African soccer&nbsp;has come a long way over the past couple of decades. It&rsquo;s finally getting the exposure it should and those great efforts to provide top-notch development centers for young soccer players are definitely paying off.
Now more than ever, African players are&nbsp;dominating the world&rsquo;s top soccer leagues.&nbsp;You see them starring and leading in the best teams in the world and even though there&rsquo;s still plenty of work to do, they&rsquo;re finally getting the praise they deserve.
But it hasn&rsquo;t always been this way. African players have had to work twice or three times as hard to some other players to pave the way for those who came after them. That&rsquo;s why&nbsp;we&rsquo;re going to honor them by presenting to you the&nbsp;top 30 best African players of the century.
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Kalidou Koulibaly&nbsp;has forged a reputation for being one of the toughest defenders to play against. He was a pivotal member of the&nbsp;Senegal&nbsp;team that won the 2022 African Cup of Nations and&nbsp;Chelsea&nbsp;forked out &euro;38 million to get him from&nbsp;Napoli.
The center-back spent eight great seasons with the Serie A team before making the move to the Premier League. He is without any doubt one of the best defenders Africa has ever produced.

Kalidou Koulibaly

Victor Osimhen's career proves how hard he had to work his way up to the spotlight. The striker couldn't thrive at Wolfsburg, but he revitalized his career in Belgium and hasn't taken the foot off the gas since then. Lille bagged an impressive &euro;22m to get him in 2019, and only a year later&nbsp;Napoli made him their record signing for a &euro;75m fee.
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The&nbsp;Nigeria&nbsp;international lived up to his price tag, as he became a goal-scoring machine for the Italian club in their attempt to challenge for a long-awaited Scudetto title. Osimhen also won an U-17 World Cup and an U-23 African Cup with his country, who now enjoy him at the senior level. He's still young and once it's all said and done, we'll probably be talking about one of the most prolific players in African soccer history.
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Victor Osimhen

Steven Pienaar&nbsp;couldn&rsquo;t shy with South Africa&rsquo;s national team but he had a long, steady, and successful career in Europe&rsquo;s top leagues. His versatility as both a winger or attacking midfielder allowed him to thrive in Ajax, but his finest years came in Merseyside with Everton.
Pienaar had a great feel for the game and was an outstanding playmaker.&nbsp;He wasn&rsquo;t much of a speedster&nbsp;but he should know how to be a disruptive player upfront. He played for&nbsp;Ajax Cape Town, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Everton, Tottenham, Sunderland, and Bidvest Wits&nbsp;before retiring in 2018.

Steven Pienaar

It's safe to say&nbsp;Sofyan Amrabat&nbsp;was relatively unknown even for many soccer fans before the 2022 World Cup. But after Morocco's impressive performance in Qatar, everyone was talking about the midfielder.
Amrabat struggled to make a name for himself at the club level, as he was sent on loan many times before he finally settled in at Fiorentina. However, he played a pivotal role in his nation's unprecedented run to the third-place game in Qatar so he earned a spot on this list.

Sofyan Amrabat

Benni McCarthy&nbsp;was a bit of a pioneer when it came to putting African players on the map. He stood up as Africa&rsquo;s best player in 1998 and never took his foot off the gas, making a name for himself as a prolific goal-scorer.
McCarthy is also the only South African player to ever win the&nbsp;UEFA Champions League,&nbsp;becoming a steady contributor for his mythical&nbsp;Porto&nbsp;squad. He then went on to join Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United before retiring with the Orlando Pirates.

Benni McCarthy

Most fans won&rsquo;t know who&nbsp;Ahmed Hassan&nbsp;is, but actually, he&rsquo;s the all-time leader in caps for any national team in Africa. Therefore, there was no way he didn't make this list.
Throughout his career, Hassan made 184 appearances for Egypt, scoring 33 goals for them. He spent most of his prime years in Turkey and Belgium and even played for Besiktas before joining Anderlecht. Also, he won four Cup of Nations with two AFCON&nbsp;&lsquo;Player of the Tournament&rsquo;&nbsp;awards.

Ahmed Hassan

Riyad Mahrez&nbsp;broke out as one of the world&rsquo;s most impactful players during Leicester City&rsquo;s historical Premier League championship run in 2016. However, it feels like staying with the Foxes for much longer really hurt his development as one of Europe&rsquo;s rising stars.
Still, Mahrez went on to join&nbsp;Manchester City&nbsp;for &pound;60m, a record for an African player by then, proving just how incredibly talented he is in the offensive end. He&rsquo;s a master at set-pieces and has a cannon for a leg, and he can play both near the sidelines or behind the striker. Besides, he became the African player with the most assists in Premier League history.

