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30. Socrates
Perhaps the ultimate bohemian icon in football history, a deep thinker in all areas of life and a formidable midfielder of one of the greatest sides Brazil has ever produced. He made the no-look backheel pass his own signature - surely the finest footballer ever to play for Garforth Town.
Career highlight: Dazzling the world with his performances at the 1982 World Cup.
29. Thierry Henry
Two conversations with Arsene Wenger changed everything. The first, while on a flight, saw mentor tell protege that he saw him as a centre-forward, not as a winger, as he had been in Italy.
Henry never looked back from that moment, joining Arsenal and playing with a swagger that English football had never seen before, taking it upon himself to score fantastic goal after fantastic goal at Highbury. It was only after Wenger's second question to his fellow Frenchman – “How can you make the players around you better?” – that the Parisian really ascended to legendary heights.
He was a complete forward who would have thrived in any era of football. Elegant, surpremely physical, with pace to burn – ask Jamie Carragher – and an eye for improvisation. He could well have scored even more, too, had he not have taken on side quests of breaking assist records, doing things for sheer entertainment and even trying to help youngsters onto the scoresheet. An obvious choice as the greatest-ever Premier League player in 2021, Henry also won the World Cup and the Euros with France. Va va voom indeed.
Career highlight: His 30-goal 2003/04 for Arsenal, making the Gunners the Invincibles.
28. Neymar
While for some, Neymar hasn't quite lived up to the potential he promised when first breaking through at Santos, he's still done quite well for himself.
Not just a flamboyant showman looking to produce the best Samba tricks possible, Neymar also had great, underrated effiency: in just four seasons at Barcelona he struck over 100 goals, forming part of that formidable MSN forward line alongside Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi to win the La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey treble in just their first season playing together.
And then there's what he achieved in his home country: smashing Pele's all-time scoring record is something, but making the Brazilian Serie A a must-watch league during his breakthrough – and even getting into the Ballon d'Or top 10 as a wonderkid playing outside of Europe – shows what a phenomenon he was. Easily the third-most talented player of a generation, there's a case that he was one of the most naturally gifted players who's ever lived.
Career highlight: For all of the trophies he has won, becoming Brazil's all-time top goalscorer in 2023, surpassing Pele at the top of the list, is a remarkable feat considering the nation's rich attacking history.
27. Lev Yashin
Yashin saved more than 150 penalties during his career, keeping 270 clean sheets and at the 1966 World Cup, he helped the USSR to fourth place, their best-ever performance.
When a Ballon d’Or all-time dream team was selected in 2020, it was Yashin who was chosen between the sticks, ahead of Manuel Neuer, Gigi Buffon and a host of other legends. With the year’s best goalkeeper now awarded the Yashin Trophy, he remains the gold standard for all aspiring shot-stoppers.
Career highlight: Becoming the only goalkeeper to have ever won the Ballon d'Or, back in 1963.
26. Ruud Gullit
A footballer of impossible elegance, Gullit’s actual position was hard to define. At Feyenoord, he began as a sweeper before moving into a midfield playmaking role. At Milan, he played on the right of a front three and in the hole. Even before he became European champion for club and country, he won the Ballon d’Or in 1987.
Career highlight: Netting the crucial first goal in the Euro 88 final, then the 1989 European Cup final. Sexy football.
25. Ronaldinho
His buck-tooth smile made him one of the most recognisable faces in football. Ronaldinho was a rare case of a man who could make the unpredictable seem commonplace on the field. He was twice voted FIFA World Player of the Year, and was indeed the best player on the planet in the mid-2000s.
If greatness was measured in joy, Ronaldinho would leave the others by some distance during his five seasons at Barcelona, which delivered two league titles and a Champions League crown. He would later emulate his best days at Atletico Mineiro in their victorious Copa Libertadores campaign.
Career highlight: Winning the 2002 World Cup as part a formidable trio with Ronaldo and Rivaldo dubbed by Brazilian commentator Galvao Bueno as ‘the three Rs’.
24. Lothar Matthaus
An all-action midfielder who combined ferocity and finesse without compromising on either, Matthaus was a rampaging engine-room presence who was described by Diego Maradona as his toughest opponent.
His heyday was as the poster-boy of the Germanic domination of European football in the late 1980s and early '90s, during which time he helped himself to 13 major club trophies, World Cup and European Championship medals, plus – to cap it all off – the Ballon d’Or in 1990.
Career Highlight: Captaining an impossibly suave West Germany side to victory in the 1990 World Cup, getting the ball rolling himself with two sumptuous individual goals against Yugoslavia in the opening game.
23. Bobby Charlton
Charlton’s aura was palpable. The ‘Busby Babe’ was thrown 40 yards clear of the wreckage in the 1958 Munich air crash, then learned the devastating news that many of his team-mates had perished. The trauma he suffered meant it took him several years to recover his confidence.
The tears he shed when Manchester United won the European Cup at Wembley in 1968 were of joy, but also of sadness for the memory of those friends and team-mates who would surely have won the trophy a decade or so before, were it not for the tragedy of Munich.
Charlton was also a key member of the 1966 England World Cup squad. His thunderous finish during a tense group stage defeat of Mexico was described by manager Alf Ramsey as “a wonderful sight for all Englishmen”, and his two crisp finishes in the semi-final against Portugal put England into the World Cup final. Although he and Franz Beckenbauer effectively cancelled each other out in the final, Charlton richly deserved the glory which came his way in ’66.
Bobby, who suffered such loss as a young man, will forever be remembered – perhaps more than anything – for those two defining matches at Wembley Stadium which created English football history.
Career highlight: His pivotal role in the 1968 European Cup final - heading United in front, then scoring again in extra time.
22. Franco Baresi
The Milan team that won the European Cup in 1989 and 1990 had arguably the finest defence there has ever been – Baresi was its leader and, as libero, its central asset. Having helped the club out of Serie B in 1983, he won six Serie A six times.
But the trophies he lifted at San Siro only hint at the aura that he played with. For a man who was 5ft 9in, Baresi was commanding and composed: he could exist in any era of the sport and run a game from the backline.
He deserved a World Cup trophy, 'n' all: after missing most of the 1994 tournament through injury, Baresi returned for the final and kept the might of Brazil quiet, taking the Selecao to penalties. There was nothing more he could have done – in the Rose Bowl that afternoon or in a glittering career in which he was always a step ahead of everyone else.
Career highlight: In the 1989 Milan derby, Baresi played on with a broken arm, in a 3-0 victory.
21. Xavi Hernandez
Xavi was the heartbeat of arguably the greatest club team of all time, and a Spain side that lifted three successive trophies, defining the self-styled swagger with which Pep Guardiola reshaped the game. This was a man who made an art out of disguising passes and breaking lines: he was a human metronome.
And it's crazy to think he was already 28 when La Roja won the Euros for the first time, with much of Xavi's career underappreciated outside Spanish football. This was a man with 360-degree awareness of the game around him: he was diminutive, could have easily been bullied by midfielders twice his strength and yet he orchestrated matches.
This century, only three players have made the Ballon d’Or top three on at least three occasions: Xavi one of them.
Career highlight: Signing off as a Barcelona player with his fourth Champions League triumph in 2015.
