70. Cafu
No other footballer has ever played in three World Cup finals. Cafu did – and won two of them, in 1994 and 2002. His compatriots always liked to say that the right-back had a pulmao invejavel (in English, an enviable lung capacity) as he showed such staggering pace and stamina. The Brazilian also became known as Pendolino during his time in Italy, after the country’s high-speed train. Cafu spent six successful years at Roma and was later a member of the Milan side which beat Liverpool to win the Champions League in 2007.
Career highlight: His celebration after the 2002 World Cup final is popular in Brazil. He stood on the victory podium and, as he raised the trophy, shouted to his wife, "Regina, eu te amo" (“Regina, I love you").
69. Jose Andrade
Although skinny and slight, the defensive midfielder dominated with his athleticism as Uruguay impressed in the late 1920s at the Olympics and at the 1930 World Cup.
As football wasn't yet professional in his native country, Andrade also worked as a street musician and shoe-shiner while turning out for Nacional and Penarol. The ‘Black Pearl’ gained notoriety at the 1924 Olympics for daring to throw rocks back at hostile Argentina fans, who'd pelted the visitors with them before the match. Uruguay's victory in the 1930 World Cup Final over their South American rivals gave him a huge sense of pleasure.
Career highlight: In the process of winning the 1924 Olympic football gold medal, Andrade also became the first black footballer to play at the Games.
68. John Charles
In 1997, Il Buon Gigante – the Gentle Giant – pipped both Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini to the title of Juventus fans’ greatest-ever foreign player. A world-record £65,000 signing from Leeds in 1957, Charles scored 108 goals in 155 matches for Juve. He also won two league titles in Italy, while demonstrating that big men (he was 6ft 2in and 14 stone) could indeed possess a sublime touch.
Danny Blanchflower reckoned Charles, who also represented Wales at the 1958 World Cup, was the “most instinctive player I ever saw”.
Career highlight: Charles served notice of his extraordinary versatility at Leeds when, after being converted from an outstanding centre-half into a centre-forward during the 1952/53 season, he went on to score 42 goals in 1953/54.
67. Jose Manuel Moreno
A striker of incredible talent, Moreno was the lynchpin of the so-called La Maquina (The Machine), the great River Plate team of the 1940s that was hugely important to the tactical development of South American and world football. The team were the first to frequently exchange positions in attack.
Moreno seemingly had no weaknesses as a player, showing sublime technical skills, physical strength and vision to lead his team to six championship titles. Later on, he won league titles in Mexico, Chile and Colombia as well – becoming the first ever footballer to do so in four countries.
Career highlight: Moreno represented Argentina at four Copa America tournaments, leading them to two titles in 1941 and 1947.
66. Gordon banks
Creator of the most watched goalkeeping highlight in history, Banks’s top-flight career was spent between Leicester and Stoke. England secured his legacy, though. A World Cup winner in 1966, he made arguably the most acclaimed save in the game’s history from Pele in 1970 and, ironically, would have his worth emphasised in absentia later in the same tournament.
Banks was taken ill before England’s quarter-final with West Germany; Peter Bonetti deputised and inadvertently assisted the loss of a 2-0 lead by making one of the most notorious errors in the national team’s history.
Career highlight: The save. The World Cup win secured his legacy, but the final itself has always been defined by Geoff Hurst’s goals, the images of the Bobby Moore and Kenneth Wolstenholme’s commentary. His denial of Pele, though, is Banks’s signature moment alone.
65. Denis Law
There wasn't a more thrilling sight in the 1960s and early '70s than the vision of 'The Lawman' triumphantly punching his right fist into the air after plundering one of his 237 goals in 404 Manchester United appearances.
Law netted United's first goal in the 1963 FA Cup Final, won two league titles with Matt Busby's men, and dovetailed perfectly with the other two members of the 'Holy Trinity' - George Best and Bobby Charlton. Having unluckily missed out on the European Cup final triumph in 1968 with injury, Law nonetheless played on into the technicolor '70s, before enjoying a second spell at rivals Manchester City.
Career highlight: Law was United's top scorer during their title-winning 1964/65 campaign, winning the Ballon d'Or in the process.
64. Johan Neeskens
A tireless midfielder, equally able to score goals, provide assists and close gaps in defence, Neeskens was perfect for the Total Football ideas of Ajax and the national team. Nicknamed the Second Johan, he was the best possible partner for Johan Cruyff, covering ground for the maestro and feeding him with countless balls.
Unsurprisingly, Neeskens moved to Barcelona in 1974, a year after his friend and having won three European Cups in a row at Ajax. He also followed Cruyff to the NASL, starring for New York Cosmos.
Career highlight: Neeskens is best remembered for scoring a second-minute penalty in the 1974 World Cup final against West Germany, which sadly for the Dutch wasn't enough in the end.
63. Gunnar Nordahl
With 210 Serie A goals, Nordahl is the greatest Milan scorer of all time, and nobody – not even Andriy Shevchenko – could ever come close to his achievement. The powerfully built Swede was the top scorer in Italy five times during the six-year period between 1950 and 1955 – also an unprecedented feat.
Such was his initial success that Milan signed two of his compatriots, Nils Liedholm and Gunnar Gren. Together they formed the famous Gre-No-Li partnership, one of the best footballing trios ever. Nordahl won the championship title twice with Milan and remains the top-scoring foreign player in the history of Italian football.
Career highlight: Nordahl was brilliant for his national team as well, with 43 goals in 33 games. His contribution was crucial when Sweden won gold at the 1948 Olympics.
62. Ronald Koeman
There is no modern equivalent to Ronald Koeman. Think of Sergio Ramos in his prime with the mind of Cristiano Ronaldo.
Still the top-scoring defender in the history of the game, Koeman was integral to Johan Cruyff's Dream Team and the man who scored Barcelona's first-ever European Cup winner. Sure, the headlines were all about his rocketing free-kicks and blasts from distance – but he was a brilliant sweeper too whose reading of the game was sublime. It's ridiculous to think a player in his position could manage over 250 career goals.
Career highlight: That goal against Sampdoria in the final European Cup final before the rebrand. It changed the trajectory of an entire football club.
61. Neymar
While Neymar hasn't quite lived up to the potential he promised when first breaking through at Santos, he's still done quite well for himself. Not just a flamboyant showman looking to produce the best Samba tricks possible, Neymar also had great, underrated effiency: in just four seasons at Barcelona he struck over 100 goals, forming part of that formidable MSN forward line alongside Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi to win the La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey treble in just their first season playing together.
Career highlight: For all of the trophies he has won, becoming Brazil's all-time top goalscorer in 2023, surpassing Pele at the top of the list, is a remarkable feat considering the nation's rich attacking history.
