60. Eden Hazard
It was clear from an early age that there was something special about Hazard. The Belgian was the youngest Ligue 1 Player of the Year winner ever in 2011, aged 20, after helping Lille win a league and cup double.
Chelsea didn’t take long to pounce and it was at Stamford Bridge that the dynamic winger established a reputation as one of the best in the business, scoring 110 goals over seven seasons with the London club and wining a stack of individual awards to go with two Premier League and two Europa League titles.
Hazard captained Belgium to a third-place finish and won the Silver Ball at the 2018 World Cup, his country’s best-ever finish.
59. Roberto Carlos
Originally a striker, Roberto Carlos’ bombing runs, fierce shot and bending free-kicks made him possibly the most entertaining left-back the game has ever seen.
He won the 2002 World Cup winner with Brazil, earning a place in the All-Star team with his performances, and his 21st-century trophy haul also includes two Champions League and three La Liga titles with Real Madrid.
He earned legend status over 11 years at the Bernabeu and remains the foreigner with the most appearances for the club,
58. Paul Scholes
The Manchester United legend ranks among the greatest English midfielders of all time, and has earned praise from illustrious quarters.
Pele said “if I played with him, I would’ve scored many more goals”, Thierry Henry described Scholes as the greatest Premier League player ever, and Xavi called him a “role model”.
As for the man himself, he told FFT in 2016 that it all “came very naturally to me”. Eight of Scholes’ 11 Premier League titles came after the year 2000, as well as the 2007/08 Champions League triumph.
57. Angel Di Maria
Di Maria has won league titles in Portugal, Spain and France, and finally added an international honour to his cabinet last year by scoring the only goal of the Copa America final against Brazil.
The technically gifted winger is often less lauded than some of his illustrious team-mates for club and country, but he’s been a consistent source of goals and assists throughout his career.
He is PSG’s all-time top assist provider, while at Real Madrid his ability to morph into a central midfielder under Carlo Ancelotti helped the club win ‘La Decima’ - their long-awaited 10th Champions League title.
56. Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk’s £75m move to Liverpool from Southampton in January 2018 has often been pointed to as the moment Jurgen Klopp added the final piece to his Reds jigsaw, and you can see why.
The towering Dutchman, who combines immense strength with impressive acceleration, was the defensive rock behind Champions League and Premier League victories in his first two full seasons at Anfield.
The former Groningen, Celtic and Saints stopper’s importance to those achievements didn’t go unnoticed, as he won the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year award for 2018/19 - the only defender to have done so - and finished as the Ballon d’Or runner-up in 2019.
55. Michael Ballack
Ballack was the complete package as a central midfielder, capable of bossing opponents physically, spreading passes around the pitch with both feet and scoring goals. Lots of goals.
The three-time German Footballer of the Year starred in Bayer Leverkusen’s remarkable runners-up treble of 2001/02, when they finished second in the Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, before losing the World Cup final to Brazil that summer.
But the major honours soon flowed in after he joined Bayern Munich, winning the league and cup double three times, while he claimed the Premier League crown with Chelsea in 2010.
54. Radamel Falcao
Wherever ‘El Tigre’ has gone, goals have followed. The Colombian’s football odyssey has taken him to seven different countries, with his most successful spells coming at Porto, Atletico Madrid and Monaco.
He won back-to-back Europa League titles with different clubs in 2011 and 2012 for Porto and Atleti, a Ligue 1 title with Monaco and is Colombia’s all-time top scorer with 35 goals in 90 caps.
At his peak, Falcao looked utterly unstoppable - Chelsea fans might still have traumatic flashbacks to his stunning first half hat-trick in a 4-1 UEFA Super Cup victory for Atleti in 2012.
53. Antoine Griezmann
Atletico Madrid’s flamboyant Frenchman has inspired club and country to success in the last decade.
Griezmann won the Golden Boot and player of the tournament at Euro 2016 as France reached the final, only to succumb to Portugal, but he made amends two years later by leading Les Bleus to their first World Cup victory in 20 years, winning man of the match in the final victory over Croatia.
The versatile forward’s creativity and reliable goal return - he’s hit double figures in eight of the last nine La Liga seasons for Real Sociedad, Atleti and Barcelona - have helped him earn domestic accolades like La Liga Best Player in 2015/16.
52. Petr Cech
Many would argue that Cech is the greatest Premier League goalkeeper ever, and there are good reasons why.
The Czech Republic international was behind four league titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups and a Champions League triumph during his 11-year spell with Chelsea, before clinching another FA Cup at Arsenal.
Cech’s individual records stack up high: he has the most clean sheets ever in the Premier League with 202, as well as the most in a single season, 24, while he’s a four-time Golden Glove winner and has gone longer than any other keeper without conceding, 1,025 minutes in 2004/05.
51. Pavel Nedved
Nedved was already a decade into his playing career by the turn of the millennium, but he saved some of his best form for the 21st century.
