El Gunner's Top 20 Most Impressive Footballers of his lifetime

What does most impressive mean? Actual ability or enjoyment watching?

Im interested in the criteria for this list too

For me these lists are so hard to make because the way I perceive football now is completely different to the way I did 10 years ago, let alone 20+. I like watching old football matches from the 70s and 80s, but at the same time I hate it because the game has evolved so much since then so they look primitive. I wasn't alive to watch those games back then, so I'm watching them with a tactical eye from 2022 and trying to understand additional context based on older interviews, newspapers, and older fan opinions.

Post 2010s I view games with more of a tactical eye, so there are some players I like because they're tactically good, but maybe they aren't the most aesthetic pleasing. Then there are players in the early late 90s/2000s who I viewed with a casual eye, and I haven't really rewatched those games to make a new assessment on them with the knowledge I know now.

So it's hard for me to quantify a list based on 'ability'. Aesthetics might be easier, but aesthetics is linked to ability too. You can't make something look easy without having a high technical ability. So is it a question of who gets you off your seat? For example, I think Ronaldo became atrocious to watch the moment he sacrificed his general play to compete with Messi on goals. However, some of his clutch CL moments made me get off my seat even though they weren't technically pleasing.

In contrast, there's someone like Neymar who is so fun to watch, but seeing him go for the difficult option instead of the simpler one or lacking efficiency pisses me of in 2022, but if I was watching him in 2002 I'd think he'd be my favorite player.

My favorite kind of player is the complete 10/false 9. The reason they're my favorite is because I think they're the best players in an objective sense because they've mastered the attacking aspects of football. That's why my all-time top 5 is Messi, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, and Di Stefano. They were total footballers. They all had their own strengths and weaknesses where you can make the argument maybe one of them should be above the other. For instance, Di Stefano was the worst dribbler on that list, but he was probably the best conductor.

However, football pre 1970s just isn't a fun watch for me. The frame rate on cameras make the game look slower, its black and white, its tactically garbage, and the average players look worse even though the geniuses still stand out. That doesn't even take into account the leather ball, shitty pitches, and thug defending. Defending as a whole is hard for me to assess pre 1990.

That's why someone like Pele doesn't move me. His prime was early 60s Santos days so its hard to get footage of that, but even with what's available I didn't feel excited watching him. It's because of all the reasons in the paragraph above, but it was also because I felt his dribbling was clunky and he dribbled more than he should've given his actual dribbling ability. However, that's me viewing it with a 2022 tactical lens where you don't like players with high risk decision making (goes against Brazilian footballing culture anyway). Although tbf, there are moments from him where you understand why he's revered so much. His understanding of gravity and playing to the open man was Messi-esque. He was a ridiculous athlete (think prime CR). He was very complete as he could shoot with right, left, or his head. He'd do skill moves that you see players doing now. By all means he was ahead of his time, based on the eye test alone, and that's without looking into his stats or his trophies or his cultural influence. Yet he still wouldn't be top of my list when it came to aesthetics. Although that could just be because of when he played. If he played now, he would probably look closer to 90s R9, but a shorter and better playmaking version.

Another past player who didn't move me at all was Garrincha. The way he constantly ignored other options, so he could stop with the ball, then dribble on the outside, only to repeat the process again and again was annoying as hell from the lens of a modern fan. Although I can't hate on him either because he pioneered my favorite kind of wingers (1v1s who attack the byline not cut inside).

Past players who did move me are: Beckenbauer, Cruyff, and Maradona.

Beckanbauer carried the ball like Frenkie, but would pass it like Pirlo. He had his own trademark pass which was the outside of the boot pass, and just in general he was so graceful. Cruyff and Maradona were like Messi. They could dribble past 4-5 players, play a really creative pass from deep, and had the capacity to score at a high rate too. Those are my 3 favorite players from a historical eye test POV.

Where can one find old matches to watch Cas? I think I tried that some yrs back n it wasnt easy. Nowadays maybe they are on YT n east to find? Havent looked in a while...

I like naming lists like this, or used to a lot anyway, with much bias since I only watch mainly big teams n my fav ones, also not able to watch a lot of other leagues n teams due to coverage back then wasnt as easy as internet nowadays.

R9
Figo
Mcmanaman
Roberto Carlos
Rivaldo
Messi
Iniesta
Xavi
Bergkamp
CR
Modric
Seedorf
Suarez
Neymar
David Villa
Dani Alves
Benzema
Mbappe
Vini
De Bruyne

BarcaLearning wrote:Where can one find old matches to watch Cas? I think I tried that some yrs back n it wasnt easy. Nowadays maybe they are on YT n east to find? Havent looked in a while...

