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Chronicle will run a five-part series of the si.com Top 50 players considered the best ever in the game.
Lionel Messi, Pele, Cristiano Ronaldo and Diego Maradona headline the greatest soccer players of all time list.
Ranking the 50 greatest soccer players of all time is no easy task. It’s also one that’s sure to spark debates. Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldo again, Messi, Maradona, how does one compare one star of a generation to another?
Because there was method in the following madness, the following list was carefully collated with each of the following players’ “peaks” in mind.
This list is not just the “Top 50 Greatest Soccer Players of All Time”, it’s a ranking of the highest peaks each of these players reached.
Today we look at players ranked 41-50.
50. Kylian Mbappe
Peak: 2018-present
Major Achievements: 2018 Fifa World Cup, seven Ligue 1 titles, 2022 Fifa World Cup Golden Boot, four French Cups, five French Super Cups.
Back in February 2016, 17-year-old Kylian Mbappé scored his first goal for Ligue 1 side As Monaco before going on to knockout Manchester Cty and Pep Guardiola in the Uefa Champions League Round of 16.
During his time at PSG when he racked up well over 200 goals, Mbappé continued to impress on the international stage with France. He made a name for himself by leading France to glory in the 2018 World Cup at just 19 years old. Although France came up short in the 2022 World Cup final, Mbappé’s hat trick in the final gave them a chance at going back-to-back as he claimed the Golden Boot in Qatar.
Mbappé has already enjoyed a career that most players would dream of having. Now, he continues to push on in his prime at Real Madrid in a bid to lift his first Uefa Champions League trophy.
49. Luka Modric
Modric is a Real Madrid legend.
Peak: 2014-18
Major Achievements: 2018 Ballon d’Or, 2018 Uefa Men’s Best Player of the Year, 2018 the Best Fifa Men’s Player, Fifa World Cup Golden Ball 2018, six Uefa Champions Leagues.
We start off with a man who did the impossible in 2018: in the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo-era, he won the Ballon d’Or.
Luka Modric’s ending of the decade of dominance of football’s greatest individual was more than deserved. At the very peak of his powers, Modric led an unfancied Croatian outfit to the 2018 Fifa World Cup final and won approximately a billion Uefa Champions League titles with Real Madrid.
48. Hugo Sanchez
Peak: 1986-90
Major Achievements: 1990 European Golden Shoe, five-time Pichichi winner, five La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey.
Hugo Sanchez is one of the greatest goalscorers in La Liga history.
Hugo Sanchez scored an obscene amount of goals during his peak. 157 in four seasons to be exact. The Mexico international was one of the most natural finishers of his generation, and deservedly makes this list of the greatest footballers of all time.
47. Jairzinho
Peak: 1970
Major Achievements: 1970 World Cup, only player to score in every game of a World Cup.
You read that major achievement right.
Jairzinho is the only player in Fifa World Cup history to score in every single game of the tournament.
He did so while guiding the greatest football team of all time to a Fifa World Cup triumph.
46. Omar Sivori
Peak: 1958-61
Major Achievements: 1961 Ballon d’Or, 1959/60 Capocannoniere, three Scudetti, two Coppa Italia titles.
Before there was a Lionel Messi.
Before there was a Diego Maradona.
There was an Omar Sivori.
An Argentine-Italian forward who led Juventus during their formative years as a European powerhouse under the stewardship of the great Umberto Agnelli.
With Sivori in the famous number 10 jersey, La Vecchia Signora won three Scudetti and two Coppa Italia titles.
45. Paolo Rossi
Peak: 1982
Major Achievements: 1982 Ballon d’Or, 1982 World Cup, Fifa World Cup Golden Ball 2018, 1977/78 Capocannoniere, two Scudetti, one Coppa Italia title, one European Cup.
Paolo Rossi’s one year peak was so astounding that he has more than earned his place among the 50 greatest footballers of all time.
Rossi emerged from the depths of a lengthy ban after Totonero, to become the iconic figure of Gli Azzurri’s 1982 World Cup triumph.
A hat-trick against a seemingly unbeatable Brazil team, two against a good Poland team, and a goal in the final against an exceptional West Germany team; it’s fair to say that Rossi had a good tournament . . . a really, really, really good tournament.
44. Paul Breitner
Peak: 1974-81
Major Achievements: 1981 Ballon d’Or runner-up, 1974 World Cup, 1972 Uefa European Championships, Fifa World Cup All-Time Team, five Bundesliga titles, two DFB-Pokal titles, one European Cup.
Paul Breitner could do it all.
Name something, and he could probably do it.
“Score in a World Cup final?”
Yeah. Easy work.
“Man mark the best wingers in the world?”
Yeah, of course.
43. George Weah
Peak: 1993-96
Major Achievements: 1995 Ballon d’Or, three-time African Footballer of the Year, two Scudetti, one Ligue 1 title, two Coupe de France, one FA Cup.
Ok, so in most other “Greatest Footballers of All Time” lists, George Weah probably wouldn’t make the cut, because there was a period of time in which he was at Chelsea and Manchester City and was, well, pretty terrible.
However, with this being a list of the GOATs at their peaks, Weah makes the cut.
At his best, Weah was unstoppable. A rare combination of physical prowess and unbelievable technical ability, the former Liberian president was the most complete forward of the 1990s.
42. Kaka
Peak: 2005-09
Major Achievements: 2007 Ballon d’Or, 2007 Fifa World Player of the Year, two-time Serie A Footballer of the Year, two-time Time 100 list member, 2002 Fifa World Cup, one Scudetti, one Uefa Champions League, one La Liga, one Copa del Rey.
At his best, Kaka was unstoppable. A rare combination of physical prowess and unbelievable technical ability, the former Brazil international was the most complete attacking midfielders of the 2000s.
41. Lev Yashin
Peak: 1956-64
Major Achievements: 1963 Ballon d’Or, Olympic gold medal, 1960 Uefa European Football Championship, Fifa World Cup All-Time Team, five Soviet Top League titles, Order of Lenin.
Lev Yashin is one of the most important footballers of all time.
A leader, an innovator, the greatest testament to Yashin’s talent is the fact that he is the only goalkeeper to ever win the Ballon d’Or. Ever.
Impressive. — si.com
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