Great strikers historical rankings

Red the Bear

Something less generic
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The Kaka thread got a tad derailed with the discussion about romario so here's one to exclusively argue about the great striker of the past and appreciate their talent or argue about their shortcomings, providing clips of them would be highly appreciated as a trip down the memory lane.
Here's how I rank them.
Goat: Muller
Tier 1 : Van basten , romario , Ronaldo , eusebio
Tier 2 : seeler , batitusta , papin , lewa(maybe?) , stochkov
Tier 3 : hugo sanchez ( debatable ?) , greaves, Suarez , rummenigge , rossi

Note 1: I didn't count the likes of pele , puskas and di estefano as strikers but I did so with eusebio

Note 2 : its a tier list so it's mostly to point out which caliber of player goes into which, I didn't intend to list them all for example henery would go in to the second one

Note 3 : don't dwell on my rankings too much as it was hastily thrown together from memory and most intended to spark discussion though if you do so feel free to explain yourself for example papin's number aren't great and he should be downgraded etc etc.

Well that's it do yours.
 
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Suarez and Lewandowski over Henry?
 
Sorry that was only one thing that leapt out - there are several other massive errors in your first tier list. Hope it is a draft.
 
altodevil said:
Sorry that was only one thing that leapt out - there are several other massive errors in your first tier list. Hope it is a draft.
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It's mostly trying to start a discussion as the comprehensive ranking of them considering time differences and the league disparities throughout the eras is a tall task , but to be honest I'm pretty confident of my tier 1 list. I would like to know how you rank them.
 
Red the Bear said:
The Kaka thread got a tad derailed with the discussion about romario so here's one to exclusively argue about the great striker of the past and appreciate their talent or argue about their shortcomings, providing clips of them would be highly appreciated as a trip down the memory lane.
Here's how I rank them.
Goat: Muller
Tier 1 : Van basten , romario , Ronaldo , eusebio
Tier 2 : seeler , batitusta , papin , lewa(maybe?) , stochkov
Tier 3 : hugo sanchez ( debatable ?) , greaves, Suarez , rummenigge , rossi

Note: I didn't count the likes of pele , puskas and di estefano as strikers but I did so with eusebio

Well that's it do yours.
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Papin and the unspellable Stoichkov were below Batigol and Lewa. But Greaves wasn’t.

Properly difficult doing this kind of thing with several decades gap between players.
 
In the last forty years i aint seen anyone better than the Phenom Ronaldo
 
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UnrelatedPsuedo said:
Papin and the unspellable Stoichkov were below Batigol and Lewa. But Greaves wasn’t.

Properly difficult doing this kind of thing with several decades gap between players.
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I find it a bit hard to rank greaves as his club career was mostly with spurs (though during their most successful era) and he unfortunately missed the biggest game of his career though he does get extra points for performing in Millan when English players rarely would go abroad.

Agree that a definitive list is nigh impossible but it should be fun discussing it all and there are many more more knowledgeable about this matter than I ever could be so it's interesting to see all opinions.
 
Tier 1: G. Müller, M. Van Basten, Ronaldo, Romario
Tier 2: S. Kocsis, U. Seeler, D. Law, L. Suarez, L. Riva, T. Henry
Tier 3: A. Shevchenko, R. Lewandowski, K. Benzema, S. Eto'o, D. Villa, G. Batistuta, J. Greaves, C. Vieri, P. Elkjaer, Careca

Tried my best to only include conventional #9s as much as possible, although it's really tough to do so - likes of Law, Henry, Ronaldo, Villa etc didn't play a strict #9 role for example.
 
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Joga Bonito said:
Tier 1: G. Müller, M. Van Basten, Ronaldo, Romario
Tier 2: S. Kocsis, U. Seeler, D. Law, L. Suarez, L. Riva, T. Henry
Tier 3: Sheva, Lewandowski, Benzema, Eto'o, Villa, Batistuta, J. Greaves, C. Vieri, P. Elkjaer, Careca

Tried my best to only include conventional #9s as much as possible although it's really tough to do so - likes of Law, Henry, Ronaldo, Villa etc didn't play a strict #9 role for example.
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Interesting choice with Suarez and batitusta , nice list though I wouldn't consider the great Dennis law a striker but I guess most would do so.
 
