Hello guys, today I read on reddit that FourFourTwo had new big ranking list so I decided to check it out. My feelings about website in general are mixed, sometimes they overreact, sometimes they don't really think before posting. However they have interesting lists and shame there are no comments so I could see what's on people's minds, and r/soccer isn't filled with this either. So here is link if you wanna check out:

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/fourfourtwos-100-greatest-footballers-ever

DON'T READ BELOW IF YOU DON'T WANNA SPOILERS (I got really mad when someone spoiled newest GoT episode)

The first thing that comes to my mind after reading this list is that they actually balanced old era and new era really well - you can see that all players who deserved to be here are actually somewhere there - only big con is that some ratings are big misses. However number one is Maradona, Messi on number 2 and Pele on number 3. This is most-likely rarest of combinations. Pele on third place is generally rare. However I like that they were brave enough to put Maradona on first place which I would do too personally if I had to write the list. After that, top 10 is filled good. Cruyff is 4th which I again a good call, however then comes Cristiano on 5th place, something I wouldn't do. And he is higher than di Stefano. Beckenbauer is 7th (highest of defenders), and top ten is also filled by Zidane, Puskas and Brazilian Ronaldo.

Only big controversy in my eyes is Maldini five places lower than Baresi. I can't stand that. Other is up to you guys, write whatever you think.

The list is interesting but it doesn't really add up, I thought for a very very long time that Maradona is the number one, just like the list shows but after reseaching about Pelé it's a joke list to put him at third place and not first, no excuse for such a big miss.

I don't agree with this list 100% But I'm fine with some of thing there. Maybe they should have put Ronaldo a bit closer than Messi and Messi a bit less high as well. Would have personally put Pele in first over Maradona but its really hard to chose.

I don't wanna have that pointless Pele-Maradona-Messi argument once again (it was here two weeks ago) but imo Maradona deserves number 1 spot as a player, Pele as person. Pele is truly the greatest player ever and there is no discussion about it, everyone knows who Pele is, everyone knows how good was he and that he won three World Cups that could of even raised to four. But Maradona was kind of player who happens once in entire century, he was out of universe good.

His dribbling is on level of Messi's, his influence in team even higher. He literally made Napoli Serie A champions (they were average team before he came, then also other players came there including Ferrara, Careca etc). Napoli was all about Maradona, if they had the exact same team and no Maradona there is no chance they would win Serie A's. They had pretty tough competition in 80's and early 90's. Considering he done same with Argentina who had average team compared to how great nation was is again unbeliveable. They had Passarella and that's basically it. Valdano (who played at time for Real Madrid) was there too but he wasn't anything special for national team. Valdano scored 7 goals for Argentina in total. Four of those came in '86 tournament. That's Maradona influence.

P.S. Emo can you edit the title? I forgot t in 'greatest'. Thanks ;)

@Croatian

P.S. Emo can you edit the title? I forgot t in 'greatest'. Thanks ;)

Done. ;)

Top 10 is good. Considering I didn't watch them all and I agree with the ones I did, I think it's quite reliable. I just don't think CR7 is worthy of 5th but that is my opinion and not yours and you must learn to respect it.

@amir like you said, it's only your opinion and I respect it, but I've never seen you bring any points to your critique of Ronaldo.

Some of those I disagree with, especially Henry at 80 while Dennis in the 60s.

I just don't think CR7 is worthy of 5th but that is my opinion and not yours and you must learn to respect it.

Incorrect. You have to acknowledge everyone's opinion, and acknowledge their right to think independently. Yet none of us have to respect any one person's opinion on anything.

I think the list is a commendable effort. It isn't easy to make a "Greatest 100 of all-time" list, and no one's is bound to be agreeable to all. I really like how they included a lot of legends prior to WWII. Those men don't get enough respect.

My thoughts as I scroll down the list...

• Neymar just behind Zlatan and Lahm? Far too high
• Henry at 80 is a joke. He should be much higher
• Baggio only at 52? I'm a little surprised. My impression is that he ought to be higher up the list.
• If Neymar was on here, why isn't Luis Suarez (L'pool/Barca)? He's clearly had a superior career to Neymar.
• Iker Casillas anyone? He's not on the list. I would think that the World Cup champion, 2x EURO champion, and 3x Champions League winner would deserve to make the list. Surely he was only bested by Buffon in his era.
• Was Rivaldo on here? I don't remember seeing him. Neither do I remember Luis Figo. Remind me if I am wrong, please.
• I thought that at least one of Lampard, Gerrard, and Scholes would make it?
• Ricardo Zamora? Greatest pre-WWII 'keeper? Or how about Gyula Grosics?