The Czech sensation won a league and cup double with Lazio in 2000, before replacing Zinedine Zidane at Juventus and firing the Turin club to two league titles and the Champions League final, achievements that helped him clinch the 2003 Ballon d’Or.
Nedved also captained his country to the final of Euro 2004, where they lost to Greece, and he opted to stay with Juve following their demotion to Serie B in the wake of the Calciopoli match fixing scandal, helping them go straight back up at the first attempt.
50. Xabi Alonso
Alonso’s debut season at Liverpool couldn’t have ended any better, as the Spaniard scored the equaliser in the 3-3 ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ Champions League final against AC Milan before the Reds’ eventual penalty shoot-out victory.
It was the first major honour of his career, but far from the last. Another Champions League crown and the La Liga title came at Real Madrid, followed by three consecutive Bundesliga triumphs at Bayern Munich.
But perhaps Alonso’s greatest achievement was his central role in Spain’s three consecutive major tournament victories at Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.
49. Kevin De Bruyne
The midfield wizard behind Manchester City’s recent successes, De Bruyne has developed into one of the world’s most complete midfielders under Pep Guardiola.
The Belgian’s piles of goals and assists have fired the Citizens to three Premier League titles, five League Cups and the FA Cup, not to mention a bag of individual awards. With a Champions League title, he entered the upper echelon of European midfielders, standing alongside the greatest: £55m seems like a steal in retrospect for Manchester City.
48. Carlos Puyol
The shaggy-haired Spaniard captained Barcelona to an incredible 18 major titles, including six La Liga crowns and three Champions Leagues, and his magnetic effect on trophies extended to international level too.
Puyol was part of Spain’s triumphant sides at Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup, and it was his headed goal against Germany that sent them through to the final of the latter tournament.
47. Yaya Toure
The long-legged Ivorian mastered the role of the box-to-box midfielder, capable of causing damage in the final third and winning the ball while protecting his defence.
Toure won four consecutive African Player of the Year awards between 2011 and 2014, his first four seasons with Manchester City, and he played a pivotal role in the Citizens’ first title of the Premier League era in 2011/12.
Champions League and La Liga titles with barcelona are also on his honours list, while he captained the Ivory Coast to long-awaited Africa Cup of Nations glory in 2015 after twice finishing as a runner-up.
46. John Terry
The Chelsea legend established a reputation as one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever defenders during 19 years at Stamford Bridge.
A strong, tough-tackling defender, Terry’s leadership was behind five league titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, a Europa League crown and a Champions League title.
He may not have enjoyed the same level of success in an England shirt, but Terry was at least the only English player to earn a place in the 2006 World Cup team of the tournament.
45. Toni Kroos
The outstanding performer for Germany in Brazil in 2014; the steady metronome during Real Madrid's Threepeat. Toni Kroos can do both.
The midfielder is quiet, understated and perhaps the ultimate German footballer. Over the last decade, he has done exactly what was needed for every manager, providing an almost unrivalled passing range, superb positioning and moments of genius in abundance. It's ironic that Kroos running riot against the Selecao has become the defining image of his career: he's far more restrained, usually.
44. Luis Figo
At the very start of the 21st Century, Luis Figo committed the most controversial transfer that football had ever seen. Throughout of the rest of the noughties, he simply oozed more of the class he'd displayed in the 90s.
A key component for Real Madrid's early 00s triumphs, the Portuguese was the statesman on home soil in 2004. He later joined Inter Milan and was just as classy: intelligent, creative and with the ability to control the cauldron, he's one of his country's finest ever players.
43. Vincent Kompany
Vincent Kompany joined Manchester City the same month as the Abu Dhabi United Group. He was at the very core of everything that would happen on Eastlands.
A leader in defence like few had ever seen in the Premier League, Kompany embraced the club he defined, Mancunian twang and all. The Belgian was one of the most imperious centre-backs in Europe at his peak, adored by every manager who worked with him. He was irreplaceable when he left, too.
42. Mohamed Salah
A modern-day Liverpool great, Salah’s arrival from Roma in 2017 acted as a catalyst to the Reds’ outstanding period of success under Jurgen Klopp.
A two-time Golden Boot winner, Salah holds the record for the most goals scored in a Premier League season with 32 and has been astonishingly prolific at Anfield, notching more than 20 goals in each of his first five seasons.
Premier League and Champions League victories have been the reward, while at international level the winger captained Egypt to their first World Cup in 28 years in 2018 and runners-up finishes in two Africa Cup of Nations.
41. Didier Drogba
10 goals, 10 finals, 10 trophies at club level. There were seasons in which Didier Drogba didn't live up to his humongous hype – but that big game record alone is reason to see him as one of the greatest African players of all time.
The Ivorian was one of the most fearsome strikers ever. A combination of icy cold finishing and red-hot drive through the centre of the pitch made him utterly unstoppable at his best. He's still the only player to score in four FA Cup finals and he practically won Chelsea their first Champions League on his todd.
