The Soccer 100: Vivid Portraits and Stories of the Beautiful Game's Greatest from The Athletic

by The Athletic

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, 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.

Genres: Sports, Football, Soccer

784 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 18, 2025

Reviews

[John Schorg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book may prove the limits of "the 100 best players in (name your sport)" genre. Most of the names here may be a mystery to casual fans of the sport, and the writing doesn't do much to help you understand why Player 94 had less of an impact than Player 47. There are plenty of compelling stories here, and if the tantalizing hints offered here cause you to seek out more about many players, that's all to the good.

And yet...

The growth in women's soccer in recent years has given the world plenty of players who deserve mention among the best ever...Marta, Mia Hamm, Megan Rapinoe, and Aitana Bonmati, to name a few.

But these women and their contributions are dismissed in a single paragraph so snotty and condescending that this rating was dropped a star.

So just know that this book is about the best 100 male soccer players, and maybe, just maybe, some day The Athletic will see fit to recognize the women who have helped raise the sport.

[Cori Sellers · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw The Soccer 100 in a book store with a byline of “the story of the greatest players in history” I thought surely there will be women in here! I read the inside jacket which seemed gender neutral and thought hurrah I will put this on my holds list, I can’t wait to see which women made the list. Obviously my hopes were dashed as I made my way through the introduction. I then thought, let me spoil it and see who they put as #1 to see if I can still trust their judgement… and so I read it. A good read, but I still can’t wait till they do the top 100 for women’s soccer! (And they better)

[Mehedi Sujan · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE SOCCER 100 is a monumental achievement in sports literature, offering an authoritative and captivating journey through football's rich history through the lens of its greatest players. The collaborative effort among The Athletic's distinguished team of writers, led by the great Oliver Kay and James Horncastle, delivers a masterwork that transcends mere player rankings to become a compelling narrative of the beautiful game's evolution.
The book's structure, presenting 100 detailed profiles, strikes an impressive balance between contemporary stars and historical legends. From Dixie Dean's seemingly unbreakable 1928 scoring record to the electrifying 2022 World Cup final featuring Mbappe and Messi, the temporal scope is breathtaking. Each profile is crafted with meticulous attention to detail, weaving together statistical achievements with personal narratives that bring these sporting icons to life.
What sets this volume apart is its commitment to comprehensive coverage. The authors don't merely focus on goalscorers and flashy forwards; they give equal weight to defensive maestros and tactical innovators. The inclusion of transformative figures like Johan Cruyff, whose influence extends beyond his famous turn to revolutionise how the game is played, demonstrates the book's dedication to telling the complete story of football's development.
The Athletic's global perspective proves invaluable, offering insights that go beyond European-centric narratives. Their treatment of legends like Maradona, Pele and Puskas is particularly noteworthy, exploring how these players transcended sport to become cultural phenomena in their respective nations. The writing maintains a perfect balance between analytical depth and accessible storytelling, making it engaging for both casual fans and hardcore enthusiasts.
While the concept of ranking the 100 greatest players inevitably invites debate, that's precisely what makes this book so engaging. The well-researched arguments and compelling narratives behind each selection provide readers with the context needed to understand these choices, even if they might disagree with some placements. The book succeeds not just as a ranking system but as a comprehensive historical document of football's greatest artists.

[Nick Katenkamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not anything close to a soccer fan but I know a little bit. I counted and I only knew 18 of the 100 players discussed in this book. For a casual fan like me, the book was effective in introducing some names to me but little else. I don't feel like the book helped me understand why a certain player was better than another aside from why, in their opinion, Lionel Messi is the greatest soccer player of all time. Specifically regarding Diego Maradona, I know he is universally regarded as a top 3 player of all time. Really all I know about him as a casual fan who was born after he retired is that he is Argentinian, had 2 of the most famous goals in soccer history, and that he won a world cup. In their chapter on Maradona pretty much nothing is discussed other than those 2 goals. Obviously, they merit significant discussion, but what was his club career like? What else did he do in his decade plus career? It is very casually mentioned that he rose Napoli to its best ever era, but no explanation is given. On Christiano Ronaldo, I learned that he scored a lot of goals. The book told me things I already knew and I knew little. I can't imagine how boring it would be for real soccer fans. The book also suffers from being very hard to compare players. In football it is hard to compare Dick Night Train Lane (a 1950's cornerback) to Anthony Munoz (a 1980's offensive tackle) but they did play in the same league. Comparing Babe Ruth to Nolan Ryan is difficult but again they played in the same league and baseball has so many normal and advanced statistics that we can at least approach a good comparison. Same with hockey and basketball, but in soccer these players played in different countries, rarely against one another, different eras, different positions, all in a sport which has far less tangible statistics than any of the other major sports, all making this a tough task to rank and evaluate players other than the "eye" test.

[Patrick Rudd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m honestly surprised at the people who gave this less than 5 stars and instead whinged about the lack of women and an unclear rating system.

It is definitely 5 stars alone with the poetic and visionary James Horncastle who contributes, in my opinion, not enough chapters. This book is an incredible collection of some of the best football writers out there and exposes readers like me, who would consider themselves big fans of the game, a look into some of the lesser known greats of the game. No entry is the same as another and the journeys each author takes you on are fun to read in addition the knowledge consumed. If you are a fan of the game, get this book!

[Luke Rattray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was awesome to learn about some players that I had never heard of, but I think they missed the mark significantly regarding what actually made the players great. Loved some of the anecdotes but didn’t care for how political they made some of the players in their section (there’s a time and a place for that), but I just really wanted to know what made them great and I think they missed out on that

[Mo Holub · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and interesting dissection of the storied history of soccer through 100 different male players that left 100 different marks on the men's game. Think the title could use a revision to specify that these are the stories of the 100 greatest MEN's players in history...we are only looking at half of the picture. Semantics, maybe, but intention goes a long way.

[Ben Sicnolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quite a bit, learning some things about players I didn't know as well and just reliving some I do. They are wrong on some of their order, but what can you do.