From Pelé to Messi — vote on the players who defined football. Agree or disagree and watch the order change in real time.
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Argentina · Forward
Widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, winning a record eight Ballon d'Or awards and completing his trophy collection with the 2022 FIFA World Cup, a player of supernatural vision, dribbling, and goalscoring whose dominance at Barcelona and beyond was unlike anything the sport had ever seen.
Ranked #1 by 1 voter with a 100% approval rate.
Brazil · Forward
Brazil's eternal king and for decades the undisputed greatest player in history, a three-time World Cup winner whose combination of technique, athleticism, and goalscoring genius made him football's first global superstar and a timeless symbol of the beautiful game.
Ranked #2 by 1 voter with a 100% approval rate.
Argentina · Midfielder
The most brilliantly gifted and emotionally compelling player in football history, whose 1986 World Cup performance is the greatest individual tournament showing the sport has ever witnessed, a flawed genius whose talent was so extraordinary it transcended everything around it.
Ranked #3 by 1 voter with a 100% approval rate.
Portugal · Forward
One of the two greatest players of the modern era, a five-time Ballon d'Or winner and the most prolific goalscorer in the history of the sport, a relentlessly driven athlete who won major trophies at Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus and broke every goalscoring record imaginable.
Ranked #4 by 1 voter with a 100% approval rate.
Netherlands · Forward
The prophet of Total Football and the player who most profoundly changed how football is played and understood, three-time Ballon d'Or winner and the spiritual father of every great team that Barcelona and the Netherlands have produced since his playing days.
Ranked #5 by 1 voter with a 0% approval rate.
Argentina/Spain · Forward
The Blond Arrow of Real Madrid, widely considered the most complete player football has ever produced, the driving force behind five consecutive European Cups in the 1950s and a player who could influence a match from every position on the field.
Ranked #6 by 1 voter with a 0% approval rate.
Germany · Defender
The Kaiser, football's first truly modern defender and the man who reinvented the libero position, twice a European Cup winner and World Cup champion as both player and manager, the most elegant and commanding football figure Germany has ever produced.
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Brazil · Forward
The Phenomenon, the greatest pure striker the game has ever seen at his devastating best, a two-time World Cup winner and two-time Ballon d'Or winner whose electric pace, balance, and finishing ability made him virtually unstoppable before injuries robbed the world of years of his genius.
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Hungary/Spain · Forward
The Galloping Major, one of football's most lethal finishers, who led Hungary's legendary Golden Team of the early 1950s and then won five European Cups with Real Madrid, leaving an extraordinary scoring record that places him among the game's all-time elite.
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Brazil · Forward
The Joy of the People, Brazil's other great genius alongside Pelé, a player of such astonishing natural dribbling ability that defenders had no answer to him, a two-time World Cup winner widely regarded as the greatest right winger in the history of football.
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France · Midfielder
France's greatest player and one of the most technically gifted footballers the world has ever seen, a World Cup and European Championship winner with France, a player of balletic touch and supreme intelligence who is the definitive bridge between eras of the sport.
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France · Midfielder
France's greatest player of the 20th century, a three-time consecutive Ballon d'Or winner between 1983 and 1985 and the creative fulcrum of Juventus' European triumphs, a midfielder of extraordinary vision, passing, and goalscoring ability who redefined the attacking midfield role.
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Soviet Union · Goalkeeper
The Black Spider, the only goalkeeper in history to win the Ballon d'Or, a Soviet giant who revolutionised goalkeeping with his commanding presence and athletic shot-stopping, universally acknowledged as the greatest goalkeeper who ever lived.
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Portugal · Forward
The Black Panther of Benfica, Portugal's first great football superstar and the 1966 World Cup Golden Boot winner, an electrifying striker of explosive pace, power, and ferocious finishing who was among the most feared forwards European football has ever seen.
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Germany · Forward
Der Bomber, the most instinctive goalscorer in the history of football, a two-time European Cup winner and 1974 World Cup champion who scored 68 international goals and set goalscoring records that stood for decades, a player of devastating efficiency.
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Netherlands · Forward
The most technically complete centre-forward of the modern era, a three-time Ballon d'Or winner whose aerial ability, first touch, and finishing made him the standard against which all strikers are still measured, before injuries cut his career heartbreakingly short.
