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20. Zico
He’s the greatest Brazilian to never win a World Cup. Pele once said: “The one player that came closest to me in playing style was Zico.” He scored 333 goals at the famous Maracana stadium alone and guided Flamengo to four league titles, one Copa Libertadores and another Club World Cup in the '80s.
While Brazil's memorable World Cup campaign in 1982 ended in disappointment, Zico scored four times in his five appearances and was named in the team of the tournament. He also played in the 1986 World Cup, but was far from fully fit as Brazil lost to France in the quarter-finals.
Despite this, Brazilian fans would wish each other Happy Christmas to celebrate his birthday every March 3. You definitely don't get that for nothing, either.
Career highlight: The midfielder’s four goals in five appearances at the 1982 World Cup, even if it didn’t end with the trophy.
19. Eusebio
A goalscorer before his time, but also an athlete ahead of the curve. Eusebio was known as a near-perfect blend of speed and technical wizardry. Unanimously regarded as the first great footballer of African birth, he left his native Mozambique in the late 1950s to join Benfica. Between 1960 and 1975 he won 11 Primeira Liga championships, a European Cup and averaged more than a goal per game over six different seasons.
Consider, too, what he faced to reached the top. Eusebio moved from a colony to Lisbon to become perhaps the first black superstar of European football, breaking Real Madrid's stranglehold of the then-young European Cup. He was the first man from Africa to take the World Cup by storm at a time where the whole continent had just one slot for a team at the tournament, and despite being born almost 5,000 miles away, he put Portugal on the map when it came to this game, because he was unstoppable when he had the ball.
Although Portugal were ultimately knocked out in the semi-finals of the 1966 World Cup, he also won the Golden Boot and, until Cristiano Ronaldo's ascension, was inarguably the greatest Portugal international of all time.
Career highlight: For all of Cristiano Ronaldo’s achievements, only one Portuguese player has won the World Cup Golden Boot - Eusebio in 1966.
18. Alfredo Di Stefano
“Who is this man? Wherever he is on the field he is in a position to take the ball. You can see his influence on everything that’s happening,” wrote Bobby Charlton after seeing Di Stefano play for Real Madrid in 1957.
The Blond Arrow may not have boasted the natural gifts of players like George Best or Diego Maradona, but Charlton and Franz Beckenbauer, among others, have both stated that Di Stefano was probably the best all-round player to grace football.
Real Madrid fought tooth and nail with bitter rivals Barcelona for his signature. In the midst of an acrimonious battle between the giants, the Spanish Football Federation suggested both clubs share the player, but controversially awarded Madrid the first bite at him. Barcelona officials claimed that Francoist influence was the root cause of the federation’s decision, but were later persuaded to sell their rights to the player anyway.
Throughout the next 11 campaigns, Di Stefano won eight Spanish titles, plundered 218 goals in 282 matches and won five consecutive European Cups. Naturally, he scored in all five finals. On the final day of the league season in 1958/59, with both players level on goals scored, Ferenc Puskas passed to his team-mate rather than score himself. Nonetheless, the Hungarian said of him: “Di Stefano is the best there has been, or is ever likely to be.”
Career highlight: Di Stefano netted a breathtaking hat-trick in Real Madrid’s astonishing 7-3 annihilation of Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park in the 1960 European Cup Final.
17. Manuel Neuer
Those who saw it unfold had never seen anything like it. To compensate for fielding Per Mertesacker against Algeria in 2014, German boss Joachim Low asked goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to evoke the Matthaus and Beckenbauer in him, and play as a sweeper.
A legend was born. It set Neuer apart as something wholly different to every custodian we'd seen before: part outfielder, part madman between the sticks, with elite reactions and anticipation. He may well be the best passer we've ever seen in goal, so much so that he convinced Pep Guardiola to abandon building with midfielders and leave it all to the glovesman and his backline.
His shot-stopping isn’t bad either, helping Bayern Munich win countless Bundesliga titles and two Champions Leagues. His skiing isn’t quite so good.
Career highlight: As much as the distribution is considered Neuer's thing, an astounding night against Real Madrid in which the German made nine saves and rolled back the years earned him a Man of the Match in 2026, and showed why he is simply the best goalkeeper of the 21st Century.
16. George Best
“If I’d been ugly,” George Best once said, “You’d never have heard of Pele.” Although that may be a stretch, it was an acknowledgement that, for all of his ability, his womanising stopped him from achieving even more. Best’s extraordinary natural talent not only made him one of the most iconic and entertaining players there has been, but the finest from the British Isles.
It was in 1968 that, aged 22 – his pace, belief, technical ability, balance and creativity in perfect symmetry – Best deservedly followed the other two of United's ‘Holy Trinity’ (Bobby Charlton and Denis Law) in winning the Ballon d’Or.
That European Cup performance in Lisbon prompted the Portuguese media to label him ‘The Fifth Beatle’ - two years later, he bagged the winner in the semi-final first leg at home to Real Madrid, then laid on the assist for Bill Foulkes to clinch the tie at the Bernabeu. In the final, against Benfica once more, it was Best who brilliantly rounded the goalkeeper to put United on course for victory. Not only did he win the Ballon d’Or, he also became the youngest ever recipient of the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year award, after a season in which he’d scored 32 goals in 53 games.