I like naming lists like this, or used to a lot anyway, with much bias since I only watch mainly big teams n my fav ones, also not able to watch a lot of other leagues n teams due to coverage back then wasnt as easy as internet nowadays.

R9
Figo
Mcmanaman
Roberto Carlos
Rivaldo
Messi
Iniesta
Xavi
Bergkamp
CR
Modric
Seedorf
Suarez
Neymar
David Villa
Dani Alves
Benzema
Mbappe
Vini
De Bruyne

If you're looking for individual highlights you can just search something on youtube like: 1974 Beckenbauer vs"

And you'll get his individual highlights from matches that year. If you're looking for full matches you can find them here: https://footballia.net/

Zico
Socrates
Romario
Platini
Van Basten
Zidane
Ronaldinho
Enzo Francescoli
Messi
R9
Ibrahimovic
CR
Batistuta
Rivaldo
Kaka
Ian Rush
Mbappe
Iniesta
Falcao (Brazil)
Maradona

And honestly, i could easily take this to 30. I didn't even include defenders, holding mids, keepers, etc.

Remove also Ibra in that case

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh to Muslim.
Good day to Others.

Mine:
1) Riquelme
2) Messi
3) Redondo
4) Aimar
5) D'Alessandro
6) Ortega
7) J. Zanetti
Batistuta
9) D. Milito
10) Tevez

Wallahu a'lam

In no particular order


Ronaldinho
Ibrahimovic
Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo
Gerrard
Totti
Pirlo
Kaka
Iniesta
Modric
Kroos
Rooney
Robben
Suarez
Lewandowski
Pogba
Marchisio
Chiellini
Buffon
Casillas


Hard to make this list i only include players whom i followed for a relevant part of their prime. That's why Del Piero, Nedved and Zidane for example did not make the cut... of course they have been decent at some point during my lifetime

It's also totally subjective because so many players have impressed me, sometimes intensely for very short periods, the honorable mentions are numerous. So i went with players whose game i've enjoyed the most.

Pogba is maybe controversial but i don't give a damn about his time at Toxic Utd

titosantill wrote:i know its your personal list and i can't object anyone's list but you must be argentine or you just really like argentine players for whatever reason.

Perhaps I'm under the latter category

Wallahu a'lam.

Never watched Juve much despite knowing them consistently making runs in the CL n dominating Serie A for long periods during that later 90s to mid 00s ish era? Despite Del Piero being great, he was mostly just a sub for Italy? A big no.9 + Totti were always preferred iirc. There were some players like that, real entertaining skillful flair players but prolly werent as impactful n consistent overall perhaps?

I evolved into Juve fan full time while Del Piero was already declining. But now that you mention it, maybe i should have included him instead of Pogba or Marchisio because i've still seen hours of footage and many matches too.

As i wrote the list i did not want to include players whose prime i've seen mostly in retrospect. My interest for football started around 12 years old before that hockey was really the only thing i cared about.

Not gonna do 20 but in no particular order:

Messi
Iniesta
Pirlo
Seedorf
Kaka
Pato
Robben
Ozil
Ronaldinho
Neymar
Balotelli


Balo and Pato are the odd ones out since they didn’t reach the heights of the other players. But when they were on form they really were a joy to watch, I wish their careers went better than it did. Other than that obviously I am a Milan fan and like creative midfielders and #10s, like most people here.

Casciavit wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:Where can one find old matches to watch Cas? I think I tried that some yrs back n it wasnt easy. Nowadays maybe they are on YT n east to find? Havent looked in a while...

I like naming lists like this, or used to a lot anyway, with much bias since I only watch mainly big teams n my fav ones, also not able to watch a lot of other leagues n teams due to coverage back then wasnt as easy as internet nowadays.

R9
Figo
Mcmanaman
Roberto Carlos
Rivaldo
Messi
Iniesta
Xavi
Bergkamp
CR
Modric
Seedorf
Suarez
Neymar
David Villa
Dani Alves
Benzema
Mbappe
Vini
De Bruyne

If you're looking for individual highlights you can just search something on youtube like: 1974 Beckenbauer vs"

And you'll get his individual highlights from matches that year. If you're looking for full matches you can find them here: https://footballia.net/

Thx Cas, trying to load the website but could be my slowass VPN, but does it need sign up to watch? Is it free? Being the bum that I am lol...