Who is the best football player ever?

Has got to be Zidane pure class, there will never be 'The New Zidane'

Ronaldo (Brasilian) close behind tho!

Zidane for me, the man was a genius, piss all over messi and ronaldo! And he done it at international level, that goal in the champions league final for madrid was technically the best ever in my book

Got to agree, unplayable in his prime!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad someone agrees mate best I've ever seen, I wasn't around to wittness pele or maradona so I can't comment on them to and I still think messi got a bit to prove before he can call himself number one of all time

Zidane was a great player, Messi is the best of the latest batch, Pele, Best and Maradona were all superstars but Cruyff invented the best football you'll ever see teams play and taught them how to do it as both player and a manager at international level. He did stuff with a football that had never been seen before and was a team player- surely that makes him the daddy...

The Dutch master himself - Johann Cruyff. He invented the total football
that Holland and Barcelona play as well as being a magician with the ball at his feet...

after keith fahey...dutch74 team was something else.king cruyff

Have to say mate they were awesome in 74 - best team ever for me. Think fahey may just have missed out on that squad though...

i agree,best footballing side ever.your right mate.fahey would have missed the final 22cut

Diego armando maradona

If you can try to get hold of a dvd called "he visto maradona".
It's in spanish but it is by far the best football dvd i have ever seen

Cracking thread! In my lifetime, has to be Maradona in the 80's, shame what came afterwards...

Johann cruyff everytime

Pele is my best player ever ! Ronaldo could nt lace his boots !

The man to my right

maradona is definitely the best player of my time watching football and i also liked the brazil 82 world cup squad which was full of amazing skillful players

Maradona was amazing, yet i probably could be with the amount of sniff he was on at the time. Johan Cruyff was amazing, not sure why people are crediting him with the start of "total football" it was his coach when he was at ajax that came up with that concept, later named coach of the century in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels

Sure, Zidane was a quality player but he was never as consistant as Messi has been,

Messi has been the best player on the planet for a number of years, consistantly playing, even when having a quiet game he can still create worldclass moments

at club level he's scored around 150 in 200 games, and he's still only 24!

zidane scored 96 in 506 games, if Messi keeps playing like he is, by the time he gets to 500 games he would have scored 375 goals!

For me "there can be only one" and it is Lionel Messi, greatest player ever!

maradonna

Best player seen live - Zidane. Slightly better than Steve Grapes, but only just.

However, going to the Camp Nou on Sunday to see Barca v Valencia, so may change my mind depending on how Messi plays.

Maradona was amazing, yet i probably could be with the amount of sniff he was on at the time. Johan Cruyff was amazing, not sure why people are crediting him with the start of "total football" it was his coach when he was at ajax that came up with that concept, later named coach of the century in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels

Michels implemented it mate - Cruyff gave an in depth interview to 4-4-2 a couple of years ago and explained how it came about.

Maradona was amazing, yet i probably could be with the amount of sniff he was on at the time. Johan Cruyff was amazing, not sure why people are crediting him with the start of "total football" it was his coach when he was at ajax that came up with that concept, later named coach of the century in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels

Michels implemented it mate - Cruyff gave an in depth interview to 4-4-2 a couple of years ago and explained how it came about.

i know, thats what I said.

Maradona was amazing, yet i probably could be with the amount of sniff he was on at the time. Johan Cruyff was amazing, not sure why people are crediting him with the start of "total football" it was his coach when he was at ajax that came up with that concept, later named coach of the century in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinus_Michels

Michels implemented it mate - Cruyff gave an in depth interview to 4-4-2 a couple of years ago and explained how it came about.

i know, thats what I said.

Yes, Michels implemented it but Cruyff came up with the idea of players being able to play in any position during the match. Thats what I said

Messi, Bale