How good is Lionel Messi if you put him next to Diego Maradona? Or Cristiano Ronaldo compared to Eusebio? It's hard to say, but at least all four of us take a place on our list of the world's greatest footballers of all time.
The compilation consists of 16 renowned players, from goalkeepers to strikers. It's South American giants Brazil and Argentina, as well as the Netherlands, France and Germany, who wear the gloves in the most spots on the list. Remarkably, not a single Englishman can join, but probably a Northern Irishman....
Nevertheless, here you have it, our list of the 15 best footballers in the world of all time.
16. Marco van Basten
Position: Forward
Nationality: Netherlands
Marco van Basten had to end his active career at the age of 28 because of injury problems, and the great striker had guaranteed more years in the top soccer than the soccer boots went on sale. The greatest success was in the 1988 European Championship, when he led the Netherlands to its first and only championship title ever. With Milan, Marco van Basten won no less than four Scudettos and three European Cup / Champions League titles.
15. Michel Platini
Position: Midfielder
Nationality: France
The current UEFA president Michel Platini was at the time of the best footballers in Europe and was awarded the Ballon d'Or at least three times. The French team captain was the main reason why the national team took home the European gold in 1984, scoring nine (!) goals in five playoff matches.
14. Franz Beckenbauer
Position: Defender
Nationality: Federal Republic of Germany
The world's best back of all time is, of course, "The Kaiser," Franz Beckenbauer. He captained the West German national team that won both the 1972 European gold and the 1974 World Cup gold at home. Beckenbauer's success with FC Bayern Munich is unparalleled in German soccer history, and he has five Bundesliga titles and three straight European Cup victories to his credit, 74-76.
13. George Best
Position: Forward
Nationality: Northern Ireland
George Best is undoubtedly the best soccer produced in the British Isles. The god-blessed lyricist and women's clown had his heyday in the mid-1960s, when he won both the English league and the European Champions League trophy with Manchester United and was named the best player in Europe.
Sadly, the scandalous star's life ended with severe alcohol abuse and he died in November 2005 at the age of just 59. No other footballer has ever provided as many classic quotes as George Best. The favorite, of course, is "I lost a lot of money on booze, women and fast cars. I wasted the rest. "
12. Garrincha
Position: Forward
Nationality: Brazil
Manoel Francisco dos Santos, better known as Garrincha, can proudly wear the best dribbling of the epithet. His breakthrough came at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, along with a certain Pelé. At the World Cup in Chile four years later, his career reached its peak.
In Pele's absence due to injury, he carried the team on his shoulders and, with his four goals, was a decisive factor for Brazil to save their second consecutive World Cup gold.
Like George Best, Garrincha's life was marked by alcohol abuse. He also suffered a similar fate when he was only 49 years old because of his alcoholism.
11. Eusebio
Position: Forward
Nationality: Portugal
The year 2014 began for the soccer lovers of the world in the minority with the news that one of the best players of Portugal of all time, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, passed away at the age of 71.
He was named Portugal's best sportsman of all time, winning a meaningless 11 league titles and two European Cup finals with Benfica.
With the national team it became the best bronze in 1966, a tournament in which Eusebio among other things with four goals alone converted a 0: 3 defeat to win the quarterfinals against North Korea.
10. Ferenc Puskás
Position: Forward
Nationality: Hungary
In the early 1950s, Hungary was the dominant force in the soccer world, and it was Ferenc Puskás who made the big difference.
After winning the Olympic gold in Helsinki in 1952 in grand style (one defeated Sweden 6: 0 in the semifinals), no one expected anything but Hungary to bring home the World Cup gold two years later in Switzerland. But in one of the biggest problems in the history of soccer, the super team fell out against West Germany 2: 3 after losing a 0: 2 lead.
Despite losing the gold, Puskás enjoyed great success with both the Hungarian national team and Real Madrid. Hungary's greatest sports profile of all time passed away in 2006 at the age of 79.
9. Alfredo di Stefano
Position: Forward
Nationality: Argentina
Alfredo di Stefano has been called the best in the world of all time by compatriot Diego Maradona and Pele, and it's not hard to see why. Although he is remembered primarily as a notorious goalscorer, the feared center was a complete player who mastered the most. At Real Madrid, he scored a total of 282 goals in 216 games and won eight championship titles and five European Champions League cups. Alfredo di Stefano died on July 7, 2014 at the age of 88.