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Italy · Defender
The greatest left-back and one of the greatest defenders in football history, spending his entire career at AC Milan across 25 years and winning five European Cups, a player of exceptional elegance, intelligence, and timing who set the standard for the position across four decades.
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Brazil · Midfielder
The most joyful and entertaining footballer of the 21st century, a two-time world player of the year whose peak at Barcelona from 2004 to 2006 produced football of such breathtaking skill and audacity that it convinced a generation that football was the most beautiful sport on earth.
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Spain · Midfielder
The greatest passing midfielder of the modern era and the metronome of football's most successful national team in history, winning two European Championships and a World Cup with Spain and three Champions Leagues with Barcelona, the man who defined the tiki-taka era.
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Italy · Defender
The most commanding sweeper football has ever produced, the defensive colossus who anchored AC Milan's legendary sides of the late 1980s and early 1990s, a player of such influence that Milan retired the number six shirt in his honour.
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Spain · Midfielder
The player who scored Spain's 2010 World Cup-winning goal and one of the most elegant and decisive midfielders football has ever seen, a three-time Champions League winner whose partnership with Xavi remains the most celebrated midfield combination in the sport's history.
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England · Midfielder
Manchester United's greatest player and England's most celebrated footballer of his generation, a 1966 World Cup winner and 1968 European Cup champion who survived the Munich air disaster to become the heart and soul of the most romantic story in English football history.
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Brazil · Midfielder
Brazil's White Pelé, one of the most gifted players the South American game has ever produced, a player of extraordinary technical ability, free-kick mastery, and goalscoring quality who is widely regarded as the finest Brazilian footballer never to win the World Cup.
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Germany · Midfielder
Germany's most decorated player and the only outfield footballer to win the Ballon d'Or in a World Cup year, a relentlessly competitive and tactically intelligent player who won eight Bundesliga titles and embodied German football's dominance for two decades.
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Northern Ireland · Forward
Perhaps the most naturally gifted European player of the 20th century, a European Cup winner with Manchester United in 1968 and 1968 Ballon d'Or winner, a player of breathtaking skill, pace, and improvisation who is still spoken of with reverence more than half a century after his peak.
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Croatia · Midfielder
The greatest Croatian footballer of all time, a four-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid and the man who broke the Messi-Ronaldo Ballon d'Or duopoly in 2018 after leading Croatia to the World Cup final, a midfielder of exceptional endurance, vision, and technical ability.
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Netherlands · Midfielder
The most physically imposing and technically gifted player of his era, a 1987 Ballon d'Or winner and captain of the Netherlands side that won the 1988 European Championship, a player who combined power, pace, and extraordinary skill in a way that was simply impossible to handle at his best.
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Italy · Forward
Italy's Divine Ponytail, a player of magical technique and emotional intensity who carried Italy almost single-handedly to the 1994 World Cup final and is adored as the most gifted Italian player of the modern era, a Ballon d'Or winner defined by moments of genius and heartbreak.
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France · Forward
Arsenal's greatest player and France's all-time top scorer, one of the most devastating forwards in Premier League history whose combination of explosive pace, clinical finishing, and intelligent movement made him the most complete striker of his generation in European football.
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Brazil · Midfielder
The last great traditional number ten before Messi and Ronaldo reshaped the game, a 2007 Champions League winner with AC Milan and 2007 Ballon d'Or winner, a player of extraordinary elegance, pace, and grace who for two years was universally acknowledged as the best footballer on earth.
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Brazil · Defender
The most explosive left-back in football history, whose impossible free-kick against France in 1997 became one of the defining images of his era, a serial Champions League winner and World Cup champion whose attacking raids down the flank redefined what a full-back could offer.
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Brazil · Defender
The greatest right-back in football history and the only player to appear in three consecutive World Cup finals, a tireless and technically brilliant full-back whose combination of pace, crossing, and defensive solidity made him the undisputed master of his position.
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Spain · Midfielder
One of the most elegant and commanding midfielders of the modern era, a World Cup and two European Championship winner with Spain and a Champions League winner with both Liverpool and Real Madrid, a player whose range of passing and defensive intelligence set him apart from his contemporaries.
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Germany · Forward
West Germany's most important player of the late 1970s and early 1980s, a two-time consecutive Ballon d'Or winner and the leader of a Bayern Munich side that dominated European football, a striker who took Germany to two World Cup finals and one European Championship.