Riyad Mahrez

Mahamadou Diarra&nbsp;was the kind of player that could literally die for his team. He never hesitated to put his body on the line and challenge the most skilled players in the world with a tough tackle and a lot of physical play.
That fierceness and a great feel for defense even took him to&nbsp;Real Madrid&nbsp;and won at least one trophy over a span of six years during his time in Europe. Also, he earned Mali&rsquo;s captain band and made him one of the most feared midfielders in the world during his prime.

Mahamadou Diarra

Vincent Enyeama&nbsp;was Nigeria&rsquo;s most-capped player ever with 101 appearances for the Eagles, until&nbsp;Ahmed Musa&nbsp;surpassed him. However, Enyeama was arguably the greatest African goalkeeper of all time, leading his nation to a historic triumph in the African Cup of Nations in 2013.
Enyeama also made a name for himself in the World Cups of 2010 and 2014, paving the way for him to join Lille for 8 years. Also, he was an outstanding penalty kicker and&nbsp;scored 20 career goals.

Vincent Enyeama

Alex Song&nbsp;is considered by some as one of the biggest busts in&nbsp;FC Barcelona&nbsp;history but truth to be told, he should&rsquo;ve never joined the Blaugrana, as their &lsquo;Tiki-taka&rsquo; passing offense just didn&rsquo;t favor his style. He was more of a stopper, a physical player that thrived off his defense, not with the ball on his feet.
Still, Song thrived during his six-year tenure with&nbsp;Arsenal, establishing himself as a steady part of&nbsp;Arsene Wenger&rsquo;s starting XI. He won one&nbsp;La Liga with Barcelona&nbsp;and made it to&nbsp;two AFCON tournaments with Cameroon.

Alex Song

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Bono&nbsp;took the spotlight in 2020, when he shone for&nbsp;Sevilla&nbsp;to help them win another UEFA Europa League title during the pandemic. But two years later he wrote an even greater story with his country.
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Yassine Bounou was Morocco's hero in their trip to the third-place game at Qatar 2022,&nbsp;saving crucial penalties in the shootout against Spain&nbsp;as well as keeping a clean sheet vs. Portugal in the quarterfinals

Bono

Early on his career, everybody thought&nbsp;Gervinho&nbsp;was going to become one of the best wingers in the world. He was incredibly fast, and his dribbling skills were just off the charts, but his infamous tenure with&nbsp;Arsenal&nbsp;was a major letdown.
He went on to dominate in&nbsp;Serie A&nbsp;with&nbsp;Roma&nbsp;and&nbsp;Parma&nbsp;and he always came through for&nbsp;Les Elephants&nbsp;when he represented Ivory Coast, helping take some pressure off of&nbsp;Didier Drogba&rsquo;s shoulders.

Gervinho

Kanout&eacute;&nbsp;is the first player born outside of Africa to win the&nbsp;African Player of the Year award. He&rsquo;s a prolific scorer that became&nbsp;Sevilla&nbsp;legend for his contributions to win a couple of&nbsp;UEFA Europa League&nbsp;titles, as well as two&nbsp;Copa del Rey.
Frederic scored 89 goals for the Spanish side over a 6-year tenure before joining&nbsp;Beijing Gouan. Also, he represented&nbsp;Mali&nbsp;at the international level and scored 23 goals in 39 appearances for them.

Frederic Kanouté

Geremi&nbsp;played a bit ahead of his time. I mean, most modern-day coaches would love to have him on their ranks right now as a versatile defender that could play both as a center-back or right in the center of the pitch.
He was classy and reliable and did all the dirty work without being dirty at all. That&rsquo;s why he was a part of that legendary Cameroon squad that won the&nbsp;Olympic gold in 2000&nbsp;and a couple of&nbsp;Africa&nbsp;Cup&nbsp;of Nations. He also played for Chelsea and&nbsp;won two&nbsp;Champions League&nbsp;titles&nbsp;with&nbsp;Real Madrid, although with a lesser role.

