I also include wide-forwards here, eg. Ronaldo, Salah.
I recently completed a blog which included the Greatest Players of All-Time in every position ( iconicfootball.weebly.com if interested ) , so I thought I would share some lists here and see what people think.
I will post my explanation underneath the list as I’ve already done similar posts.
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The Top 100 Wingers / Wide-Forwards of All-Time:
(Platinum I)
1 Lionel Messi ARG
(Platinum III)
2 Cristiano Ronaldo POR
(Platinum IV)
3 Garrincha BRA
4 George Best NIR
5 Ronaldinho BRA
(Platinum V)
6 Stanley Matthews ENG
(Gold I)
7 Raymond Kopa FRA
8 Luis Figo POR
9 Neymar BRA
(Gold II)
10 Paco Gento SPA
11 Jairzinho BRA
12 Gareth Bale WAL
13 Kylian Mbappe FRA
14 Tom Finney ENG
15 Eden Hazard BEL
16 Dragan Dzajic SER
17 Julinho BRA
18 Arjen Robben NET
(Gold III)
19 Franck Ribery FRA
20 Pavel Nedved CZE
21 Mohamed Salah EYG
22 Raimundo Orsi ARG
23 Piet Keizer NET
24 Pepe BRA
25 Jimmy Johnstone SCO
26 David Beckham ENG
27 Ryan Giggs WAL
28 Amancio Amaro SPA
29 Bruno Conti ITA
(Gold IV)
30 Oreste Corbatta ARG
31 Helmut Haller GER
32 Rob Rensenbrink NET
33 Bernard Vukas CRO
34 Kurt Hamrin SWE
35 Angel Di Maria ARG
36 Lennart Skoglund SWE
37 Enrique Garcia ARG
38 Felix Loustau ARG
39 Grzegorz Lato POL
40 Helmut Rahn GER
41 Zoltan Czibor HUN
42 Paulo Futre POR
43 Alexis Sanchez CHI
44 Coen Moulijn NET
45 Franco Causio ITA
46 Juan Joya PER
47 Carlos Peucelle ARG
48 Vinicius Junior BRA
49 Robert Pires FRA
50 Rene Houseman ARG
51 Brian Laudrup DEN
52 John Barnes ENG
53 Riyad Mahrez ALG
54 Sadio Mane SEN
(Gold V)
55 David Ginola FRA
56 Billy Meredith WAL
57 Michel SPA
58 Karl Aage Praest DEN
59 Mario Corso ITA
60 Leonel Sanchez CHI
61 Estanislau Basora SPA
62 Claudio Cannigia ARG
63 Roberto Donadoni ITA
64 Luis Cubilla URU
65 Canhoteiro BRA
66 Armand Jurion BEL
67 Ernst Lehner GER
68 Bora Kostic SER
69 Alan Morton SCO
70 Jose Augusto POR
71 Istvan Nyers HUN
72 Pierre Littbarski GER
73 Eric Brook ENG
74 Marco Reus GER
75 Chris Waddle ENG
76 Ariel Ortega ARG
77 Hans Schafer GER
78 Jurgen Grabowski GER
79 Eder BRA
80 Marc Overmars NET
81 Antonin Puc CZE
82 Amedeo Biavati ITA
83 Alcides Ghiggia URU
84 Cliff Bastin ENG
85 Willington Ortiz COL
86 Claudio Sala ITA
87 Heung Min Son KOR
88 Luis Enrique SPA
89 Gigi Meroni ITA
(Silver I)
90 Daniel Bertoni ARG
91 Alex Jackson SCO
92 Tesourinha BRA
93 Raheem Sterling ENG
94 Robert Gadocha POL
95 Gordon Strachan SCO
96 Pedro Calomino ARG
97 Oscar Mas ARG
98 Edu BRA
99 Johnny Rep CHI
100 John Robertson NET
Honourable Mentions: Juan Carlos Munoz (ARG), Chico (BRA), Davie Cooper (SCO), Enrique Hormazabal (CHI), Cliff Jones (WAL), Billy Liddell (SCO), Rene Van De Kerkhof (NET), Mario Zagallo (BRA).
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Explanation:
It goes without saying, the assessment of the players I use will never be as accurate as seeing them play live. I have however put a few years of research into this and refined it as well as I can with the data and opinions available.
I’ve used a range of factors, which culminates in an assessment of players that I believe works well. Maybe most importantly, it has an accurate correlation to my opinion of players when using it to evaluate players from the modern era, so I trust my research methods.
The evaluation of players is generally based on a players peak over a 4-5 year period. In my opinion, this period is long enough to assess a player’s standard, and exhibits a certain level of consistency. However, a long (or short) peak can add to how highly I would rate a player, if they show themselves to be adaptable (or not) to different tactical systems, opponents, levels of pressure, their own physical changes, etc.
Some of the main factors of assessing players (some which play into each other) :
- Historical match ratings from the eras, from all sources possible (usually newspapers pre-internet)
- Historical statistical based rankings (eg. IFFHS)
- All reputable/respected opinionated lists/data I could find (eg. World Soccer)
- All reputable nominations I could find (eg. FIFPRO)
- Watching footage
- Trophies won
- World XI’s/Individual Award Rankings (many different forms/sources)
- Other fan opinion from the era (eg. Forums, articles, ex-players)
- Special consultants and researchers
- My own opinion
- Many other smaller factors
These factors can all be weighted differently depending on the standard of competition, which I evaluated as accurately as I could. Of course, there’s some controversy comparing players from different eras, some may favour modern players who are much faster, stronger, fitter; while some may favour older players who dealt with two-footed tackles, terrible pitches, & innovated aspects of the game. The idea of throwing players into different eras wouldn’t work well, so I found it best to judge them on what they are/were relevant to the time.
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The Ratings:
I finalised the assessment of each player with a rating to help me categorise and organise them. There are 3 ranks, Platinum, Gold & Silver, with a level of I-V (roman numerals) within each rank, I being the highest. There would also be ranks below, but they were not needed for this.
Generally speaking:
Platinum V is the minimum level as an ‘All-Time Great’ player
Gold V is the minimum level as a ‘World-Class’ player
Silver V is the minimum level for a ‘Good’ player (perhaps someone who can be a regular in a top-level league)
However, these definitions can vary from person to person. I find that the term ‘World-Class’ for example is used more often for players in positions that have a lower standard of player, but I wanted to keep it more consistent. For example, the best right-back in the world may not always be one of the best players in the world. The standard in certain positions can also shift across decades - there’s no rule for the minimum or maximum number of world-class players in a single position at once.
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