Top cool football players. The coolest football players

The English publication The Guardian, with the help of experts, including SE, conducted a large-scale survey and identified the hundred best players of the world championships.

The top 100 included three representatives of Soviet football - Lev Yashin (No. 30), Igor Belanov (No. 82) and Rinat Dasaev (No. 94). The Brazilian Pele is recognized as the brightest football player in the history of world championships.

The list is compiled based on the opinions of 40 experts from three categories: leading authors of The Guardian, foreign journalists from around the world (including the editor-in-chief of the Internet portal "Sport Express" Arthur Petrosyan) and legends of the world championships, including Lothar Matthäus, Zico , Sunday Olise and John Barnes.

Each expert had to name the top 40 best players. First place brought 40 points, second - 39, and 40th, respectively, one. Then the total number of points for each of the three groups was displayed and multiplied by the coefficient assigned to each group. The opinion of the World Cup legends was the most significant.

PELE

Diego MARADONA

Franz BECKENBAUER

RONALDO

Zinedine ZIDANE

Johan Cruyff

Lothar MATTHEUS

Gerd MÜLLER

GARRINCHA

Michel Platini

Lev YASHIN

Igor BELANOV

As you know, football is one of the most famous sports on the planet. This is partly due to the fact that in order to play football you do not need any special equipment, you only need a ball and a piece of flat ground. Millions of boys and girls all over the world go out into their yards, onto beaches, into clearings, marking the goal with what they have at hand, for example, sticking sticks into the ground and kicking a ball until dark. When playing football, they of course try to imitate the best professional football players - dribble like Maradona, feint like Zidane and shoot on goal like Messi.

Throughout the world history of football, ratings of the best players have been compiled more than once. One of the most extensive lists of the best players was compiled by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics in 2000. FIFA has its own rating of the best football players among those who played at the World Championships, UEFA compiles ratings of the best players in the history of the Champions League. All these lists are subjective in one way or another, but they still agree on one thing - everyone gives the title of the best player in history to Pele.

The best football players of all time, according to various world ratings:

At the top of this list are two football players who managed to take football to a completely different level. The competition between two outstanding players has made the football rivalries of the last 10 years incredibly interesting to watch.

5 Cristiano Ronaldo

4 Lionel Messi

3 Zinedine Zidane

2 Diego Armando Maradona

1 Pele

Popular football portal "FourFourTwo"formed the hundred best football players of all time. “Sokker.ru” introduces readers to an interesting rating.

Places 100 to 91:

100. Gheorghe Hagi (Romania)

99. Mario Coluna (Portugal)

98. Mario Kempes (Argentina)

97. Neymar (Brazil)

96. Obdulio Varela (Uruguay)

95. Jalma Santos (Brazil)

94. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)

93. Philipp Lahm (Germany)

92. Sandor Kocsis (Hungary)

91. Sepp Mayer (Germany)

Getting into the top 100 players in the history of the Game is a huge honor, so if someone's position seems unfairly low to you, remember how many thousands of players remained outside the top 100. Therefore, we take the “FourFourTwo” rating as a given, because we can argue on this topic ad infinitum, especially when it comes to the distribution of positions at the very top. In the top ten from the end we see the “Carpathian Maradona” Hadji and the Swedish star of all times Ibrahimovic. There are four world champions here: Brazilian Jalma Santos, German Philipp Lahm, Uruguayan Obdulio Varela and Argentinean Mario Kempes. The great German goalkeeper Mayer, the Hungarian goalscorer Kocsis, the Benfica legend Coluna are here, as is Neymar, who has the best years of his career ahead of him.

Places 90 to 81:

90. Roberto Carlos (Brazil)

89. Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria)

88. Allan Simonsen (Denmark)

87. Javier Zanetti (Argentina)

86. Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina)

85. Uwe Seeler (Germany)

84. Giacinto Facchetti (Italy)

83. Ryan Giggs (Wales)

82. Hugo Sanchez (Mexico)

81. Dragan Dzajic (Yugoslavia)

Of the world champions, only Roberto Carlos is here, but we see two Golden Ball winners - Stoichkov and Simonsen. Giggs and Batistuta don’t need additional introductions; Hugo Sanchez’s goals for Atlético and Real Madrid will tell the story. We note the presence of two legends of Inter Milan from different eras - Facchetti and Zanetti. Uwe Seeler, nicknamed “Furious”, was the brightest German player in the interval between the first two world championships. Well, Dragan Dzhajic in general is perhaps the greatest Serbian player in history.

