Shows how subjective these things are. And whether people view them as “best”, or “greatest”, and what their definitions are of each. Because in terms of best all time players, I’d have Ronaldo Nazario much higher than 9th personally. In the 21st century his best days were behind him, despite the World Cup win. But all time, he’s in mg top five, primarily because of my definitions of “best”.
ESPN top 25 players of the 21st century
- Thread starter Korwas
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Shows how subjective these things are. And whether people view them as “best”, or “greatest”, and what their definitions are of each. Because in terms of best all time players, I’d have Ronaldo Nazario much higher than 9th personally. In the 21st century his best days were behind him, despite the World Cup win. But all time, he’s in mg top five, primarily because of my definitions of “best”.
The list is okay but there are a lot of players listed too high because of the team they played in, rather than their individual ability. For example, Pujol was a great centerback but he and Ramos as the two best CBs of the 21st century, I just don’t agree with. Artificially high because of how good their respective teams were. Individually I can think of several cbs I would prefer to have in my team than either of them.
De Bruyne too high for me.
You know the list is clearly clickbait when they list Thierry Henry as third. He's a player who wasn't even one of the 5 best players at Barcelona in 2009.
I have a hard time with Henry that high over Suarez in this century. I would probably have Suarez over Henry actually but I understand they are close. Henry was more consistently great than Suarez for his club but Suarez was better for his national team. Henry have more 9/10 seasons than Suarez, but Suarez have the only 10/10 seasons of the 2 and have more great 8/10ish seasons than people think. In his last Ajax season in 09-10 he scored 49 goals in 48 games and scored 3 goals in the WC that year. Look up some of his goals that year, he was already an insane player. The season after that he won Copa America as MVP and was 6th in Ballon d'or voting. In 12-13 he won the PL golden boot and then he entered his peak. So basically I think Suarez have some very nice seasons before his 2014-17 peak and then he still had greatness in his tank until winning the league with Athletic Madrid in 2021.
I can't be bothered with doing an entire list at the moment but that really stood out to me, and that Neymar is getting incredibly underrated due to memes.
I can't be bothered with doing an entire list at the moment but that really stood out to me, and that Neymar is getting incredibly underrated due to memes.
Not for me. Great player but would be about 8-10.
Lahm is. Schweinsteiger wouldn't be on mine. Robben absolutely should be up there.
Henry and Mbappé's positions are absolutely ludicrous, and it's not a "matter of opinion" thing.
I think this is a decent list:
Top 10 Ballon d'Or placements (2001-2023):
15 - Messi
14 - C.Ronaldo
6 - Henry, Iniesta, Neymar, Zlatan, Mbappe
5 - Xavi, Lewandowski, Drogba
4 - Zidane, Shevchenko, Salah, Buffon, Kaka, Casillas, Eto'o, Pirlo, Modric, De Bruyne
3 - Raul, Ronaldinho, Rooney, Gerrard, van Nistelrooy
25 players.
Top 10 Ballon d'Or placements (2001-2023):
15 - Messi
14 - C.Ronaldo
6 - Henry, Iniesta, Neymar, Zlatan, Mbappe
5 - Xavi, Lewandowski, Drogba
4 - Zidane, Shevchenko, Salah, Buffon, Kaka, Casillas, Eto'o, Pirlo, Modric, De Bruyne
3 - Raul, Ronaldinho, Rooney, Gerrard, van Nistelrooy
25 players.
Neymar is too low
Who's Viera?
25 - in no particular order aside from the top 2.
- Messi
- Ronaldo
- Iniesta
- Zidane
- Ronaldinho
- Lahm
- Xavi
- Xavi Alonso
- Nesta
- Cannavaro
- Rooney
- Neuer
- Buffon
- Suarez
- Lewandowski
- Modric
- Kroos
- Busquets
- Kaka
- Benzema
- Sergio Ramos
- Robben
- Ferdinand
- Henry
- Pirlo
Zlatan is too high. Henry and Mbappe are way too high. Henry being that high over Benzema, Lewandowski and Suarez is actually ridiculous.
Nice to see Modric get the type of recognition he deserves. The greatest midfielder of this century for me.
Nice to see Modric get the type of recognition he deserves. The greatest midfielder of this century for me.
Hard to argue for Rooney over Benzema to be honest.
Lewandowski or Rooney is close. Can see arguments for both.
I would easily pick him over Zlatan though.
I agree Henry should be nowhere near 3rd, but he was pretty much past his prime in 2009. The following season, he was pretty much finished and was phased out.
Logged in to say the same thing.
Having above Zidane, for one, is absolutely ludicrous. Shows what a ubiquitous media presence and careful marketing can do, though.
Va va voom? Not for me, Clive.
Obviously they mean Vieri. Great striker but doesn't crack my top 25.
Henry is far too high.
Puyol shouldn't be on the list.
