Our ranking of the 9 active stars in The Athletic’s 100 greatest footballers ever | OneFootball

Respected outlet The Athletic recently named their top 100 men’s football players of all-time, in a list which comprises some modern-day greats alongside legends of yesteryear.

Such a comprehensive ranking is sure to throw up some controversies, with players missing out and a debate over the comparison between players across eras, and positions.

We have looked into that top 100, and re-ranked the nine active players in our own mini list.

1. Lionel Messi (1st)

The top name on the list is hard to argue with. By essentially every important metric to rank a footballer, Messi is the best player to have ever graced the earth.

The easiest way of proving that is through the fact he has won the Ballon d’Or eight times, three times more than the man he spent most of his career battling for the moniker of the best in the world – Cristiano Ronaldo.

Among his personal and team accolades, the one that stands out is the World Cup in 2022, where Messi cemented his legacy by guiding his side to the trophy with some star performances.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo (5th)

Definitely in the top two players of his generation, Ronaldo’s five Ballon d’Or trophies are more than anybody has ever won, if their name isn’t Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo was perhaps unlucky to have graced the pitch at the same time as Messi, as were he to be in his prime in the current era, he’d be the best player by streets.

However, the pair pushed each other to greatness, particularly when they regularly faced off for Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The accolade that has best pushed Ronaldo’s case as one of the greats of world football is his goals tally, coming up on 1000, at a figure which already officially makes him the best goalscorer in the history of the game.

3. Neymar (46th)

At this point, one must ask what the writer at The Athletic was smoking.

It was pretty evident, for much of the time that Messi and Ronaldo were bossing world football, that Neymar was the third-best player around.

He was almost on par with Messi in the same Barcelona team in 2014-15 and 2015-16, across which his combined goals and assists tallies were 102.

He continued his peak for PSG, with 197 direct goal contributions there in 173, and though arguments could be made about the level and lack of a Champions League trophy, him being below Mbappe, Modric, Neuer and Benzema in the list is a bad joke.

Neymar’s peak was above any of the aforementioned players, in which he was largely untouchable.

4. Luka Modric (36th)

Modric was one of the most important players in one of the best Real Madrid sides ever, and his longevity in that side is one of the main reasons he’s long been seen as one of the world’s best.

Of the nine active players on the top 100 list, he was the fourth name, so we’re back to the status quo here.

Modric played just shy of 600 games for Real, where he won six Champions Leagues, scored 43 goals and assisted 95.

Even at 39 he was still bossing their midfield, and now at 40, he’s a starter for fellow European juggernaut AC Milan.

He’s not played outside a top-five European league since 2008, when he was 23, having been a world-class player for longer than many careers last at any level.

5. Manuel Neuer (38th)

Neuer and Modric are separated by very little on our list, as well as the original. Longevity and the weight of trophies the Bayern Munich goalkeeper has won fairly rate him as one of the best stoppers ever.

The best trophies in Neuer’s cabinet are two Champions Leagues and a World Cup, as well as 12 Bundesliga titles.

Neuer’s club career has seen him play over 800 games, mostly at the very top level and as the best goalkeeper in the world for the majority of that time, while he’s also played more than 100 times for Germany, long keeping his title as his nation’s best goalkeeper.

6. Kylian Mbappe (29th)

Mbappe was above the aforementioned pair of Modric and Neuer in the original list, and it’s a fair shout to say he could eclipse their achievements in the game, but he’s not there yet.

Mbappe was supposed to take over from Messi and/or Ronaldo as the world’s best player.

When he won the World Cup with France in 2018 and carried them to the final in 2022, there were glimpses of that player – 12 goals to his name across those tournaments.

But he has failed to break away from the peloton of other modern-day stars, never truly establishing himself as the best.

At 26, he still has ample time to maintain a hot streak, which pushes him up this list, but for now he’s not done enough.

7. Kevin De Bruyne (66th)

This position was a toss-up between De Bruyne and Benzema for us, with the Frenchman 25 places higher up on the original list.

However, De Bruyne has been the best player in the Premier League and for Belgium at various periods of his career.

Benzema was almost never the best player in Real Madrid’s attack, other than perhaps one season post-Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.

De Bruyne stayed Manchester City’s most important asset for the majority of his time at the Etihad, while notching the second-most assists in Premier League history, with 117.

He was one of the main factors in City winning the league on six occasions – he was directly involved in 285 goals in 422 games – while also proving one of the very best players in a golden generation which hoisted Belgium to the top of the FIFA World Rankings at one point.

8. Karim Benzema (41st)

Had Benzema not played in the same team as Ronaldo for much of his career, and therefore had the spotlight taken from him, there’s a chance he’d have been rated more highly.

It is tough to argue with the weight of goals – 354 in 648 games – but he actually only once found the net 30 times in a season, with 44 strikes in his Ballon d’Or-winning campaign of 2021-22.

He played a big part in Real winning five Champions Leagues during his time there, but has rarely been the out-and-out talisman at a club, and his importance is perhaps not the same as some of those we have ranked above him.

9. Mohamed Salah (67th)

Salah was the last-placed active player on the original list and takes the same spot here.

He played for five clubs before landing at Liverpool in 2017 and had never been great at any one of them.

That means he’s hardly nearly the same impact as some on this list, and though he’s been one of the Reds’ best players in history, he doesn’t rank too high among his peers.

That said, he’s in the top four scorers in Premier League history, has over 350 direct goal contributions for Liverpool, and has won two Premier League titles and a Champions League, largely as his side’s best player.