MY 100 FAVOURITE FOOTBALLERS
So let’s grasp the nettle straight away and start with an apology. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I left so many wonderful players off this list and I’m sorry if they were your favourite players. I’m sorry if there are players that mean the world to you, that you associate with a wonderful time in your life and I haven’t included them. I’m sorry if Zlatan’s your hero. I thought he was a legend in his own mind, a gifted player whose bluster outweighed his talent. My apologies if you think that is heresy. I’m sorry Gianfranco Zola is missing. I’m sorry about Gabriel Batistuta and Michael owen and Sergio Aguero and Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins and John Barnes and Chris Waddle, who I loved to watch, but who didn’t make the list of my top 100 male footballers.
And I am imagining my esteemed colleague Jeff Powell shouting at me about the absence of Tom Finney. Jeff has watched a lot more football than me and compiled lists like this before and I know how high Finney is in his estimation.
So this list is flawed but it’s my list and I’m sticking with it. I took advice from Matt Barlow, Mail Sport’s brilliant football writer, and former england player kieron dyer but I didn’t ask for too much advice because it is my favourite 100 players, who mean something special to me.
It’s not a cold, hard list. elements of it are irrational. That’s why duncan edwards is on it, even though he died of the injuries he sustained in the Munich air disaster at only 21. But I grew up with grandparents who talked about him with misty eyes and I listened to Bobby Charlton talk about him.
Maybe Johnny Rep would not be on many lists, but when I was a kid he epitomised the joy of the netherlands’ Total Football. eder was not the greatest of the 1982 Brazil team but I leapt off my sofa when he scored that chip against Scotland. I idolised him.
And I decided to cheat by using a Ryder Cup-style captain’s pick to include norman Whiteside because I will always associate the visceral joy of watching football with him. I will always remember hugging strangers in the mayhem of the Manchester United end at the 1985 FA Cup final when Whiteside scored against that mighty everton side. He was brilliant, better than he was ever given credit for.
This list is meant as a celebration of football’s rich history and of what players mean to us and why they capture something in us. You’ll disagree with some of the list and you’ll be right to.
The depth of our feeling for the game and the intensity of our opinions about players are just some of the things that make football so beautiful.
100. NORMAN WHITESIDE
He IS this list’s captain’s pick. He has his own place in history as the youngest player ever to appear at a World Cup. He was 17 years and 41 days old when he played for northern Ireland in 1982 and went on to play at the 1986 tournament, too.
The main reason he’s on the list is that he was my favourite player when I was growing up and I can’t have all of him, Gordon Hill, Peter Barnes, Tommy Sword, eddie Prudham and Micky Quinn in the top 100. I bought a pair of shorts Whiteside wore at the World Cup at auction during lockdown. They remain the most expensive item of clothing I have ever purchased.
99. NEYMAR
He WILL be remembered, sadly, not just for his extravagant talent but for the fact he has failed to make the most of it. He possesses breathtaking skill but was kicked out of the 2014 World Cup on home soil and was injured again at an early stage of the 2022 tournament. Winning olympic gold for Brazil at the 2016 Games is a high-point but it is a poor return for the scale of his talent.
98. GUNTER NETZER
NETZER was a pioneer, the first German to play for Real Madrid and the first player to win a World Cup, in 1974, while playing outside his home country. A flamboyant playmaker, he was the key figure in West Germany’s european Championship triumph of 1972.
97. BILLY MEREDITH
FOOTBALL’S first superstar, he led Manchester United to their first league title in 1908, having begun his career with Manchester City. A stalwart for Wales, he played top-flight football until he was 49.
96. DIXIE DEAN
DEAN’S achievement of scoring 60 league goals in a single top-flight season was thrown into sharp relief recently when erling Haaland launched an assault on modern-day records in the Premier League.
Haaland scored 52 goals in all competitions last season but got nowhere near dean’s tally, achieved with everton in the 1927-28 season. It wasn’t a fluke, either. dean scored 45 goals in the 1931-32 campaign.
95. CARLOS VALDERRAMA
A PRECISE passer and a wonderful technician, valderrama was one of the best playmakers in South American football in the 1980s and 90s, leading Colombia to the World Cup in 1990, 1994 and 1998. He had the best haircut in football history, too.
