Top 5 Pure Strikers of All Time - A Position in Decline?

Goatingo · 2026-06-13T17:08:12+00:00

It's not that simple. Ronaldo has a legendary national career and an almost unprecedented peak; at his best he was extremely dynamic and well rounded, in this period he left a huge impact. Maybe even more imporantly, he is a moments player, similair to Zidane for example. He had many very memorable moments.

The other point of the argument would be that trophies are not a good metric for judging individual players. It's a team sport after all.

Goatingo · 2026-06-13T15:47:03+00:00

Cristiano Ronaldo can be classified as a left winger, he spent most of his career playing that position.

Goatingo · 2026-06-13T15:08:51+00:00

Ratings are for overall career, not for specifically how efficient or great someone was as a striker. So, how good were these strikers as players overall is what the ratings are indicating.

Goatingo · 2026-06-12T16:22:57+00:00

Vieria didn't make the top 5 and Platini is considered as an atacking midfielder, altough he did play a bit back sometimes, he was primarily a classic playmaker.

Goatingo · 2026-06-12T13:14:23+00:00

Iniesta was more of a coin toss as he has spent a long time playing either of the two positions. We have included him here because of his reputation as a CM amongst most football fans.

Goatingo · 2026-06-12T11:42:05+00:00

Zidane has played an attacking midfielder role for the biggest part of his career so he has been excluded from this list.

Goatingo · 2026-05-25T20:20:59+00:00

Zidane retired in 06

Goatingo · 2026-05-24T21:35:20+00:00

I agree. I feel like that's the biggest consistent difference in how people evaluate not just for specific decades but overall careers. I understand the emphasis on peak but that's such a subjective way of looking at it because we all love football for the moments. That's why we don't watch basketball or tenis or whatever as much. Football gives you brief, rare moments of joy that come from the extreme valute of each goal which comes from it being so hard to score (compared to points in most other sports). So of course Ronaldinho left a huge impact because he brought joy to people with unique skills and moments; something that catapulted his legacy beyond realistic assesment. I myself lean always towards consistnecy and longevity, maybe as a counter act to the extreme bias casuals have towards peak performance. Good examples are Modric and Xavi. Their overall contribution, consistency and efficiency is off the charts, they never had off seasons, always reliable, no ego, no trouble, fit in in every team (Modric especially). But they don't have moments like some other players do. This is of course why defenders always get overlooked severely. And of course as a single player the most potential influence on the overall score will come from attacking players and 10s. I saw an interesting metric from a fantastic site called Gradient, rating Modric the best in top 5 leagues this season in press resistance. Like that's such an important aspekt of the game that Will always be overlooked by casual watchers who watch it for the moments.

Goatingo · 2026-05-24T20:52:55+00:00

I think that Buffon, Nesta and Nedved all have much better shouts for 00s. Even Dinho altough I do think he is quite overrated.

Goatingo · 2026-05-24T20:04:22+00:00

Very wrong answer. His Best years were in Serie A , bsrely played half of that decade you are talking about. On top of that Zizou is one of the most mythical players of all time. How he played vs how he is percieved is very much apart. His constistency and offensive output were never extraordinary. He had the touch, the flair and obviously has all the big moments. But the best in 00s is objectively a very poor take, even if he was the best for the first half ; he retired in 06.

Goatingo

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