensive talent (while Beckenbauer transcends this definition).

The top-3 is basically the same with top-3 best players ever, although in a slightly different order (Maradona would probably be third in that trio with Messi & Pelé being roughly equal).

Neymar probably has the biggest gap between talent & overall standing in football history out of the above-mentioned. I'm not sure if he even makes in my top-10 list of best Brazilian footballers — maybe just barely.

 

[Ghirahim]

Ronaldinho was more entertaining but when you consider the most important things in football i.e scoring, creating, and dribbling Messi is more naturally talented. Ronaldinho was undoubtedly amazing though.

From the ones I've seen:
1. Messi
2. Maradona
3. R9
4. Ronaldinho
5. Neymar
6. Hazard
7. Iniesta
8. Baggio
9. Henry
10. Cristiano/Rooney/Robben

Neymar is ludicrously talented although he never managed to impact his team the way others did due to multiple factors. Hazard was another one, just a poor trainer. Cristiano absolutely maximised on his ability and focused on goals.

Luis Suárez would be in my top 10. He single-handedly almost won Liverpool the league.

 

[arnie_ni]

Young c.ronaldo was insanely talented as well. I think people forgot that because of how he changed his style.

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

R9
Maradona
Messi
Pelé
Cruyff
Beckenbauer
Zico
Ronaldinho

Maybe Garrincha and Best come next

My list basically just a copy of @harms now that I look at the thread h

 

[cpresc]

Ronaldinho. If only he had the dedication of Cristiano to marry with his talent he would surpass Messi easily.

"surpass Messi easily" really?

 

[kaku06]

"surpass Messi easily" really?

Yep. Not in terms of numbers obviously but in terms of being the best footballer ever. Pair the dedication of cristiano with Ronaldinho and I don’t see how he doesn’t make a fool out of everyone. It’s all a hypothetical I know but I haven’t seen anyone as talented as him including messi. The way he dominated that great Milan team at San Siro and then at Camp Nou with the likes of Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Gattuso etc and handled them like kids. Never seen anything like it and that was Ronaldinho on booze.

 

[Snow]

Somewhat similar. You have Messi, Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo9, Eusebio, Best, Puskas. Wouldn't even say it were wrong to put Ronaldinho on both lists. Obviously one of the all time greatest talents but didn't take it as seriously as Cristiano Ronaldo who elevated his talent with his professionalism to become an all-time great.

You could probably make lists that have 7 names on both.

 

[cpresc]

Yep. Not in terms of numbers obviously but in terms of being the best footballer ever. Pair the dedication of cristiano with Ronaldinho and I don’t see how he doesn’t make a fool out of everyone. It’s all a hypothetical I know but I haven’t seen anyone as talented as him including messi. The way he dominated that great Milan team at San Siro and then at Camp Nou with the likes of Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Gattuso etc and handled them like kids. Never seen anything like it and that was Ronaldinho on booze.

Fair enough

Thing is, you probably couldn't have one without the other, his flamboyant, relaxed style of play was his character, as was the party lifestyle. Nullify one, nullify both.

 

[B20]

Neymar, Ronaldinho and Hagi would be higher.

Christiano Ronaldo, Suarez and Xavi would be lower.

 

[Rojofiam]

I don't think anyone was/is more naturally gifted than Messi.

However, some other South American guys come to mind that could've achieved even more than they did. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Neymar, there's probably more.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Yep. Not in terms of numbers obviously but in terms of being the best footballer ever. Pair the dedication of cristiano with Ronaldinho and I don’t see how he doesn’t make a fool out of everyone. It’s all a hypothetical I know but I haven’t seen anyone as talented as him including messi. The way he dominated that great Milan team at San Siro and then at Camp Nou with the likes of Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Gattuso etc and handled them like kids. Never seen anything like it and that was Ronaldinho on booze.

What for you makes Ronaldinho more talented than Messi?

Personally think Messi is clearly more talented.

 

[heraklion]

We will see their likes again. New wizards appear and have been throughout football. We have been through periods of efficiency and limiting mistakes before, over time we discover the way to beat it is by allowing individual brilliance to flourish. This is why whenever a new exceptional player appears I get a buzz. There will be more.

It's very rare to have a wizard who is an excellent playmaker, dribbler and goalscorer all at the same time.
Only Messi and Pele were at that level, not even Maradona.

With the efficiency focus, I'm not even sure whether a raw talent like Messi would be trained the same way and given the flexibility nowadays..

We'll surely continue to have new playmaking wizards like Zidane or goal-scoring wizards like R9 with more frequency..

 

[heraklion]

I don't think anyone was/is more naturally gifted than Messi.

However, some other South American guys come to mind that could've achieved even more than they did. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Neymar, there's probably more.

I want to add Kaka to that list, he was phenomenal until his disappointing episode at Real Madrid.

 

[SATA]

Neymar and Ronaldinho should be top 3 based on pure talent alone.

 

[Fobal]

Maybe is a question of age, or focus too much in malabarism, but there is quiet a lot of stuff that Pele, Messi and Zico did that even sometimes being less flamboyant it's harder to pull out, not just talking about stats or consistency...BTW Diego kind of combined the two worlds, yet never replicating (due to many factors) the numbers like the three mentioned aboved and I'm starting to think that many here are too young, or too much focus on the England match in the WC, because Diego was in many ways the most ridiculous player in terms of improvisation and being one with ball.

I also think that years go by and people do not realize how freaky DI Stefano or Cryuff were too, in fact Alfredo was way into his mature years when he arrived to Madrid and still was streets ahead everyone on the pitch.