20. Giuseppe Meazza
When young Giuseppe was seven years old, he was sent to the 'open-air school’ in Milan – complete with football pitches, swimming pools and a zoo – in order to strengthen his weak lungs. The treatment worked spectacularly well. His mazy dribbling and clinical finishing were evident at youth level, so much so that La Gazetta were confident enough to write after his debut for Inter in 1910: "A star is born."
By the time he retired in 1947, he'd won two World Cups and a pair of league titles, while a popular song claimed that the graceful Meazza "scored to the rhythm of the foxtrot". Yet as with many Italian legends, he was a magnet for controversy.
Short, stocky and good-looking, Meazza was often compared in Italy with screen heart-throb Rudolf Valentino, and his hectic social life was an endless source of fascination for the Italian media. Meazza, who advertised both toothpaste and brilliantine, became stupendously rich both from the game and off-field endorsements. His name will forever be linked with the 1930s, when the Italian national team dominated world football. In 1980 the San Siro was post-humously named in his honour.
Career highlight: Starring in the Italy team that won back-to-back World Cups in 1934 and 1938.
19. Paolo Maldini
Both physically and mentally, he had everything, and the enjoyment he got from playing was as obvious at 40 years of age as it had been the day I first walked through the door at Milan.
Andrea Pirlo
“Paolo’s biological age is much younger than his actual age. The tests we have done now have scored much higher than three of four years ago,” said Adriano Galliani of the then-36-year-old in 2005.
Very few players reach the vaunted 1,000-game mark. Even fewer do so as a mainstay at one of European football’s gilded heavyweights. Maldini did both, winning seven league championships and a frankly staggering five European Cup/Champions League titles in the process. All the while he embodied the Milanese notion of grinta – ‘grit’ – but without sacrificing more typically Italian qualities of suave, refinement and immeasurable handsomeness.
His only relative disappointments came with Italy, who finished runners-up at the 1994 World Cup and at Euro 2000 (although his own displays were impeccable in both tournaments). If his retirement in 2009, at the age of 40, was proof of the inevitable effects of time, then the previous 25 years were equally good evidence for the very opposite: a player for whom age only served to sharpen his exquisite talents.
Career highlight: Helping Milan go unbeaten to win Serie A in 1991/92.
18. Bobby Charlton
Charlton’s aura was palpable. The ‘Busby Babe’ was thrown 40 yards clear of the wreckage in the 1958 Munich air crash, then learned the devastating news that many of his team-mates had perished. The trauma he suffered meant it took him several years to recover his confidence.
The tears he shed when United won the European Cup at Wembley in 1968 were of joy, but also of sadness for the memory of those friends and team-mates who would surely have won the trophy a decade or so before, were it not for the tragedy of Munich.
Charlton was also a key member of the 1966 England World Cup squad. His thunderous finish during a tense group stage defeat of Mexico was described by manager Alf Ramsey as “a wonderful sight for all Englishmen”, and his two crisp finishes in the semi-final against Portugal put England into the World Cup final. Although he and Franz Beckenbauer effectively cancelled each other out in the final, Charlton richly deserved the glory which came his way in ’66.
Bobby, who suffered such loss as a young man, will forever be remembered – perhaps more than anything – for those two defining matches at Wembley Stadium which created English football history.
Career highlight: His pivotal role in the 1968 European Cup final - heading United in front, then scoring again in extra time.
17. Garrincha
He could do things with the ball that no other player could do and without Garrincha, I would have never been a three-times world champion.
Pele
“In the entire history of football no one made more people happy,” said Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano. He was speaking about an angel. Not an ordinary one, but an angel with bent legs (in Portuguese, um anjo de pernas tortas).
Garrincha had several birth defects. His spine was crooked. His right leg bent inwards. His left leg was six centimeters (more than two inches) longer than the right, and curved outwards following childhood surgery.
Garrincha’s favorite trick was to run off, leaving the ball behind but taking his marker with him. He would return and do it again and again, before eventually going forward with the ball, leaving the duped defender stood still.
Struggling with his knees at the end of his career, his drinking caught up with him. He died at the age of just 49, leaving three ex-wives and 14 different children – one of them in Sweden – behind. Yet in Brazil, the angel is best remembered by his other nickname: Alegria do Povo. The Joy of the People.
Career highlight: After the Selecao lost Pele to injury early in the 1962 World Cup, Garrincha took hold of the team himself, ending as the tournament’s undoubted star man.
16. Eusebio
A goalscorer before his time, but also an athlete ahead of the curve. Eusebio was known as a near-perfect blend of speed and ability. Unanimously regarded as the first great footballer of African birth, he left his native Mozambique in the late 1950s to join Benfica. Between 1960 and 1975 he won 11 Primeira Liga championships, a European Cup and averaged more than a goal per game over six different seasons.
Although Portugal were ultimately knocked out in the semi-finals of the 1966 World Cup, he also won the Golden Boot and, until Cristiano Ronaldo's ascension, was inarguably the greatest Portugal international of all time.
Career highlight: For all of Cristiano Ronaldo’s achievements, only one Portuguese player has won the World Cup Golden Boot - Eusebio in 1966.
