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Best Football players of the 21st century

The community has spoken. Discover the world ranking, compare it to yours and see how everyone else voted.

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30contenders high-voltage

550votes

7TopList

0commentsUpdated on 10/17/2026 at 06:00 AM

Gianluigi Buffon1654

The worldwide ranking generated by 550 votes

30 / 30

Gianluigi Buffon1654

Ronaldinho1623

Ronaldo Nazário1610

Thierry Henry1606

Cristiano Ronaldo1592

Zinédine Zidane1588

Lionel Messi1569

Didier Drogba1536

Francesco Totti1535

#10

Luka Modrić1527

#11

Andrés Iniesta1518

#12

Sergio Ramos1506

#13

David Beckham1498

#14

Karim Benzema1493

#15

Manuel Neuer1489

#16

Alessandro Nesta1481

#17

Clarence Seedorf1480

#18

Ruud Van Nistelrooy1479

#19

Neymar Jr1477

#20

Wayne Rooney1474

#21

Kylian Mbappé1472

#22

Cafu1470

#23

Iker Casillas1448

#24

Kaká1442

#25

Carles Puyol1438

#26

Robert Lewandowski1434

#27

Dani Alves1418

#28

Xavi Hernández1361

#29

Fabio Cannavaro1350

#30

Luis Suárez1343

What the community says

Gianluigi Buffon leads with an ELO of 1,654, ahead of Ronaldinho (1,623) and Ronaldo Nazário (1,610). Ranked over 550 duels between 30 contenders, last updated October 17, 2026.

Rank the best football players of the 21st century! From Messi to Ronaldo, Mbappé, Lewandowski and the legends. Who's your favorite?

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →