Fans in disbelief as top 25 players of the 21st century revealed

The top 25 men’s football stars of the 21st century have been named and ranked, but fans are in disbelief about one thing.

With some of the best footballers of all time playing during the 21st century, football fans today are incredibly lucky.

Even when you look past Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, a whole host of incredible talents have strutted their stuff over the past 24 years.

But where do they all rank in the top 25? ESPN asked their readers to vote, and after collating together thousands of votes, have come up with the top 25 stars of the 21st century.

Lionel Messi came top with Cristiano Ronaldo second; there will be arguments about which of the two should have been first, but there’s no denying that the duo have been the two best players of the 21st century, if not all-time.

Former Arsenal and Barcelona attacker Thierry Henry came in third, followed by his France teammate Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid star Luka Modric.

Kylian Mbappe is sixth in the list, followed by Barcelona midfield duo Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.

Brazilians Ronaldo Nazario and Ronaldinho are ninth and tenth respectively, followed by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kevin De Bruyne and Toni Kroos.

The first defenders on the list are Sergio Ramos (14) and (15) Carles Puyol, with both having won the World Cup with Spain in 2010.

French marksmen Karim Benzema is 16th, former Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets 17th and current Barca striker Robert Lewandowski 18th.

2007 Ballon d’Or winner Kaka is 19th, just ahead of Neymar.

The stars who just missed out on the top 20 are Andrea Pirlo, Wayne Rooney, Patrick Vieira, Luis Suarez and Gianluigi Buffon.

There was plenty of reaction to the ranking, but plenty of fans weren’t happy with Neymar’s position in 20th.

“Neymar is way too low on this list,” one fan commented on X, while another said: “Neymar at 20? Crazy disrespectful for the third best player this generation.”

Other fans commented “Nobody can do what Neymar does as he does. Nobody is as skilful as him. This is disrespectful!”, and “You guys are embarrassing, Ibrahimovic can’t lace Neymar’s boots.”

The full ranking is as follows:

1: Lionel Messi

2: Cristiano Ronaldo

3: Thierry Henry

4: Zinedine Zidane

5: Luka Modric

6: Kylian Mbappe

7: Andres Iniesta

8: Xavi Hernandez

9: Ronaldo Nazario

10: Ronaldinho

11: Zlatan Ibrahimovic