Geremi

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang&nbsp;will probably be remembered as one of Africa&rsquo;s greatest scorers of all time once it&rsquo;s all said and done. However, most people will always question him for joining&nbsp;Arsenal&nbsp;instead of&nbsp;Manchester United&nbsp;or&nbsp;Real Madrid&nbsp;when he finally decided to leave&nbsp;Borussia Dortmund. He eventually joined&nbsp;Barcelona, but not at the club's best days.
Aubameyang is a speedster that can play on both flanks of the pitch, as an offensive midfielder, or as the main striker. He can literally do it all in the offensive end and score at a high clip, but lack of international success with Gabon and his clubs&nbsp;will always hurt his resume. His downfall at&nbsp;Chelsea&nbsp;won't help him either.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

John Obi Mikel&nbsp;is the true definition of hard work and effort. He did have his fair share of criticism and mockery for a couple of shenanigans during his tenure with&nbsp;Chelsea, but he really took things up a notch whenever he wore the Nigerian jersey.
Mikel was a tough defender that could also take the ball upfront as a box-to-box midfielder when he was at his best. Regardless of his mistakes, he cemented himself as a steady part of Chelsea&rsquo;s starting XI, winning 9 titles in 11 years with the Blues,&nbsp;including one&nbsp;UEFA Champions League.

John Obi Mikel

Seydou Keita&nbsp;could&rsquo;ve been one of the best midfielders in the world if he didn&rsquo;t play for&nbsp;Barcelona. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, he always excelled for them and helped them win 14 titles, but their crowded midfield didn&rsquo;t allow him to thrive and be a consistent starter on&nbsp;Pep Guardiola&rsquo;s team.
Keita could play everywhere on the center of the pitch, from defensive midfielder to right outside of the box. He had a sweet touch and great court vision, as well as&nbsp;an underrated ability as a finisher.&nbsp;

Seydou Keita

Real Madrid overlooked&nbsp;Achraf Hakimi&nbsp;before he blossomed into one of the greatest right-backs on Earth. The Moroccan defender found the playing time he didn't have in Spain at&nbsp;Inter Milan, with whom he won a long-awaited Serie A title before joining&nbsp;PSG&nbsp;for &euro;68m,&nbsp;a record-breaking deal for a right-back.
He is still young and has many years to continue cementing a legacy, but he has already made sure to be in Morocco's history forever by helping the nation reach a historic third-place in the 2022 World Cup.

Achraf Hakimi

Yakubu&nbsp;was an unstoppable force of nature, physically speaking. He could outrun a jaguar, wrestle a bull, and jump higher than a kangaroo. That&rsquo;s why he thrived off demolishing opposing defenders with his speed, strength, and athleticism.
The Nigerian striker had an impressive career in the&nbsp;English Premier League, scoring 96 goals (third-most ever for an African player) in just 9 seasons after breaking out with&nbsp;Maccabi Haifa&nbsp;in the&nbsp;2002-03 UEFA Champions League.&nbsp;

Yakubu

Kolo Tour&eacute;&nbsp;may not be as elegant with the ball on his feet as his brother Yaya, but he was arguably equally as successful as him, spending his finest years with&nbsp;Arsenal, Manchester City, and Liverpool&nbsp;as both a center-back or full-back.
Sadly for him, he was never able to lead his Cote D&rsquo;Ivore elephants to the success everybody was hoping for in the&nbsp;World Cups, but he did help them&nbsp;win the&nbsp;AFCON in 2015&nbsp;with his tough, physical defense.

Kolo Touré

Some may argue that even though&nbsp;Mohamed Salah&nbsp;has always been&nbsp;the biggest star,&nbsp;Sadio Man&eacute;&nbsp;was actually&nbsp;Liverpool&rsquo;s best player and they may be right. The main difference between both of them is that Man&eacute; had&nbsp;embraced his role in the Red&rsquo;s offense and was a way more unselfish scorer than the Egyptian.
Man&eacute; is one of the fastest players in the world. He can also play everywhere upfront and hurt you with both feet or with his head. He was one of the main reasons why the Reds&nbsp;made it to&nbsp;back-to-back UCL finals, won one UCL and the English Premier League.&nbsp;He left for&nbsp;Bayern&nbsp;in 2022, and nothing has been the same for Liverpool.
However, Man&eacute;'s legacy also goes beyond the field. He&nbsp;never forgot his roots, constantly helping&nbsp;those in need every year. Besides, he led Senegal&nbsp;to an epic African Cup of Nations triumph in 2022.

Sadio Mané

Ivory Coast has seen quite some talent on their ranks through the past couple of decades but while most of them have come and gone,&nbsp;Didier Zokora&nbsp;has always been there. As a matter of fact, he&rsquo;s the team&rsquo;s most-capped player with 123 appearances.
Zokora was one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe during his finest days. If he was covering man-to-man, you know even the most skilled players were going to be in for a rough day, as he could cover a lot of ground in no time with&nbsp;his&nbsp;athleticism and speed.

