The 🔟 coolest footballers of all-time ... ranked! 😎 | OneFootball

What is “cool”?

It’s a trait which is pretty much impossible to define but you’ve either got it or you haven’t and if you think you’ve got it, you probably haven’t.

Here are 10 footballers who definitely have it.

🔟 Edgar Davids

For football fans of a certain vintage, Davids was the coolest player around.

To start with, the Dutchman wore sunglasses when he played. Alright, they were actually because he suffered from glaucoma but still, they looked smooth as hell.

The former midfielder also featured on the cover of Fifa 2003 and starred in arguably the best Nike commercial there has ever been.

And he also happened to be absolutely brilliant at football.

9️⃣ Mario Balotelli

Balotelli’s career may be remembered as one of unfulfilled potential but there’s no doubt he will also be remembered for being one of the game’s great mavericks.

There aren’t many players who become the subject of numerous urban legends and though the Italian striker has denied some of the more outrageous stories, some of those myths are more fun than the truth.

Who could forget him setting his house on fire the night before scoring in a Manchester derby and celebrating with that iconic ‘Why Always Me?’ t-shirt?

Then there was his incredible goal and Incredible Hulk celebration against Germany at Euro 2012.

And even recently while playing for Brescia, he responded perfectly to alleged racial abuse from the stands by lashing one in the top corner.

“When I score, I don’t celebrate because I’m only doing my job,” he once said.

“When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?”

8️⃣ Socrates

It’s not often you come across a footballer with the same name as a Greek philosopher and therefore Brazilian legend Socrates deserves a place on this list for that reason alone.

The former midfielder played for the Seleção at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups while at club level, he is said to have scored 292 goals in 639 games – a scarcely believable haul for a midfielder.

Socrates was known for his languid playing style which may have had something to do with the fact he allegedly smoked 80 cigarettes a day while he was still playing.

Despite that, he was a qualified doctor and when he finished his career, he went into politics.

Remember kids, there’s nothing cooler than getting a good education.

7️⃣ Xabi Alonso

He won the Champions League twice, the World Cup, two European Championships, multiple league titles and he scored goals from miles out for fun.

But more importantly, Xabi Alonso listens to cool bands like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr, he’s read loads of books and his favourite movie is The Big Lebowski.

He also posted one of the coolest ever social media farewells when he finished his career, and you just know he looks ace in a pair of shades.

The ultimate thinking man’s footballer and one of the game’s good guys. You can read more about him here.

6️⃣ Johan Cruyff

He looked like a rock star, he was a philosopher on and off the pitch and he was so good, he even had a trick named after him.

And the coolest thing about Cruyff is he made it all look so effortless.

The Dutchman had a rebellious streak, too. You might have heard how his Netherlands shirt at the 1974 World Cup had two stripes on the sleeves instead of the standard adidas three, because he was sponsored sportswear rivals Puma.

As a coach, Cruyff revolutionised the game and laid the foundations for disciples like Pep Guardiola to build upon in later years.

He died in 2016 at the age of 68 and football lost one of its greatest ever innovators.

5️⃣ Dimitar Berbatov

If he wasn’t a footballer he could have been a movie star but we should all be grateful he chose the former path because could you imagine being deprived of that divine first touch?

Perhaps one of the hallmarks of a cool footballer is looking like you don’t give a shit and Berbatov was a master of making everything look like a big inconvenience.

But at his peak he was one of the most brilliant players around and that legendary piece of footwork for Manchester United against West Ham is legitimately one of the most ingenious things that’s ever been done on a football pitch.

And doesn’t this quote just sum up the Bulgarian magician to a tee?

4️⃣ George Best

Women loved him, men wanted to be him and even Pelé lauded him as the greatest footballer in the world.

Best had it all and though we don’t glorify his womanising and the alcoholism which eventually claimed his life, we should remember him as the wonderful entertainer he was and one of the coolest dudes ever to grace a football pitch.

“They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone and they’ll remember the football,” he once said.

“If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.”

3️⃣ Eric Cantona

The collar, the kung-fu kick, the chip against Sunderland. There’s a number of reasons they him The King.

The Frenchman recited poetry in press conferences, starred in movies and like almost everyone else on this list, he combined his coolness with being exceptionally good at his craft.

Gary Neville once summed up his former Manchester United team-mate perfectly when he said: “Eric did things his way and no one interfered, not even the manager.

“When we all turned up at a civic event at Manchester Town Hall to celebrate the double, Eric wandered in wearing a denim jacket instead of a blazer.

“We looked him up and down and wondered how the boss would react when he arrived. Surely he’d go berserk. The press were there and all sorts of VIPs.

“But the manager just shook his head and smiled. ‘Eh, lads,’ he said. ‘Some man, that Cantona.’”

2️⃣ Andrea Pirlo

The eight men featured on this list so far fall neatly into two categories.

There are the insouciant nonconformists like Berbatov and Cantona, and the contemplative intelligentsia like Alonso and Cruyff.

But there is a third category – the sartorially elegant – and it’s a category the former Italian trequartista Andrea Pirlo is still the poster boy for to this day.

Pirlo looked as good in a football kit as he did in a tailored suit and back in 2012, he made every man in the world look in the mirror and wonder if they too should try growing a beard.

And if he ever scored a bad goal, we have no recollection of it. He had a foot like a sat nav and they should probably have renamed the Panenka penalty in his honour, if you ask us.

Bellissimo.

1️⃣ Diego Maradona

We’ve reached the end of the list and who else could this crown belong to but Diego Armando Maradona?

Coolness isn’t something you associate with the Argentine icon these days but at the peak of his powers, he was not just arguably the greatest footballer of all-time but also the scorer of arguably the greatest goal of all-time.

There was also the Hand of God, that wonderful warm-up routine and many more moments from a life which is the greatest rags to riches story ever told.

Like some of the other names on this list, Maradona may not always have been the perfect role model, but his genius simply cannot be denied.

As Jorge Valdano once put it: “Beyond everything else, no ball ever had a better experience than when it was at his left foot.”