Places 80 to 71:

80. Thierry Henry (France)

79. Gigi Riva (Italy)

78. Juste Fontaine (France)

77. Frank Rijkaard (Netherlands)

76. Dennis Lowe (Scotland)

75. Cafu (Brazil)

74. Josef Masopust (Czechoslovakia)

73. Omar Sivori (Argentina)

72. Jose Andrade (Uruguay)

71. John Charles (Wales)

Masopust, Sivori and Low won the Ballon d'Or in the first half of the 60s, with only Lev Yashin wedged between them. Jose Andrade, Cafu and Henry are world champions. John Charles is one of the top 20 Welsh heroes in the history of Wales, and Juste Fontaine holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup (13 goals scored, 1958 World Cup). Riva and Rijkaard were each stars in their respective eras, and Gigi spent almost his entire career at Cagliari, he is the main symbol of this club.

Places 70 to 61:

70. Paul Breitner (Germany)

69. Dennis Bergkamp (Netherlands)

68. Sandro Mazzola (Italy)

67. Florian Albert (Hungary)

66. Teofilo Cubillas (Peru)

65. Jimmy Johnston (Scotland)

64. Johan Neeskens (Netherlands)

63. Gordon Banks (England)

62. Dixie Dean (England)

61. Peter Schmeichel (Denmark)

Three Britons at once: the cult Celtic player Jimmy Johnston, the great goalkeeper and world champion Banks, and the hero of the early 20th century Dixie Dean. The Dutch Bergkamp and Neeskens worked magic, although they never became world champions, Johan even scored in one of his finals, but Paul Breitner responded in kind and eventually celebrated the victory as part of the West German team. Mazzola is another Inter legend and the idol of future generations, Florian Albert can boast of the Ballon d'Or, and Theo Cubillas is the best player in the history of Peru. You probably already recognized Peter Schmeichel: the famous goalkeeper of Manchester United and accomplice of the “Danish Fairy Tale 1992”.

Places 60 to 51:

60. Kevin Keegan (England)

59. Andres Iniesta (Spain)

58. Adolfo Pedernera (Argentina)

57. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Germany)

56. Daniel Passarella (Argentina)

55. Dino Zoff (Italy)

54. Gunnar Nordahl (Sweden)

53. Gaetano Scirea (Italy)

52. Roberto Baggio (Italy)

51. Jairzinho (Brazil)

There are three Italians at once - the winners of the 1982 World Cup Zoff and Scirea, as well as Roberto Baggio, who missed the decisive penalty in 1994 and was left with silver. But Andres Iniesta scored the only goal in the 2010 World Cup final, for which he has since been applauded in all stadiums in Spain. Jairzinho and Passarella are also world champions, but Karl-Heinz Rummenigge did not win the world championship with Germany, but he has two Golden Balls to his name, like Kevin Keegan. Nordahl rocked Serie A in the mid-20th century, where he played for Milan and Roma, but the Argentine Pedernera is the most mysterious figure in this top ten. It is known that his names were Genius, Maestro and Football Napoleon, but Adolfo’s career took place in South America in the 30s, 40s and 50s of the last century, so there is not much evidence of his greatness.

Places 50 to 41:

50. Xavi (Spain)

49. Nilton Santos (Brazil)

48. Mikael Laudrup (Denmark)

47. Roberto Rivellino (Brazil)

46. ​​Juan Alberto Schiaffino (Uruguay)

45. Oleg Blokhin (USSR/Ukraine)

44. Didi (Brazil)

43. Fritz Walter (Germany)

42. Matthias Sindelar (Austria)

41. Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

This ten has a diverse composition. Here are a bunch of world champions from different countries and different eras, and the famous scorer of Dynamo Kiev, winner of the Golden Ball Oleg Blokhin, and the Austrian Sindelar with a tragic fate, and Buffon, who is still performing at a high level, and the iconic German captain Fritz Walter, who was in Soviet captivity during World War II. And also the ex-coach of Moscow “Spartak” Mikael Laudrup and Didi, who did not give in to Di Stefano and Puskas at Real, who did not want to share the glory.

