I recently completed a blog which included the Greatest Players of All-Time in every position ( iconicfootball.weebly.com if interested ) , so I thought I would share some lists here and see what people think.

I will post my explanation underneath the list as I’ve already done similar posts.

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The Top 100 Goalkeepers of All-Time

(Platinum V)

1 Lev Yashin RUS

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(Gold II)

2 ​Gianluigi Buffon ITA

3 Dino Zoff ITA

4 Manuel Neuer GER

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(Gold III)

5 ​Oliver Kahn GER

6 Gordon Banks ENG

7 Peter Schmeichel DEN

8 Iker Casillias SPA

9 Sepp Maier GER

10 Ricardo Zamora SPA

11 Peter Shilton ENG

12 Ubaldo Fillol ARG

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(Gold IV)

13 Jean-Marie Pfaff BEL

14 ​Pat Jennings NIR

15 František Plánička CZE

16 Rinat Dasayev RUS

17 Petr Cech CZE

18 Edwin Van Der Sar NET

19 Walter Zenga ITA

20 Gianpiero Combi ITA

21 Michel Preud’homme BEL

22 Jurgen Croy GER

23 Gilmar BRA

24 Vladimir Beara CRO

25 Ladislao Mazurkiewicz URU

26 Gyula Grosics HUN

27 Thibaut Courtois BEL

28 David De Gea SPA

29 ​Toni Schumacher GER

30 Jose Luis Chilavert PAR

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(Gold V)

31 Ivo Viktor CZE

32 Enrico Albertosi ITA

33 Andoni Zubizarreta SPA

34 Amadeo Carrizo ARG

35 Alisson Becker BRA

36 Neville Southall WAL

37 Jose Angel Iribar SPA

38 Gianluca Pagliuca ITA

39 Ronnie Hellstrom SWE

40 Angelo Peruzzi ITA

41 Thomas Ravelli SWE

42 Emerson Leao BRA

43 Bert Trautman GER

44 Heinrich Stuhlfauth GER

45 Hans Van Breukelen NET

46 Giuliano Sarti ITA

47 Rudi Hiden AUT

48 Ray Clemence ENG

49 Luis Arconada SPA

50 Hans Tilkowsi GER

51 Claudio Taffarel BRA

52 Francesco Toldo ITA

53 Roque Maspoli URU

54 Andreas Kopke GER

55 Americo Tesoriere ARG

56 Jan Tomaszewski POL

57 Jan Oblak SVE

58 Frank Swift ENG

59 Antoni Ramallets SPA

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(Silver I)

60 ​Yevhen Rudakov RUS

61 Jan Van Bereven NET

62 Julio Cesar BRA

63 Vitor Baia POR

64 Sergio Livingstone CHI

65 Sam Hardy ENG

66 David Seaman ENG

67 ​Walter Zeman AUT

68 ​Luciano Castellini ITA

69 ​Józef Młynarczyk POL

70 ​Antonio Roma ARG

71 ​​​Marc-Andre Ter Stegen GER

72 Viliam Schrojf SVA

73 Hugo Gatti ARG

74 ​Karoly Zsak HUN

75 Franjo Glaser CRO

76 Stefano Tacconi ITA

77 ​Fabio Cuducini ITA

78 Thomas N’Kono CAM

79 ​Toni Turek GER

80 ​Jens Lehmann GER

81 Rodolfo Rodriguez URU

82 Moacir Barbosa BRA

83 Manga BRA

84 ​Ferenc Plattko HUN

85 ​Agustin Cejas ARG

86 Aldo Oliveri ITA

87 Lorenzo Buffon ITA

88 Franco Tancredi ITA

89 Dida BRA

90 ​​Andres Mazali URU

91 Valerio Bacigalupo ITA

92 Fabien Barthez FRA

93 ​Manuel Bento POR

94 Hans Jakob GER

95 Antonio Carbajal MEX

96 ​​Milutin Soskic KOS

97 ​​Santiago Canizares SPA

98 Costa Pereira POR

99 Hugo Lloris FRA

100 ​Bodo Illgner GER

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Honourable Mentions:
Jorge Campos MEX
Ivan Curkovic BOS
Vitor Damas POR
Ederson BRA
Samir Handanovic SVE
Marcos BRA
Keylor Navas COS
Karl Oskar-Svensson SWE
Christian Piot BEL
Rustu Recber TUR
Leigh Richmond Roose WAL

‘World-Class’ Goalkeepers by Nation (Gold/Platinum)
9 - Germany, Italy
7 - Spain
4 - Brazil, England
3 - Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic
2 - Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Uruguay
1 - Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Paraguay, Poland, Slovenia, Wales

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Explanation:

It goes without saying, the assessment of the players I use will never be as accurate as seeing them play live. I have however put a few years of research into this and refined it as well as I can with the data and opinions available.

I’ve used a range of factors, which culminates in an assessment of players that I believe works well. Maybe most importantly, it has an accurate correlation to my opinion of players when using it to evaluate players from the modern era, so I trust my research methods.

The evaluation of players is generally based on a players peak over a 4-5 year period. In my opinion, this period is long enough to assess a player’s standard, and exhibits a certain level of consistency. However, a long (or short) peak can add to how highly I would rate a player, if they show themselves to be adaptable (or not) to different tactical systems, opponents, levels of pressure, their own physical changes, etc.

Some of the main factors of assessing players (some which play into each other) :

• Historical match ratings from the eras, from all sources possible (usually newspapers pre-internet)
• Historical statistical based rankings (eg. IFFHS)
• All reputable/respected opinionated lists/data I could find (eg. World Soccer)
• All reputable nominations I could find (eg. FIFPRO)
• Watching footage
• Trophies won
• World XI’s/Individual Award Rankings (many different forms/sources)
• Other fan opinion from the era (eg. Forums, articles, ex-players)
• Special consultants and researchers
• My own opinion
• Many other smaller factors

These factors can all be weighted differently depending on the standard of competition, which I evaluated as accurately as I could. Of course, there’s some controversy comparing players from different eras, some may favour modern players who are much faster, stronger, fitter; while some may favour older players who dealt with two-footed tackles, terrible pitches, & innovated aspects of the game. The idea of throwing players into different eras wouldn’t work well, so I found it best to judge them on what they are/were relevant to the time.

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The Ratings:

I finalised the assessment of each player with a rating to help me categorise and organise them. There are 3 ranks, Platinum, Gold & Silver, with a level of I-V (roman numerals) within each rank, I being the highest. There would also be ranks below, but they were not needed for this.

Generally speaking:

Platinum V is the minimum level as an ‘All-Time Great’ player

Gold V is the minimum level as a ‘World-Class’ player

Silver V is the minimum level for a ‘Good’ player (perhaps someone who can be a regular in a top-level league)

However, these definitions can vary from person to person. I find that the term ‘World-Class’ for example is used more often for players in positions that have a lower standard of player, but I wanted to keep it more consistent. For example, the best right-back in the world may not always be one of the best players in the world. The standard in certain positions can also shift across decades - there’s no rule for the minimum or maximum number of world-class players in a single position at once.