FourFourTwo’s Top 100 Soccer Players List
November 6th, 2007 by Marco PantanellaThis story’s a bit old, but considering we’re getting close to the Golden Ball award and the fact there’s a variety of similar rankings popping up every day (see the ‘Association of Football Statisticians’ Top 100 Ever Fooballers article), it’s worth the mention now.
One of UK’s top soccer magazines (our should I say, football magazines), the always popular FourFourTwo, has published last month its October 2007 issue which features a list of the Top 100 Football (Soccer) Players currently in activity. As all lists of this kind, it is highly subjective and it will probably be impossible to find a single person that agrees with it 100%, but it is nonetheless fun to comment on it.
The list uses last season’s performances as a yardstick for the top players in general, but as they say “form is temporary, while class is permanent” therefore players who may have flopped or underperformed in recent seasons are still included because of previous seasons.
Here is the full list, along with statistics by club, league, nation, and continent (thanks to supersewelly of the BigSoccer forums for that). The Serie A players are marked in bold. Also, for discussions and rants about the validity, accuracy, and Euro-bias of the list (as well as any missing players), you can refer to the BigSoccer forum thread.
As for myself, I will only say this: based on last season’s performance, I completely agree with the top 5 (with the exception of Ronaldinho, who didn’t have one of his best seasons IMHO), while the top 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká) are without a doubt the prime candidates for the Golden Ball award this year. The order of the remaining 95 doesn’t really matter
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| 100. | Shunsuke Nakamura | (Celtic) |
| Alexandre Pato | (AC Milan) | |
| Maicon | (Inter Milan) | |
| Jamie Carragher | (Liverpool) | |
| Sergio Agüero | (Atletico Madrid) | |
| Nery Castillo | (Shakhtar Donetsk) | |
| Javier Mascherano | (Liverpool) | |
| Adrian Mutu | (Fiorentina) | |
| Kim Kallström | (Lyon) | |
| Filippo Inzaghi | (AC Milan) | |
| Javier Zanetti | (Inter Milan) | |
| Eduardo Da Silva | (Arsenal) | |
| Fabio Quagliarella | (Udinese) | |
| Diego Milito | (Real Zaragoza) | |
| Gabriel Milito | (Barcelona) | |
| Gary Neville | (Manchester United) | |
| Juninho Pernambucano | (Lyon) | |
| Rafael van der Vaart | (Hamburg) | |
| Robin Van Persie | (Arsenal) | |
| Samir Nasri | (Marseille) | |
| Ricardo Quaresma | (Porto) | |
| Carlos Puyol | (Barcelona) | |
| Nemanja Vidic | (Manchester United) | |
| Maxi Rodríguez | (Atletico Madrid) | |
| Philipp Lahm | (Bayern Munich) | |
| Gianluca Zambrotta | (Barcelona) | |
| Torsten Frings | (Werder Bremen) | |
| Pavel Nedved | (Juventus) | |
| Frédéric Kanouté | (Sevilla) | |
| Kolo Touré | (Arsenal) | |
| Vicente | (Valencia) | |
| Diego Forlán | (Atletico Madrid) | |
| Michael Owen | (Newcastle United) | |
| William Gallas | (Arsenal) | |
| Zé Roberto | (Bayern Munich) | |
| Frank Ribéry | (Bayern Munich) | |
| Andriy Shevchenko | (Chelsea) | |
| Patrick Vieira | (Inter Milan) | |
| Diego | (Werder Bremen) | |
| Simão Sabrosa | (Atletico Madrid) | |
| Arjen Robben | (Chelsea) | |
| Robinho | (Real Madrid) | |
| Joe Cole | (Chelsea) | |
| Miroslav Klose | (Bayern Munich) | |
| Sergio Ramos | (Real Madrid) | |
| Luca Toni | (Bayern Munich) | |
| Alex | (Chelsea) | |
| Hernán Crespo | (Inter Milan) | |
| Owen Hargreaves | (Manchester United) | |
| Wesley Sneijder | (Real Madrid) | |
| Ronaldo | (AC Milan) | |
| David Silva | (Valencia) | |
| Andrés Iniesta | (Barcelona) | |
| Dejan Stankovic | (Inter Milan) | |
| Clarence Seedorf | (AC Milan) | |
| Florent Malouda | (Chelsea) | |
| Carlos Tévez | (Manchester United) | |
| David Beckham | (Los Angeles Galaxy) | |