^ For the people too lazy to go through the list and wanted to see the cool pictures lol.

So I basically made Excel spreadsheet so I could easily compare all these players by positions and also notice who missed the list. For goalkeeper list goes like this.

1. Yashin
2. Buffon
3. Zoff
4. Schmeichel
5. Banks
6. Maier

^this is relatively accurate but only six goalkeepers? So no Casillas, no van der Sar etc. Which could be a problem with more serious lists. Otherwise I'd agree with this list but to light it up Maier is #91 which is unacceptable since he is one of greatest goalkeepers in history and always mentioned in this group of six goalkeepers.

1. Beckenbauer
2. Baresi
3. Maldini
4. Carlos Alberto
5. Moore
6. Nilton Santos
7. Scirea
8. Passarella
9. Cafu
10. Facchetti
11. Zanetti
12. Carlos
13. Lahm
14. Djalma Santos

^I already mentioned this but I can't stand Maldini being lower than Baresi, he is simply best defender in history for me. It maybe is thing of preference and everyone knows Baresi was very good in his time. But Maldini was something different. Biggest name missing here is imo Nesta who I think could even be in Scirea's place but bit lower. Elias Figueroa is also a name that could be mentioned here.

Now I won't mention all the midfielders but I will write my concerns:

• Obdulio Varela is here but there is no Bozsik
• Sindelar is higher than Didi, Rivelino, Iniesta, Xavi.
• Despite being one of my favorite players, Michael Laudrup wasn't better/greater than Xavi or Iniesta.
• Gerrard, Blanchflower, Pirri, Tigana, Vieira, Alonso - all of them could find place somewhere but I don't wanna talk about it too much.
• no Gerson or Falcao but Netzer is around #30.
• no Pirlo, Overath, Lampard etc.
• no Rivaldo but there is Pedernera (tbh never heard of him)

For forwards (there is more forwards than defenders+midfielders) it's really hard to analyze. However:

• John Charles over Fontaine, Riva, Seeler.
• Henry under Schiaffino, Florian Albert, Nordahl etc.
• Henry under Bergkamp?
• Rossi over Gento, Dalglish, Baggio...
• no Figo, no Nedved, no Czibor, no Ribery, no Robben from notable names...

@Croatian basically said everything that was on my mind. ^

Additionally, I'd like to mention that the top 20 are actually pretty spot on. It's hard to argue with any of those. I'd like to have seen Eusebio higher up on the list, but I suppose someone had to miss out. Personally, I probably would have left Meazza or Charlton lower and put Eusebio higher, but overall the top 20 is hard to argue with.

Madridista11

Alright, perhaps that's true. I'll summarize why I feel the way I do about Ronaldo.

I want to talk about the balon d'or firstly. It's awarded to the player that has had the best year, at least until very recently. The children of the future will certainly look at the list thinking that a particular player was the best player at a particular year. However, it has become a popularity contest. Ronaldo has 5 balon d'or (including 2017), which is the same as Messi. I don't know about you, but I do not believe that Ronaldo has done what is required to be the best player in the world, at least in the last two years. What's common about the two individual rewards was that Real Madrid have won two Champions League, so it seems that trophies score a huge point in winning the balon d'or, as well as being the best player of that team. Secondly, the impact of changing a big game scores more points than it should. He got two goals in a crucial final, but I don't think he did much otherwise. Again, in the second leg against Bayern, he got a hat trick, but again I don't feel that he did much otherwise. Small games should also be taken into account, they should not score more points than big games, but small games must not be ignored. After all, a win against Barcelona gives you three points, and a win against Osasuna also gives you three points.

Even in games where he does nothing, he still scores way too many points. Against Esponyol he megged a defender, and that skill went viral, but the rest of the game? Nothing. Bale came on as a substitute and did more in less time, yet it is Ronaldo who gets all the credit. If a journalist were to see a video of Ronaldo megging someone they would probably think Ronaldo had an awesome game, but that isn't true all the time, at least not in this example.

Anyway on the list, I'd put Ronaldo at 7th, behind Puskas and Di Stefano, because of his early career success, but personally I feel that his success in the last two years was more of a team effort from Real Madrid instead of Ronaldo himself.