Didier Zokora

Young fans just don&rsquo;t have a clue as to how incredibly skilled&nbsp;Jay-Jay Okocha&nbsp;was. I mean, if he were Brazilian, he would&rsquo;ve played for&nbsp;Real Madrid,&nbsp;Barcelona, or&nbsp;Manchester United, I can tell you that for sure.&nbsp;
He was just so crafty and smooth with the ball on his feet that he was even named&nbsp;African Player of the Year&nbsp;award twice. Sadly, he didn&rsquo;t enjoy much success when it comes to winning trophies, but watching him was just&nbsp;a huge treat to the eyes.

Jay-Jay Okocha

Emmanuel Adebayor&nbsp;refused&nbsp;to call it a day and hang the cleats for a long time until he finally retired in Togo. One can understand why he extended his career so much, though, since he had&nbsp;the body of a 20-year old and could match up with younger defenders.
Adebayor is one of the most prolific goal-scorers in African history. He scored&nbsp;97 goals in the&nbsp;Premier League, including a 30-goal campaign with&nbsp;Arsenal. He also played for&nbsp;Metz, Monaco, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Tottenham, and Crystal Palace.

Emmanuel Adebayor

Nwankwo Kanu&nbsp;wasn&rsquo;t your average player. He was unpredictable to watch and quickly became one of Europe&rsquo;s biggest entertainers, as well as one of Nigeria&rsquo;s greatest players ever, leading them to the&nbsp;Olympic gold medal.
Kanu&rsquo;s career took a major bump due to constant injuries but his talent was remarkable, as you could tell from his stint at&nbsp;Arsenal, where he scored&nbsp;30 goals in 119 caps, mostly coming off the bench, as he made the third-most substitute appearances in&nbsp;Premier League&nbsp;history.

Nwankwo Kanu

Pep Guardiola&nbsp;wasn&rsquo;t exactly fond of&nbsp;Yaya Tour&eacute;&nbsp;and considered him little more than another defensive midfielder during his stint at&nbsp;Barcelona. Needless to say, Yaya proved him and everybody else wrong when he joined&nbsp;Manchester City&nbsp;and became one of the top 10 midfielders in the world.
Tour&eacute; was the ultimate box-to-box player during his early years with the Citizens, even&nbsp;scoring 20 goals in 2014. Also, he led Ivory Coast to the&nbsp;2015 AFCON trophy. Sadly for him, he was pretty much forced to leave City when they appointed Guardiola as their manager.

Yaya Touré

Nobody, not even&nbsp;J&uuml;rgen Klopp, ever thought that&nbsp;Mo Salah&nbsp;was going to break out as the generational scorer he turned into. He was always incredibly talented and a force worth being reckoned up front thanks to his speed and dribbling skills, but he made an elite&nbsp;Liverpool&nbsp;team virtually unbeatable.
He surpassed Didier Drogba as the&nbsp;African player with the most Premier League goals, just if you were wondering how impactful was his move to Anfield. He&rsquo;s unstoppable and can finish with both feet, play at every spot up front, and has quickly become one of the best players on earth. They owe their much-awaited Premier League title claimed in 2020 in great part to him.

Mohamed Salah

Essien broke out with&nbsp;Lille&nbsp;before becoming one of the main faces of the&nbsp;Roman Abramovich&nbsp;era in&nbsp;Chelsea, where he became the master of the midfield side by side with&nbsp;Frank Lampard&nbsp;and won 9 titles.
Michael Essien&nbsp;was something you didn&rsquo;t find quite often: a physical, strong, defender that could also take the ball upfront with a nice touch and court vision. His combination of skills, brains, and strength made him an elite midfielder for years, although he was never able to lead his Ghanian national team to success.&nbsp;He won one&nbsp;African Player of the Year&nbsp;award, though.

Michael Essien

Didier Drogba&nbsp;is a legend on and off the field. Besides being arguably the most talented African striker ever, he urged his Ivorian compatriots to cease fire on the civil war that had doomed the nation for 5 years, right after leading them to the&nbsp;2006 World Cup. Sadly, he could never lead them to a trophy.
Drogba was theall-time&nbsp;African leading scorer both in Premier and Champions League history before Salah overtook him and scored 275 career goals, including 65 for his national team.

