Ranked! The 10 best Brazilian players ever

Identifying the best Brazilian players ever is a difficult task.

World Cup 2026 seems unlikely to change the picture but might we have said the same before 1970 or 1994 or 2002? Quite possibly. Brazil might surprise us all in North America. It will be the only way there's a new entry into the top 10.

These 10 players helped to construct Brazil's formidable reputation as football's spiritual home and their status as the most successful team in the history of the World Cup. They've done it in style.

10. Kaka

Cristiano Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or in 2008. Lionel Messi won his in 2009. The rivals went on to dominate the game but the man who trapped the golden ball in 2007 was one of Brazil's finest modern megastars.

AC Milan signed Kaka for just €8.5m in 2003 and it proved to be one of the bargains of the century. The midfield wizard led the Rossoneri to Champions League glory in 2007 and was untouchable on his day.

Kaka's blend of physicality and technicality made him a remarkable talent but knee injuries blighted the end of his prime. He couldn't replicate his Milan form at Real Madrid but he was a true phenomenon.

9. Jairzinho

Jairzinho was a devastatingly quick and famously clinical forward – you don't get a nickname like 'The Hurricane' easily – and formed a lethal front line with Pele and Tostao.

One of the brightest stars of Brazil's World Cup-winning team in 1970 and the scorer of a wonderful goal to knock out 1966 winners England, Jairzinho became the only player to score in every match on the way to winning football's biggest prize. He still stands alone in that regard.

8. Socrates

The captain of Brazil's star-studded but under-decorated team of the 1980s, Socrates made the no-look backheel pass something of a signature move.

He barely needed the elevated distinctiveness. Socrates wore a famous beard and headband combination and was an elegant ball player and a terrific reader of the game.

Socrates was also a qualified doctor who made a major impact off the field, co-founding the football-rooted Corinthians Democracy movement in opposition to Brazil's military government.

7. Zico

Often referred to as the greatest Brazilian footballer never to have won the World Cup, Zico burst onto the scene in the early 1980s and slapped with the expectation of being the 'New Pele'.

He scored 333 goals at the famous Maracana alone and was not short of success at club level. Zico led Rio de Janeiro titans Flamengo to four league titles, a Copa Libertadores triumph and a win in the Club World Cup in 1981. Kenny Dalglish and Liverpool will remember his Man of the Match display with some clarity even now.

6. Rivaldo

Rivaldo could do the lot. A set piece master and ferocious distance shooter, he possessed a devastating change of direction and was regarded as one of the most skilled players on the planet in the 1990s.

The Brazilian forward led Barcelona to the title in La Liga and also bagged Copa America with his country on the way to picking up the Ballon d'Or in 1999.

His hat-trick against Valencia in 2001 concluded with an overhead kick from the edge of the box is among the best there's ever been, but it was as one component of a remarkable front three with Ronaldinho and Ronaldo that he won the World Cup in 2002 and cemented his legend.

5. Romario

The undeniable king of World Cup 1994 and consequently its Player of the Tournament, Romario was a cool and clinical finisher with terrific natural ability and a ton of swagger.

Romario's 55 goals in 70 caps leave him behind only Pele, Ronaldo and Neymar in Brazil's all-time rankings, while he scored for fun to win league titles with Vasca da Gama, PSV and Barcelona.

4. Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho was one of football's great natural entertainers. The smiling magician was able to draw moments of otherworldly genius from a dazzling box of tricks, yet played with purpose. He wasn't just great to watch. He was impossible to stop and horrible to play against too.

After winning the World Cup in 2002, Ronaldinho scored 50 goals in two seasons for Barcelona. The club won the Champions League and Ronaldinho won the Ballon d'Or in 2005.

3. Garrincha

Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano claimed that "in the entire history of football no one made more people happy" than Brazilian great Garrincha.

Known as the 'Bent-Legged Angel' on account of his being born with a crooked spine and uneven legs, Garrincha's unpredictable but sensational dribbling ability allowed him to make a fool out of a defender for fun.

He was a major contributor in Brazil's success at the World Cup in 1958. In the absence of Pele four years later, Garrincha almost single-handedly dragged the Selecao to a remarkable title defence.

2. Ronaldo

'O Fenomeno' lived up to his nickname and ensured that it would be famous around the world at a young age. Ronaldo was an unused teenager at World Cup 1994 but was crowned FIFA World Player of the Year for the first time just two years later, at the age of 20.

Justly regarded as one of the sport's all-time greatest strikers, Ronaldo would go on to win the Ballon d'Or twice and became the World Cup's record scorer, a record he lost to Miroslav Klose of Germany in 2014.

Renowned for his explosive pace and unwavering, lethal eye for goal, Ronaldo ended his career with a pair of World Cup Golden boots, a World Cup win with his imprint all over it in 2002, and 420 goals in a career that took him to Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid despite a plague of injury problems.

1. Pele

They don't make footballers like Pele very often.

At the age of 17, Edson Arantes do Nascimento scored six goals at World Cup 1958 in Sweden, made himself the youngest player to score at the World Cup final to help clinch a maiden World Cup win for Brazil, and was only just getting started.

The legendary Santos forward won the World Cup again in 1962 and 1970, albeit with limited impact in the case of the former, and remains the only player in history with three World Cup wins.

Pele spearheaded Santos' golden era too. They won everything there was to win in 1962 and 1963 including the Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup, and he retired claiming 1,279 goals at the end of a genuinely unique and historic football career.