The 20 Greatest Football Players Of All Time Adou Thiero [zo8VgKXVuE3]

Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona, Pele The list of legends who have defined and redefined the beautiful game is endless. But who is the greatest of them all?

Introducing The Soccer 100: A celebration of the greatest players in football and their definitive ranking by Oliver Kay, James Horncastle and The Athletics football writers.

Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Joe Devine was joined by Oliver Kay, Amy Lawrence, Nick Miller and Carl Anka to go through the top 20 players as ranked in The Soccer 100 and they also reveal their own rankings

The Soccer 100 is available now wherever books are sold or in the link below:

Read selected excerpts from The Soccer 100 on The Athletic:

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 The Soccer 100 - The story of the greatest players in history

00:00:35 20. signori Bobby Charlton

00:04:48 19. Franco Baresi

00:07:11 18. Lev Yashin

00:08:38 17. Paolo Maldini

00:11:39 16. Marco lazio - inter van Basten

00:16:08 15. George Best

00:18:41 14. Garrincha

00:20:58 13. Gerd Muller

00:23:48 12. Ronaldo Nazario

00:28:18 11. Eusebio

00:31:16 10. Michel Platini

00:32:07 9. Ferenc Puskas

00:33:45 8. Zinadine Zidane

00:37:02 7. Franz Beckenbauer

00:38:43 6. Alfredo Di Stefano

00:40:55 5.

00:47:45 4.

00:51:08 3.

00:54:46 2.

00:59:29 1.

#football #worldcup #soccer

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Video production by The Athletic and Bluefin Television

Additional footage sourced from AP Newsroom

Thumbnail image credits:

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Special thanks to Bishopsgate Institute for their wonderful location.