Didier Drogba

And even though&nbsp;Samuel Eto&rsquo;o&nbsp;may not have as many records as Drogba, he&rsquo;s still Africa&rsquo;s best player of the century after playing a starring role in&nbsp;3 UEFA Champions League titles&nbsp;with&nbsp;Barcelona&nbsp;and&nbsp;Internazionale. Also, he&rsquo;s AFCON&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer and Cameroon&rsquo;s all-time top striker as well.
Eto&rsquo;o is also a four-time&nbsp;African Player of the Year, won two&nbsp;Africa Cup&nbsp;of Nations, one&nbsp;Olympic Gold, and made it to three&nbsp;World Cups. If that wasn&rsquo;t enough, he scored&nbsp;293 club goals in 587 appearances&nbsp;playing for European giants like&nbsp;Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter, and Chelsea.
Eto'o was a very big deal wherever he went during his career. He really left a mark in Europe and the world with his style of playing and personality. You can ask anybody in Europe and they will tell you that this guy was the best players of his continent after the African GOAT George Weah.

Samuel Eto'o

Top 30 best African soccer players of the century

top-30-best-african-soccer-players-of-the-century

Let&rsquo;s be honest. Most people from this side of the world don&rsquo;t know much about&nbsp;Asian soccer.&nbsp;Other than watching them in the World Cup, we rarely get a glimpse of how good it actually is.
As a matter of fact, Asian players have made their way towards&nbsp;Europe&rsquo;s elite&nbsp;over the past couple of decades and it&rsquo;s more common to find them now proving their talents on the best competitions on earth.
That&rsquo;s why today we decided to put together the ultimate ranking of the top&nbsp;30 best Asian players&nbsp;of the century, featuring those who paved the way for the younger generation and the rising stars we see nowadays.
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Shinji Ono&nbsp;was one of the main reasons why the Japanese national team was able to take such a step forward over the past decade. Known as &lsquo;Tensai&rsquo; (which is Japanese for genius), he&rsquo;s made a name for himself for his sweet touch with the ball on his feet.
Thus far, Ono has found great success in his homeland and was even named Asian Footballer of the Year in 2002, and he also won the&nbsp;UEFA Cup with Feyenoord that year.

Shinji Ono

Hong Myung-Bo&nbsp;played a big&nbsp;part in South Korean&rsquo;s golden generation. His intelligence and versatility allowed him to play on every spot of the midfield but he also thrived as a center-back for most of his career.
He then went on to pursue a career as a coach, serving as his nation&rsquo;s tactician and leading South Korea to the&nbsp;2014 World Cup&nbsp;after winning the&nbsp;Olympic bronze medal&nbsp;with the U-23 squad in London 2012.&nbsp;

Hong Myung-bo

Takumi Minamino&nbsp;couldn't live up to the expectations at&nbsp;Liverpool, but he's still a talented winger capable of performing at the European top five leagues. After all, there's a reason the&nbsp;Japanese player found other landing spots in the Premier League and the Ligue 1 after his stint at Anfield.
Minamino caught the Reds' eye in 2020 after an interesting tenure with&nbsp;Salzburg, spent six months on loan at&nbsp;Southampton&nbsp;in 2021 and was acquired by&nbsp;AS Monaco for &euro;15 million&nbsp;(almost twice as much Liverpool paid for him) in 2022.

Takumi Minamino

Lee Woon-jae&nbsp;may not be the most beloved guy in Europe, as he was in the spotlight for a couple of controversies vs. Spain and Italy in the 2002 World Cup. However, he earned his spot on this list thanks to his durability.
Woon-jae spent his entire career playing in the K-League and made it to 3 World Cups, 3 Asian Cups, 1 Olympics, and 1 FIFA Confederations Cup as South Korea&rsquo;s main stopper, making&nbsp;133 appearances.

Lee Woon-jae

There was a time when&nbsp;Younis Mahmoud was considered as the greatest Iraqi soccer player in history. He was just 22 years old. That&rsquo;s why Sunderland tried to sign him, although he eventually decided to join Al-Gharafa in Qatar.
Mahmoud made 148 appearances for Iraq and scored 57 goals and is the only Iraqi player to ever be&nbsp;nominated to the Ballon d&rsquo;Or. He led his country to silverware in the WAAF Championship (2002), West Asian Games (2005), and AFC Asian Cup (2007).