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Italy · Goalkeeper
Italy's greatest goalkeeper and one of the finest custodians in the history of the sport, a 2006 World Cup winner and the backbone of Juventus' domestic dominance for two decades, a player who combined outstanding shot-stopping with an unshakeable command of his penalty area.
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Brazil · Forward
Brazil's most naturally gifted centre-forward, a 1994 World Cup winner of terrifying unpredictability and finishing ability in and around the penalty area, whose partnership with Bebeto was one of the most lethal attacking combinations in World Cup history.
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England · Midfielder
The most culturally significant footballer of his generation and one of the great dead-ball specialists in history, a Champions League winner with Manchester United whose crossing and set-piece ability were at the very highest level the game has seen.
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Spain · Goalkeeper
The greatest Spanish goalkeeper of all time, winning two European Championships and a World Cup with Spain and two Champions League titles with Real Madrid, the inspired last line of defence behind the most successful international team football has ever seen.
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Germany · Goalkeeper
The man who reinvented goalkeeping for the modern era, pioneering the sweeper-keeper role at the highest level and winning a Champions League title and World Cup with Germany, a goalkeeper of such authority that he changed how the position is understood across the world.
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Italy · Midfielder
The most elegant deep-lying playmaker of the modern era, a 2006 World Cup winner with Italy and Champions League winner with AC Milan, whose ability to dictate tempo from the base of midfield with exquisite passing made him one of the most admired players of his generation.
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Brazil · Forward
A Ballon d'Or winner in 1999 and World Cup champion in 2002, a player of extraordinary two-footedness and improvised genius who produced some of the most memorable moments of the Barcelona era at the turn of the millennium.
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Bulgaria · Forward
Bulgaria's greatest footballer and one of the most electrifying attackers of the 1990s, a 1994 Ballon d'Or winner and the inspiration behind Bulgaria's miraculous World Cup semi-final run the same year, a player of fierce competitive spirit and exceptional technical quality.
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Spain · Forward
Real Madrid's greatest player of the modern era before Ronaldo, a three-time Champions League winner and the club's all-time record scorer for over a decade, a forward of intelligent movement, clinical finishing, and deep tactical understanding.
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Sweden · Forward
The most dominant centre-forward of the 2000s and 2010s, a player who won league titles in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France, and England across a career of extraordinary longevity, combining physical power with acrobatic technique and outrageous audacity.
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Brazil · Forward
Brazil's most gifted player since Ronaldinho and a Champions League winner with Barcelona in 2015, a player of dazzling natural ability who at his peak was considered by many to be the best in the world and who carried the weight of an entire nation's footballing expectations.
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England · Defender
England's greatest defender and one of the most composed players football has ever produced, the World Cup-winning captain of England in 1966 whose elegant reading of the game and immaculate positioning defined a generation.
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Brazil · Midfielder
Brazil's football philosopher, a player of extraordinary elegance and vision who captained one of the most celebrated sides never to win the World Cup in 1982 and became a global symbol of intelligent, attacking football and the beauty of the game.
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Spain · Defender
The most successful Spanish defender in football history, a four-time Champions League winner and two-time World Cup and European Championship winner who combined ferocious intensity with technical excellence to become the defining central defender of his era.
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Italy · Defender
Italy's World Cup-winning captain of 2006 and the last defender to win the Ballon d'Or, a player of exceptional positional sense, aerial ability, and reading of the game who was the cornerstone of the most organised Italian defensive unit of the modern era.
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Brazil · Defender
The captain of Brazil's legendary 1970 World Cup side, whose thunderous finish in the final against Italy remains the most celebrated goal in World Cup history, a right-back of extraordinary attacking quality who embodied the total football of that immortal team.
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Italy · Defender
The most graceful and technically refined central defender of his generation, a two-time Champions League winner with AC Milan and World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, a player whose anticipation, composure, and heading ability made him the purest expression of defensive artistry.
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Brazil · Midfielder
The midfield maestro of Brazil's first two World Cup-winning teams in 1958 and 1962, a player of extraordinary elegance whose falling leaf free-kick technique was entirely his own invention and who is considered the greatest Brazilian midfielder of the pre-Cruyff era.
