Who really are the best footballers in the history of football?
Everyone has their opinion & I have my own. I base my list on talent & accolades, some may lean on one or the other but I think my list is balanced & these are both the most talented & decorated footballers in history. The only flaw may be that I felt I had to select defenders also so the list is not just purely attackers. There's a formula to calculate the best overall player for the conjectural Zulu "Iligi yesizwe" which also considers goalkeepers & defensive players as well as attacking players by how competent they are in play rather than who was more visible, but it has not been used here. These are just some players I've researched & feel are the world's finest:
1) Pele, 2) Messi, 3) Cristiano Ronaldo, 4) Eusebio, 5) Diego Maradona, 6) Josef Bican, 7) Sergio Ramos, 8) Fabio Cannavaro, 9) Ronaldo Nazário, 10) Ronaldinho 11) Cafu
I could've been biased & put in the likes of Abednigo Ngcobo (South African legend) or Steven Gerrard on this list but chose to be fair. One my favourites, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is not in the list by virtue of him playing for underachieving Sweden on national team level. Ibra may have achieved more were he a naturalized Italian or played for his maternal land Croatia. Zinédine Zidane is not on the list because I think him being French helped him, to me Zidane is on the same level as Rui Costa. I'll never question a footballers loyalty in this day, everyone needs to make money. So Rui Costa is not more loyal than Zidane because he went back to play for his home team but simply made it harder on himself doing so which is somewhat admirable. I didn't see Beckenbauer play nor do I have any stats on him. That's the reason for the list. You could argue that Ronaldo Nazário & Maradona in the list is sentimental but they both did win two World Cups & Ronaldo Nazário played in three World Cup finals, being top scorer in one. Cannavaro over Nesta & Maldini because Cannavaro won the 2006 FIFA World Cup as captain. Comment below with your own list or forgotten additions to this list.
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