Personally asking, where would you rate C. Ronaldo in a list containing the greatest ever, and why? This is just for my curiosity, btw. :P

IMO, this is my top 10 ever.

1. Cruyff
2. Maradona
3. Zidane
4. Beckenbauer
5. Messi
6. Pele
7. Di Stefano
8. Puskas
9. Bobby Charlton
10. Eusebio

But of course, since this is opinionated, our personal top 10's are sure to differ. I would rank C. Ronaldo around 16th, in this order.

1. Zico
2. Yashin
3. Platini
4. Garrincha
5. Maldini
6. C. Ronaldo

... and so on, and so forth. My opinion on him will undoubtedly increase by the time his career ends, so what about you guys? What do you guys think?

PS. If I missed a player or two on my list, feel free to politely point out. :)

I think it's always a tricky question to assess, because I also think 'greatest' should be discussed on a different scale to 'best', or 'most talented'.

If we're talking about the 'best' player ever, I have no qualms about saying it is Lionel Messi. None whatsoever.

However, if we're talking about 'greatness' instead, there are a whole slew of different criteria to consider. Are we talking about lasting impact/influence upon the sport? Are we talking about being so much better than anyone else in their generation? Are we talking about the trophies won?

In those categories, there are a large number of names I would place ahead of Messi, even though I truly believe him to be the best single player to have ever played the sport.

So, bringing it back to CR7, I am perfectly willing to say that he's one of the best ever, too. But in terms of greatness, he's way behind a lot of the historical names too.

Anyways, my spiel over. Here are my choices:

1. Johan Cruyff
2. Franz Beckenbauer
3. Zinedine Zidane
4. Alfredo Di Stefano
5. Diego Maradona
6. Pele
7. Ferenc Puskas
8. Lionel Messi
9. Bobby Charlton

10. George Best

11. Paolo Maldini
12. Peter Schmeichel
13. Zico
14. Eusebio
15. Marco van Basten

So, a lot of agreement, ultimately, with you, Dynast. :)

dam i gotta look up more than half of these players, only know a few thanks for the list and Lodatz i noticed Peter Schmeichel on your list, truly amazing goalkeeper but how far would you say Casillas is from Schmeichel?

Here is mine.

1) Diego Maradona, "El Pibe de Oro ".
2) Pele, " The Man with 1000 Goals (and few ) "
3) Johan Cruijff , " The Flying Dutchman "
4) Ronaldo, " he fenomeno "
5) Franz Beckenbauer, " The Kaiser "
6) Zinedine Zidane, "El Mariscal "
7) Alfredo di Stefano , " The Man with three passports "
8) Michel Platini , " King Michel " or " Platoche "
9) Lionel Messi, " La Pulga "
10) Ferenc Puskas , " The Galloping Major "
11) Eusebio "The black panther "
12) Georges Best " Belfast Boy" or " The beatle "
13) Garincha " joy of the people"
14) Gerd Muller " Der Bomber "
15) Bobby Charlton " Computer "
16) Marco Van Basten " The swan "
17) Roberto Baggio " Il divin codino "
18) Maldini " Il capitano "
19) Lothar Matthaus " Terminator"
20) Romario " Baixinho "
21) Georges Weah " Mister Georges "
22) Franco Baresi " Little one "
23) Cristiano Ronaldo " CR7 "
24) Francesco Totti " The roman emperor "
25) Eric Cantona " The King "

Lodatz has a good point. I like these lists too, they make for a good youtube binge!

I personally wouldn't want to put Ronaldo or Messi in these lists, though I can agree that they're both the best players of the modern era. I would like to wait until they retire, and look back in retrospect, just like I do with some of the players listed above. That's just me though. Legendary status is always achieved after one's career I think.

I think if you take Messi or CR7 with their current skill set back to late 50's to early 70's (in the presence of Pele or Cruyff), they would dominate anything and everything in their path, and in 2013 we would be saying they were the greatest players to have played the game. And that is the fundamental flaw with these arguments: it is nearly impossible to compare players from different eras because the games change, the rules change, the tactics change, how we asses the game or the definition of "greatness" changes and the value we give to a player's characteristic changes as well. Ask anyone who actually watched football back in those eras, and they would tell you that the game has gotten better but at the same time more difficult, more demanding, more tactical and has created an environment where it is much harder for a player to stand out above the competition. The fact that there is a clear winner in Messi today shows just how great of a footballer he is, and I have no problem saying he is the best player to have played the game thus far. But I am not saying that if you bring Pele or Maradona to the present, they wouldn't be as good given the different environment and advancements in sports science.

@Wayne: it's hard to say, because I think Casillas is one of the top 3 of his generation (along with Buffon and Cech). And as Dynast suggested, Lev Yashin was head-and-shoulders above anyone in his generation, as was Gordon Banks, etc etc.

I personally say Schmeichel because I think he redefined how we look at goalkeeping. His size, agility, awareness and sheer presence between those sticks was just... like nothing I have ever seen, before or since.

I'd put a video of him here, but I don't want to instigate the spoiling of Dynast's thread with endless video inserts of everyone's favorite players. ;) So I'll make a new thread, just for Schmiechel!

A lot of people put Zidane in their top 10 of all time.
I like it

1. Zidane

2. Cruyff

3. Maradona

4. CR7

(pele played in a shitty competition in brazil)

messi can be in the top 10 but for many and especially me he is defenitly not better than CR.

@Zakzook

Haha, that's because Zidane was a special player in his own right. ;)

It's very hard to choose who are the best football players of all time. I have never seen must of them play a live football match. I only watched videos on the internet of players like Pele and Maradona so it's very hard to compare C. Ronaldo and Messi to them. All I know is that Messi and C. Roanldo are in the top 3 players in the world right now with Ribery.

1. Beckenbauer 2. Zidane 3. Michael Laudrup 4. Zidane 5. Maradona 6. Lionel Messi 7. Henry 8. Gianfranco Zola 9. Cruyff 10. Bergkamp 11. Kaka 12. Morten Gamst Pedersen 13. Eric Cantona 14. Ronaldo and finally Cristiano Ronaldo.

Probably most biased list ever :P

Can't believe I don't see Romario in here and many other names.

Nevermind, I just noticed that Tiki_taka mentioned his name. :)

So uh, after what happened during today's matches, I'd put Zlatan way up there, and bump Ronaldo down a few notches :P

LOL. ^