Younis Mahmoud

Lee Keun-ho&nbsp;was once one of the biggest offensive menaces in Asian soccer. His pace and dribbling skills make him a nightmare upfront, as well as his ability to read opposing defenses and always find an open teammate.
However, the lack of exposure prevented him from taking his talents overseas as he&rsquo;s spent his entire career in Asia. He&rsquo;s made it to 4 K-League best XI, won&nbsp;1 Asian Footballer of the Year,&nbsp;and 1 AFC Champions League MVP.

Lee Keun-ho

Shunsuke Nakamura&nbsp;was one of the first Japanese - and Asian - superstars that earned a lot of interest from European clubs, with teams like Atl&eacute;tico de Madrid, Lazio, Parma, and Borussia Dortmund demanding his services.
His great skills as an offensive midfielder led him to 2 Japanese Player of the Year awards, 1 AFC Asian Cup MVP, and 2 J-League MVPs among many other accolades, including&nbsp;a very successful stint with Celtic.

Shunsuke Nakamura

Zheng Zhi&nbsp;is the ultimate Chinese kaiser. He&rsquo;s the master of the defense and the biggest vocal leader you&rsquo;ll find on the court, as he&rsquo;s proven to be able to play as a center-back or as a defensive midfielder.
Zhi helped Guangzhou Evergrande&nbsp;win 16 titles in 10 years&nbsp;and has made 9 Chinese Super League Team of the Year appearances, which tells you how dominant he is. Also, he was the Asian Footballer of the Year in 2013.

Zheng Zhi

Not many&nbsp;Omani players found their way to Europe&rsquo;s top-5 leagues, but that&rsquo;s not the case with&nbsp;Ali Al-Habsi,&nbsp;whose solid goalkeeping took him to West Bromwich Albion after a stint with Bolton Wanders and Wigan Athletic.
He was a part of that historical Wigan team that won the FA Cup in 2013 and won the Arab Goalkeeper of the Year in 2004. He&rsquo;s also made&nbsp;135 appearances with his national team&nbsp;over his 18-year career.

Ali Al-Habsi

Eran Zahavi&nbsp;was the main reason why most people from this side of the world tuned in on Palermo and Maccabi Tel Aviv every time they set foot on the court, as his antics upfront and ability to embarrass defenders were a treat to the eyes.
Zahavi is an incredibly skilled finisher but also thrives playing near the sidelines as a winger. He went back to Europe to play for&nbsp;PSV&nbsp;after a great stint with&nbsp;Guangzhou R&amp;F, later returning to Israel to play for&nbsp;Maccabi Tel Aviv.
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Eran Zahavi

Ashkan Dejagah&nbsp;almost plays for Germany after representing them at a youth level. Eventually he became&nbsp;Iran&rsquo;s captain and one of the greatest players ever after putting together a great career in the Bundesliga.
With his versatility as a winger, offensive midfielder, and even false nine, Dejagah helped&nbsp;VfL Wolfsburg&nbsp;win the national tournament in 2009. His other notable clubs in Europe were Fulham and Nottingham Forest.

Ashkan Dejagah

Mehdi Taremi&nbsp;is the greatest Iranian player of his generation. His story is quite inspiring, since he had to fight his way to a relevant European league. It wasn't until he turned 28 that&nbsp;Porto&nbsp;tried their luck with him.
Far from letting them down, the striker proved the &euro;4 million spent on him were a bargain as it didn't take him long to produce incredible numbers for the Portuguese giants. Besides, he has also found the net consistently for the national team.

Mehdi Taremi

Min-jae Kim&nbsp;had a breakout year in his first season with&nbsp;Napoli, whom he joined in the summer of 2022 from Fenerbahce. Many wondered whether the &euro;18 million spent on him were a bit too much, but the South Korean defender immediately lived up to his price tag.
The center-back already has international experience with his national team and settled in perfectly in the Serie A, becoming the face of a defense that drew a lot of praise throughout the season.

Min-jae Kim

Most young fans won&rsquo;t remember it, but there was a time when&nbsp;Lee Young-pyo&nbsp;was considered to be one of the best left-backs in Europe thanks to his speed, defense, and link-up plays.
Young-pyo played for Anyang LG Cheetahs, PSV Eindhoven, Tottenham Hotspur, Borussia Dortmund, and Al-Hilal before retiring with the Vancouver Whitecaps. He was also a part of the South Korean team that finished in 4th in the&nbsp;2002 World Cup.