I understand where you come from about Ronaldo winning big games in which another player couldn't do, but that is not enough for me to earn the best player in the year award.

SunFlash

Do what you want then, as long as you don't complain idrc.

The list is a joke, Pelé should be number 1, even Maradona himself said that the only reason he was voted as the best player of the century was because he was younger and people didn't see Pelé. I'm not biased, in fact I spent 5 years thinking that Maradona has to be the best ever but I have researched much about Pelé and without a doubt I can state that he was a better player than Maradona, more complete and more durable.

Then Messi already as number 2 is also laughable at best, the guy only won with Barcelona at the time of the golden Spanish generation, he's going 30 without winning any major throphy for his country but already ahead of everyone else? It's super biased for who knows what reasons, Ryan Giggs is number 83 in the list and he has won 34 throphies in his career for 1 club so if you rate Messi so high why the double standard with Giggs being so low? Obivous favoritism.

^^ uhm, because Messi is clearly better than Ryan Giggs could ever dream of? No one bases his opinion that Messi is the best player solely on the fact that he has the biggest amount of titles. If we did, we'd also have to include Dani Alves and PSGs Maxwell, who are the most decorated players of all time.

ROOOOOONNNEEEEEYYYYYY!!!!!!

But seriously he should be at least top 100. I think people judge him too much on his steep downward turn in performance at the end of his career forgetting how good he really was in his prime.

@Nigel
Agreed. Especially considering that Zlatan was squeezed in.

@nigel, I wouldn't take Rooney over Gerrard tho, who isn't at list too.

@Golazo,

the guy only won with Barcelona at the time of the golden Spanish generation, he's going 30 without winning any major throphy for his country but already ahead of everyone else?

If you already are against Messi on #2, you should consider Pele's number #1 you are for. Pele had far better team at the moment than Messi has. How long was there argument that Xavi and Iniesta make Messi look good? Since Xavi left and Iniesta started declining Messi hasn't changed at all. You know story about Messi being elligible for Spain? If he picked Spain he would be greatest footballer in history almost surely. That's why you don't judge any footballer by trophies. If Cleverley won PL trophy/ies is he better than Gerrard? Obviously no.

Ryan Giggs is number 83 in the list and he has won 34 throphies in his career for 1 club so if you rate Messi so high why the double standard with Giggs being so low?

Your point is again trophies, which I explained up^ but to make it clear, Giggs played until 40 with one team that was most dominant for decades. Maxwell, as @Juan said, played in all dominant teams. Ajax, Inter, Barca and then PSG. Just because of case he was so trophied to actually transfer from one good to better team with all of them having dominant times in leagues and even Europe.

^^ uhm, because Messi is clearly better than Ryan Giggs could ever dream of?

I'm sorry but Ryan Giggs did a Maradona goal passing like 7 players of Arsenal that had great defense and scoring when his team has a player less, Messi scored a Maradona goal vs some weak little club that nobody ever remembers, Giggs had an amazing left foot and speed and he is taller than Messi, he was the top assist player in history of European football untill Ronaldo broke his record just last season, if Messi can't win anything with Argentina that is far superior of Wales how was Giggs far worse than Messi?

If you already are against Messi on #2, you should consider Pele's number #1 you are for. Pele had far better team at the moment than Messi has.

Pelé had a good team but he proved himself as a star of any team that was with him, even at the age of 17, Messi has had superior teams of paper his whole career with Argentina and yet he could only manage to win with Barcelona at the golden age of Spanish football, 2010 Messi was the "best player in the world" went to the World Cup and didn't do nothing, while his teammates won the World Cup, that's how much " best " he was...

Barcelona is a team that I can name you a few coaches that were nothing before and after Barcelona, they got so many good players that it doesn't matter who is their coach, Raikaard was hailed as a mastermind, left and did nothing after Barcelona, Pep was another even better genious, left Barcelona did nothing, Vilanova won the league, Martino spanish supercup, Enrique then broke the records of Pep Guardiola but before Barcelona Enrique couldn't do a decent job at Roma, basically all managers that came there had a roll of a dice if they will do something or not and their careers will never be as good as during their time in Barcelona, there is no way that a player can be ranked already as number 2 just by playing in that 1 superior team, Pele should be number 1 ahead of Maradona and Messi, no doubts about it.

Basically you can't rank Maradona ahead of Pelé, and if you rank Messi so high you can't rank Giggs so low.