ARCHIVE. FOOTBALL. STATISTIC & HISTORY:
PLAYER OF THE DECADE

BATTLE OF FULL-BACKS — NEEDHAM, CRABTREE AND BLOOMER — WAR TIMES — THE SCOTTISH WONDERS — DI STÉFANO AND PUSKÁS — ARGENTINE GREATS — PELÉ'S DOMINANCE — CRUIJFF'S FIRST HALF — THE RONALDOS.

From when Association Football was still quite new, when the pitches were just feeling the beginning of the sphere, the atmosphere and the shoes, the four lines of the green field, as the seasons went by, saw the most diverse great names who treated the ball with the highest class and animated the attendances with the most inventive situations. Time was passing, so the game was changing; either by new ideas implemented individually and collectively; either by changing rules over time.

Each decade had its great footballer. Some of these decades caused a certain divergence in opinion, due to the very high dispute at certain moments — Ernest Needham and Jimmy Crabtree —, which could be reflected by the number of players competing at an outstanding, the highest level possible, or for an extraordinary footballing period in just one half or a certain short period of the decade — György Orth, for instance. Other football greats left no doubt of their tremendous dominance throughout the decade — Pelé, for instance. In turn, footballers would fit perfectly in the decade, as it was the case with Bobby Walker.

Below are the best footballers of each decade,  according to author Isaque Argolo. 


1880s:   Nick Ross.
1890s:   Jimmy Crabtree.
1900s:   Bobby Walker.
1910s:    Patsy Gallacher.
1920s:   György Orth.
1930s:   Alex James.
1940s:   José Manuel Moreno.
1950s:   Alfredo Di Stéfano.
1960s:   Pelé.
1970s:   Johan Cruijff.
1980s:   Diego Maradona.
1990s:   Ronaldo.
2000s:  Ronaldinho Gaúcho.
2010s:   Lionel Messi.


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