The Soccer 100

A celebration of the beautiful game and its 100 greatest players, from the pre-World War II exploits of Dixie Dean to the modern-day genius of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi

These players left legacies, redefined the game with trademark skills, and grew into national icons. They have their stats--the goals, the wins, the trophies--but, more importantly, they have their stories.

One World Cup winner owned a nightclub that briefly transformed a corner of industrial Germany into one of the hippest places around. An Austrian forward's death is still shrouded in mystery. A striker who might have become a telephone technician had he not been spotted playing soccer was eventually elected president of his country.

And there are unanswered questions. How did Pelé's Brazil shirt from the 1958 World Cup quarterfinal go missing in a Welsh school? Which goalkeeper was so good that one opponent considered scoring against him akin to "winning a trophy"?

Through extensive research and interviews, The Athletic soccer staff, led by Oliver Kay and James Horncastle, discovered angles and tales that shine a new light on the sport's most compelling characters.

They faced an impossible riddle, too: Of the thousands of players to hit the pitch, who is the best? Their efforts to find the answer took the foremost sports newsroom on a journey, and what emerges is more than a ranking. Through all-new, vivid portraits of each athlete, The Soccer 100 is a tribute to the greatest players to have ever graced the most popular sport on the planet.

Oliver Kay is a senior writer at The Athletic having previously spent 19 years at The Times, and is a veteran of 11 World Cups and European Championships. His first book, Forever Young: The Story of Adrian Doherty, Football's Lost Genius, won both the Football Book of the Year and Sports Book of the Year awards at the British Sports Book Awards in 2017.

The Athletic has built the world's largest sports newsroom by focusing on deep reporting, expert analysis, and unmatched journalism to drive its storytelling. It is a part of The New York Times Company.

James Horncastle is a senior writer for The Athletic, specializing in Italian and European football. He speaks Italian, has lived in Rome, and is a regular contributor to the BBC and TNT Sports. In September 2024, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic for his contribution to promoting Italian football and strengthening the cultural ties between Italy and the United Kingdom.