A celebration of the beautiful game and its 100 greatest players, from the pre-World War II exploits of Dixie Dean to the modern-day genius of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi
These players left a great legacy, redefined the game with their distinctive skills, and became national symbols. They have their statistics – goals, victories, titles – but most importantly, they have their stories.A World Cup winner owned a nightclub that briefly transformed a corner of industrial Germany into one of its liveliest venues. The death of an Austrian attacker is still shrouded in mystery. As for the striker, who might have become a communications technician had he not discovered his talent in football, he was eventually elected president of his country.There are unanswered questions. How did Pele's Brazilian shirt go missing from the 1958 World Cup quarter-final match at a Welsh school? Which goalkeeper was so good that an opponent considered scoring against him to be "winning a cup"?
Through extensive research and interviews, the football team at The Athletic, led by Oliver Kaye and James Horncastle, unearth angles and stories that shed new light on the sport's most intriguing figures.They faced an impossible riddle: out of the thousands of players who have taken to the field, who is the best? Their efforts to find the answer took a pioneering sports newsroom on a journey, and what emerged from it goes beyond just a ranking. With vibrant new images of each athlete, The 100 Greatest Footballers is a tribute to the greatest players in the world's most popular sport.
