The Daily Hatch

Today’s debate is about the 8th best soccer player ever!!!!!

Wilson: Lothar Herbert Matthaus- He won the 1990 W0rld Cup and he was the best player on the team. He defeated some great legends like Diego Maradona. He is the most talented German soccer player ever.

Lothar Herbert Matthäus – goles

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Everette: I went with Kaka. Here is a clip:

kaka – the unstoppable footballplayer

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Here is a list from Soul Magazine:

In light of the biggest sports event that takes place every four years, The World Cup, we take a look at the best players in the world, of all time. Though opinions may differ, the following 10 football players have definitely made a historical mark in this sport to be mentioned amongst the top players of the world.

1. Pele (Brazil)
Pele (Edison Arantes do Nascimento) started his professional football career at age 15 and grew out to be considered the best football player of all time. Not just by football experts but also by former players and fans. Pele played in four World Cup tournaments and is the only player in the world that has three World Cup winning medals. The talented player retired in 1977. Up til today, no other player has been able to knock the Brazilian from the number one spot.

2. Ronaldo (Brazil)
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, also hailing from Brazil. But unlike Pele, Ronaldo has played for several European teams as well. He is one of the only two men who have won the FIFA Player of the Year award three times. In 2007, he was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest footballers compiled by the number 1 of this list, Pele.

3. Romario (Brazil)
Romário de Souza Faria, closing the top 3 of best football players of all time, also as a Brazilian native. He has won the World Cup in 1994 with the Brazilian national team. On May 20, 2007, Romário scored his 1000th goal. The Brazilian press claimed him as the third player in professional football history to achieve this, after Pele and Puskas. In 2008 Romario retired from football, only to come back for one more game in 2009.

4. Luis Figo (Portugal)
Luís Filipe Madeira Caeiro Figo, retired from football in 2009 after a 20 year lasting career. Figo is one of the few football players to have played for both the Spanish rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. His move from Barca to Real Madrid in 2000 went for a then world record of 37 million pound. (Roughly 48 million USD.)

5. Zinedine Zidane (France)
Zinedine Yazid Zidane, considered to be the best French player in history. He has helped the French national team win the World Cup in 1998 and led them to the World Cup Finals in 2006. He retired right after the last mentioned event. Zidane’s parents being from Algeria, the president of the national team of Algeria proposed him to be the trainer of their team.

6. Diego Maradona (Argentina)
Diego Armando Maradona, born in 1960, has set world record fees during his professional career. He played in four World Cup tournaments, including winning the 1986 World Cup with the Argentinian team. Maradona is considered one of the sport’s most controversial and newsworthy figures. He was suspended from football for 15 months in 1991 after failing a doping test for cocaine in Italy, and he was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the USA for testing positive for ephedrine. He retired from playing football in 1997.

7. Lothar Matthäus (Germany)
Lothar Herbert Matthäus, has played in five World Cup tournaments including leading the German national team to the victory of the World Cup in 1990. A year after that he was named the first ever FIFA World Player of the Year. He is the most capped German player of all time, retiring with a total of 150 appearances and 23 goals for the German national team. Maradona said about Matthäus “he is the best rival I’ve ever had.

8. Gerd Müller (Germany)
Gerhard “Gerd” Müller is one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time. With national records of 68 goals in 62 international appearances, 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games and the international record of 66 goals in 74 European Club games, he was one of the most successful goalscorers of his era. He scored the winning goal for the 2-1 victory over the Netherlands in the final of the 1974 World Cup.

9. Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)
Franz Anton Beckenbauer, the third German football player in the top 10 list of best players of all time. Though he comes behind Matthäus and Müller, he is considered the greatest German footballer of all time. Beckenbauer played in three World Cup tournaments and as captain he led West-Germany to the trophy in 1974. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

10. Cafu (Brazil)
Marcos Evangelista de Moraes, better known as Cafu, closes this top 10 list as yet another Brazilian football player. Cafu is the most capped Brazilian player of all time with 143, including 21 World Cup finals appearances. He has won two World Cup tournaments, in 1994 and 2002.

This top 10 list comes from “Greatest Footballers Ever” by the Association of Football Statistics.

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