Today, The Independent reveals its full list of the 'Greatest 50 players in World Cup history' – just two weeks out from the 2026 World Cup starting in North America .
Conservative estimates are that more than 3,000 players have participated in the previous 22 editions of the men's Fifa World Cup. As such, plucking out the top-50 has proved some task.
How much emphasis do you put on those who have won a World Cup? In total, 471 different players have been part of a World Cup-winning squad. Famously, Pele is the only player to have won the tournament three times , while 20 other players have won it twice.
Or is it all about that iconic World Cup moment? An inspirational performance, exceeding expectations and lighting up the world stage? To a point, World Cup moments are personal to oneself and thus interpretations varied amongst many.
Here's how we compiled our top-50 list – with a full voting breakdown below:
The specific criteria read: "The greatest players in World Cup history, who have starred in tournaments and played a key and perhaps historic role in certain/multiple events."
In addition to that, we firmly stated that this is not simply a list of "the best players to feature in a World Cup."
Whether judges placed importance on individual quality, historic records or team success was entirely up to them.
We asked 14 of our journalists to submit their top-30 greatest-ever World Cup players.
From that, a total of 80 players throughout the tournament's 96-year history were listed. Then, it was over to our points formula.
The points formula was as follows: 50 points for players picked No 1, staggered down to 21 points for No 10, and then down to one point for No 30.
Then, all the points were added up and we had our top-50 list.
| Position |
Points |
|---|---|
| 1st |
50 |
| 2nd |
45 |
| 3rd |
40 |
| 4th |
36 |
| 5th |
32 |
| 6th |
29 |
| 7th |
26 |
| 8th |
24 |
| 9th |
22 |
| 10th |
21 |
| --- |
--- |
| 30th |
1 |
1. Pele (Brazil) – 690 points, 14/14 top-30 picks in total (12 judges picked Pele as their No 1)
2. Diego Maradona (Argentina) – 593 points, 14/14 (Two judges picked Maradona as their No 1)
3. Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 543 points, 14/14
4. Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) - 457 points, 14/14
5. Ronaldo (Brazil) - 440 points, 14/14
6. Zinedine Zidane (France) - 375 points, 14/14
7. Garrincha (Brazil) - 368 points, 14/14
8. Kylian Mbappe (France) - 331 points, 13/14
9. Gerd Muller (West Germany) - 256 points, 14/14
10. Miroslav Klose (Germany) - 226 points, 12/14
11. Johan Cruyff (Netherlands) - 220 points, 11/14
12. Lothar Matthaus (West Germany/Germany) - 201 points, 13/14
13. Bobby Moore (England) - 195 points, 13/14
14. Paolo Rossi (Italy) - 185 points,11/14
15. Cafu (Brazil) - 182 points, 12/14
16. Jairzinho (Brazil) - 181 points, 11/14
17. Fabio Cannavaro - 151 points,13/14
18. Eusebio (Portugal) - 122 points, 12/14
19. Andres Iniesta (Spain) - 115 points, 9/14
20. Carlos Alberto (Brazil) - 114 points, 9/14
21. Romario (Brazil) - 111 points, 8/14
22. Bobby Charlton (England) - 106 points, 8/14
23. Just Fontaine (France) - 103 points, 10/14
24. Roberto Baggio (Italy) - 92 points,10/14
25. Giuseppe Meazza (Italy) - 86 points, 6/14
26. Xavi (Spain) - 83 points, 7/14
27. Mario Kempes (Argentina) - 80 points, 6/14
28. Michel Platini (France) - 76 points, 5/14
29. Paolo Maldini (Italy) - 73 points, 6/14
30. Luka Modric (Croatia) - 61 points, 6/14
31. Thomas Muller (Germany) - 45 points, 6/14
32. Lev Yashin (USSR) - 42 points,6/14
33. Rivaldo (Brazil) - 39 points, 4/14
34. Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) - 38 points, 5/14
35. Ferenc Puskas (Hungary/Spain) - 33 points,5/14
36. Philipp Lahm (Germany) - 22 points, 4/14
37. Gordon Banks (England) - 21 points,2/14
38. Jurgen Klinsmann (West Germany/Germany) - 20 points, 5/14
39. Roger Milla (Cameroon) - 20 points, 3/14
40. Roberto Carlos (Brazil) - 19 points, 2/14
41. Didi (Brazil) - 19 points, 2/14
42. Ronaldinho (Brazil) - 19 points,2/14
43. Martin Peters (England) - 19 points, 1/14
44. Antoine Griezmann (France) - 18 points,2/14
45. Rudi Voller (Germany) - 18 points, 1/14
46. Daniel Passarella - 16 points, 2/14
47. Didier Deschamps (France) - 15 points, 1/14
48. Leonidas (Brazil) - 15 points, 1/14
49. Vava (Brazil) - 14 points, 1/14
50. Fritz Walter (West Germany) - 14 points, 1/14
Same points tiebreaker: Number of times picked; World Cups won.
51-70: Angel Di Maria, Toto Schillaci, Mario Zagallo, Jose Nasazzi, Giovanni Ferrari, Zizinho, Iker Casillas, Dennis Bergkamp, Djalma Santos, Johan Neeskens, Gary Lineker, Dino Zoff, Oliver Kahn, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zico, Luis Monti, Fabien Barthez, Geoff Hurst, Dunga, Manuel Neuer
Brazil - 13 players in top-50
Germany - 9
France - 6
Italy - 5
Argentina - 4
England - 4
Spain - 2
Hungary - 2
Netherlands - 1
Portugal - 1
Croatia - 1
USSR - 1
2006, Germany - 12 players in top-50
1966, England - 10
1994, USA - 9
1998, France - 9
1970, Mexico - 8
2014, Brazil - 8
2002, South Korea-Japan - 8
1958, Sweden - 7
1990, Italy - 7
1962, Chile - 6
1982, Spain - 6
2010, South Africa - 6
2018, Russia - 6
1974, West Germany - 5
1986, Mexico - 5
2022, Qatar - 5
1954, Switzerland - 4
1978, Argentina - 4
1934, Italy - 2
1938, France - 2
1930, Uruguay - 0
1950, Brazil - 0