 Lee Young-pyo

Daisuke Matsui&nbsp;didn&rsquo;t find the success he&rsquo;d hope in Europe. Other than his long tenure with Le Mans, he bounced around the continent and struggled to find playing time. Still, he became a Japanese legend for his role in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.
Matsui lacked the physicality and speed of most European midfielders but he made up for it with outstanding court vision and passing skills. Even in his 40s, he continued to play professionally.
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Daisuke Matsui

Yossi Benayoun,&nbsp;AKA &lsquo;The Diamond from Dimona&rsquo;, was a huge menace during his prime. He had a sweet touch with the ball on his hand but you couldn&rsquo;t forget about his power either. With a cannon for leg, he was a threat from all over the court.
Benayoun&rsquo;s well known for his tenure at&nbsp;Liverpool&nbsp;as one of the Red&rsquo;s steadiest contributors. He scored 144 career goals in 547 appearances won the UEFA Europa League in 2013, although with a lesser role.

Yossi Benayoun

Makoto Hasebe was a bit of a late bloomer but he eventually established himself as Japan&rsquo;s captain, both on and off the pitch. Also, he became a regular member of Eintracht Frankfurt&rsquo;s starting XI as one of the Bundesliga&rsquo;s best defenders.
Hasebe has found a lot of success throughout his career, winning 1 Europa League, 1 Bundesliga, 1 DFB Pokal, 1 AFC Asian Cup, 3 Kirin Cups, and 1 AFC Asian International Player of the Year, even making it to the 2018-19&nbsp;UEFA Europa League squad of the season.

Makoto Hasebe

Omar Abdulrahman Ahmed Al Raaki Al Amood, also known as&nbsp;Amoony, is one of those incredibly talented players most people don&rsquo;t know because of the lack of exposure Asian soccer has on this half of the world.
Still, he&rsquo;s won four AGL Emirati Player of the Year, 1 Asian Footballer of the Year, 1 AFC Champions League MVP. He&rsquo;s a master at set-pieces and his accuracy, dribbling, and change of pace made most people consider him the greatest player in United Arab Emirates history,&nbsp;winning multiple titles over his career.

Omar Abdulrahman

Ali Karimi made a name for himself as one of the Iranian deadliest players throughout the early years of his career, even making his way to Bayern Munchen in 2005. He&rsquo;s considered the greatest Iranian footballer of all time.
Karimi made 127 caps for his national team and scored 101 career goals in 298 club matches. He won&nbsp;1 Asian Footballer of the Year.&nbsp;He went on to pursue a career in coaching after retiring.

Ali Karimi

Atsuto Uchida&nbsp;is yet another example of Japanese players taking the Bundesliga for assault, as he established himself as Schalke 04&rsquo;s full-time right back thanks to his speed and defense.&nbsp;
His incredibly successful off the court as well, being known as the &lsquo;Japenese Beckham&rsquo;. He won a couple of titles in Germany and was a part of the AFC Asian championship team in 2011.
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Atsuto Uchida

Maya Yoshida&nbsp;is a synonym of consistency. He&rsquo;s a reliable center back that can also play on the flanks, and even as a midfielder. That&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s one of the best Southampton players in modern history.
Yoshida spent 8 seasons in the English Premier League before joining Sampdoria. He&rsquo;s made 100 caps for Japan&rsquo;s national team but other than the&nbsp;AFC Asian Cup of 2011,&nbsp;he hasn&rsquo;t won any silverware.

Maya Yoshida

Ji-Sung Park&nbsp;was one of the first Asian players to put the continent on the map. After dominating in PSV Eindhoven, he made it to&nbsp;Sir Alex Ferguson&rsquo;s Manchester United, where he lived the best years of his career.
His off-ball movements and change of pace were his signature as a disruptive player for opposing defenses. He won 13 titles with the Red Devils, including one&nbsp;UEFA Champions League.

Ji-Sung Park

Hidetoshi Nakata is considered the most talented Japanese player of all time. He was a huge celebrity in Asia and spent most of his career in Europe, playing for Perugia, Roma, Parma, Bologna, Fiorentina, and Bolton Wanderers.
Nakata won&nbsp;2 Asian Footballer of the Year&nbsp;and a couple of international trophies with Japan. He made just 77 appearances for his national team and durability was always an issue with him, but the talent was definitely there.

Hidetoshi Nakata

You may not know much about him, but&nbsp;Ali Daei held&nbsp;the record for the most international goals of all time before&nbsp;Cristiano Ronaldo&nbsp;surpassed him. With&nbsp;109 goals in 149 caps for Iran,&nbsp;the &lsquo;Iranian&nbsp;Maradona&rsquo; made his way to soccer&rsquo;s elite over a 20-year career.
Daei led his national team to the Asian Games gold medal, the AFC/OFC Cup Challenge, and the&nbsp;WAAF Championship, won 1 Asian Footballer of the Year, and is a part of the Asian Football Hall of Fame.

