Measuring the best football players of all time is an impossible task spanning era, position, impact and legacy.
And now feels as good a time as any: World Cup 2026 feels like the last dance for two prominent stars on this list (perhaps more, we won’t give it away), as we assess the history of the sport in the context of the biggest tournament it has ever seen.
So strap in, as we deliver the ultimate GOAT list… tell us how we did in the comments.
After last completing this list in 2022 FourFourTwo assembled an esteemed team of expert voices in the industry to reassess the list.
Footballers in this countdown are judged by their ability and impact on the game purely in their playing career (we’re not giving extra points to football based on their celebrity status or managerial achievements), regardless of their position or the era in which they played.
Longevity is considered, of course, while we have looked upon those who perhaps burned brighter at higher peaks. Statistics, of course, matter – but then so does the pure joy, fear or magic that a player evoked: and our experts convened for hours to reorder this list according to who impacted the game most over the past century and a half.
Simply, you cannot possibly tell the story of the world’s favourite sport as we know it without this century of names: and this is the story of football…
100. Mohamed Salah
By the time Mohamed Salah left Liverpool in 2026, there was nothing left to win; nothing left to prove.
The arrived with question marks, scored on his debut and never looked back: he became a cultural icon as much as he did a terrifying prospect for any left-back to deal with, and in a little under a decade, he defined consistency in English football during a golden era for the game.
In terms of pure numbers, Salah ranks a rung below Ronaldo and Messi and above practically everyone else in Prem history. He is undoubtedly the biggest star to have ever come out of the Arab world and his legacy will only grow with future generations.
Career highlight: A stunning debut season at Anfield in which he smashed the record most goals in a Premier League season was actually eclipsed in terms of individual impact in 2024/25, with Salah single-handedly dragging the Reds to another title.
99. Gheorghe Hagi
With one of the odder career trajectories among modern-day greats, Hagi spent the best part of a decade as an impossibly prolific attacking midfielder in Romania’s top flight before two hit-and-miss years at Real Madrid and later a similar spell at Barcelona.
Sandwiched between his time at the two Spanish giants was a heartwarming two years in Italy, where he was part of Mircea Lucescu’s ‘Little Romania’ contingent at Brescia. He endured relegation in his first season but stayed loyal to the club despite better offers, and fired them back into Serie A.
Aged 30 and supposedly winding down towards retirement, he joined Galatasaray, where he spent a laughably fruitful half-decade cementing living-legend status and hoovering up another 10 medals.
Career highlight: USA 94, when Romania reached the quarter-final of the World Cup (knocking out Argentina on the way), inspired by Hagi and his magical left foot.
98. Kylian Mbappe
“1998 was a great year for French football,” a Nike advertising campaign once claimed. “Kylian Mbappe was born.”
Simply, if Ronaldo Nazario’s globe-torching superpowers of 1998 led to his O Fenomeno nickname, this boy born that year is La Phénomène of the millennial age: the youngest player on our list has achieved more in 28 short years than some footballers do in whole lifetimes.
A wonderkid, a record breaker a few times over, a Galactico and the captain of his country, all with electric speed, prolific finishing and a swagger that simply doesn’t come around very often. Mbappe has defined the post Ronaldo/Messi era with similar output and impact to his predecessors. There’s plenty more time to write a couple more chapters, too…
Career highlight: Winning the World Cup in 2018 with France. Yes, he’d scoop the Golden Boot four years later as the most deadly attacker in world football – but in terms of pure adrenaline, Mbappe still peaked at 19.
97. Mario Kempes
Only four Argentines have been crowned as top scorer in La Liga, and Kempes is one of them. He was feared as a burly and effective striker for Valencia, scoring at will, especially in 1976/77 and 1977/78. Kempes also led the club to a European Cup Winners’ Cup triumph in 1980.
However, he is best known for his explosive finishes during the 1978 World Cup on home soil. He nabbed six goals and was top scorer of the tournament. In doing so he picked up the Golden Ball, too, becoming just the third player to have lifted the trophy and both awards at a single World Cup, along with Garrincha and Paolo Rossi.
Career highlight: How about scoring two goals in a World Cup final for a highlight? Kempes netted twice against Holland, including the all-important winner in extra time.
96. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Never has anyone backed up the bulls**t like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a monarch among journeymen who seemed to make elite institutions his backyard.
He scored in every major derby in world football, won every domestic worth having his hands on, and he did so with his idiosyncratic style. In the advent of Web 2.0, Ibrahimovic completely embraced the memes – but as a footballer, how many centre-forwards have led the line with such elegance and ego in abundance? A unique footballer we may never see the like of ever again.
Career highlight: It was a friendly, but his four-goal haul against England in 2012 was Zlatan distilled: acrobatic, graceful and physically imposing, with all the outrageousness you’d associate with the man himself.
95. Teofilo Cubillas
The greatest Peruvian player in history, Cubillas is remarkably the only non-German to have scored at least five goals at two different World Cup tournaments, in 1970 and 1978 (he scored five in both).
Blessed with outstanding vision and a powerful shot, he was a phenomenal set-piece specialist, usually striking the ball with the inside of his foot. Having scored at will for his beloved Allianza Lima, he was also successful at Porto and later played at Fort Lauderdale Strikers alongside George Best.
Career highlight: Cubillas led Peru to their second (and the last so far) Copa America triumph in 1975, where they beat the mighty Brazil in the semi-finals.
94. Sergio Ramos
He was a flawed footballer prone to a booking – even once picking up one on purpose to engineer a suspension when he wanted it – not to mention a clumsy challenge or two over the years.
But a centre-back may never have affected the game as much as Sergio Ramos, with over 100 goals at Real Madrid testament to the damage that the Andalucian could do in attack. His trophy cabinet proves his worth: in 20 years at the top level, Ramos was central to every Real Madrid and Spain success, leading sides with grit and guile. For some, he remains the greatest defender in modern history.
Career highlight: He simply had to, didn’t he? Ramos’s stoppage-time strike broke city rivals Atletico’s hearts, as Real went on to clinch La Decima. The perfect twist for a supervillain like Sergio.
93. Javier Zanetti
If he’s not the finest right-back the world has seen, he may have remained a world-class performer for longer than any other individual on this list.
During 19 years at Inter, which followed his early club career in Argentina and came amid some of the Milan side’s most volatile years, he made a club-record 858 appearances and won 16 trophies before retiring aged 40.
The stamina and footballing brain that made him such an outstanding full-back were complemented by a technical ability that meant he also later excelled in midfield. In total, the Argentine appeared in 1,115 competitive matches in his career, with his longevity bested only by a select few.
Career highlight: Captaining Inter to the Treble in 2010, which ended their 45-year wait to regain the European Cup.
92. Djalma Santos
Nominated by former team-mate and compatriot Pele in his list of the 125 greatest footballers, the two-time World Cup champion was the first Brazilian to collect 100 international caps. He started just one game in the 1958 World Cup but was still chosen as the best full-back of the tournament. So that must have been some display.
Along with left-back Nilton Santos, Djalma Santos rarely held back, starting the Brazilian tradition of attacking defenders and providing a template for the position’s future.
Career highlight: In the final of the 1962 World Cup against Czechoslovakia, Santos set up the final goal scored by Vava for Brazil.
91. Philipp Lahm
If Pep Guardiola calls you an intelligent footballer, it counts for 10 compliments from the average Joe.
Other full-backs of their era had more aesthetic long-range pings or superior engines, but none were Philipp Lahm, a complete footballer, whose staggering consistency at the very highest levels were taken completely for granted until his retirement.
Not any more, though: Lahm retired in 2017 as a bona fide modern great, a footballer of astounding intelligence and technique who played two very different positions to absolute perfection. His medal collection (from World Cup triumph with Germany to every trophy worth winning at Bayern) provides sound evidence of a career well spent.
Career highlight: Reinventing himself as a central midfielder, with astounding ease, to captain Guardiola’s shimmering Bayern side to three consecutive Bundesliga titles.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(471x244:473x246)/CNN-New-Years-Eve-with-Anderson-Cooper-123124-9952e5f00fc1425f87113ba2bfb97b29.jpg "Anderson Cooper Says He Once ‘Hated’ New Year’s Eve While Co-Hosting CNN Broadcast")
