#TFHB100 Players of All-Time: 20-16

To mark our 4th birthday, we have decided once more develop a list of the greatest players of all-time. In our infancy, we attempted to countdown the top 250 players through a public vote. However, over the past year a new poll was created gaining a far greater number of votes from almost 50 countries around the world! Alongside the public vote is a judging panel made up of:
Football has been pivotal to the last 100 years of history and players from all areas of the globe have become heroes, villains and even symbols of national identity in the process. Without further ado - here is The Football History Boys - Top 100.


20. Franco BARESI


D.O.B: 08.05.60

Place in #TFHB250: 36

Nation: Italy
Image result for franco baresi

Club: Milan

League Apps (Goals): 531 (16)

International: 81 (1)

Honours:
Serie A x6; UEFA Champion League x3; UEFA Super Cup x3; Intercontinental Cup x2; Supercoppa Italiana x4; FIFA World Cup

Individual: Guerin d'Oro; FIFA World Cup All-Star; AC Milan Player of the Century; FIFA 100; Golden Foot; Italian Football Hall of Fame



Ray Wilkins:
“Franco was the best player I have ever played with. The guy was world class to his core. He had everything – pace, two feet, and he was a leader of men. I remember the first time I trained with him at Milan, I couldn’t believe my eyes; I thought, “Christ, he is unbelievable.” He was a joy to play with.”


Ruud Gullit:
“A leader at the back, very strong and quick, with an excellent understanding of the game. As a defender, he could do everything. A lot of the time, he would know what the attacker was going to do before they knew themselves! How do you get past someone like that?”




19. Dennis BERGKAMP

D.O.B: 10.05.69
Image result for dennis bergkamp
Place in #TFHB250:
 20

Nation: Netherlands

Club(s): Ajax; Inter; Arsenal

League Apps (Goals): 552 (201)

International:
79 (37)

Honours:
Eredivisie; KNVB Cup x2; UEFA Cup Winners' Cup; UEFA Cup x2; Premier League x3; FA Cup x3; FA Community Shield x3

Individual: UEFA Euro Top Scorer 1992; UEFA Team of the Tournament; FIFA 100; FIFA World Cup All-Star; PFA Player of the Year; FWA Footballer of the Year; Ballon d'Or Runner Up; English Football Hall of Fame

Thierry Henry:
“Why? Because he was always doing what the game was asking him to do. What I mean by that is he can showboat sometimes and score a goal that you guys would have gone ‘oh wow!’, but we knew it could have been something better for the team.
“He could score but he could pass, past, [pick the] right moment. He was always trying to respect the game when he could do other stuff and that’s why I respected him a lot for that.
“But also the way he trained. The way he used to train was just not normal. The guy didn’t want to lose the ball, if he loses the ball he would foul you, get in your face, he wants to be first in the run, first to touch the mannequin in training
.”

"You could fill a page with a list of outstanding goals scored by him. You could fill two pages with a list of the goals that had their genius in his vision. And you could fill a dictionary with a list of superlatives used to describe his 11-year career with Arsenal. Dennis Bergkamp is quite simply a legend of the game.
In the last two decades many one-time unknowns have left Highbury with a fearsome reputation and much-warranted acclaim. But, in a way, Dennis was an exception; he came, and left, with a world-class calibre."





18. Gerd MULLER


D.O.B: 03.11.45

Image result for gerd muller
Place in #TFHB250: 13

Nation: Germany

Club(s):
1861 Nordlingen Bayern, Fort Lauderdale Strikers

League Apps (Goals): 555 (487)

International:
62 (68)

Honours:
Bundesliga x4; DFB Pokal x4; Regionalliga Sud; European Cup x3; UEFA Cup Winners' Cup; Intercontinental Cup; FIFA World Cup; UEFA European Championships

Individual:
Ballon d'Or 1970; German Footballer of the Year x2; FIFA World Cup All-Star; FIFA World Cup Golden Boot; UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament; Golden Foot; FIFA 100; European Golden Boot x4

Bundesliga
"It was a low-key finale to a spectacular career that brought a staggering 533 goals in 585 competitive appearances for Bayern, a breathtaking feat that led to Müller being named the Bundesliga's all-time MVP by the DFL in 2003. "Gerd Müller is one of the greats of world football," said another Bayern legend and current Executive Board Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. "Without his goals, FC Bayern and German football would not be where it is today."

