Selected for 100+ caps, the Ballon d’Or, FIFA Player of the Year, the FIFA 100, 500+ career goals or a major league Hall of Fame. Tap to rate them.
A player is listed if they meet at least one of five marks: 100+ caps for a senior national team, the Ballon d’Or or FIFA Player of the Year, a place in the FIFA 100 (Pelé’s 2004 list of great living players), 500+ career goals, or a major league hall of fame. The list draws on Wikipedia’s records of these achievements and includes active players who already qualify.
There are 860 legends: 697 listed as retired and 163 as still playing when the data was collected. They come from 129 countries, 6 of which no longer exist, such as West Germany and the Soviet Union. By position: 75 goalkeepers, 248 defenders, 273 midfielders and 264 forwards.
78% of them began their club careers in 1980 or later. One reason is the caps rule: 620 legends have 100+ caps, and national teams now play far more matches a year than in the 1950s.
Decade their club careers began
Legends are rated on the same abilities as current players (0–100 in Fan mode, 0–20 in Scout mode). Rate the abilities you know best, then put the legend next to a current player on the Compare page. Whether you judge them against their own era or today’s game is up to you; say which in a comment so others can follow your reasoning.
Most legend pages have a short note on the player’s career and style, with a few things to consider before you rate. The notes are written with AI assistance and never give a score. Some legends also have a note in English, checked against Wikipedia; the other notes are only in Korean for now. Where the data allows, pages also show a career table from Wikipedia (years, main club, league apps and goals, caps); if a source figure looks wrong, the table shows a dash instead.
No score here is a verdict. Each ability score is a trimmed mean of its ratings: once an ability has 10 ratings, the top and bottom 10% are dropped before averaging; below that, every rating counts. Scores are settled in daily batches. If you think a legend is overrated or underrated, rate them and make your case in a comment.
17 players