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Spain · Forward
Real Madrid's most decorated player with a record six European Cup medals, a left winger of devastating pace and tireless industry who was the one constant across the entirety of Real Madrid's great European era of the 1950s and 1960s.
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Italy · Forward
Italy's first great football superstar, the creative genius behind two consecutive World Cup triumphs in 1934 and 1938 and the player after whom the San Siro is named, still considered the greatest Italian player of the pre-war era.
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Ukraine · Forward
Ukraine's most celebrated footballer, a 2003 Champions League winner with AC Milan and 2004 Ballon d'Or winner whose combination of pace, technique, and finishing ability made him the most feared centre-forward in European football at his absolute peak.
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Denmark · Midfielder
Denmark's greatest footballer and one of the most elegant playmakers the European game has ever produced, a key figure in Cruyff's Barcelona Dream Team and a player so admired for his vision and touch that Andrés Iniesta once called him the greatest player in history.
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France · Midfielder
The most imposing and complete box-to-box midfielder of the Premier League era, the dominant force in Arsenal's title-winning sides and a World Cup and European Championship winner with France, combining physical dominance with exceptional technical quality and leadership.
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Uruguay · Forward
One of the most prolific and dangerous forwards of the modern era, a Champions League winner with Barcelona in 2015 and one of the most clinical and creative strikers of his generation, a player of intense desire and extraordinary technical quality whose goal record speaks for itself.
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Cameroon · Forward
Africa's greatest footballer and one of the most complete forwards the game has seen, winning back-to-back Champions League titles with Barcelona and a third with Inter Milan in the 2010 treble, a player of exceptional pace, power, and technical quality.
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Ivory Coast · Forward
Chelsea's greatest player and Africa's most celebrated footballing icon of the 21st century, whose headed equaliser and winning penalty in the 2012 Champions League final encapsulated a career built on decisive moments of devastating power and nerve.
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England · Midfielder
Liverpool's greatest modern player and one of English football's most complete midfielders, an inspirational captain who almost single-handedly drove the club to the 2005 Champions League title in one of the sport's most extraordinary nights of individual leadership.
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England · Midfielder
Chelsea's all-time record scorer and the most prolific goalscoring midfielder in Premier League history, a Champions League winner who combined stamina, intelligence, and technical quality to become one of the most complete midfielders English football has ever produced.
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Netherlands · Midfielder
The only player in history to win the UEFA Champions League with three different clubs — Ajax, Real Madrid, and AC Milan — a box-to-box midfielder of extraordinary power, technique, and footballing intelligence whose longevity at the very top level is virtually unmatched.
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Italy · Forward
The hero of Italy's 1982 World Cup triumph, whose hat-trick against Brazil propelled Italy to glory and earned him both the Golden Boot and the Ballon d'Or, a striker who defined an era with a single tournament of devastating clinical efficiency.
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Germany · Forward
Germany's greatest World Cup goalscorer and the all-time record scorer in World Cup history with 16 goals, a player of exceptional movement, timing, and aerial ability who was the consistent backbone of the most successful period in German international football.
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Italy · Forward
A key figure in Inter Milan's legendary Grande Inter side that won back-to-back European Cups in the 1960s, a player of exceptional technical refinement and goalscoring ability who was one of the most admired footballers of his generation in European football.
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France · Forward
France's first great football star, a European Cup winner with Real Madrid alongside Di Stéfano and Puskás and the 1958 Ballon d'Or winner, a player of elegance, dribbling, and vision who placed French football firmly on the continental map.
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England · Forward
England's most dynamic and energetic player of the late 1970s, a two-time consecutive Ballon d'Or winner in 1978 and 1979 who won European Cups with Liverpool and the Bundesliga with Hamburg, a forward of irresistible commitment who was the most popular player of his era.
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Germany · Defender
Germany's most complete defender of the modern era, a World Cup winner in 2014 and one of the finest full-backs the game has produced, a player of exceptional tactical intelligence equally effective at right-back and central midfield at the very highest level.
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Brazil · Forward
The Hurricane, the only player in history to have scored in every match of a World Cup finals tournament, achieving the feat with Brazil's legendary 1970 side, a right winger of extraordinary pace, power, and finishing who embodied the total football of the greatest team the sport has ever seen.