Righteous Steps said:
Suarez has to be in tier 2 no way Lewandowski Papin Batistuta are better than him.
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There seemed to be a consensus of him being the third best striker of his gen behind lewa and benzema in a thread so Interesting you say this.

There actually seems to be a great divide with how people rank Suarez.

Also there is a big chance I'm over rating papin purely on the fact that loved to watch him play.
 
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
 
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harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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Great post as expected.
Too elaborate your right about both rossi and papin but I found them too iconic too leave out , rossi due to his bonkers world cup and the hatrick in a game which very well might have been the greatest world cup match and papin due to my personal bias.
Also great point about the definition of word striker and we may have an easier time to just limiting it to number 9s but even that could be ambiguous
I also may be inclined to bump up Shearer but his career achievements don't make a great case for him same with batistuta .
Also Fontaine is a mystery to me while I haven't seen anything from him his numbers are absolutely bonkers and he had to retire early as well.
 
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harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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Agree mostly with this, would probably put Van Nistelrooy, Aguero and Zlatan in T3 (Zlatan maybe in T2)..
 
R9 is absolutely the best striker of all time. I massively appreciate the likes of Muller and Van Basten in what they achieved and how absolutely special they were. If I was going in into a huge game with a good team and needed one man up front to finish the chances they create it would be Muller. But with all due respect neither those two or other strikers can come close to the level of skill and ability Ronaldo possessed throughout his young career till the time his body kept up with it. As said above that level was at par with the greatest thing ever seen in the sport and it was absolutely unstoppable to the point no other number 9 has reached. At that level you could play 10 defenders and him up front and expect him to score a hat trick against the best defenders in the world. It's basically the peak Messi or Maradona level domination where you just have to sit and pray they somehow don't rip you to shreds. There's no point of starving the service or man marking him or trying to be physical. There's no tactic that can stop that peak level.

So for me while overall career and achievements have massive importance in this debate in terms of ability Ronaldo is clearly in the tier of his own.
 
It would be long, if I write in full edition. Right now, I'm a bit tired. Maybe 2-3 days, I will write it. I could say one thing that R9 and Muller are very close in term of historical striker rankings. Both could be even tie as the greatest strikers of all time.
 
harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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Great and clear as always

Moby said:
R9 is absolutely the best striker of all time. I massively appreciate the likes of Muller and Van Basten in what they achieved and how absolutely special they were. If I was going in into a huge game with a good team and needed one man up front to finish the chances they create it would be Muller. But with all due respect neither those two or other strikers can come close to the level of skill and ability Ronaldo possessed throughout his young career till the time his body kept up with it. As said above that level was at par with the greatest thing ever seen in the sport and it was absolutely unstoppable to the point no other number 9 has reached. At that level you could play 10 defenders and him up front and expect him to score a hat trick against the best defenders in the world. It's basically the peak Messi or Maradona level domination where you just have to sit and pray they somehow don't rip you to shreds. There's no point of starving the service or man marking him or trying to be physical. There's no tactic that can stop that peak level.

So for me while overall career and achievements have massive importance in this debate in terms of ability Ronaldo is clearly in the tier of his own.
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great post
 
harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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Great post. Broadly agree. Would have Benzema T4.
 
harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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Great post and informative!
Put John Charles in T3 though
 
Ronaldo is being drowned in praise here and deservedly so but I thought it would be intriguing to add that there is an argument that he never could have kept that style up anyway.

I think it was his doctor that said his playing style which was built around explosive (and I really mean it as there has been nothing like it ever since or before for that matter) would always end up taking it's toll on his knees especially for someone who didn't have a low center of gravity to begin with , basically he was doomed from the start.

So perhaps it would have been better if he had toned down his style in which case he would have much more longevity but instead would never reach the heights that did.
 
