World Cup Players – Our Pick of the Greatest
Our World Cup blog’s latest instalment is about the individual, the players within a team that contribute the saves, the tackles, the passes and of course, the goals. We’ll discuss what attributes are needed to be one of the best World Cup players and select some of the finest talents ever to grace the game.
Whether we like it or not, the individuals within great teams bring success. Football may be a team game, but it is the players within that starting eleven that can make the difference on the field. A country’s progress in the tournament can all depend on the star player having a good game or not.
Best World Cup Players – Goalkeeper / Defence
In our quest to assemble a team that contains the best World Cup players of all time, the first position we need to fill is that of a goalkeeper. It’s a pick you cannot take lightly, as the right man between the sticks will not only stop you from conceding goals, but an intelligent goalkeeper can also create goals with decent distribution. Of course, you also need someone you can trust if the game goes to the lottery of penalties.
One player that has always intrigued us in the years we have followed football but doesn’t receive the credit in the western world is the aptly nicknamed ‘Black Spider’, Lev Yashin.
Yashin played his entire club career, which spanned 20 years, with the Russian club Dynamo Moscow. He played 326 club games and represented the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1970. He appeared in four World Cups and kept over 270 clean sheets, winning the 1956 gold at the Olympics and the 1960 European Championships.
He remains to this day the only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or (1963). However, the main reason he gets the nod over players like Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas, Peter Schmeichel and Oliver Kahn is Yashi’s incredible record at saving penalties. His cat-like reflexes enabled him to save over 150 spot kicks.
Oh how we would love someone like him for England!
For our defence, we’ve opted for three at the back as we know that many of the best World Cup players are creative midfielders, so we are unashamedly going to pack the midfield and limit our backline to three centre-backs.
We like bravery in our players, and some English players we did consider were Tony Adams, Terry Butcher and Stuart “Psycho” Pearce.
Tony Adams wasn’t the most skilful of players, but he easily made up for his limitations with his work rate, strength and aerial ability. However, if you need a player to put his life on the line for you, Terry Butcher was that player. We can still recall the images of a blood-soaked Butcher heading the ball moments after a clash of heads which would have seen an ordinary man being rushed to hospital. Stuart “Psycho” Pearce was another warrior you wanted in your team, and our ‘psycho’ wasn’t scared of anything or anyone.
Ultimately, although we’d love a back three of those warriors, we cannot overlook the more skilful players, and rather predictably, we’ve looked elsewhere.
Our first defender is Paolo Maldini, who played 647 games for AC Milan and 126 times for the Italian national team. The legendary Pelé named him in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players, and we agree.
Alongside the Italian, we are selecting ‘Der Kaiser’, Franz Beckenbauer. The German won 103 caps for his country and was runner-up in the 1966 World Cup, third in 1970, before finally lifting the trophy in 1974. Beckenbauer’s leadership qualities were incredible, and we’d happily allow him to marshall the team.
Our final pick in defence is Franco Baresi, the deep-lying Italian sweeper who was almost impossible to get past. The Italian was a no-nonsense tough tackler who had a knack for preventing certain goals. Another one-club man, Baresi, spent 20 years at AC Milan, making 531 appearances. At the international level, he played 81 times, including the 1994 final against Brazil. Although he missed a decisive penalty in that game, part of the reason it went to penalties was due to his excellent defensive work in that game.
Best World Cup Players – Midfielder
England has been blessed with some fantastic players in midfield, and it would be an easy decision to look through our English rose-tinted glasses and choose some English greats. In the Premier League era, the talent at England’s disposal would make most people’s best World Cup players list. Players including Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard will be near the top of many lists, and of course, we also had creative geniuses like Paul Gascoigne to choose from.
Our first pick is somewhat controversial, the former Manchester United man, Paul Scholes. No-one doubts Schole’s ability, but people will point out that despite his 66 caps, he never really shone for the Three Lions as he did for his club side. That said, Scholes could hit a fly with a football and had an incredible talent for making a pass. If only he could tackle, he would have been a complete footballer, but still, he is one of the greatest World Cup players.
Andrea Pirlo would be in our team as a deep-lying playmaker, and like Scholes, he could cause havoc from a dead-ball situation. Moreover, as shown during the 2002/2003 Serie A season, he had unbelievable composure on the ball. He led the league in terms of passes played (2589), ball possession (123 hours and 39 minutes), successful balls (661) and successful passes (2093). A remarkable stat is that he averaged almost 90 passes per game. The most laid back man in football, he famously once said about pressure: “I don’t feel pressure … I don’t give a toss about it. I spent the afternoon of Sunday, 9 July 2006 in Berlin sleeping and playing the PlayStation. In the evening, I went out and won the World Cup.”
Zinedine Zidane said one of his biggest regrets was never getting to play alongside Paul Scholes, but the French legend would get his chance in our alternative reality as he’d be alongside him in our team. While Scholes and Pirlo would be providing the passes, Zidane brings skills, ball control, tricks, and plenty of goals. Like almost all of the greatest World Cup players, Zidane had supreme talent but also a temperament that got him in trouble. In the 1998 World Cup, Zidane became the first ever Frenchman sent off in a World Cup finals game. He stamped on Saudi Arabia’s Fuad Anwar and received a suspension. He served his ban, returned for the final, and scored two in France’s 3-0 win over Brazil, picking up the man-of-the-match award. His last appearance for France before retiring was also somewhat memorable.
Although his legacy has been tainted by scandal, Michel Platini would complete our midfield. Rightly regarded as one of the greatest World Cup players, Platini was a skilful midfielder who guaranteed goals. In his club career, which spanned Nancy, Saint-Étienne and Juventus, he scored 224 goals in 432 games. Platini won the Ballon d’Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, years before the Messi and Ronaldo era. Back then, it was unusual to see multiple winners.
Best World Cup Players – Strikers
It is simply impossible to have a list of the greatest World Cup players of all time and not include Pelé as one of your strikers. Pelé is regarded as many as the best to have ever played, remarkably, he was also one of the youngest World Cup players. His goalscoring record is unbelievable, 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which is recognised as a Guinness World Record. If online World Cup betting had existed back then, he would have been popular with punters. He was also a serial winner, the only player to have lifted three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970).
Brazil have a habit of creating world beaters – in the women’s game, Marta has 115 goals in 174 appearances for the Brazil national team, and is due to make her final World Cup appearances in the 2023 Women’s World Cup, where she will no doubt add to her sterling record.
Although it pains us to pick him, another player automatically selected as one of the top World Cup players of all time is Diego Maradona. He was a tiny player at just 5 ft 5 in, but his stature on the pitch was that of a giant. Able to play in midfield or as a second striker, Maradona could produce moments of pure genius. At club level, he scored 259 goals in 491 games, and while his scoring rate was lower with Argentina (34 in 91 goals), they were often sublime goals when he scored.
His strike against England on their way to the 1986 World Cup victory was voted as the greatest goal in the history of the World Cup by FIFA.
Johan Cruyffis the last pick of the greatest World Cup players in our team. The legendary Dutchman was so skilful that modern-day players still perform the Cruyff turn. First performed during the 1974 World Cup, Cruyff, facing away from goal, faked to pass before suddenly twisting his body, pulling the ball behind his standing leg, and sprinting with the ball. It was mesmerising stuff.
He certainly wan’t a one-trick-pony, though. He scooped the Ballon d’Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. He scored 291 league goals in 514 games and scored 33 goals in 48 games with the Netherlands.
Who do you think will be the best players at the 2022 World Cup? Use our world cup squad builder to select your best 11 for each country.
