FourFourTwo's 100 Greatest Footballers EVER

Features
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We enjoy a challenge here at FourFourTwo, so here we go: from 100 to No.1, counting down the greatest footballers to have played the game

When a manager has to choose between two excellent players in the same position, the Big Book of Football Cliches says we must always refer to this "selection headache" as a "good problem to have".

Having spent the past month trying to narrow down every male footballer ever into a list of 100, we at FourFourTwo now realise just what nonsense that is. Selection becomes near-impossible conundrum as you realise just how many outstanding footballers there have been, across continents and across decades.

Frankly, we could do another list of 100 great players not to even make the cut. But in the end, we're had to pick the players we feel were the most influential in their particular era, the most memorable, the players who awed us with their talent and their achievements. In short, the 100 greatest footballers ever. Then we had to put them into order.

Come back throughout the week as we reveal the full list. 

100 to 91 • 90 to 81 • 80 to 71 • 70 to 61 • 60 to 51 • 50 to 41 • 40 to 31 • 30 to 21

20 • 19 • 18 • 17 • 16 • 15 • 14 • 13 • 12 • 11 • 10 • 9 • 8 • 7 • 6 • 5 • 4 • 3 • 2 • 1

Alex Reid
Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a freelance journalist and the former digital features editor at FourFourTwo. He has also written for the Guardian, talkSPORT, Boxing News and Sport magazine. Like most Londoners, he is a lifelong supporter of Aberdeen FC. He is deceptively bad in the air for a big man. He has never been a cage fighter.