Tier 0:
Ronaldo
Quite simply the best player I have ever seen in his prime. Stands alone in the list of strikers, even just on a 3 year body of work. He was half the player post knee injury yet still dominated a World Cup, stood out for Madrid and would still be Tier 1.

Tier 1:
Romario, van Basten
The best penalty box striker vs the best all rounder of all time. I could not split them but i think each would clearly fit different teams better than the other. Like many Brazilians Romario's career was a little bit of a what if, despite his accomplishments.

Tier 2:
Thierry Henry, Eto'o, Agüero
I have trouble with Henry as i feel he was best in a role that was not strictly a striker, but he was unstoppable for a time in any position. Eto'o too was incredible in the late 2000s and contributed more than a little to the best Barcelona team of all time. Aguero scored at an incredible rate and is for me the best Premier League striker of all time.

Tier 3:
Benzema, Lewandowski, Luis Suárez, Batistuta, Totti, Del Piero, van Nistelrooy
Lots of options here. The 90s/00s Serie A group were all brilliant for lesser teams, whilst RvN, Benzema and Lewandowski were/are the definition of lethal.

Tier 4:
Shevchenko, Vieri, Klinsmann, Shearer, Ibrahimović, Robin van Persie
The next level down. All brilliant players but all slightly flawed in some way, in either ability or mentality.
 
Red the Bear said:
Ronaldo is being drowned in praise here and deservedly so but I thought it would be intriguing to add that there is an argument that he never could have kept that style up anyway.

I think it was his doctor that said his playing style which was built around explosive (and I really mean it as there has been nothing like it ever since or before for that matter) would always end up taking it's toll on his knees especially for someone who didn't have a low center of gravity to begin with , basically he was doomed from the start.

So perhaps it would have been better if he had toned down his style in which case he would have much more longevity but instead would never reach the heights that did.
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I read that he had a condition where his kneecap did not sit correctly in the groove most people have, my wife has a similar condition. In other words he was always destined to be injury prone but not solely because of his playing style. A normal person might not have had the same problems.
 
11101 said:
I read that he had a condition where his kneecap did not sit correctly in the groove most people have, my wife has a similar condition. In other words he was always destined to be injury prone but not solely because of his playing style. A normal person might not have had the same problems.
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He wasn't normal though he was a physical freak, the muscles in his thighs were too explosive for their own good , but yeah its very unfortunate that he had that condition with his knees and apparently an eating disorder later on?
 
harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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He was before my time, but I always thought of him of someone who was regarded as one of the best ever in Denmark, but not as highly regarded outside of Denmark and maybe Italy. He's not spoken about much, most people I know have never even heard of him, so it's been hard to know just highly he was valued in general.
 
WeePat said:
He was before my time, but I always thought of him of someone who was regarded as one of the best ever in Denmark, but not as highly regarded outside of Denmark and maybe Italy. He's not spoken about much, most people I know have never even heard of him, so it's been hard to know just highly he was valued in general.
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He was definitely highly regarded, him winning the serie a with Verona is super impressive and I think he he came second in ballon do'r to platini.
 
Joga Bonito said:
Tier 1: G. Müller, M. Van Basten, Ronaldo, Romario
Tier 2: S. Kocsis, U. Seeler, D. Law, L. Suarez, L. Riva, T. Henry
Tier 3: A. Shevchenko, R. Lewandowski, K. Benzema, S. Eto'o, D. Villa, G. Batistuta, J. Greaves, C. Vieri, P. Elkjaer, Careca

Tried my best to only include conventional #9s as much as possible, although it's really tough to do so - likes of Law, Henry, Ronaldo, Villa etc didn't play a strict #9 role for example.
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For me, I would move Suarez down a tier and add both Crespo and RVN in T3. In fact, for a pure striker, I personally rate RVN even higher than Henry even though Henry was a superior player.

Great shout on Romario, seemed to be very underrated in this forum. The best penalty box striker ever.
 
Righteous Steps said:
Suarez has to be in tier 2 no way Lewandowski Papin Batistuta are better than him.
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Lewandowski is already ahead of Suarez on every metrics except assists(Messi tax).

