11 of the greatest wingers of all time

#9 Francisco Gento

Gento was an extremely fast winger

Easily one of the most successful footballing individuals ever, Gento was one of the greatest left-sided midfielders ever to grace a football pitch. His supreme speed – he could run the 100m in under 11 seconds while dribbling a ball – combined with his talent to dance past defenders and goalscoring prowess, are the reasons he gained an unmatched record of European cups.

Explaining why the Spaniard makes this list requires only one number and two words: 6 European cups.

But on the other hand, explaining his brilliance would take up a lot of pages. The Spaniard was the third man alongside Alfredo Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas during Real Madrid’s golden age and was a major part of one of the best-attacking trios to ever grace the pitch.

Known as the “Storm of the Cantabrian,” Gento, in his prime, had the pace to rival the Bale and Ronaldo, the dribbling ability to put the great Messi to shame (or so they say) and the crossing vision as good as any footballer to walk the pitch.