Places 40 to 31:

40. Kenny Dalglish (Scotland)

39. Nandor Hidegkuti (Hungary)

38. Gianni Rivera (Italy)

37. Ruud Gullit (Netherlands)

36. Paco Gento (Spain)

35. Luis Suarez Miramontes (Spain)

34. Stanley Matthews (England)

33. Gunther Netzer (Germany)

32. Paolo Rossi (Italy)

31. Jose Manuel Moreno (Argentina)

There is not a single active player in this top ten, although all these names are well-known to this day. For example, Paco Gento is the record holder for the number of European Cups; the Spaniard won this trophy six times. Paolo Rossi scored in the World Cup final and won the Ballon d'Or, and Nandor Hidegkuti was part of the Hungarian Golden Squad. A special place here goes to Sir Stanley Matthews, who played football until he was 50, was a model gentleman and won the first ever Ballon d'Or for European Footballer of the Year. A few years later, this award went to Luis Suarez Miramontes, who at the time of the award played for Barcelona, ​​and then moved to Inter, where he spent nine years.

Places 30 to 21:

30. Lothar Matthäus (Germany)

29. Raymond Kopa (France)

28. Socrates (Brazil)

27. Bobby Moore (England)

26. Valentino Mazzola (Italy)

25. Carlos Alberto (Brazil)

24. Ronaldinho (Brazil)

23. Eusebio (Portugal)

22. Lev Yashin (USSR/Russia)

21. Romario (Brazil)

We note the high position of Lev Ivanovich Yashin: he is the only goalkeeper to win the Golden Ball in 22nd place in the ranking. There are four Brazilians in the top ten with him, and Romario is higher than Ronaldinho, Carlos Alberto and Socrates. Why, Shorty even bypassed Eusebio, who, symbolically, took the next place with his friend Yashin. Bobby Moore and Lottar Matthäus are the captains of their teams at the victorious world championships and cult football players of their countries. Special attention should be paid to Valentino Mazzola, who is seriously ahead of his son. Valentino and Sandro are the only father and son to be in the top 100 strongest football players of all time. A unique achievement.

Places 20 to 11:

20. Paolo Maldini (Italy)

19. Bobby Charlton (England)

18. Giuseppe Meazza (Italy)

17. Gerd Müller (Germany)

16. Zico (Brazil)

15. Franco Baresi (Italy)

14. George Best (Northern Ireland)

13. Marco van Basten (Netherlands)

12. Michel Platini (France)

11. Garrincha (Brazil)

Everyone is a world football star, although it is clear that it is impossible to create an “all-time” ranking based on objective indicators, because such indicators do not exist. How can we compare, say, Giuseppe Meazza and Paolo Maldini? It turns out that the basis is a certain historical “media rating”: the names of the big stars of the past still ring loudly, although decades have passed. Thanks to this, Garrincha and Muller, Charlton and van Basten, Best and Maldini, Meazza and Platini, Zico and Baresi can be located in neighboring positions. But who is cooler than them and who got No. 1, the end is near!

Places 10 to 1:

10. Ronaldo (Brazil)

9. Ferenc Puskás (Hungary)

8. Zinedine Zidane (France)

7. Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)

6. Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina)

5. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)

4. Johan Cruyff (Netherlands)

3. Pele (Brazil)

2. Lionel Messi (Argentina)

1. Diego Maradona (Argentina)

Led by two Argentines, the King of Football Pele has dropped to third place, and Cristiano Ronaldo is only fifth. Eight of the top ten players, besides Pelé and Beckenbauer, played for Real Madrid or Barcelona in their careers. This is how “FourFourTwo” got a hundred. How do you like it?

Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo is the current winner of the Ballon d'Or (the main individual award awarded at the end of the year by the football community) and has the English Premier League championship and the UEFA League trophy (the main club tournament in the world) behind him. He has the highest speed and is a master of feints. For years he honed his technique of taking free kicks, which later resulted in hundreds of goals against the strongest clubs and national teams in the world. Cristiano is a football star and one of the world's best football players.

Lionel Messi, striker for Barcelona and the Argentina national team, is Cristiano Ronaldo's constant rival for titles and the title of best football player in the world. He is short (at one time he suffered from a lack of growth hormone, but Barcelona doctors were able to cure him), but this does not prevent Messi from being a threat to all clubs and national teams in the world. Messi was awarded the Ballon d'Or four times in a row. Millions of fans around the world consider Lionel their idol.

Protection

Story

The highest number in the career of the great Brazilian striker Pele. It is difficult to determine the exact number of effective actions of the Brazilian (due to the lack of professional statistics at that time), but it reliably exceeds a thousand. Of course, we should also take into account the level of football, which is growing every year. Nowadays, professional football has become much drier than in the middle of the 20th century. But at that time the best football player was Pele, fast, technical and methodical, and it is not easy to beat his record.