94. MOHAMED SALAH
GIFTED forward who has been given the platform he needed to excel at Liverpool and acted as the attacking fulcrum of Jurgen klopp’s great side that has gone head-to-head with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Salah is a prolific goalscorer who has played in three Champions League finals in five years and won the Premier League.
93. SON HEUNG-MIN
ONE of the greatest Asian players of all time, Son has consistently been one of the best players in the Premier League since he arrived at Tottenham in 2015. A brilliant, quicksilver forward, he is an unselfish team player who consistently sacrifices individual achievements for creating goals for others.
92. STEVEN GERRARD
A DRIVING, surging, dynamo of a midfielder, a superb long passer and a player who could take the biggest games and appear to win them almost single-handedly. That applies most of all to the 2005 Champions League final, the Miracle of Istanbul, where Gerrard led Liverpool to one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the competition against AC Milan.
91. TEOFILO CUBILLAS
ATTACKING midfielder with a wonderful technique who led Peru to the last eight of the World Cup in 1970 and 1978. He was marked out by his ability with the dead ball and was South American Footballer of the Year in 1972.
90. JIM BAXTER
THERE is only one picture hanging on the wall in the attic office of former prime minister Gordon Brown at his home in Fife and it is of Baxter. A showman and a brilliant, assured left-half, Baxter’s finest hour may have been Scotland’s 3-2 win over World Cup winners england in 1967.
89. GHEORGHE HAGI
THE Maradona of the Carpathians, Hagi played in three World Cups for Romania and starred for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Galatasaray in a playing career that established him as one of the most creative and exciting no 10s of his generation.
88. DIDIER DROGBA
DROGBA was a throwback centre forward, a target man who used his strength and his mobility to dominate Premier League defences when Jose Mourinho brought him to Chelsea in 2004. He was a critical influence in winning the Champions League for Chelsea in 2012 and was one of the greatest African players of his generation — and led Ivory Coast to their first appearance at a World Cup finals in 2006.
87. HARRY KANE
KANE has been damned by some because he has not played in teams capable of delivering the trophies his talent deserves. often under-rated, he is close to the complete centre forward — a fine target man, a brilliant passer, a forward with rare vision and a clinical finisher. He won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup and is already setting records at Bayern Munich.
86. EDER
He is on the list because he was part of the Brazil 1982 team. If I could put every member of that side in the top 100, I would. But decorum forbids it. eder’s goals in that World Cup, though, got the 16-year-old kid that I was leaping around his front room. Like Zico, Socrates and Falcao, I’ll always associate him with the beautiful game.
85. RYAN GIGGS
TENTH on the all-time list of Champions League appearances,
Giggs played 963 times for Manchester United and won the Premier League 13 times. He was a flying left winger and a dazzling dribbler who achieved incredible longevity at Old Trafford and won the Champions League in 1999 and 2008 with Sir Alex Ferguson.
‘I remember the first time I saw him,’ Ferguson said. ‘He was 13 and just floated over the ground like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver paper in the wind.’
84. MARIO KEMPES
TOP scorer for Argentina on home soil at the 1978 World Cup, his two goals in the final against the Netherlands carried his country to an emotional victory. He was the tournament’s top scorer and was named its best player. In his club career, he was twice top scorer in Spain’s La Liga.
83. JUAN ROMAN RIQUELME
SPANISH newspaper Marca awarded Riquelme the title ‘most artistic player’ at the end of the 2004-05 season. He saw passes other players would never see. He appreciated angles other playmakers could never calculate. On a more prosaic note, he missed a penalty at the end of Villarreal’s Champions League semi-final against Arsenal in 2006 that cost his team the chance of going to the final but that is a mere blip in the canon of his genius.
82. SOCRATES
THE midfield brains of the Brazil team that should have won the 1982 World Cup. An educated man and an educated footballer.
81. LUKA MODRIC
A WISP of a midfielder who defied what appeared to be physical frailty to become one of the greatest playmakers of his era, winning countless honours with Real Madrid and leading Croatia to the World Cup final in 2018 and the semi-finals four years later.
80. JOHNNY REP
REP was a hero of mine when I was a kid. He was full of Dutch cool and he scored fantastic long-range goals. He played in the Netherlands sides that reached the World Cup final in 1974 and 1978 and scored the winner for Ajax in the 1973 european Cup final against Juventus. I sent away for his autograph when he was playing for Saint-etienne and he sent me his picture back in a brilliant green kit.
