The Association of Football Statisticians apparently released a report (no link available although Bob has his take here…) that used statistics to come up with the Top 100 Players of All Time.

In a sport where elan, flair and creativity count for more than passes completed or successful tackles, it seems ludicrous to try and categorise players through such objective measurements. Equally, the sheer volume of players from the last few years (think Pires, Gary Neville and the very limited Diego Simeone) compared with the low-standing of such greats as Puskas (20) and Di Stefano (22) shows the paucity of statistics collected back in the day.

Clearly there must be any number of methodolgical issues with a Statisticians report that omits George Best for Al Daei or that places a water carrier like Didier Deschamps above a magician like Roberto Baggio. Oh, and I just saw that Sylvain Wiltord not only made the list but is ranked 58th.

The full list for your discussion is below, but my top 10 would be:

1. Pele
2. Maradona
3. Pusckas
4. Beckenbauer
5. Di Stefano
6. Cryuff
7. Baresi
8. Platini
9. Zidane
10. Maldini

The Association of Football Statisticians’ Top 100 Players of All Time (Liverpool players in bold):

1 Pelé (Brazil)
2 Ronaldo (Brazil)
3 Romário (Brazil)
4 Luís Figo (Portugal)
5 Zinedine Zidane (France)
6 Diego Maradona (Argentina)
7 Matthäus (Germany)
8 Gerd Müller (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 Raúl (Spain)
18 Ruud Gullit (Holland)
19 Eusébio (Portugal)
20 Ferenc Puskás (Hungary)
21 Johan Cruyff (Holland)
22 Alfredo di Stefano (Argentina)
23 Bobby Charlton (England)
24 Jürgen Klinsmann (Ger)
25 Kenny Dalglish (Scotland)
26 Ali Daei (Iran)
27 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (Ger)
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 Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine)
38 Sepp Maier (Germany)
39 Didier Deschamps (France)
40 Lilian Thuram (France)
41 Enzo Francescoli (Uruguay)
42 Hakan Şükür (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 (Ita)
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 Ronaldinho (Brazil)
58 Sylvain Wiltord (France)
59 Bebeto (Brazil)
60 Alessandro Del Piero (Italy)
61 Davor Šuker (Croatia)
62 Ryan Giggs (Wales)
63 David Trezeguet (France)
64 Demetrio Albertini (Italy)
65 Patrick Vieira (France)
66 Jürgen Kohler (Germany)
67 Laurent Blanc (France)
68 Michael Owen (England)
69 Youri Djorkaeff (France)
70 Frank De Boer (Holland)
71 Emilio Butragueño (Spain)
72 Hugo Sánchez (Mexico)
73 Rudi Völler (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 Dahl 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 Rep)
98 Edwin van der Sar (Holland)
99 Robert Pirès (France)
100 Johan Neeskens (Holland)

1. Buffon
2. Cannavaro
3. Cech
4. Cristiano Ronaldo
5. Deco
6. Drogba
7. Essien
8. Eto’o
9. Gattuso
10. Gerrard
11. Henry
12. Juninho
13. Kaka
14. Klose
15. Lahm
16. Lampard
17. Marquez
18. Messi
19. Nesta
20. Pirlo
21. Ribery
22. Riquelme
23. Ronaldinho
24. Rooney
25. Terry
26. Tevez
27. Thuram
28. Torres
29. van Nistelrooy
30. Vieira

My vote’s for Messi but the most under-rated player on that list would be Riquelme. The man’s an absolute magician. If I were to make a team from the shortlist, it would look something like this:

GK – Buffon

RB – Thuram
CB – Nesta/Marquez
CB – Cannavaro
LB – Lahm

RW – Messi
CM – Essien
CM – Gerrard
LW – Ribery

Withdrawn Striker – Kaka

Striker – Eto’o

What do you think?

For what it’s worth, here’s the rest of my side:

GK – Niemi (Fulham)
GK – Given (Newcastle)

DEF – Carragher (Liverpool)
DEF – Chimbonda (Tottenham)
DEF – Richards (Manchester City)
DEF – Bramble (Wigan)
DEF – Pearce (Fulham)

MID – Arteta (Everton)
MID – Fabregas (Arsenal)
MID – Elano (Manchester City)
MID – Noble (West Ham)
MID – Bentley (Blackburn)

STR – Torres (Liverpool)
STR – Santa Cruz (Blackburn)
STR – Johnson (Everton)

Only 11 can play each week so I have 12 first teamers who I spend most of the money on and the rest are reserves who are at the minimum cost for the position. I play a 3-4-3 to try and maximise the amount of points I can get each week.