Messi
Pele
Maradona
Cruyff
Cristiano ronaldo
Ronaldo 9
Ronaldinho
Beckenbauer
Zidane
Di stefano
not in any order
Pele
Maradona
Cruyff
Cristiano ronaldo
Ronaldo 9
Ronaldinho
Beckenbauer
Zidane
Di stefano
not in any order
Top 10 Most Talented Players ever?
- Thread starter Eddy_JukeZ
- Start date
Messi
Maradona
Best
The rest just blend into each other.
Maradona
Best
The rest just blend into each other.
Ronaldinho
Messi
Iniesta
Maradona
Riquelme
Pogba
Bergkamp
Best
Zidane
Pele
Messi
Iniesta
Maradona
Riquelme
Pogba
Bergkamp
Best
Zidane
Pele
asking most talented is a bit loaded and opens the door for some mad shouts. Did not the coaches at Sporting and with Portugal rate Quaresma is their most talented player ahead of Cristiano, for this alone he gets in my top 10.
in no particular order;
George Best, Maradona, Ron9 , Messi, Marco Van Basten, Scholes, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, Pele, Quaresma
in no particular order;
George Best, Maradona, Ron9 , Messi, Marco Van Basten, Scholes, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, Pele, Quaresma
Last edited:
To answer the question if best of all time forwards are omitted, Moussa Dembele is right up there. Could have been a better version of Yaya had his body been up to it. Fella had the weirdest career. He was an exceptional footballer and had the kind of talent you hate to see unrealised.
Off the top of my head:
Ronaldo (Brazil)
Ronaldinho
Gascoigne
Messi
Ronaldo
Zidane
Ronaldo (Brazil)
Ronaldinho
Gascoigne
Messi
Ronaldo
Zidane
In no particular order:
Messi
Maradonna
Ronaldo Phenomeno
Pele
Best
Cruyff
Ronaldinho
Baggio
Iniesta
Zidane
Messi
Maradonna
Ronaldo Phenomeno
Pele
Best
Cruyff
Ronaldinho
Baggio
Iniesta
Zidane
Messi, Maradona. Mathäus is very underrated. Baggio aswell.
Then we have Romario, Ronaldo, Baresi etc.
Then we have Romario, Ronaldo, Baresi etc.
Since you're discrediting Messi, what makes Ronaldinho clearly more talented than Maradona?
Arguably the best 1v1 dribbler the PL has seen.
I don't agree, his he was silky smooth with his dribbling but he lacked the top level ability to make penetrative passes in the middle to be labeled a top class CM. He also didn't have any major injury issues from what I remember.
It was great when playing against teams that offered you space to run at them in the middle but against teams that sit back, that dribbling ability in the middle doesn't count for as much as great passing ability, which he didn't have.
Messi,maradonna,zidane,ronaldinho,suarez,brazilian ronaldo.
Best was great for his time but there have been many,many players better than him.
Queresma was seen as more talented of the two and nobody’s putting him in the top 10 of most talented player ever.
Ronaldo is an example of someone maximising his talent from sheer hard work.
His list starts from 1980 onwards. Otherwise Cryuff and Pele would be glaring misses as well.
Quaresma wasn’t more talented. It’s just what hipsters used to say to sound different. Ronaldo was always consistently picked ahead of him for country when both were young.
19 year old Ronaldo was arguably Portugal’s best player at Euro 2004 and made team of the tournament for example.
Best, Messi, Maradona, the Phenomenon....daylight
Good point!
Revision 1.1
I have updated the honourable mentions with the following talented players:
Mágico González
Robert Prosinečki
Safet Sušić
Juan Carlos Valerón
Predrag Mijatović
Sergen Yalçın
Vladimir Jugović
Antoine Griezmann
Nah, He was the more highly rated player at Lisbon and he fecked his own career because he had a terrible work ethic especially compared to Ronaldo. His downfall started once he left Lisbon for Barcelona.
Djalminha is who i always most associated Ronaldinho with, he was a upgraded, more winger-ish, less organisational version. Very similar skills and vision, with the main difference being Ronaldinho was also fast and explosive, while Djalminha had a more typical slightly above average speed and athleticism...and Ronaldinho was less of a headcase. hard not to love Ronaldinho, but i do get tired sometimes reading/hearing his more exuberant fans go on about no one had pulled off tricks before like that...the guy is in multiple interviews talking about how he was hugely influenced and took a lot of his flashy moves from watching Djalminha! I guess it's probably an age thing too, some will have been slightly too young to see Djalminha at Palmeiras and leading Depor to their first ever league title, and he went way off the rails just as La Liga was becoming more popular in a lot of countries.