“I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one,” was how he reflected on his career. Best had enough star quality to dominate both.
Career highlight: His performance in the 1968 European Cup Final against Benfica inspired the 4-1 victory that made United the first English winners of the competition.
15. Paolo Maldini
Very few players reach the vaunted 1,000-game mark. Even fewer do so as a mainstay at one of European football’s gilded heavyweights.
Maldini did both, winning seven league championships and a frankly staggering five European Cup/Champions League titles in the process. All the while he embodied the Milanese notion of grinta – ‘grit’ – but without sacrificing more typically Italian qualities of suave, refinement and immeasurable handsomeness.
His only relative disappointments came with Italy, who finished runners-up at the 1994 World Cup and at Euro 2000 (although his own displays were impeccable in both tournaments). If his retirement in 2009, at the age of 40, was proof of the inevitable effects of time, then the previous 25 years were equally good evidence for the very opposite: a player for whom age only served to sharpen his exquisite talents.
Career highlight: Helping Milan go unbeaten to win Serie A in 1991/92, while reinventing himself multiple times during his career.
14. Zinedine Zidane
There's a common conception in football that the most creative talents also tend to be the least efficient; that style comes at the expense of steel. It’s what constitutes the idea of the luxury player. Zidane was the most luxurious player possible and yet combined it with towering levels of competitive resolve: a heady cocktail of technique, grace, competitiveness and the uncanny ability to pick his moments with aplomb.
For a player whose basic function was to facilitate and create, and who was far from a prolific scorer, he was remarkably decisive – as evidenced by goals in two separate World Cup finals and an astonishing winner in a Champions League final for Real Madrid in 2002.
But as productive as he could have been, the sense was always that you were watching an artist at work.
Most sportspeople gear their game around what is most likely to bring them success, sacrificing aesthetics and extravagance at the altar of shiny medals. For Zidane, such a compromise was heresy: success was simply the inevitable result of his on-pitch beauty.
Career highlight: It takes a lot to top the Leverkusen volley - two goals in the 1998 World Cup final, as France conquered the globe for the first time, might just do it.
13. Michel Platini
One of the most elegant midfielders in history, Michel Platini was deadly in front of goal, and possessed the mentality of a winner. That enabled him to excel everywhere he went, and to produce what was arguably the greatest-ever individual performance at an international tournament when he led France to Euro 84 triumph on home soil with nine goals in five matches.
Platini’s best games were saved for his national team, however, with whom he fronted of one of the best midfield trios ever alongside Alain Giresse and Jean Tigana. They came close at the 1982 World Cup, before dramatically losing to West Germany on penalties in the semi-final. Two years later, Platini was absolutely unstoppable during the Euros, scoring two hat-tricks against Belgium and Yugoslavia in the group stage, and eventually deciding the final against Spain with a free-kick.
Platini was the brightest star in the world back then, winning three Ballons d'Or consecutively in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Football lovers cried with him when France lost in the World Cup semi-finals again in 1986. A year later, he retired at the age of 32. It seemed a premature, cruel decision to the millions who got joy from watching him play.
Career highlight: Scoring the dramatic extra-time winner in France’s semi-final victory over Portugal at the Euros.
12. Andres Iniesta
Football’s modern age has given us more exciting players, but few as gorgeously watchable. He was capable of playing just about any role in Guardiola's sides – and he did – often providing game-changing moments with nothing more than a swivel of his hips. He could play Xavi's role, Busquets', Pedro's… hell, he even had a go at Messi's from the opposite flank. But no one could quite do what he did.
There was no way Iniesta would ever surrender possession – not just through the precision of his passing, but the meandering runs into the final third. Deft touches with the outside of his foot became the Spaniard's trademark, with sharp movements and minimal touches allowing him to escape any situation. He had an eye for a goal, too, scoring crucial goals throughout his career. That he was arguably the best player in every Champions League final he played in, is still astonishing.
But what made Iniesta so good remains nebulous when it comes to stats – and sometimes, even from watching his sides. Watch the game and you'll see Iniesta: watch Iniesta, and you'll see the game. As writer Musa Okwonga surmised, “He has masterminded so many heists, but his fingerprints are never found at the scene.”
Career highlight: Guiding home the goal that won the 2010 World Cup, a strike whose chaotic build-up was punctuated momentarily by a cigar-puffing backheel from the man himself.
11. Garrincha
“In the entire history of football no one made more people happy,” said Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. He was speaking about an angel. Not an ordinary one, but an angel with bent legs (in Portuguese, um anjo de pernas tortas).
Garrincha had several birth defects. His spine was crooked. His right leg bent inwards. His left leg was six centimeters (more than two inches) longer than the right, and curved outwards following childhood surgery. And yet, the Brazilian thrived on the football pitch.
Garrincha’s favorite trick was to run off, leaving the ball behind but taking his marker with him. He would return and do it again and again, before eventually going forward with the ball, leaving the duped defender stood still.
Struggling with his knees at the end of his career, his drinking caught up with him. He died at the age of just 49, leaving three ex-wives and 14 different children – one of them in Sweden – behind. Yet in Brazil, the angel is best remembered by his other nickname: Alegria do Povo. The Joy of the People.
Career highlight: After the Selecao lost Pele to injury early in the 1962 World Cup, Garrincha took hold of the team himself, ending as the tournament’s undoubted star man.