Zlatan too high.
Puyol shouldn't be on the list.
Zlatan too high.
Agreed, not that he was a bad player but so many of those players have been way better since 2001. Essentially you remove his world cup and Euros win as well ! so it's really confusing. His international career from then on forward wasn't good. (France failed to get out of the group stages at any international tournament Zidane was injured in or didn't play in). His league form was good but only won the UCL when he left and joined a prime Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Etoo.
Iniesta, Zidane, Xavi, Neymar, Suarez, Benzema, Modric all deserve to be above him at least imo.
Breaking it down into position, I'd choose a 25 of:
GK - Buffon, Neuer
Full-backs - Lahm, Alves
Centre-backs - Nesta, Thiago Silva, Ferdinand
Central midfielders - Xavi, Modric, Pirlo
Attacking midfielders - Zidane, Iniesta, De Bruyne, Kaka
Wide forwards - Messi, Cristiano, Ronaldinho, Mbappe, Robben, Neymar
Strikers - Henry, Suarez, Benzema, Shevchenko, Lewandowski
That said, those placed in the 15-25 range are largely interchangeable with another 10-15 players.
GK - Buffon, Neuer
Full-backs - Lahm, Alves
Centre-backs - Nesta, Thiago Silva, Ferdinand
Central midfielders - Xavi, Modric, Pirlo
Attacking midfielders - Zidane, Iniesta, De Bruyne, Kaka
Wide forwards - Messi, Cristiano, Ronaldinho, Mbappe, Robben, Neymar
Strikers - Henry, Suarez, Benzema, Shevchenko, Lewandowski
That said, those placed in the 15-25 range are largely interchangeable with another 10-15 players.
I'd say that Bale had a better career than Neymar.
Bale & Robben should be added if Neymar is in a top 25.
Bale & Robben should be added if Neymar is in a top 25.
These lists by incompetent journalists are so dumb and don’t deserve any attention.
Based only on popularity and no real knowledge of the game. Zidane is always way too high in these lists, Mbappe hype got him too high up too (for now), Ramos and Puyol as well.
Can’t even spell Vieira’s name right.
Robben nowhere to be found, then you know for sure it’s based on popularity rather than ball knowledge.
Robben is among the best of the absolute best. But the guy didn’t have instagram for most of his career, didn’t care about hairstyle and didn’t draw attention to him by being an idiot off the field.
His inclusion/omission is a good measure whether its a skill based list or a popularity based list.
Based only on popularity and no real knowledge of the game. Zidane is always way too high in these lists, Mbappe hype got him too high up too (for now), Ramos and Puyol as well.
Can’t even spell Vieira’s name right.
Robben nowhere to be found, then you know for sure it’s based on popularity rather than ball knowledge.
Robben is among the best of the absolute best. But the guy didn’t have instagram for most of his career, didn’t care about hairstyle and didn’t draw attention to him by being an idiot off the field.
His inclusion/omission is a good measure whether its a skill based list or a popularity based list.
ESPN. Shit list as usual.
Zlatan at 11 and no Neuer or Robben. Okay then... 
Two defenders out of 25 and they probably realized they don’t have a goalie in there and decided to append Buffon to the list at the end.
My god, what a terrible list. Don't even know where to start.
He’s a prick, but Dani Alves should be on the list as well.
Seems like they put a massive emphasis on the popularity/media visibility of players in a lot of these things they do.
Was Henry ever considered the #1 player in the world? I know he never won the Ballon dor but came close a couple of times. I think he was probably considered a better player than Nedved in 03 for example but maybe Zidane was still considered the actual best player around still?
I'm not sure Henry was ever the very best in the world but he was probably the best over a period around 00-06 and his Ballon d'or voting shows it:
00 4th
01 9th
02 6th
03 2nd
04 4th
05 4th
06 3rd
Zidane over that period:
00 2nd
01 9th
02 4th
03 5th
04 23rd
05 18th
06 5th
Shevchenko:
00 3rd
01 8th
02 NA
03 4th
04 1st
05 5th
06 NA
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Nah, he's not top 25 level.
Arguably the best RB since the days of Cafu alongside Lahm? He’s up there.
Just shows that Henry was popular which is all that Ballon d'Or shows. Cut out the even years and it becomes slightly more realistic as 5 summer matches aren't used to decide the whole thing (as evident by Shevchenko not even registering twice).
this list is shameful
Rooney is in the top 10.
The 2002 to 2004 version of Ronaldo was still better than anybody else on that list other than the top 2
Henry 3rd
What the hell was the rationale here?
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00 is still 20th century. And until 2006 it was a weird period where pretty much every big club had a long transitional period.
Wining the World Cup and scoring in 2 world cup finals is no joke!
Zlatan is waaaaaaaaaay too low.
In an age of poor RBs, imo second to lahm. I don't think he breaks into top 25.