Best Players of all Time
An interactive list of the best football players of all time
Welcome home if you're looking for the greatest team ever.
This nodeland template transforms the infinite canvas into an interactive soccer field where a selection of players is shown.
Every generation debates "the best team ever", but this lineup does not aim to win by appealing to nostalgia or vibes.
To read the reason behind each choice, just click on each player :)
GK: Iker Casillas
In an all-time team, you don’t need a goalkeeper who makes ten saves a game because you’re under siege. You need the guy who makes the save—the one that flips a final. Casillas is that guy. Reflexes like a trap door, ice in the veins, and a reputation built in the sharpest moments.
CB: Franz Beckenbauer
Beckenbauer isn’t just a defender. He’s an organizing principle. He steps out, carries the ball like he owns the pitch, and turns defense into a first pass that actually scares you. In this XI, he’s the calm general who starts the damage.
CB: Sergio Ramos
RB: Cafu
Cafu plays like the match lasts 200 minutes and he’s still got errands afterward. Endless running, relentless overlap, and the kind of consistency that makes opponents feel like they’re defending a treadmill. In a team full of artists, Cafu is the machine that keeps the whole show moving.
LB: Roberto Carlos
CM: Zinedine Zidane
Zidane doesn’t play football. He conducts it. He slows time, finds angles other people don’t even see, and makes chaos feel organized. You need one player in this XI who can take all that superstar noise and turn it into rhythm. That’s Zizou.
AM: Ronaldinho Gaúcho
Ronaldinho is the reason defenders stopped believing in fairness. He doesn’t just beat you—he breaks your structure, then smiles like it’s a street game. In a match of legends, unpredictability is priceless, because elite opponents survive patterns. Ronaldinho is allergic to patterns.
Free role: Diego Maradona
RW: Lionel Messi
Messi is the most efficient footballer ever built: creator, finisher, controller, escape artist in tight spaces. And here’s the scary part—he wouldn’t even have to carry. In this XI he gets to choose his moments. That’s not an advantage. That’s a problem for the sport.
ST: Ronaldo
Peak Ronaldo is the purest striker nightmare the game has produced. Speed, power, balance, and finishing that feels like a glitch. He forces defenses to drop, and when they drop, the artists behind him start painting on open canvas.
LW/CF: Pelé
Pelé is the complete attacker: scores every type, wins in the air, links play, creates, finishes, and does it all with a reliability that turns legend into math. He isn’t just a scorer. He’s an ecosystem. In this XI, he’s the final form.
Why this XI beats every other “best team” argument
1) Too many ways to win
Some all-time teams are brilliant at one thing—possession, counterattacks, pressing, set pieces. This XI is brilliant at all of it.
- Low block? Messi and Maradona pick the lock.
- High line? Ronaldo eats it alive.
- Physical match? Ramos, Pelé, and Ronaldo lean into it.
- Tactical chess? Zidane and Beckenbauer control the board.
2) No single point of failure
Mark Messi? Pelé scores. Double Pelé? Ronaldo runs through you. Try to clog the middle? Cafu and Roberto Carlos stretch you until your shape breaks. This is the rare team where stopping one legend just reveals another.
3) The big-moment advantage
Finals aren’t won by résumés. They’re won by nerve. Casillas saves finals. Ramos decides finals. Zidane owns finals. Pelé and Ronaldo were born for them. Messi and Maradona can turn pressure into art.