15. Zico
He’s the greatest Brazilian to never win a World Cup. Pele once said: “The one player that came closest to me in playing style was Zico.” He scored 333 goals at the famous Maracana stadium alone and guided Flamengo to four league titles, one Copa Libertadores and another Club World Cup in the '80s.
While Brazil's memorable World Cup campaign in 1982 ended in disappointment, Zico scored four times in his five appearances and was named in the team of the tournament. He also played in the 1986 World Cup, but was far from fully fit as Brazil lost to France in the quarter-finals.
Despite this, Brazilian fans would wish each other Happy Christmas to celebrate his birthday every March 3. You definitely don't get that for nothing, either.
Career highlight: The midfielder’s four goals in five appearances at the 1982 World Cup, even if it didn’t end with the trophy.
14. Marco van Basten
At once one of the most glorious footballers of the last half-century and one of the sport’s great what-if stories. In purely statistical terms, Van Basten’s career was fruitful by anyone’s standards.
He scored 301 goals and won two European Cups, 14 domestic trophies and three Ballon d’Ors. But these numbers are rendered doubly impressive due to how tragically truncated his time as a footballer was – he played his last game at the age of 28.
In the spirit of the Dutch footballing culture that he sprung from, Van Basten was staggeringly multi-talented, perhaps the most complete striker in history. Unlike many of his Dutch contemporaries, however, his position was very much unambiguous – he was an out-an-out centre-forward, a pure goalscorer. The ways by which he fulfilled his remit were many and varied.
Career highlight: There’s no debate. The greatest volley in his history, to confirm the Netherlands’ only major trophy, in the final of Euro 88.
13. Michel Platini
One of the most elegant midfielders in history, Michel Platini was deadly in front of goal, and possessed the mentality of a winner. That enabled him to excel everywhere he went, and to produce what was arguably the greatest-ever individual performance at an international tournament when he led France to Euro 84 triumph on home soil with nine goals in five matches.
Platini’s best games were saved for his national team, however, with whom he fronted of one of the best midfield trios ever alongside Alain Giresse and Jean Tigana. They came close at the 1982 World Cup, before dramatically losing to West Germany on penalties in the semi-final. Two years later, Platini was absolutely unstoppable during the Euros, scoring two hat-tricks against Belgium and Yugoslavia in the group stage, and eventually deciding the final against Spain with a free-kick.
Platini was the brightest star in the world back then, winning three Ballons d'Or consecutively in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Football lovers cried with him when France lost in the World Cup semi-finals again in 1986. A year later, he retired at the age of 32. It seemed a premature, cruel decision to the millions who got joy from watching him play.
Career highlight: Scoring the dramatic extra-time winner in France’s semi-final victory over Portugal at the Euros.
12. Ferenc Puskas
Puskas started playing for the national team aged 18, and found the net on his debut. Naturally: Puskas always scored. He averaged more than a goal per game throughout his illustrious career, including 87 goals in 85 caps for Hungary.
Four of them came at the 1954 World Cup, when Puskas proudly wore the captain's armband and opened the scoring in the final against West Germany after only six minutes. But sadly he wasn’t fully fit for that match, after sustaining a hairline fracture against the same opponents in the group stage. Hungary lost the final 3-2 in a notable upset.
After the revolution of 1956, he chose not to stay in Hungary and sought to continue his career abroad. Unfortunately for him, a subsequent UEFA ban meant it was a further two years before he was able to represent Real Madrid. He finally joined at the age of 31 in 1958, but still became one of their most prolific scorers in history with 242 goals in 262 appearances. His partnership with Alfredo Di Stefano was truly breathtaking, but he outlasted the great Argentine, staying until 1966.
Spain became his second country, and Puskas even represented them at the 1962 World Cup, albeit without success. His legacy is cherished in both Budapest and Madrid, and his unique style, scoring record and longevity confirm his place as one of the greatest players in history.
Career highlight: Taking England apart in Hungary’s 6-3 win at Wembley in 1953.
11. Gerd Muller
Quite simply, Gerd Muller was the greatest ever pure striker the world had ever seen. His technical skills were not sublime, and he was neither fast nor physically imposing, but the phenomenal German had the remarkable talent of being in the right place at the right time to put balls into nets. Nobody was capable of doing that like him.
His scoring record is astonishing. Muller netted 365 times in 427 Bundesliga matches for Bayern Munich, winning the title four times. He scored 40 goals in a single season in 1971/72. He then hit 67 goals in 49 games in all competitions in 1972/73. He scored in two of the three European Cup finals the Bavarians won between 1974 and 1976.
Muller was the top scorer at the 1970 World Cup with 10 goals in six matches. At Euro 72, he scored twice in the semi-finals against Belgium and twice more in the final against the Soviet Union as West Germany triumphed. Then he got the precious winner in the 1974 World Cup Final.
In short, he was unstoppable. Muller rarely scored brilliant goals and even looked a bit clumsy at times, but that didn't matter. His ability to react faster than anyone else around him, and to leap higher despite being under 5ft 10in tall, was breathtaking. Fans and team-mates alike adored his unique skills, which led to his nickname Der Bomber. There will never be another one like him.
Career highlight: After netting twice in the final of Euro 72, Der Bomber helped West Germany win the 1974 World Cup too, bagging the winner in Munich.