I guess im some way is related to age, also the lack of footage of former players or even if avaiable, not seeing enough, but yeap, there are clear aspects and nuances that sometimes give some extra credit to Phenoms like RG and somehow demerit Neymar's showmanship as an example, or not recognizing many of modern players traits in some fellas from the past, I dunno. I've mentioend in my post also some real "not that great" aspects of Ronnie's game that seem to not be seen by many.
I loved Djalminha, what a nutjob, what an entertainer, he also had a nastier edge than RG, he was closer to Romario's cocky character too. Romario, another that I think that the over the top love for R9 took quite some credit to his inmense talent.
In some ways due to RG's entertaining venue and extraordinary ability, while winning everything (let's not forget that), I get that some people might see a superior talent than Messi, Zico or even Pele, that I DO NOT endorse, but neither I found it offensive.
Yet it feels for me incredible silly when that prefference states something like "wayyyy better than".
It's also odd, that of course someone might not know Djalminha, yet someone with that taste more focus on the flair side thinking that Maradona was "clearly" under RG it's quite strange.
I guess too many fans didn't see enough of Diego bar the England Match (BTW that entire WC was sthg like putting everything I want of a player in a capsule).
At the end of the day RG himself said it better than anyone in his farewell to Diego: 'Te amo. Bruxo dos bruxos'. That was a way better homage than anyone closer to Diego than him and the most sensible, loveable and accurate one, even at that RG was phenomenal.
Last edited:
Djamilna was crazy good..that Real Betis side were..his step-overs were simply the best. Incredible. Prosineski is another great shout.
I would add a couple of names to the list:
George Hagi. Unreal natural talent.
Enzo Scifo. Beautiful footballer.
Carlos Valderrama. An artist.
I would add a couple of names to the list:
George Hagi. Unreal natural talent.
Enzo Scifo. Beautiful footballer.
Carlos Valderrama. An artist.
These kinds of threads always just seem like an opportunity for people to suggest that Messi, despite being the best of all time, was not actually as naturally gifted or entertaining as some of the other great players. Both of which are revisionist nonsense. He was unreal. Some other players could maybe make a better 3-minute highlight video but no-one could be as unplayable or entertaining over a whole game as peak Messi was on a weekly basis.
Last edited:
He was and still is extraordinary and trully entertaining and baffling in his efortless style, yet all of us like a bit of over the top flamboyant stuff too, but indeed for moments looks like for some is his mere regularity what standouts, while on contrair he did off the hook stuff so regularly that made them look normal.
Another aspect barely spoken it's that he did that he did with every team on almost every game applying an special tactic and strategy to try to nulify him, way more intricated and focus apporach than even with monsters of the game before like R9, of his time CR or even current Mbappe. Mostly because of where he operated and how he operated in every aspect of the game, sthg. that also had to deal Diego and Zico to name others with similar output. And this is an aspect barely spoken when people likes to throw those tiring GOAT and such comparisons.
PD: I think we should get rid of single THE BEST of all times, I really do think that there were a couple of the above extraordinary fellas on every decade to the very least and some decades had some even bigger examples. At the end of the day it's not fair for anyone with off the charts level of talent to somehow be forgotten or demerit with the pass of time. Every fella on their own period should be celebrated, because the names that usually pop up, were really really special.
Last edited:
Easily? What a load of nonsense
R9, Messi and Neymar are the first 3 that came to mind
Rooney for a United twist. Built like a man from 16, blistering pace.
Rooney for a United twist. Built like a man from 16, blistering pace.
No love for Jay-Jay Okocha?
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
It seems like this thread "talented" is a code for great technically, I agree generally that the geniuses can do what others can't do... but there is more to football talent than pure technique.
Would someone like Haaland not be a natural talent for football, with his father a footballer and blessed with a crazy genes that have given him pace and power to go with a sharp footballing mind the likes of which we've rarely ever seen before? Doing it from about age 15 or 16 as well.
I also don't think Haaland would have to train that much to be up there among the best strikers, a lot less than some high technique players who might have toiled at improving their technique so that they keep up, because he has that natural asset.
Similarly in defence, Maldini with the family business of defending had a natural knack for intercepting and timing clean tackles. Maldini couldn't do elasticos or freestyle moves, there are plenty of those circus football performers all around the world, but he had a natural talent for defending and a very high football IQ.
Then there are players like Muller and Lahm to be talented too in that they seem to have had a very high football IQ from an early age, something you can't easily train.
Would someone like Haaland not be a natural talent for football, with his father a footballer and blessed with a crazy genes that have given him pace and power to go with a sharp footballing mind the likes of which we've rarely ever seen before? Doing it from about age 15 or 16 as well.