This is while Suarez is finished and Lewandowski still in his peak.
 
TenonTen said:
Lewandowski is already ahead of Suarez on every metrics except assists(Messi tax).

This is while Suarez is finished and Lewandowski still in his peak.
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He’s far less creative, far less adaptable as in he can’t play left right centre of a three like Suarez can, lesser passer, lesser dribbler and probably the tad bit slower also.

Also doesn’t press as ferociously as Suarez does, it’s not just assists( which is a byproduct of Suarez better passing ability) where Suarez betters him.
 
Swoobs said:
For me, I would move Suarez down a tier and add both Crespo and RVN in T3. In fact, for a pure striker, I personally rate RVN even higher than Henry even though Henry was a superior player.

Great shout on Romario, seemed to be very underrated in this forum. The best penalty box striker ever.
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No chance is Suarez in the same tier as RVN or Crespo, he deserves to be in tier 2 with Henry as great goalscorers who had great all round games and can score and create their own chances which the two players you mentioned could rarely do.
 
Red the Bear said:
He was definitely highly regarded, him winning the serie a with Verona is super impressive and I think he he came second in ballon do'r to platini.
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Yeah he did come second and third in the Ballon d'O'r in consecutive years. I've just never been able to fully gauge how highly regarded he truly was/is because no-one I know seems to know who the feck he is. I suppose because he didn't play for one of the European heavyweights at club or international level, he doesn't get brought up as much the same way but yeah that Danish side in the 80's were one of the best in Europe, they were so good and his achievements with Verona is legendary. Pretty sure he would be a more visible legend if he was a Dutch or Italian striker who spent his career playing for Bayern or Juventus.
 
Red the Bear said:
The Kaka thread got a tad derailed with the discussion about romario so here's one to exclusively argue about the great striker of the past and appreciate their talent or argue about their shortcomings, providing clips of them would be highly appreciated as a trip down the memory lane.
Here's how I rank them.
Goat: Muller
Tier 1 : Van basten , romario , Ronaldo , eusebio
Tier 2 : seeler , batitusta , papin , lewa(maybe?) , stochkov
Tier 3 : hugo sanchez ( debatable ?) , greaves, Suarez , rummenigge , rossi

Note 1: I didn't count the likes of pele , puskas and di estefano as strikers but I did so with eusebio

Note 2 : its a tier list so it's mostly to point out which caliber of player goes into which, I didn't intend to list them all for example henery would go in to the second one

Note 3 : don't dwell on my rankings too much as it was hastily thrown together from memory and most intended to spark discussion though if you do so feel free to explain yourself for example papin's number aren't great and he should be downgraded etc etc.

Well that's it do yours.
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brian clough tier 1. Arguably the greatest striker in the english game before his injury... Greavesy too, I'd say. Obviously going back some yrs there.

I loved Batistuta, he was brilliant considering he absolutely hated football and it was just a job. haha. Tier 2 correct there
 
harms said:
The first question would obviously be what is a striker?
As there are many players that exist somewhere in-between categories — going by your list alone I already see Eusébio, Stoichkov & Rummenigge that I wouldn't categorise as strikers, at least not at their peak (Stoichkov had played as one for Bulgaria but his peak would still be as a left-sided wing forward). It's easier with those forwards that preferred wider areas but categorising old-fashioned inside forwards is a huge pain — take Puskás (pre-Madrid), Kocsis, Greaves, Law that usually played as an inside forward and not as a central striker in those 5-men attacking lines... especially when there's not a lot of footage to make a proper judgment.

So here's a bunch of players that often played as an inside forwards/support strikers, usually being their team's main goalscorers, that I don't count as strikers: Puskás, Di Stéfano, Eusébio, Pelé, Rummenigge, Stoichkov, Blokhin, Cristiano, Baggio, Kempes... some of them played as strikers early on (like Pelé) or later (like Puskás, Cristiano) throughout their careers but I want to focus on players' peak versions even though those limited versions of Pelé or Puskás can easily get a spot in top-5.

