What are the top 10 soccer players of all time?

Answer 1

This is a difficult question to answer as it is so subjective and opinion-based. A player who is at the height of his career now may not be rated so highly after the inevitable decline later in a career, just as the temptation to fall into nostalgia over past players can lead some observers to overstate how good a player actually was. In a list such as this, one can start with Pele and Maradona, who by any standards are the two greatest players ever to have played football. Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo before the injury sustained at Inter Milan (although he still came back to score plenty of goals in Brazil's 2002 World Cup success), and Zidane are strong contenders for a place in the top ten, Cruyff in particular. Puskas was a phenomenal player, Di Stefano, also from that era. Eusabio has to make the list. Lev Yashin, the great Russian goalkeeper and at risk of being accused of tokenism, one defender for the list is possibly Bobby Moore of England.

The point is that there is no definitive 'top ten players proven by statistics and accepted by everyone' list. The beauty of football and the reason for its global appeal is the passion it can engender in people. There will be plenty who vehemently disagree with this brief list of players (no Messi, no Garrincha, no Jairzinho etc etc) and that is why we love the game!