The AFS Top 100 In Full:

1 Pele Brazil

2 Ronaldo Brazil

3 Romario Brazil

4 Luis Figo Portugal

5 Zinedine Zidane France

6 Diego Maradona Argentina

7 Lothar Matthaus Germany

8 Gerd Muller Germany

9 Franz Beckenbauer Germany

10 Cafu Brazil

11 Roberto Carlos Brazil

12 Marco van Basten Holland

13 Michel Platini France

14 Rivaldo Brazil

15 Paolo Maldini Italy

16 Zico Brazil

17 Raul Spain

18 Ruud Gullit Holland

19 Eusebio Portugal

20 Ferenc Puskas Hungary

21 Johan Cruyff Holland

22 Alfredo di Stefano Argentina

23 Bobby Charlton England

24 Jurgen Klinsmann Germany

25 Kenny Dalglish Scotland

26 Ali Daei Iran

27 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge Germany

28 Gabriel Batistuta Argentina

29 Michael Laudrup Denmark

30 Hristo Stoichkov Bulgaria

31 Dennis Bergkamp Holland

32 Frank Rijkaard Holland

33 Thierry Henry France

34 Pavel Nedved Czech Rep

35 Gheorghe Hagi Romania

36 Peter Schmeichel Denmark

37 Andrei Shevchenko Ukraine

38 Sepp Maier Germany

39 Didier Deschamps France

40 Lilian Thuram France

41 Enzo Francescoli Uruguay

42 Hakan Sukur Turkey

43 Paolo Rossi Italy

44 David Beckham England

45 Jean-Pierre Papin France

46 Kevin Keegan England

47 Marcel Desailly France

48 Oliver Kahn Germany

49 Alessandro Costacurta Italy

50 Clarence Seedorf Holland

51 Dino Zoff Italy

52 Patrick Kluivert Holland

53 Jari Litmanen Finland

54 Daniel Passarella Arg

55 Bixente Lizarazu France

56 Gary Lineker England

57 Ronaldhino Brazil

58 Sylvain Wiltord France

59 Bebeto Brazil

60 Alessandro Del Piero Italy

61 Davor Suker Croatia

62 Ryan Giggs Wales

63 David Trezeguet France

64 Demetrio Albertini Italy

65 Patrick Vieira France

66 Jurgen Kohler Germany

67 Laurent Blanc France

68 Michael Owen England

69 Youri Djorkaeff France

70 Frank De Boer Holland

71 Emilio Butragueno Spain

72 Hugo Sanchez Mexico

73 Rudi Voller Germany

74 Djalma Santos Brazil

75 Giacinto Facchetti Italy

76 Kanu Nigeria

77 Franco Baresi Italy

78 Gianni Rivera Italy

79 Roberto Baggio Italy

80 Oscar Ruggeri Argentina

81 Gheorghe Popescu Romania

82 Jon D Tomasson Denmark

83 Raymond Kopa France

84 Carlos Valderrama Colombia

85 Rui Costa Portugal

86 Gary Neville England

87 Edgar Davids Holland

88 Claudio Taffarel Brazil

89 Paul Scholes England

90 Diego Simeone Argentina

91 Bryan Robson England

92 Roy Keane Rep of Ireland

93 Brian Laudrup Denmark

94 Henrik Larsson Sweden

95 Fabien Barthez France

96 Michael Ballack Germany

97 Jan Koller Czech Republic

98 Edwin van der Sar Holland

99 Robert Pires France

100 Johan Neeskens Holland

i probably should have put this in the funny stuff thread... honestly

Oh, that IS a funny list. Good lord, LOTHAR rated above Maldini? (no offense, La Palma!).

Who and/or what is AFS?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_o...l_Statisticians

They should stick to statistics!

What a worthless list...

I am actually offended by that list.

I'm assuming it's meant to be the greatets players of all-time? Then how come Kanu is 1) on it and 2) rated higher than some players with some actual abililty!

I don't think I saw Bobby Moore's name either.. is this some kind of joke..

WOW!! At first I didn't even bother take a look below 10th place... Pele at first was enough for me to hate this list! Then Kurt mentioned Kanu... I searched for his name on that list and tracked him up at 76th place. Right above Baresi, Rivera and Baggio... erm... what the f!?!?!??!?!?! How lame, ignorant and useless can one be to come up with this list!?? Really... what the... I'm sure it can't be a greatest players list... no one can be THIS stupid!

@ Kurt

Offended?! don't even give a fvck to such list! it's... comedy!

So Wiltord is better than Del Piero?
And where the hell is Bergkamp???

What a joke...

well i dunno man most people, including the pundits agree he is the "greatest", not the most talented or the most influential but the greatest is pele.

when you think of it who can you really put ahead of pele? maradonna is the only guy really.

Why? Because he scored a lot?