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Liberia · Forward
Africa's greatest footballer of the 20th century and the only African player ever to win the Ballon d'Or, a powerful and technically gifted striker who captivated European football with his performances at Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan across a decade of outstanding achievement.
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Mexico · Forward
Mexico's greatest footballer and one of the most prolific and acrobatic forwards in the history of La Liga, a five-time consecutive Pichichi winner with Real Madrid during the late 1980s, a player whose bicycle kicks, technique, and consistency made him one of Spain's most celebrated adopted footballers.
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Portugal · Forward
Portugal's most celebrated player before Cristiano Ronaldo and one of the finest wingers of his generation, the 2000 Ballon d'Or winner whose extraordinary vision, balance, and delivery made him one of the most admired players in the world at his peak.
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Peru · Midfielder
Peru's greatest footballer, the only non-German player in history to have scored five or more goals at two separate World Cup tournaments — in 1970 and 1978 — a player who dazzled on the world stage with extraordinary technical quality and creative intelligence.
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Netherlands · Midfielder
The engine of Cruyff's great Ajax and Netherlands sides, a midfielder of tireless energy and exceptional quality who scored the first penalty in a World Cup final, a crucial and often undervalued figure in the greatest football movement of the 20th century.
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Italy · Goalkeeper
Italy's legendary goalkeeper and the oldest World Cup-winning captain in history at 40 years of age in 1982, a player of remarkable consistency who went 1,143 minutes without conceding an international goal between 1972 and 1974 in one of the most remarkable defensive records the sport has seen.
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Italy · Defender
The revolutionary left-back who transformed the full-back position by combining defensive solidity with adventurous attacking play, a European Cup winner with Inter Milan's Grande Inter side widely credited with inventing the modern attacking full-back role.
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Cameroon · Forward
Cameroon's greatest footballer and the player who gave Africa its first iconic World Cup moment, scoring four goals at Italia 1990 with his famous corner-flag celebration at the age of 38, a player who brought joy to the world and demonstrated that the African game had fully arrived on the greatest stage.
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France · Forward
The most electrifying young player to emerge in world football in a generation, a World Cup winner with France at 19 years of age in 2018 and the most prolific goalscorer in the history of the French national team, a player of supernatural pace and finishing expected to define football for the coming decade.
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Netherlands · Defender
The most commanding and dominant central defender of the Premier League era, the cornerstone of Klopp's Liverpool and a 2019 Champions League winner who came closer to winning the Ballon d'Or than any defender in the modern era, a player of exceptional aerial ability, composure, and leadership.
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Portugal · Midfielder
Portugal's most elegant player of his generation, the creative playmaker who captivated European football with his performances at Fiorentina and AC Milan, a player whose range of passing and artistic vision placed him among the finest attacking midfielders the Portuguese game has produced.
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Wales · Forward
Wales's greatest footballer and one of the most decisive players in Champions League history, a four-time winner with Real Madrid whose overhead kick in the 2018 final in Kyiv confirmed his place among the elite of his generation.
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Argentina · Defender
Inter Milan's legendary captain and one of the most consistent and respected players in the history of the sport, a key figure in the club's 2010 treble-winning season and a player who embodied loyalty, professionalism, and excellence across 19 seasons of elite football.
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Slovenia · Goalkeeper
One of the finest goalkeepers of the modern era and the record holder for Zamora Trophy wins in La Liga, the defensive bedrock of Atlético Madrid under Diego Simeone and widely regarded as one of the two or three best goalkeepers in the world across the past decade.
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Nigeria · Forward
Nigeria's most celebrated footballer, an Olympic gold medallist in 1996 and a double Premier League and FA Cup winner with Arsenal, a player of extraordinary technique and composure who became one of Africa's most admired footballers and remains one of the most skilful the continent has produced.
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Bulgaria · Forward
One of the most technically gifted strikers of the Premier League era, a champion with Manchester United and a player whose languid elegance concealed an extraordinary quality of touch, finish, and movement that made him one of the most admired forwards of his generation.
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ClubsDynasties, treble winners and once-in-a-generation sides. Vote for the clubs that shaped the game.
StadiumsCathedrals of the game. Vote for the grounds with the greatest history and atmosphere in world football.
ManagersThe minds that rewrote how football is played. Vote for the managers who changed everything.
