When a manager has to choose between two excellent players in the same position, the Big Book of Football Cliches says we must always refer to this "selection headache" as a "good problem to have".
Having spent the past month trying to narrow down every male footballer ever into a list of 100, we at FourFourTwo now realise just what nonsense that is. Selection becomes near-impossible conundrum as you realise just how many outstanding footballers there have been, across continents and across decades.
Frankly, we could do another list of 100 great players not to even make the cut. But in the end, we're had to pick the players we feel were the most influential in their particular era, the most memorable, the players who awed us with their talent and their achievements. In short, the 100 greatest footballers ever. Then we had to put them into order.
So we totally understand if you have a different perspective on our list. Feel free to let us know your thoughts @FourFourTwo (#FFT100Greatest) as our countdown reaches its epochal finale.
Come back throughout the week as we reveal the full list.
The list
100 to 91 • 90 to 81 • 80 to 71 • 70 to 61 • 60 to 51 • 50 to 41 • 40 to 31 • 30 to 21
20 • 19 • 18 • 17 • 16 • 15 • 14 • 13 • 12 • 11 • 10 • 9 • 8 • 7 • 6 • 5 • 4 • 3 • 2 • 1