I personally wouldn't hail anyone as the greatest ever when they didn't even play the sport in the 80s onwards. Especially in the Americas!

It's easy to see how football has improved since the days of Pele. Back in his day, you could whoop 90% of International teams, there weren't many great teams around. Now look at International football, there are very few teams getting owned. Ghana even beat out the US and Czechs to go through with Italy in the World Cup, unheard of, even ten years ago!

It is all opinion anyway. Even if 100% of people agree on one player as the greatest ever, it doesn't mean he is.

Bergkamp, Van Basten, Buffon, Del Piero, Henry, Thuram, Nesta, Maldini, Kahn, Figo, Zidane, Mattheus, Ronaldinho, Ayala and Kaka for a start.

This list is surely sh!t....

I wouldn't put Lothar ahead of him, but I have a grudge against Lothar for kicking Allan Simonsen in the head during a Germany-Denmark game. Lothar was a hell of a good player though.

Based on what? How many Pele matches have you seen? All comparisons between player from different eras is BS.

Not necessarily ... I mean, Maradona faced much tougher defenses than Ronaldo (@inter) or Kaka' in Serie A .... And each one of them played at their peak in different eras ...

I am not that much of a fan of Pele, and never like the hyped up players ... But what Pele introduced to the world of football shouldn't go unnoticed. We didn't live during that time ... Asl your dad (or anyone who lived that time, and followed football) ... Pele was all the Ronaldinhos and Kakas put together.

No you can not compare players from different eras, but you can not discard what they gave to this game at their time As Pele was a phenomeno .. There was no other like him years after he retired ... I know for a fact that my dad followed football because of Pele! Even though I am not a HUGE fan, and prefer Zidane and Maradona to him, he remains a reference point in football history, this no one can deny .. And the reasons are clear.

I'm not saying Pele was better or worse than Maradona or somebody else. I don't know and none else knows. The game changed so much in all aspects and you can't estimate what player like Pele could have done noe or what a player like Kaka could have done then. Of course all of the left a mark and these who were first always will be hyped more, but many of them we haven't watched in full game even once.

yeah, besides romario no one even comes close to his golascoring record. the guy has nearly 1400 goals...

@kurt ur right just cuz everyone believes something doesnt make ittrue but wouldnt all these people believe it for a reason? you dont accidentally have millions of people beliing something for no reason.

are you insane? i'm not even a fan of pele but you gotta give credit where credit is due. the kinda stats that he has, they dont lie. maybe 1-2 players could be argued as better than pele but the ones you mentioned besides zidane dont even come close. you obviously just dont liek him.

ps ayala? is this a joke, theres over 30 defenders i can name that are better than him.

I dislike Pele for a reason - That is (in my opinion) the undeserving hype he gets as 'the best player ever'. I've said that I rate Diego as one of the top 5 ever, and I hate the guy with passion.

His numbers aren't that amazing. His games:goals ratio while in the US was hardly special and I think you'd find players like batistuta, Ronaldo, etc. would have fantastic records in South American football - They decided to move on to bigger things in Europe though.

maybe cuz he was at the end of his career? the guy won 3 world cups (and his he was great teams, but he was always the main catalist). 77g in 92 app for brazil.. thats amazing and the guy was a forward, he dint just score. he created lots of chances for his teammates.

I don't like numerical lists - ie, number 1, number 2, number 3. This list is crap anyway.

I'd be much more comfortable with a 'top ten' list of players in alpha order rather than rank. And, for the record, I would include Pele in that sort of list.

He played in the 60s/70s. They had ridiculous scores back then because football was only really played in a few countries, 99% of the World hadn't really hadproper traning, that's why they used to get owned 12 and 13-0 all the time, it just doesnt happen nowadays.

Gerd Muller played around the same era, his international and club records were as good AND he played in the German league, which has always been one of the toughest.

As Tennie said, stats don't mean everything.

and gerd muller played same international teams during the same period? stats dont count for everything, but when their as overwhelming as his, i mean no one even comes close. i'm not saying he is the best, cuz i think maradonna is but when people do think he is it's not for no reason.

I'm not saying Pele was a bad player. Far from it.
But seriously:He played most of his career in the America's, where defeces are practically jokes.
About me don't liking Pele is partly true.
He knows that he is regarded as the greatest of all time, and he keeps reminding the rest of the world whenever he have the chance.

As for Ayala...he has been the key in Valencia for the last seven years, look what's happening to Valencia now, eh?

Yep the game changed so much ... And no, I have yet to watch a full game for Pele, but then again why would I since I am not that fond of him .... But fact still remains, for those who witnessed Pele turn the world's head towards football, was because of his mastery of the ball ... Before Pele, there was NO ONE who did tricks, such as the gambeta etc etc .. That is all I am saying; he basically introduced this type of play to the world. And for that he had earned his status.

But I do agree you can't compare players from different eras ... Though, at least for me, Maradona is the exception