The rankings of the best soccer players of all time have seen a lot of revisions throughout the history of the planet’s most popular sport. Currently, two of the greatest to ever do it, and one player who may top this list in the next decade, are still active and it could lead to even more changes down the line in these rankings of the greatest soccer players ever. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the best futbolers of all time.
Honorable mentions: Johan Cruyff, Ronaldo, Alfredo Di Stefano, Gerd Müller, and Paolo Maldini.
10. Neymar – 7-time European League champion
While he is behind Pele and Ronaldo on the list of all-time Brazilian soccer players, Neymar is still an iconic talent from the South American nation. While he has not won a Ballon d’Or during his distinguished career, he has done nothing but win championships wherever he has gone.
Neymar has two titles with FC Barcelona in a LaLiga, a Champions League title with the Spanish club, and has been a part of four straight Ligue 1 championship sides with French powerhouse Paris St-Germain. There have been few better players in the world during the 2010s than the latest Brazilian star with one name.
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Now, he will leave Ligue 1 and join Portuguese icon Cristiano Ronaldo — who is also on this list — in helping turn the uber-wealthy Saudi Professional League into one of the most well-known in the world.
9. Ferenc Puskás – 5 LaLiga titles
Ferenc Puskás put Eastern European futbol on the map as he became a superstar in his native Hungary and then went on to build a legendary career with LaLiga powerhouse Real Madrid. During his time with the club, he helped lead them to five championships as he built a reputation as one of the greatest strikers the sport has ever seen.
He also played a major role in Los Blancos’ three European Cup titles in a legendary run during the golden age of big-time soccer.
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8. Zinedine Zidane – 3 FIFA player of the year awards
Zinedine Zidane became a soccer demigod in France after bringing a FIFA World Cup championship home in 1998. However, along with ending the country’s championship drought, he won three FIFA World Player of the Year awards and reached rare air by winning Player of the Year honors in three of the top five leagues on the planet. Plus, he came up large in the biggest games. The proof is his place as the all-time scorer in the FIFA World Cup final games.
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7. Michel Platini – 3 Ballon d’Ors
Michel Platini was the greatest player in French football history for a very long time until Zinedine Zidane came on the scene. He won the Ballon d’Or (the sports world MVP award) three years in a row in the 1980s and, he was honored with the award for French Player of the Century.
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Not to be outdone, he is also in the Italian Football Hall of Fame. Easily making him one of the best soccer players of all time.
6. Franz Beckenbauer – 2 Ballon d’Ors, 1974 World Cup
While many amazing soccer players have competed in the history of the sport, few are as complete as Franz Beckenbauer. The German football icon is one of the nation’s first legendary talents and he helped bring them their second World Cup in 1974.
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Sure, there are better athletes in the game now, however in his era, there was really nothing the two-time Ballon d’Ors winner couldn’t do on the pitch. He was a great scorer, a fantastic defender, and most importantly, a wonderful leader for the German clubs he played on.
5. Kylian Mbappe – 2 World Cup Finals
While Kylian Mbappe is only 23 years old, he is arguably the greatest player on the planet today and is quickly on pace to become the best that France has ever produced. He was a teenager when he helped his country win a World Cup title in 2018 and has shown that was only the start as he helped lead them to the finals again in 2022.
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While Mbappe was unable to earn a second straight Cup title, it certainly wasn’t his fault. The Frenchman was the best player on the field, scoring all three of his country’s goals in their loss to Argentina. Kylian Mbappe could be at the top of this list by the team World Cup 2026 arrives.
4. Diego Maradona – FIFA goal of the century
Although he may not have a trophy case full of Ballon d’Or or FIFA Player of the Year trophies, Diego Maradona has one honor no one else has: FIFA Goal of the Century. He is adored around the world for his uncanny skills and is the icon of all sports icons in Argentina, for willing them to a World Cup championship almost singlehandedly.
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Plus, Maradona’s bad-boy side has always made him a bit of an old-school anti-hero superstar.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo – 5 Ballon d’Ors
Cristiano Ronaldo is the Lebron James of soccer. A freak athlete with incomparable gifts. The proof of his excellence shows in the fact that he has won an impressive five Ballon d’Or awards [second all-time] and owns the records for most goals and assists in the legendary Champions League.
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He is such a transcendent figure that he is even known to sports fans who have never seen him play. And like James, at 38 he has shown no signs of slowing down. That is why he is among the best soccer players of all time and why the Saudi Pro League gave him an absurd amount of money to help bring world-class prestige to their fledgling league.
2. Pele – FIFA Player of the Century
Pele is one of the most famous soccer players ever. Not only does he have the most goals in the history of Brazilian soccer — an amazing feat all to itself — but he has recorded the most goals on planet Earth (1279). He also has logged the most assists in FIFA World Cup history and helped lead his country to four World Cup titles. He was voted the FIFA Player of the Century, but the award that may say the most about him is landing a spot on TIME’s 100 Most Important People of the Twentieth Century list.
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With Pele’s passing after a battle with cancer at 82 in December, soccer fans are sure to be looking back on his distinguished career and his place among the greatest soccer players of all time. For many fans of the beautiful game, he will be seen as the best of them all because he was a one-of-a-kind sports star.
1. Lionel Messi – 8 Ballon d’Ors, 2022 World Cup
It would seem impossible that any player from Argentina could break through to a level to stand side-by-side with someone like Maradona, but Lionel Messi has done exactly that during his illustrious career. He scored the most goals in history for legendary club Barcelona FC, earned a record eight Ballon d’Ors, and will go down as the greatest player of his generation.
Messi is a once-in-a-lifetime talent who has excelled in an era where athletes are groomed to peak performance and molded into physical freaks. The one goal that has eluded him is a World Cup title and in 2022 his grand chase ended when he helped Argentina win their third Cup title, as he starred in the biggest game of his life and scored two goals.
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In 2023 he expanded on his legendary legacy by taking his talents to America and the MLS as a member of Inter Miami CF. So far so good as he has been utterly dominant during his short stint in the Western hemisphere’s top soccer league.