40. Franck Ribery
The precocious starlet of France's 2006 World Cup crusade grew into a cultured wide man who swept all before him. Franck Ribery more than lived up to the billing.
Where Robben was direct, obvious, powerful and bold, Ribery was deft, thoughtful and capable of the unexpected. Ribery was vital to Bayern Munich's ascension to becoming a superpower once more and at his peak, there have been few wingers as beguiling to watch since 2000.
39. Francesco Totti
Francesco Totti retired with 307 goals in 786 Roma appearances. He is the very embodiment of the football club.
And while the no.10 broke through in the 90s, the 21st Century was paved in gold for him. He won the Scudetto in 2001 before a World Cup in 2006, reinventing himself from a false nine, second striker and attacking midfielder along the way. Few footballers have been this influential – and even fewer have been quite so adored.
38. Patrick Vieira
Arsene Wenger once claimed that he only really won the Arsenal players' trust when he arrived in England because they could see he'd brought a top player with him. That rangy, young Frenchman would soon blossom into one of Europe's most complete midfielders.
Patrick Vieira was the beating heart of every side he led, winning the Euros with France, a double and unbeaten title with Arsenal and covering more grass than just about any other teammate. He had an incredible blend of physical power, velvet touch and positional intelligence: the Gunners yearned for him for a decade after he departed.
37. Frank Lampard
The top-scoring midfielder in Premier League history only tells a fraction of the story of Frank Lampard – who incredibly had to be defended by his uncle Harry from disbelieving West Ham fans as a youngster getting into the first team.
While at Chelsea, Lamps became arguably the club's finest-ever player, reinventing the very idea of box-to-box. He would win every ball, stride with purpose and could launch rockets from outside of the area. He's one of England's finest players ever.
36. Gianluigi Buffon
Buffon broke the world record for a goalkeeper back in 2001, and as of 2022, he is still playing, in a career that has seen him make over 1,000 appearances for clubs and country.
A World Cup winner and 10-time Serie A winner, his three times on the losing side of a Champions League final feel thoroughly undeserving of a player who has become the godfather of modern goalkeeping.
35. Claude Makelele
How many others have a position named after them? Makelele’s deep-midfield role helped both provide defensive cover for and unlock the attacking talents of his team-mates further up the field. It’s no coincidence that in his three years at an increasingly galactic Real Madrid, he picked up two La Liga titles and a Champions League, while the club had to wait another four years to lift another domestic title and 11 years to lift a European title once he left for Chelsea.
34. Andrea Pirlo
James Horncastle’s reflections on Andrea Pirlo remain unmatched:
“Many thought the regista was a relic consigned to the past. Nobody could play football as if sat in a director’s chair and Pasolini their way through a game. It had become too high in velocity, too intense. But Pirlo still found time and he never failed to discover space. The surrounding blur and rush did not disrupt his tempo, nor impair his vision. Slow succeeded in a fast environment thanks to the genius flashing behind his eyes.
“He dresses as he played, achieving class in the smart and the casual. The nicknames he inspired over the course of his playing career, il Maestro and l’Architetto, capture Pirlo’s appreciation for composition, design and set-pieces.”
33. Kylian Mbappe
It’s remarkable to reflect on what Mbappe has already achieved in his short career so far - and consider what might still be to come. Mbappe is already a World Cup winner, only the second player to net a hat-trick in the final, a Golden Boot winner as well as being widely considered among the best current players in the world.
He is electric. The winger’s scorching pace, mind-bending trickery and ability to win games single-handedly make him a joy to watch, and a future Ballon d’Or seems all but inevitable already.
32. Rio Ferdinand
In 2000, Rio Ferdinand became the most expensive defender in the world and the most expensive British footballer ever when he moved to Leeds for £18m. In 2002, he broke both those records again when he moved to Man United for £30m.
Ferdinand was a ball-playing defender of the European school, rather than the bruising centre-halves more associated with the English school of thought. With his technical ability and intelligence, he would still slot into elite teams in the modern game, many years after he left his six-Premier League title-winning career behind him.
31. Andriy Shevchenko
Three hundred and ninety-one career goals can’t be wrong. Shevchenko was great at an overachieving Dynamo Kyiv side in the 1990s, but it’s his time at AC Milan in the 2000s that earns him a place here. He won Serie A, a Coppa Italia and the Champions League itself as part of one the most iconic Milan sides in history, and earned himself the Ballon d’Or in 2004.
30. Sergio Busquets
He’s played with some of the best midfielders of any generation – Xavi, Iniesta and Yaya Toure, to name a few – and while his contributions may be less eye-catching, there’s a reason he has spent more than a decade at the heart of Barcelona’s midfield.
Since breaking into Barça team at the age of 20, he has never made fewer than 40 appearances a season, he has been the rock on which Messi and co.’s cathedral was built throughout the 2010s.
29. Gareth Bale
The argument for Bale falls into three categories: his astonishing rise at Tottenham, his performances in finals for Real Madrid, and his unwavering commitment to Wales.
His progression from left-back to to one of Europe’s most feared forwards at Spurs landed him the PFA Player of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year in 2012/13 (a feat only matched by Cristiano Ronaldo), as well as an £85m move to Real Madrid.
At Madrid, he has scored one of the greatest goals in Clasico history – a winner during the 2014 Copa del Rey final – as well as one of the greatest goals in a Champions League final – one of three Champions League final goals he’s nabbed, while totting up four winners’ medals.
28. Robert Lewandowski
Robert Lewandowski netted 344 goals in 375 Bayern Munich games. That he's managed to force himself into conversations alongside the great Gerd Muller is testament to what a phenomenon he's become: that he's managed to break records Der Bomber set is scarcely believable.
Lewangoalski has defined the 2020s so far. The Pole with the goals has gone from strength to strength, with an outrageous late career peak. He may well be the Ballon d'Or's greatest miss, too.
27. Iker Casillas
The Galacticos needed a goalkeeper as blockbuster to match. Iker Casillas burst into the Real Madrid side as a kid, putting in a masterclass as a 19-year-old in a Champions League final. He was acrobatic, dramatic and exciting to watch.
But from that effervescent starlet grew a dependable leader: Spain's reliable backbone through three consecutive international trophies. San Iker still holds the clean sheet record in the Champions League and racked up over 1,000 professional matches in a two-decade career.
26. Sergio Aguero
King Kun arrived in the Premier League with promise: he left a hero. As if scoring that goal wouldn't endear himself to the Manchester City faithful, the Argentinian became the all-time overseas Premier League hitman, the club's record scorer and one of the greatest forwards of all time.
A complete striker, Aguero put beauty in ball-striking, making an art of finding space around the penalty area. Few have put the fear of God into quite so many defenders.
