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80. Hristo Stoichkov
A roving forward of glorious unpredictability, Stoichkov was a mainstay of Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’ Barcelona side that won four league titles on the trot - and the club’s first European Cup – in the early 1990s.
The Bulgarian was famously improvisational and infamously hot-tempered (you can see why Cruyff took to him), and complemented his direct dribbling with a handy habit of catching goalkeepers off-guard with rocket-powered shots from unlikely distances.
Stoichkov turned in a similar level of performance for his national side, most notably at the 1994 World Cup. His six goals in the United States took Bulgaria to the semi-final and made him joint top-scorer of the tournament.
Career highlight: His frustratingly fleeting partnership with Romario during the 1993/94 season, the Dream Team’s fourth title campaign, which reaped 54 goals and will go down as one of the all-time great forward pairings.
79. Gordon Banks
Creator of the most watched goalkeeping highlight in history, Banks’s top-flight career was spent between Leicester and Stoke. England secured his legacy, though.
A World Cup winner in 1966, he made arguably the most acclaimed save in the game’s history from Pele in 1970 and, ironically, would have his worth emphasised in absentia later in the same tournament. Banks was taken ill before England’s quarter-final with West Germany; Peter Bonetti deputised and inadvertently assisted the loss of a 2-0 lead by making one of the most notorious errors in the national team’s history.
Conspiracy insists that the CIA had a hand in the affair. It takes a special goalkeeper to spawn such suggestions.
Career highlight: The save. The World Cup win secured his legacy, but the final itself has always been defined by Geoff Hurst’s goals, the images of the Bobby Moore and Kenneth Wolstenholme’s commentary. His denial of Pele, though, is Banks’s signature moment alone.
78. Alan Shearer
One of the most ferocious and reliable strikers of a generation, Wor Alan was, at different points in his career, an up-and-coming future star, the most expensive player on Earth, the Euro 96 top scorer and an eternal goal-getter in English football. He could have gone anywhere in football and won even more – perhaps scored even more – but chose to return to his beloved Toon.
He may be simultaneously one of the greatest English footballers ever… and underrated. Despite the numbers, however, Shearer was far more than a tap-in merchant: he was a complete football with an oddly excellent cross and was capable of outsmarting defenders as often as he outmuscled them.
Career highlight: Winning the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers will always be his footballing profile picture but breaking the all-time Newcastle United goal record? That'll probably rank as his favourite moment.
77. Josef Masopust
Masopust represented fair play better than anyone. When Pele was injured during the clash against Czechoslovakia at the 1962 World Cup, but had to stay on the pitch, the midfielder refused to tackle him. The Brazilian superstar was left stunned by such generosity and always admired Masopust, while Eusebio claimed that he felt inferior when playing against him.
Outrageously versatile, he was able to "play the violin and wash the dishes", winning a lot of balls, distributing them and taking on opponents with amazing ease. He won eight Czechoslovakian titles with Dukla Prague.
Career highlight: Masopust led Czechoslovakia to the World Cup final in 1962, scored the opening goal in the 3-1 defeat to Brazil and won the Ballon d'Or that year.
76. Dennis Bergkamp
There is a sweet irony that Arsene Wenger never signed Dennis Bergkamp: a man perfect for his philosophy was inherited from another era.
It was Wenger who claimed that football should be an art, and it was the Dutchman who turned those words into action. Bergkamp made the game beautiful, with arguably the most delicate first touch English football had ever seen, 360-degree vision and a devil on his shoulder always up for destroying an opponent when he felt like it.
To judge him by his numbers is to read poetry by the page numbers. If you love football, you loved Dennis Bergkamp.
Career highlight: Pick a goal, any goal. While the World Cup quarter-final strike against Argentina in 1998 may well be Bergkamp on the top of the world though, have you ever seen an effort like the Newcastle United finish? Course he meant it.
75. Rivellino
The most famous moustache in Brazilian football had an unpredictable left foot and became known for his atomic kick. He was the best Seleção player in the fantastic side that devastated opponents at Mexico 1970, and debuted the elastico dribble (or flip-flap) which involved nudging the ball to one side and then flicking it back in the other direction.
Former Italy defender Mario Bertini couldn’t see what was coming and wasn’t able to stop it in Brazil’s 4-1 1970 World Cup Final win.
Career highlight: His bomba (in English, cannonball) free-kick breaking through the wall in Brazil's first 1970 World Cup match against Czechoslovakia.
74. Florian Albert
Nicknamed ‘The Emperor’, Albert was a remarkably elegant striker, who always played with confidence and was bold enough to invent unorthodox solutions on the pitch. He represented Ferencvaros, his only club, for 16 years, but was especially brilliant for his national team.
Albert was voted the best young player at the 1962 World Cup and was chosen for the team of the tournament at both Euro 1964 and the 1966 World Cup. He received a Ballon d'Or in 1967, finishing ahead of Bobby Charlton.
Career highlight: Albert led Hungary to the quarter-finals at two World Cups, in 1962 and 1966, but the earlier of these tournaments was his breakthrough as he scored four goals at the age of 20.
73. Sergio Busquets
The man who made tiki-taka tick.
Sergio Busquets was never the strongest, quickest, or even the most ferocious: he was simply his coach's reflection on the pitch. It was Busquets who realised Pep Guardiola's vision at Barcelona, bringing La Masia principles to the biggest stages of all. He'd win multiple European titles, outlast colleagues Xavi and Iniesta and redefine what was expected of a no.6 for years to come.
Career highlight: Anchoring a 4-6-0 formation as Spain lifted a third international trophy in a row in 2012, Busquets' legacy secured as the most influential defensive midfielder of his generation.
72. Roberto Carlos
The diminutive Brazilian spent 11 seasons flying down the left flank at the Bernabeu, helping Real Madrid to three Champions League titles.
His attacking ability originally earned him a call-up to the national team aged 18, when he was playing for Uniao Sao Joao. He followed that by joining one of Palmeiras’s best-ever teams and then Inter, before Real Madrid came calling.
There he became a cult hero for carrying a smile almost as big as those monster thighs which allowed him to fire the ball towards goal at 105mph. No wonder goalkeepers (and fans in the stands) feared him.
Career highlight: The 2002 World Cup winner could defy the laws of physics. Striking the ball with his three outside toes, a free-kick that was apparently heading to the corner flag curved back and hit the net in a 1-1 draw against France at the 1997 Tournoi.
71. Paolo Rossi
Little Paolo, that most slightly built of strikers, also possessed a ruthless and predatory edge.
Rossi scored for fun at Vicenza and Perugia, before really making his mark with Juventus and Italy at the 1982 World Cup, winning both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball.
Career highlight: His legendary hat-trick against favourites Brazil in 1982 - his autobiography was entitled I Made Brazil Cry.