I also don't think Haaland would have to train that much to be up there among the best strikers, a lot less than some high technique players who might have toiled at improving their technique so that they keep up, because he has that natural asset.
Similarly in defence, Maldini with the family business of defending had a natural knack for intercepting and timing clean tackles. Maldini couldn't do elasticos or freestyle moves, there are plenty of those circus football performers all around the world, but he had a natural talent for defending and a very high football IQ.
Then there are players like Muller and Lahm to be talented too in that they seem to have had a very high football IQ from an early age, something you can't easily train.
The thing is that since the thread talks about EVER, there were players that had those traits plus some off the charts technique and special physical atributes
I have a soft spot for the Mullers, Batistutas, that kind of focus on their strengths in a very intelligent way, those are some of my favorites, but there were players like for instance Di Stefano that had even greater intelligence, reading, extraordinary athletism and extraordinary technique. So I do not think people here do not think there are lots of players whose talent is placed in other aspects that mere control of the ball and such, but there are players that has combined everything and some of them to a level that feels a lot of times abnormal.
I actually think Rooney is a great shout, because if it's about just natural talent I don't think I've seen a better 16 year old other than Messi.
Lots of incredible players mentioned, but few of them played top league games at 16 and were worth it. Obviously talent can bloom in many different ways and at different times, but just for raw ability to play it's Pele, Messi and Rooney. Kids who, without really having much coaching, were able to play at the highest level
I love Rooney to bits, but it's not lack of respect for him to say that he is not there with Pele, Messi, Maradona, sort of prodigy, nor at a very young age, less regarding his whole carreer. Though he indeed had a fecking brilliant appearence and a phenomenal carreer.
I know in a United forum I'll be trashed by saying this, but he is built like a bull and a very technical all around forward/offensive mid a la Tevez (even Aguero) type of CRACK that actually deliver since very young and have great carreers, but they do not lot belong to the upper echelon when we take in consideration the whole history of the game. Fellas from recent times like Neymar are for instance more of a maverick than the three mentioned.
What Rooney had since the beggining, like Tevez (they are almost like brothers in many aspects, no wonder he said he was his favorite player to play alongside) is a very strong build. Players really talented like Aimar with such frame end most of times broken because of lacking strength and lost balance more easily with the constant fouling.
PD: Just to name fellas extremely talented, yet quite a bit forgoten: Futre and Hassler were amazing to watch.
Don't forget Rivaldo, Romário and Juan Román Riquelme.
Ronaldo (Brazil)
Romário
Rivaldo
Ronaldinho
Zidane
Maradona
Messi
Juan Román Riquelme
Cristiano ronaldo
Cruyff
Ronaldo (Brazil)
Romário
Rivaldo
Ronaldinho
Zidane
Maradona
Messi
Juan Román Riquelme
Cristiano ronaldo
Cruyff
Last edited:
Messi as far as i know barely played for the Barca A team at 16(edit he hadnt). I think R9 was the most complete young striker i had ever seen. From his 1st stint in Brazil to his move to PSV he just looked a someone where it was already hard to pinpoint where he had to improve.
Dennis Bergkamp gets my vote even if he was a gooner. Fantastic natural talent who used to caress the ball. Not kick it.
Notable others.
Cantona, Messi, Ronaldo C, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Iniesta and Paul Scholes not far behind.
Notable others.
Cantona, Messi, Ronaldo C, Bobby Charlton, George Best, Iniesta and Paul Scholes not far behind.
Nobody “easily surpasses” Messi. But it interesting to see how few people appreciate the talent of Pele, who was brilliant in every aspect of play both at an early age and in his 30s, like Messi. He had pace, but he wasn’t speed merchant. He was powerful, but he wasn’t known for his strength. His was known for his talent. But he played long before social media and even before color television, but there’s enough film available to measure what Pele did that’s no less astonishing than Messi, both of whom easily surpassing Ronaldinho and both Ronaldos in terms of pure talent.
Maradonna
Pele
Messi
Cruyff
Ronaldo
Ronaldinho
Romario
Iniesta
Best
Gazza
Hoddle
Pele
Messi
Cruyff
Ronaldo
Ronaldinho
Romario
Iniesta
Best
Gazza
Hoddle
Work permit issues.
R9 wasn't great at heading, playmaking and set pieces. He wasn't perfect, just like any other footballer in the beginning; he was just brilliant at what he did. Messi wasn't good at free kicks, heading (obviously his height) and on his weaker foot but he too was brilliant at what he did.
Last edited:
There was thread few months back asking to rank the 10 best players ever. The players in this thread's list is pretty similar to what people had in the best ever players thread.
In conclusion, most talented is usually the best player.
In conclusion, most talented is usually the best player.