8. Ronaldinho
Position: midfielder
Nationality: Brazil
Ronaldinho's style of play is known for everything that usually plays with a smile on his lips. He excelled with high-tech technique combined with a wonderful perception of the game. The Brazilian won World Cup gold with his Brazil in 2002, representing clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Barcelona. With the latter he won the Champions League title in 2006, which can be considered the absolute highlight of his club's career.
7. Johan Cruyff
Position: Midfielder
Nationality: Netherlands
Johan Cruyff, the most important representative of all soccer, together with Franz Beckenbauer, was the great fixing star of the 70s. He was celebrated as a star in the Dutch national team as well as in Ajax and Barcelona and has in his resume, among others, the World Cup silver, championship titles in the Netherlands and Spain and three victories with Ajax in the European Cup. Johan Cruyff died in 2016 in the suites of lung cancer.
6. Ronaldo
Position: Forward
Nationality: Brazil
Ronaldo did for jersey number 9 what Diego Maradona did for the 10th. By 2014, the Ronaldo phenomenon was the player who scored the most goals in the World Cup context with 15 goals in 19 games. Three times named the world's best player.
Players like Karim Benzema, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho and Kaká have all said they had Ronaldo as a role model. With his eight goals, he was the decisive factor when Brazil won the World Cup gold in Japan / South Korea in 2002.
5. Zinedine Zidane
Position: Midfielder
Nationality: France
An extreme technician with unprecedented playing experience. That's how you can sum up France's greatest player of all time, Zinedine Zidane. Like Ronaldo, he was named the best player in the world three times and won both the European Championship and the World Cup with the national team. In addition, after the triumph in the 1998 World Cup, "Zizou" was named the world's best athlete in all categories.
Meanwhile, he won both the league and the Champions League in Real Madrid, where he himself decided the final against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002 with an incomparable volume goal, perhaps the most beautiful ever scored in a tournament final.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo
Position: Forward
Nationality: Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo has almost everything you could want in a complete footballer. Portugal's number one piggy bank has won the Premier League, Champions League and La Liga so far in his career, leading his country to European gold. Over his years at Manchester United, Ronaldo scored 84 goals in 196 games.
Impressive - for sure. But that's nothing compared to Real Madrid, where there were 311 goals in 292 games. In addition, the vanity Portuguese has won the entire five Ballon d'Or, which is a joint record with Lionel Messi.
3. Diego maradona
Position: Midfielder
Nationality: Argentina
Never has a single player played such a significant role for a national team as Diego Armando Maradona did during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.
Who doesn't remember the "Hand of God" incident in which the compact cleric "nodded" his fist at the top in the quarterfinal against England? Or the sun goal a few shots later, which were repeatedly called the soccer goal of the century? He led Argentina to World Cup gold that year alone and almost repeated the feat in 1990, but then had to settle for silver. When Maradona was recruited to Naples in 1984, he quickly became an icon in the southern Italian city. He led the club, which had never won a major title, to two Serie A titles, as well as a win each in the Italian Cup and the Uefac Cup.
His success went to his head and he was drawn into a downward spiral that included everything from drug abuse to alleged ties to the Neapolitan mafia. But in the 1980s, Diego Maradona was arguably the best soccer player in the world - no talk of that.
2. Lionel Messi
Position: Forward
Nationality: Argentina
Leo Messi has won more Ballon d'Or than any other footballer of all time. The little stash from Argentina truly possesses talent that is out of this world.
He seems to be his beloved career at FC Barcelona and has won everything that can be won with the club. Literally. The only thing missing from the prize cabinet is a World Cup gold. If Leo Messi leaves, it's not impossible that we'll have a new one on this list ...
1. Pelé
Position: Forward
Nationality: Brazil
During the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, a whole world marveled at a 17-year-old debutant who stepped in and played home the gold for Brazil. His name? Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but of course we know him best as Pelé.
His breakthrough, as I said, came during the 1958 Sweden World Cup, where he scored three goals in the semifinal against France and two in the final against Sweden. He spent his professional career mainly at home with Santos FC, where he scored 589 goals in 605 games. There were two more World Cup gold medals for Pelé, where the waters of 1970 were the highest. In 2000, he was named FIFA's best footballer of the century with Diego Maradona.
No footballer has meant more to the sport than Pelé, and that is why we put him at the top of the list of the greatest of all time.