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We are extremely lucky to live in an era where two of the best players ever to grace the football field, battle for supremacy – the ‘Portuguese Machine’ versus the ‘Argentine Magician’. It's a mouth-watering duel between two athletes that consistently makes the most casual of football fans feel grateful for the fact that they can witness history being made week after week, when these legends find a way to create and score goals, and help their team to trophies. But enough about Eder and Carlos Tévez.
Yes, we all agree that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are living legends, and that players like Neymar and Zlatan Ibrahimovic will probably be considered legends when they retire.
But we, as football fans, can’t really live with no more than what we have right now, and can’t help but feel a little bit nostalgic when names such as Pelé, Maradona, or Beckenbauer are mentioned. We despair at the fact that those really were the days when real men played football, as opposed to today’s game where TV revenue and underwear contracts mean more than tough tackling and half volleys hitting the top corner of the net.
But not all legends are regarded at the same heights as the Pelés and Maradonas of the game. Some of the best players ever still fall under the radar and are not remembered in the way they deserve.
Here are some of them.
#10 Matt Le Tissier
Everyone likes a “One Club Man”, and Le Tissier was exactly that as he spent his entire career at Southampton, flashing his technique and scoring wonder goals from the middle of the park for the Saints. The Guernsey-born midfielder is definitely a fan favourite at Southampton where he still has his name on one of the stands at St. Mary’s.
But it wasn’t all sunshine for Le Tissier. This penalty specialist (scored 48, missed 1) was criticised for not capitalising on his potential and instead spent his free time at pubs which would ultimately be the reason he, despite being a great footballer, wasn’t much of an athlete.
#9 Ruud Krol
The Netherlands have a history of producing some of the best players the game has ever seen, so odds are some of them will be, although unfairly, forgotten. That is the case for Ruud Krol. Being Ajax’s main defensive presence in the 70’s, Krol usually put his shift in at either left-back or in the sweeper role.
This remarkably good all-round player was one of the best ever in his position, playing a very important role in Ajax Amsterdam’s three consecutive European Cups, as well as playing 83 times for the Dutch national captain, which he got to captain.
#8 Gheorghe Hagi
Although he was undoubtedly one of the best of his era and nothing short of a cult figure back in Romania, Hagi just doesn’t seem to be mentioned nearly as much as he deserves today, which is a shame.
Having been one of the most technically gifted players football has ever seen, it wasn’t a rare sight of the ‘Maradona of the Carpathians’ firing a cross-field pass with unbelievable accuracy, or scoring from just about anywhere on the pitch.
After an amazing career playing for the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Galatasaray, and dragging Romania to the quarter-finals of the 1994 World Cup, Hagi is still making history today as he’s taking Viitorul Constanta, a club founded by himself in 2009, to the top of Romanian football with an extremely young squad.
#7 Jari Litmanen
Unopposed in the race for the best Finnish player ever, Litmanen is one of a handful of players to represent a national team in four different decades. After debuting back in 1989, he played his last match in 2010 against San Marino (8-0).
But there’s more to his career than national team glory, and despite being rarely mentioned today Litmanen was described by Van Gaal as “The best number 10 he ever had in his team” and even Zlatan Ibrahimovic himself put aside his ego to say that Jari Litmanen saved his career and “allowed others to play better”.
Litti, as he was called in Finland, played for clubs such as HJK, Barcelona, and Liverpool, but it was at Ajax where he really made a name for himself, playing alongside greats like Van der Sar, de Boer, Rijkaard, Seedorf, Overmars, and arguably the most talented player in the team that lifted the Champions League in 1995.
#6 Rinat Dasayev
This Russian goalkeeper is supremely underrated as he will always be behind the shadow of his predecessor Lev Yashin, who was arguably the best goalkeeper of all time. But Dasayev isn’t that far behind.
Dasayev had a great career with Spartak Moscow and Sevilla, but it was with the Soviet Union national football team that this goalkeeper left his mark, finishing runner-up in the 1988 European Championship and keeping an impressive 44 clean sheets in his 91 caps.
Today, the four times European Goalkeeper of the Year is a goalkeeper coach at Spartak Moscow and was also a member of Russia’s winning bid committee to hold the 2018 World Cup.
#5 Luc Nilis
Not only is former Belgian striker Luc Nilis underrated, but unlucky, too. Nilis’ career was cut short by an injury in the 5th minute of his third game for Aston Villa after an impressive spell at PSV Eindhoven where he scored beautiful goals for fun.
Considered by both Ronaldo and Van Nistelrooy as their “best strike partner”, we can’t really do more than dream about what could have been while we hit replay on his YouTube highlight reel. Nilis represented his country 56 times, scoring 10 goals.
#4 Günter Netzer
Although this German midfielder’s name isn’t one of the most talked about, Günter Netzer is still regarded in his home country as one of the greatest players ever and one of the best passers of the ball that the game has ever seen.
In a career marked by success achieved with West Germany, winning both the Euros and the World Cup in 1972 and 1974, Netzer also won two Bundesliga titles for Borussia Mönchengladbach against Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller’s Bayern. This led to Real Madrid rushing to sign him as a response to Barcelona’s new signing, Johan Cruijff. Netzer would go on to win two league titles with Los Blancos.
#3 Dunga
Carlos Verri, nicknamed Dunga (Portuguese translation of Dopey, the dwarf from Snow White) by his uncle because he was short. Dunga was a Brazilian defensive midfielder known for his strength, game reading and tactical ability, which were rare traits for a Brazilian player.
The fact that Dunga played for Brazil was probably the reason he never got the credit he deserved – a hard worker in a team of artists. But South American flair can only do so much by itself and the Brazilian was definitely the main reason why Brazil lifted the World Cup in 1994.
#2 Fernando Peyroteo
Born in Portuguese West Africa, or as it is known today, Angola, Fernando Peyroteo was a striker that terrorised Portuguese defences in the 40’s while playing for Sporting CP.
Being a fairly unknown name in today’s game, Peyroteo is definitely one of the best players football has ever seen, still holding to this day all kinds of goal records. He is the player with the best goals/games ratio in the history of club football with 1.68 goals per game, scoring 332 times in 197 league matches for Sporting (544 in 334 in all competitions) and also 15 in 20 for the Portuguese national team.
No one to this day came close to his goal scoring feats and it’s unlikely that someone ever will. It’s fair to say the man deserves a bit more recognition.
#1 John Charles
Charles was a Welsh football player known for his versatility, who was capable of playing both as a striker and centre back at the top level. This gentle giant was built like a tank but was fast, agile, and technically gifted.
After being regarded as one of the best in the world in the 8 years he played for Leeds United, where he scored 157 goals in 297 games (which is even more impressive considering most of those games he played in defence), John Charles moved to Turin to play his trade at Juventus, being one of the first British players to play abroad.
In Italy, Charles won the Scudetto three times in the five years he played for Juve, and to this day, is still considered by the Juventus tifosi as the best ever foreigner to play for the club.