79. RAUL
He scored goals as if he were a discerning collector of them, a striker who scored with care and diligence and elegance. No Spaniard has scored more goals than him in european leagues. He won six La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues with Real Madrid.
78. JAY-JAY OKOCHA
OKOCHA’S talent is not reflected in the calibre of the clubs he played for but he is on this list for the pleasure he gave to fans. One of the most skilful players ever to have graced the game, his tricks and daring could light up any game and england full back Gary Neville called the Nigerian the most difficult opponent he ever played against.
77. DAVID BECKHAM
HIS inclusion may cause some frothing but his celebrity often obscures the fact that he was the best crosser of the ball of his generation. He won a Treble with Manchester United, league titles in england and Spain and only Wayne Rooney among outfield players earned more caps than him for england. Beckham deserves his place.
76. N’GOLO KANTE
A key player in the greatest shock in english football history, when he anchored the Leicester City side that won the Premier League in 2016. A relentless defensive midfielder who was a kryptonite for even the best attacking sides, kante won the World Cup with France in 2018.
75. ALAN SHEARER
THE greatest goalscorer in the Premier League era of english football, Shearer was an imposing centre forward who was brilliant in the air and had a rocket of a right foot. He won one league title with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and would have won more had he not made the sentimental decision to play for his boyhood team, Newcastle United, instead of chasing trophies.
74. GARY LINEKER
AN instinctive goal poacher who enjoyed success with Leicester, everton, Barcelona and Spurs. Lineker won the Golden Boot at the 1986 World Cup and scored four more in 1990 when england reached the semi-finals in Italy.
73. YAYA TOURE
A FOUR-TIME winner of African Footballer of the year, Toure was a brilliant midfielder who won the Champions League in 2009 with Barcelona to add to domestic titles he won at the Nou Camp and with Manchester City.
His passing was good and his physical presence so imposing he possessed the ability to dominate the opposition completely but, like other players before him, his versatility sometimes seemed like his enemy as it prevented him from playing in his favoured role.
72. ERIC CANTONA
AN icon as well as a footballer. A hero as well as a goalscorer. Cantona is an idol for Manchester United fans because he stood for something beyond football.
People loved him in the same way they loved Marcelo Bielsa. Because he did not conform. He stood for independence of thought and a refusal to bow to authority and adhere to conventions.
He was a sublime footballer and it was his signing that unlocked the door to a period of dominance for United in english football but he was one of the greatest because he had attitude.
71. ANDREA PIRLO
THE sultan of cool, he was a bewitching deep-lying playmaker who refused to be hurried and always had time. A beautiful passer of the ball, he won six Serie A titles between AC Milan and Juventus and was one of the players of the tournament when Italy won the 2006 World Cup.
70. GIUSEPPE MEAZZA
A PROLIFIC scorer and one of only three Italian players to win the World Cup twice, in 1934 and 1938. Technically assured, he was known as The Genius by the Italian press. An Inter Milan legend, the stadium at San Siro is named after him.
69. GORDON BANKS
LEV YASHIN was more celebrated but Banks won the World Cup in 1966 and produced the greatest save in history to scoop a downward header from Pele over the crossbar during a group game between Brazil and england at the 1970 World Cup.
68. WAYNE ROONEY
THERE was a time, at the start of his career, when it seemed that Rooney might be a rival to Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in his generation of football talents.
It did not work out like that but Rooney still had a stellar career, burning brightly at euro 2004, winning the Champions League with Manchester United in 2008 and beating Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring record for england.
Rooney was a fearsome striker of the ball and an unselfish team player who was the country’s best talent since Paul Gascoigne.
67. KAKA
A GLIDING, dancing delight of an attacking midfielder, there was a time in the mid-2000s when kaka had a claim to be the best player in the world. It was his misfortune to come into his prime when Brazil were entering a period of relative decline but he was the leading influence in the AC Milan side that won the Champions League in 2007.
66. RUUD GULLIT
GULLIT played with an awesome certainty. He played as if he already knew he were going to score. He played as if it were his destiny to succeed.
Watch his goal in the 1988 european Championship final for the Netherlands against the Soviet Union and you will see the certainty in his emphatic header. A captivating forward who played with joie de vivre, he won three Serie A titles and two european Cups as part of a magnificent, irresistible AC Milan side.
65. PAUL SCHOLES
WHEN Zinedine Zidane was asked to name his toughest opponent, he did not hesitate. ‘Scholes of Manchester,’ he said. ‘He is the complete midfielder. He is undoubtedly the greatest midfielder of his generation.’
Scholes was a devastatingly accurate long passer of the ball, who could shoot from range and harry ball-playing opponents. Like many english talents, he was appreciated more abroad than at home.
64. GRAEME SOUNESS
A MIDFIELD general who had everything. Souness was an enforcer who often left his mark, literally, on opponents and was capable of sublime skill on the
ball. It was his delicate pass that set up Kenny Dalglish to score the winner in the 1978 European Cup final. He was the general of the great liverpool sides of the late 1970s and early 80s.
63. JIMMY GREAVES
THE all-time top scorer in English top-flight football with 357 goals in 516 matches, Greaves was a brilliant penaltybox predator blessed with fearsome acceleration and nerveless finishing. It would have seemed unthinkable that he would not be a part of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning team before the tournament but injury robbed him of that part of his shot at immortality.
62. ALESSANDRO DEL PIERO
AFTER the Italian striker scored a hattrick for Juventus in the 1998 Champions league semi-finals against Monaco, I asked his team-mate Edgar Davids: ‘What is it like to play with Del Piero?’ Davids fixed me with a stare and said: ‘What is it like to play with Davids?’
Fair enough, but if Davids was a pitbull then Del Piero was a dream of a player who gilded his magnificent career by winning the World Cup with Italy in 2006.
61. DAVID SILVA
EVEN in the great Spain teams that won three successive major tournaments between 2008 and 2012, David Silva stood out. He was a magician, a player who was a creative genius and whose ability to play team-mates into goalscoring positions was a relentless gift. tied with Kevin De bruyne and Colin bell for the title of Manchester City’s greatest player.
60. ROBERTO RIVELLINO
HE supplied a lot of the bullets for Pele during the 1970 World Cup. operating on the left flank, he had one of the sweetest left feet in the game. a lovely crosser and a man who specialised in the kind of venomous free-kicks that looked as if they would burst the net.
59. KEVIN KEEGAN
KEEGAN was a bundle of energy and invention, a fine finisher and header of the ball, who spanned the management careers of bill Shankly and bob Paisley at liverpool, won the European Cup for the anfield club for the first time in 1977 and then went on to achieve more success with Hamburg. He won the ballon d’or in 1978 and 1979.
58. CARLOS ALBERTO
CAPTAIN of the greatest team of all time and scorer of the greatest goal of all time, Carlos alberto was the king of right backs and the leader of the brazil side that won the 1970 World Cup.
57. PAOLO ROSSI
SCORED a hat-trick in the greatest game ever played, Italy’s 3-2 victory over brazil at the 1982 World Cup and was the leading striker in the team that won the competition that year after returning to the side following a ban for his part in a match-fixing scandal. He won the Golden boot at that World Cup and lifted the European Cup for Juventus in 1985.
56. GEOFF HURST
ANYONE who scores a hat-trick in a World Cup final deserves to be on this list and Hurst and Kylian Mbappe are in a club of two to have done that. Displaced Jimmy Greaves at the 1966 World Cup and seized his opportunity. the last surviving member of the 1966 England team, Hurst won 49 caps for his country.
55. MICHAEL LAUDRUP
A QUICKSILVER attacking midfielder who seemed to glide across the pitch. the epitome of elegance, he won league titles for ajax, barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus and helped barca to their first European Cup win in 1992.
54. KEVIN DE BRUYNE
THE best player in English football for the last few years, winning the treble with Manchester City last season cemented his status as one of the modern greats of the game. an incisive passer and lovely crosser with the vision that makes him City’s dominant influence.
53. LUIS FIGO
A SKILFUL, elusive winger who relied more on his quick feet and intelligent use of his body to outwit opponents than pure pace. He was a wonderful crosser but his decision to move from barcelona to Real Madrid in the summer of 2000 made him a figure of hate in Spanish football as well as a star to be adored.
52. JIMMY JOHNSTONE
CELTIC’S greatest player and one of the most famous wingers in football history, ‘Jinky’ Johnstone was part of the Jock Stein side that became the first british club to win the European Cup in 1967.
51. PACO GENTO
POSSESSED of one of football’s great nicknames, the Gale of the Cantabrian Sea, because of his pace on the flank, Gento is regarded as the best left winger football has ever seen. He won six European Cups with Real Madrid and 12 la liga titles.