| Daniele De Rossi | (AS Roma) | |
| Michael Ballack | (Chelsea) | |
| Lucio | (Bayern Munich) | |
| David Suazo | (Inter Milan) | |
| Dimitar Berbatov | (Tottenham Hotspur) | |
| David Albelda | (Valencia) | |
| Alessandro Nesta | (AC Milan) | |
| Ricardo Carvalho | (Chelsea) | |
| Fernando Torres | (Liverpool) | |
| Cesc Fàbregas | (Arsenal) | |
| Xavi | (Barcelona) | |
| Juan Román Riquelme | (Villareal) | |
| Iker Casillas | (Real Madrid) | |
| Ryan Giggs | (Manchester United) | |
| Paolo Maldini | (AC Milan) | |
| Ashley Cole | (Chelsea) | |
| Gennaro Gattuso | (AC Milan) | |
| Frank Lampard | (Chelsea) | |
| Rio Ferdinand | (Manchester United) | |
| Deco | (Barcelona) | |
| John Terry | (Chelsea) | |
| Zlatan Ibrahimović | (Inter Milan) | |
| Michael Essien | (Chelsea) | |
| David Villa | (David Villa) | |
| Francesco Totti | (Roma) | |
| Paul Scholes | (Manchester United) | |
| Roberto Ayala | (Real Zaragoza) | |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy | (Real | |
| Andrea Pirlo | (AC Milan) | |
| Didier Drogba | (Chelsea) | |
| Daniel Alves | (Sevilla) | |
| Petr Cech | (Chelsea) | |
| Fabio Cannavaro | (Real Madrid) | |
| Gianluigi Buffon | (Juventus) | |
| Wayne Rooney | (Manchester United) | |
| Samuel Eto’o | (Barcelona) | |
| Steven Gerrard | (Liverpool) | |
| Lionel Messi | (Barcelona) | |
| Thierry Henry | (Barcelona) | |
| Ronaldinho | (Barcelona) | |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | (Manchester United) | |
| Kaká | (AC Milan) |
.
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| Clubs | Nations | |
| Chelsea - 13 | England - 13 | |
| Barcelona - 10 | Brazil - 12 | |
| Manchester United - 9 | Italy - 12 | |
| AC Milan - 9 | Spain - 11 | |
| Inter Milan - 7 | Argentina - 11 | |
| Real Madrid - 6 | France - 6 | |
| Bayern Munich - 5 | Holland - 6 | |
| Arsenal - 5 | Portugal - 5 | |
| Liverpool - 4 | Germany - 4 | |
| Atletico Madrid - 4 | Serbia - 2 | |
| Valencia - 4 | Czech Republic - 2 | |
| Juventus - 3 | Sweden - 2 | |
| Lyon - 2 | Ivory Coast - 2 | |
| Roma - 2 | Mexico - 1 | |
| Real Zaragoza - 2 | Japan - 1 | |
| Werder Bremen - 2 | Romania - 1 | |
| Sevilla - 2 | Croatia - 1 | |
| Fiorentina - 1 | Mali - 1 | |
| Celtic - 1 | Uruguay - 1 | |
| Newcastle United - 1 | Ukraine - 1 | |
| Shaktar Donetzk - 1 | Honduras - 1 | |
| Udinese - 1 | Bulgaria - 1 | |
| Hamburg - 1 | Wales - 1 | |
| Villareal - 1 | Ghana - 1 | |
| Spurs - 1 | Cameroon - 1 | |
| Marseille - 1 | ||
| Porto - 1 | Continents | |
| L.A. Galaxy - 1 | Europe - 68 | |
| South America - 24 | ||
| Leagues | Africa - 5 | |
| EPL - 33 | North America - 2 | |
| La Liga - 29 | Asia - 1 | |
| Serie A - 23 | ||
| Bundesliga - 8 | ||
| Ligue 1 - 3 | ||
| Superliga - 1 | ||
| UKP - 1 | ||
| MLS - 1 | ||
| SPL - 1 |
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Posted in World News | 11,088 views
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Robinho 59?? I don’t think so!
Currently Robinho is the best player on the Brazilian National Team. A team that has Ronaldinho Gaucho and Kaka’. How can Robinho be 59???
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Ronaldo is without a doubt th best player inthe world.Who is kaka than him?
kaka everything better than c.ronaldo….either 4 brasil or milan…what ronaldo can do during semi final match at san siro?????but kaka ????i think kaka the player althought im inter n ars fans….
There is no F***ing way that Beckham is 43rd. More like 430th.
you are right 100 prasent
robinho sould be well ahead of beckham and wanye rooney
i agree on beckham butt not on rooney p.s. im a arsenal fan
you right….bcoz fabregas better than rooney…rooney is undribble player…n play just like shit…….
vampersie 82 he should be way ahead of beckham and berbatov
kaka is the best player..he is key 4 milan n brasil squad….but what c.ronaldo can do 4 portugal?????nothing he can do…rught???