T1:
Gerd Müller, Luís Ronaldo, Marco van Basten
It's really a coin-toss between the three for the GOAT title for me. Müller is the only one that had been able to perform at his peak level for a long time without injuries getting in his way — I don't think it's an outlandish claim to state that both Ronaldo & van Basten could've secured that top spot for themselves if their careers weren't defined by their injuries. It's important to say that when I talk about Ronaldo I talk about his version from 1996 to 1999, before his knees gave up at the age of 23 :nervous: Van Basten was able to perform at the highest level for longer even though he had missed entire seasons due to his injuries, finally retiring at the mere age of 28.

T1,5 (#4)
Romário
I can't put him in the first tier but he's done enough to be singled out as the closest runner up. If you compare their overall careers it probably won't even be a stretch to say that he was a better player than Luís Ronaldo but the latter's peak was just too special. Up until 23 he was on the trajectory to become not simply the greatest striker of all-time, but arguable the greatest player ever — and that includes Pelé, Maradona and, later, Messi. If Romário was a bit more professional he probably would've ended up in tier 1 anyway.

T2:
Uwe Seeler, Denis Law, Sándor Kocsis, Thierry Henry, Andriy Shevchenko // probably Luis Suárez & Robert Lewandowski, I always find it hard to evaluate current players

T3:
Jimmy Greaves, Alberto Spencer, Luigi Riva, Karim Benzema, Gabriel Batistuta // by reputation alone, Arsenio Erico, Silvio Piola, Dixie Deane, Gunnar Nordahl, Josef Bican

T4:
Preben Elkjær, Jürgen Klinsmann, Alan Shearer, John Charles, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Samuel Eto'o, Zlatan Ibrahimović

T5:
Just Fontaine, Robin van Persie, Sergio Agüero etc. (there's going to be quite a few)

I'd take Rossi & Papin out from your list, despite their Ballon d'Or wins I don't think that their career justify a place higher than T4. Same with Sanchez.
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Good post Ronaldo has to be unquestionably number 1 for me if we’re going on peaks.
 
WeePat said:
Yeah he did come second and third in the Ballon d'O'r in consecutive years. I've just never been able to fully gauge how highly regarded he truly was/is because no-one I know seems to know who the feck he is. I suppose because he didn't play for one of the European heavyweights at club or international level, he doesn't get brought up as much the same way but yeah that Danish side in the 80's were one of the best in Europe, they were so good and his achievements with Verona is legendary. Pretty sure he would be a more visible legend if he was a Dutch or Italian striker who spent his career playing for Bayern or Juventus.
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It's mostly due to name recognition, the man did win the most coveted league title after all with an underdog as well (well they did have a quality side but it wasn't as good as the big guns).
Those who know him will hold him in esteem but he's kinda getting forgotten by the new generation unless there is a hipster reevaluation of him happening soon .

It doesn't mean anything for his quality though as most people nowadays don't even know zico and in my opinion he was one the greatest players ever so people not knowing him just means he lacks name recognition.
 
ZolaWasMagic said:
brian clough tier 1. Arguably the greatest striker in the english game before his injury... Greavesy too, I'd say. Obviously going back some yrs there.

I loved Batistuta, he was brilliant considering he absolutely hated football and it was just a job. haha. Tier 2 correct there
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His numbers are insane but he never really got to play in the first division (though the gap between the two wasn't as great) so unfortunately that precludes him from ever entering these discussions.
Greaves from what I've seen of him seems to have been splendid though I'm not that well informed of his career as might have liked to.
 
Where do people place Radamel Falcao, how do we juggle peak performance against longevity. He was the best striker in the world for me for 1.5/2 years.
 
Gringo said:
Where do people place Radamel Falcao, how do we juggle peak performance against longevity. He was the best striker in the world for me for 1.5/2 years.
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Tier 4 , as I don’t feel he's there quality wise compared to the guys people have put in tier 3.
 
I think Falcao is Batistuta level... I really do. There was a time whenever he had the ball, it could have ended up in the back of the net a second later. He was incredible. The quality isn't a question.
 
Number 1.

Manucho_1202215.jpg

Then everyone else..
 
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