The vast majority of the 100 best European football players of all time might no longer be lacing up their boots week after week to strut their stuff on the domestic, continental and international stage, but that doesn’t mean we can no longer appreciate their genius; the esoteric brilliance only a minute few can comprehend but a great wave of supporters can marvel at.
Plenty of players have come and gone, but these European stars have all left a lasting imprint on the continent – and for some, even in places further afield. There’s goalscorers, creators, devastators and destroyers, all combined to provide a celebration of the greatest to grace the pitch.
Inevitably, some players will be ranked wrongly – at least, in an individual’s eyes – but that’s the nature of the beast. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all, but each of the following 100 European players have managed to catch the attention in their own unique way. Enjoy!
100. Toni Kroos
Kroos is an unsung hero for Real Madrid (Image credit: Getty Images)
His teammates may have grabbed the headlines throughout his career, but make no mistake: Kroos has been as vital to Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning side as anybody.
Kroos’ two-goal showing in the 7-1 demolition of hosts Brazil in the semi-finals that year was one of the most dominant performances ever seen on international football’s biggest stage.
His incredible accuracy, technique, tactical prowess, and sheer physicality have made Kroos the archetypal 21st-century central midfielder. You simply don’t win five Champions Leagues and a World Cup by mistake.
99. Petr Cech
Cech marshalled the Cheslea goal expertly (Image credit: Getty Images)
Eyebrows hit the ceiling when Chelsea signed 21-year-old Cech to replace in-form Carlo Cudicini for a hefty £9m – but of all the Roman Abramovich millions spent on players, Chelsea never got a better deal.
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The Czech spent a decade at Stamford Bridge keeping goal to a ceaselessly incredible standard, even after suffering the horrible skull fracture that would force him into headgear for the rest of his career.
Across his time at Chelsea and Arsenal, Cech kept the cleanest sheets in Premier League history –and it’s not even close – becoming the only man ever to clear 200.
98. Erling Haaland
Haaland is the youngest player on this list (Image credit: Alamy)
Robot? Alien? Robot-alien hybrid? Or simply an absolute beast of a player, custom-made for scoring goals?
It’s always telling when a player surpasses their famous parent to the extent that Haaland is no longer described as ‘Alfe-Inge’s son’; now, the former Leeds midfielder is ‘Erling’s dad’.
The youngest player on this list, Haaland is destined to rise far, far higher in future editions; but at 23 years old, he has already scored well over 200 goals at senior level and broken a fleet of Premier League records.
97. Marco Tardelli
Marco Tardelli in action for Italy at the 1982 World Cup (Image credit: Getty Images)
Best remembered for his iconic celebrations after putting Italy 2-0 ahead in the 1982 World Cup final, Tardelli was a fixture for his national team and a vital part of one of Juventus’ most iconic sides.
One of the midfield greats of his generation Tardelli could truly do it all years before Yaya Toure was a glint in his father’s eye – and with both feet, to boot.
Alongside Juve teammates Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea, Tardelli was the first member of an exclusive ten-man club of players to have won the UEFA Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and European Cup.
96. Bernd Schuster
Schuster in action for West Germany (Image credit: Getty Images)
Nicknamed the Blond Angel – with some irony – and one of only two players in history ever to have played for the Spanish holy trinity of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
Goalscoring midfielder Schuster won trophies everywhere he plied his trade, and was named the second-best player in the world after helping West Germany to victory at the 1980 Euros.
But Schuster made himself unavailable for international selection in 1984 after constant fall-outs with… well, practically everyone, depending who you listen to. Had he added to his 21 international caps, Schuster may well be ranked even higher.
95. Harry Kane
Kane is England’s record goalscorer (Image credit: Alamy)
England’s all-time leading goalscorer? Tottenham’s all-time leading goalscorer, breaking record Jimmy Greaves held for over half a century? A three-time Premier League Golden Boot winner, and the only man to even look remotely like troubling Alan Shearer’s record as the division’s all-time leading goalscorer (until he departed for Germany last year)? That’s gotta be Kane.
It’s amusing to think there was ever a time when Kane’s capabilities were in doubt, but once he started scoring in 2014/15, he simply didn’t stop. This flash-in-the-pan turned out to be the real deal. Big time.
94. Jose Antonio Camacho
Camacho was imperious for 15 years (Image credit: Getty)
Real Madrid’s most reliable left-back of all time, Camacho broke into the first team at the Bernabeu aged 18, in 1974, and barely relinquished his place until he hung up his boots in 1989.
Had he not missed nearly two years with a horror injury, he would be even higher than ninth in the club’s all-time appearance list.
Ironic, then that Camacho is the shortest- and second-shortest-reigning permanent Real Madrid boss of all time. His stint in summer 1998 lasted just 22 days and zero games. He came back for another go in 2004; this time he lasted six games
93. Sepp Maier
Maier of Bayern Munich (Image credit: Getty Images)
A one-club man both as a player and a coach, Maier was Bayern Munich and West Germany’s long-standing first-choice goalkeeper from the mid-60s through to the end of the 1970s.
Maier was between the sticks for all three of Bayern’s never-better three consecutive European Cup wins from 1974-76, as well as West Germany’s 1972 Euros and 1974 World Cup triumphs.
That earned Maier recognition as the best keeper of the 20th century for two of the biggest powerhouses in European football at club and international level. Apparently he was funny, too, which is nice.
92. Nandor Hidegkuti
Hidegkuti scores against England in 1953 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Another member of that Hungarian Olympic gold medal-winning side that battered England at Wembley in 1953 (Hidegkuti scoring a hat-trick) and took the 1954 World Cup by storm before falling at the final hurdle.
Just as Grosics revolutionised goalkeeping, Hidegkuti baffled opponents by dropping back from his nominal centre-forward role to find space in between the lines, like a modern number 10 or false 9.
As Don Revie later wrote: “Whatever people claim of Koscis and Puskas, it was the man Hidegkuti who tore the England defence to shreds”
91. Gyula Grosics
Grosics makes a save in the 1954 World Cup (Image credit: Getty Images)
A Hungarian goalkeeper, with a remarkable story. After being taken as a prisoner of war by the Americans in World War II, Grosics played a huge part in the famous Hungary side of the 1950s.
That was despite receiving a two-year ban and facing espionage and treason charges for trying to defect from the Communist regime in 1949. He fled again in 1956, only to be forcibly returned.
On the pitch, Grosics was perhaps the world’s first sweeper-keeper some 45 years before the invention of the backpass rule forced goalkeepers to become more than just shot-stoppers.