Defender Franz Beckenbauer created the technical Germany team as we know it to this day. He was the captain of the national team and his native club - Bayern Munich, became the German champion dozens of times, twice the world and European champion. Until now, he is the standard of play for hundreds of defense professionals.

Perspective

Football can be confidently called the most popular game in the world. Millions of fans watch the ongoing championships with bated breath and debate about which team is the best. At the same time, the names of the strongest players are known even to those people who are not fond of football. Who can be proud of the title “the most famous football player in the world”? You will learn about this by reading this article.

Over the past few years, the most famous football player in the world has been Cristiano Ronaldo. The captain of the Portuguese national team was born in Funchal in 1985. Interestingly, the parents named the future star in honor of American President Ronald Reagan. Ronnie, as his fans call him, began playing at the age of eight, and during the 2004 European Championship he was recognized as the most promising young player. In 2008, Ronaldo became the best football player of the year, and in 2012 he received the status of the most famous athlete in the world.

Many are amazed by Ronaldo's style of play: he behaves quite unpredictably for his opponents, forcing them to make fatal mistakes. And there are real legends about Ronaldo's free kicks: they are considered truly brilliant, because the ball, as if enchanted, flies at great speed along a rather intricate trajectory.

Ronaldo is loved not only as a gifted player, but also as an open, sociable person. Showing full concentration on the field, Ronaldo does not forget to greet the fans with a charming smile.

Many admirers of Ronaldo's talent closely monitor his personal life, because such a young man simply cannot help but have a huge number of dizzying novels. In 2010, Ronaldo began dating Russian model Irina Shayk, but the couple broke up five years later. Ronaldo has a son, who was born in 2010. True, the mother of the child is Irina Shayk, and there are two surrogate mothers at once, one of whom provided the egg, and the other carried the baby. During numerous interviews, the football player refuses to name the names of his child’s mothers, but admits that he sincerely rejoices in his fatherhood and dreams that in the future he will have many children: all that remains is to find a suitable spouse.

Pele (Edson Arantis do Nascimento)

Pelé is considered one of the most outstanding players in the history of football and is included in the 100 most influential people in the world according to Time magazine. The achievements of this athlete are amazing: he managed to score more than 1,200 goals in 1,363 matches. Pele has won 32 championships, more than thirty times he managed to score four goals against the opponent per game, and in four matches Pele scored five goals. In 1964, he managed to set an unprecedented record by putting eight goals into the opponent’s goal at once.

Pele's secret is that he is able to perform every technique of the game much better than any other football player. He could easily overtake an opponent or jump higher than other players, and Pele was also excellent at kicking with both feet. It is not surprising that he instilled real terror in his opponents, because it is simply impossible to surpass his technique.

It is surprising that a football player who has achieved such heights remains an open, friendly and very gentle person. Pele's fans could be sure that their idol would not refuse them a joint photo and autograph. However, the great football player seemed to be replaced when he found himself on the field: Pele turned into a silent, dangerous opponent who was simply impossible to resist.

Pele managed to try himself in many professions. He starred in the series and even worked as an actor in erotic films. More than once, the football player was invited to advertise various products: Pele’s fans literally swept off the shelves everything their idol touched. True, the athlete refuses to advertise tobacco and alcohol on principle. From 1995 to 1998, Pele even managed to serve as Brazil's Minister of Sports. By the way, Pele currently owns the company “Cafe Pele”.

When Pele said goodbye to football, he could not hide his tears. Thousands of his fans cried with him: when such famous people leave the sport, an entire era passes with them...

Lev Yashin received the status of the best goalkeeper in the world according to all existing ratings. Lev was born in 1929 into a simple Soviet family, quite far from sports. However, the abilities of the future champion manifested themselves at a fairly early age: all day long he played football with his yard friends. During Lev Yashin’s childhood, football was considered one of the most romantic sports, and Soviet boys dreamed that one day they would be able to defend the honor of their native country in the sports arena. Maybe this was the reason why Lev Yashin decided to devote himself to football. True, he had to work hard to achieve his goal.

After Lev Yashin graduated from college, he went to work at one of the factories near Moscow. The football player's youth occurred during the Second World War, so he had to spend many hours at a time at the machine. However, after a working day, Yashin went to training: coach Larionchikov trained with the factory guys, who recognized the talents of the young mechanic.