David Winner:
"Müller was short, squat, awkward-looking and not notably fast; he never fitted the conventional idea of a great footballer, but he had lethal acceleration over short distances, a remarkable aerial game, and uncanny goalscoring instincts. His short legs gave him a strangely low center of gravity, so he could turn quickly and with perfect balance in spaces and at speeds that would cause other players to fall over. He also had a knack of scoring in unlikely situations."



17. Thierry HENRY

D.O.B: 25.01.80

Image result for thierry henry arsenal
Place in #TFHB250: 12

Nation:
 France

Club(s):
 Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona, New York Red Bulls

League Apps (Goals): 581 (284)

International: 
123 (51)

Honours: Ligue 1; Trophee Des Champions; Premier League x2; FA Cup x2; FA Community Shield x2La Liga x2; Copa del Rey; Supercopa de España; UEFA Champions League; UEFA Super Cup; MLS Easter Conference x2; MLS Supporters' Shield; FIFA Club World Cup; FIFA World Cup 1998; UEFA European Championship 2000; FIFA Confederations Cup

Individual: PFA Player of the Year x2; PFA Team of the Year 2001-6; PFA Team of the Century; FWA Footballer of the Year x3; Premier League Golden Boot x4; UEFA Team of the Year x5; MLS XI x3; MLS All-Star x4; Onze d'Or x2; French Player of the Year x5; FIFA World XI; FIFA World Cup All Star; UEFA Team of the Tournament; FIFA 100; English Football Hall of Fame;

"Remember the kid in the playground who was better than everyone else with a football at his feet? That's what Thierry Henry was like in his pomp.
The Frenchman had exquisite technique, searing pace and surprising strength. And like the typical schoolboy superstar, he did pretty much everything for his team. Henry was the captain, the talisman, the dead-ball expert, the penalty-taker and the assist-maker.
Then there's the goals, a club record 228 of them to be precise. And what a portfolio Henry built up during his eight years as Arsenal. Thumping drives, delicate chips, jinking runs, audacious backheels, even the odd header - the Frenchman had a myriad of ways to find the net."

Zinedine Zidane:
"Ronaldinho is a special player, but Thierry Henry is probably technically the most gifted footballer ever to play the beautiful game"



16. Michel PLATINI

D.O.B: 21.06.55
Image result for michel platini juventus
Place in #TFHB250:
15

Nation:
 France

Club(s): Nancy, Saint Etienne, Juventus

League Apps (Goals): 432 (224)

International: 
72 (41)

Honours: Ligue 1; Ligue 2; Coupe de France; European Cup; UEFA Super Cup; UEFA Cup Winners' Cup; Intercontinental Cup; Serie A x2; Coppa Italia; UEFA European Championship

Individual:
 Ballon d'Or 1983 1984 1985; Onze d'Or x3; UEFA Euro Player of the Tournament; UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament; UEFA Euro Top Scorer; French Player of the Year x2; French Player of the Century; FIFA 100; French Football Hall of Fame; English Football Hall of Fame; FIFA World Cup All-Star x2; Golden Foot;

BBC:
"Football is a fantastic, intelligent game which teaches us how to live together, how to share when you are better than others. It is an extraordinary education for life."
As a player in France and, for five glorious years, with Juventus, they called him "le Roi" - the king. He was a dashing playmaker who orchestrated matches with a swagger allied to skill, flair and intelligence. Three times European Footballer of the Year, the zenith of his career came in the glorious French summer of 1984.
Platini scored nine goals in five matches to lead France to a majestic European Championship victory on home soil. He lifted the trophy as captain, having scored not one but two "perfect hat-tricks" (a goal each with right foot, left foot and head). Platini's place in the pantheon was secure."

"When Michel Platini was still playing football in the streets of his home village in north-eastern France, his father told him something that would shape the way the boy saw the game and, perhaps, the world. “You must learn to pass the ball,” the former pro Aldo Platini told his son, “if you want to get it back.”
Give and go, give and get. The ability to find a team-mate with the ball and get himself in position to score from the return pass became the cornerstone of the young Platini’s marvellous career. He turned himself into a playmaker whose scoring statistics rivalled those of the greatest strikers."




_________________________________________________________________________________

Keep track of the list so far:

_________________________________________________________________________________


Keep tuned in to find out the next 10 in the #TFHB100 shortlist! Check out our judges' websites!!



Art of FootballBeautifulGame15Goalden TimesFootball TodayDispensable Soccer

Comments

Popular Posts