After the war, Yashin's career began to rapidly develop. During one of the matches, he was noticed by the coach of the Dynamo youth team: it was this team that the young football player dreamed of joining as a child. True, the first matches were rather unsuccessful, and from 1950 to 1952 he almost did not appear on the field, more often staying on the bench. Due to failures, Yashin even started playing hockey, achieving quite impressive results in this sport.

In 1954, Yashin finally returned to football. And this decision turned out to be correct: soon the whole world was talking about the new Soviet football player. Yashin’s abilities were amazing: the world nicknamed him “Black Panther” for the color of his goalie uniform, as well as his ability to make acrobatic, cat-like jumps. Yashin also had another nickname: “Black Spider.” That's what they called him because of his long arms, with which he could reach the ball flying into the goal. The player’s manner was also interesting: he was the first to start playing at exits throughout the penalty area. True, such a game was not understood by everyone. Many believed that Yashin was simply distracted from his direct responsibility - protecting the goal. And the Dynamo coach was scolded more than once for the fact that the goalkeeper creates a real “circus” on the field.

Unfortunately, in 1989, Yashin developed gangrene, and therefore the footballer’s leg was amputated. The football player failed to overcome the disease, and on March 20, 1990, he died from ongoing gangrene.

Diego Maradona

The future football star was born in Buenos Aires in October 1960. Maradona, like many Argentine boys, began kicking the ball as soon as he learned to walk. True, it’s quite difficult to call this game football: at first Diego simply ran and kicked the ball. However, after some time, he learned the rules of this game and moved to a new level.

On his seventh birthday, Maradona's cousin gave the boy the first soccer ball in his life. Diego was so happy that he even slept with the ball in his arms for a while. After long training sessions, during which Maradona simply kicked the ball around the room with his sisters, the boy began to play full-fledged football with the older guys. True, players significantly older than Maradona in age easily outflanked and overtook little Diego. But gradually Maradona learned to play on par with stronger opponents: perhaps this is the reason for his success. At the first tryout for the team, in which boys under the age of 14 played, Diego impressed the coach so much that he decided that the dwarf was trying to deceive him: a child simply cannot handle the ball so skillfully!

Maradona himself considers his first match for the Argentinos Juniors club to be his debut. Maradona's team failed to win, but the young football player was praised by sports journalists. From that moment on, the career of the great Argentine began to rapidly develop. He soon became captain of the Argentina national team and was able to win first the Italian Cup and then the UEFA Cup. But soon after achieving these dizzying successes, the irreparable happened: cocaine was found in Maradona’s blood... It turned out that the football player relieves stress in this way after intense games. Indeed, sometimes it seemed that Diego had great difficulty controlling himself on the field. He even received his nickname - “The Hand of God” - because in the heat of the match he scored a goal with his hand, which is strictly prohibited by the rules of football.

Due to the scandal that broke out, Diego was disqualified for a year and a half, after which he returned to football, vowing never to touch drugs again. But on the eve of one of the championships, a doping test showed that Maradna was taking ephedrine. The football player was disgraced from the game, and he had to watch the matches from the spectator stands.

Unfortunately, Diego Maradona never managed to return to big-time sports. Thus ended the career of one of the most brilliant football players of the 20th century: now only numerous articles in the yellow press remind us of Maradona.

David Beckham was born in 1975 in London. Like many British boys, David was passionate about football from childhood. In addition, Beckham's parents supported Manchester United and did not miss a single home match of their favorite team. It is not surprising that little David entered football school, and at the age of 14 he began playing for Manchester United.

In 1992, the young football player won the English Football Youth Cup. It was then that Beckham was noticed by the head coach of Manchester United, who invited the future star to the main team. Beckham scored his first goal against an opponent in 1994 in a match with the Turkish Galatasaray. In 1996, the footballer played for the English national team for the first time, and already in 1997 he became footballer of the year in his native country. In the same year, Beckham met one of the vocalists of the Spice Girls, which was at the peak of its popularity, Victoria, who soon became his wife.

Beckham's main strength is long-range shots: the footballer scored most of his goals from the penalty line.

It is noteworthy that Beckham is considered not only one of the most successful football players in the UK, but is also included in the lists of the sexiest and most stylish men on the planet. Many people call Beckham a “man-brand”: the football player has earned more than $200 million from his image. Finally, together with his wife, Beckham introduced the fashion for family values: the couple has been together for more than 15 years, four children were born in the marriage, and in every interview David and Victoria emphasize how important it is for spouses to respect and appreciate each other.