Ali Daei

Shinji Okazaki&nbsp;may not be the most talented Japanese striker ever but he&rsquo;s by far one of the most effective. As a matter of fact, he&rsquo;s the country's&nbsp;active leading scorer with 50 strikes in 119 appearances for his national team.
Okazaki also holds an impressive resume thus far, playing for VfB Stuttgart, Mainz, Leicester City, M&aacute;laga, and now Huesca. Also, he was a part of that historical Foxes team that took the&nbsp;Premier League&nbsp;for assault in 2016.

Shinji Okazaki

Shinji Kagawa&nbsp;had it all to become the greatest Asian player of all time. He was as fast as a cheetah, incredibly skilled as a dribbler, and had the ability to finish with both feet even from way outside of the box.
Sadly, injuries and lack of playing time at Manchester United were a major bump on a promising career. He&rsquo;s scored more than 31 goals for Japan and won one&nbsp;AFC Asian International Player of the Year.

Shinji Kagawa

There are only three certain things in life: Death, taxes, and&nbsp;Yuto Nagatomo.&nbsp;He&rsquo;s reliable, consistent, efficient, and does all the little things well, even though he doesn&rsquo;t exactly stand out from the rest of the pack.
Nagatomo can play as a winger, center-back, midfielder, or full-back. He&rsquo;s made&nbsp;more than 140 appearances with Japan,&nbsp;won 1 Asian International Footballer of the Year, and has made a great career with Cesena, Internazionale,&nbsp;Galatasaray, and Marseille.

Yuto Nagatomo

Yasuhito Endo&nbsp;is basically&nbsp;Mr. Japan. He&rsquo;s the country's&nbsp;all-time leader in caps with&nbsp;152 appearances&nbsp;and has represented his nation in 3 World Cups, and 3 Confederation cups. Some consider him the best player in the Japanese national team history.
Endo has never played outside of his country at a club level but not because of a lack of offers. His great abilities as a shooter are only topped by his passing skills, and he&rsquo;s won&nbsp;multiple titles with Japan.

Yasuhito Endo

Talent-wise, preparation-wise, role-wise,&nbsp;Son Heung-min&nbsp;may end up being the best Asian player ever. He&rsquo;s already a superstar in one of the English Premier League&rsquo;s best teams and he still has time to be even better.
Son is unstoppable near the sidelines with his speed and dribbling skills but he can also play inside of the box or as an offensive midfielder if needed. He&rsquo;s already scored 26 goals for South Korea after thriving at Bayer Leverkusen and Tottenham. Also, he was named the Best Footballer in Asia and AFC Asian International Player of the Year multiple times, and was a 2019 Ballon d&rsquo;Or nominee.

Son Heung-Min

For most of his career,&nbsp;Keisuke Honda&nbsp;was always the biggest entertainer on the pitch. Versatile, strong, fast, dynamic, he was the ultimate attacking midfielder and he could also play as a false nine or on both flanks of the offense.
Had he handled his professional career better, he could&rsquo;ve easily made his way to a European giant like Real Madrid, as he was a major game-changer every time he set foot on the field during his earlier days. His career will always be a big &lsquo;What If&rsquo;, but talent-wise, he&rsquo;ll go down as the best Asian player of the century&nbsp;until further notice.

Keisuke Honda

Top 30 best Asian players of the century

top-30-best-asian-players-of-the-century

There is always a constant debate about who is the best player in the world. The argument is always between&nbsp;Cristiano and Messi,&nbsp;but some also like to include the likes of&nbsp;Neymar or Mbappe. However, in spite of whoever the best is,&nbsp;there is no question that&nbsp;Cristiano Ronaldo&nbsp;is one of the greatest players&nbsp;in the history of the game.
His&nbsp;individual and collective achievements&nbsp;speak for themselves. Cristiano has had many iconic moments throughout his career, but we want to focus on his achievements throughout the past couple of seasons.
Most of the&nbsp;awards&nbsp;on our list are individual, but there some collective accomplishments also&nbsp;included. Sit back and enjoy&nbsp;Cristiano Ronaldo&rsquo;s 25 most successful achievements since 2015.

This may not be Cristiano&rsquo;s most unique trophy, but he and his Portuguese teammates were determined to win the&nbsp;2018/2019 UEFA Nations League, which was the tournaments inaugural season.&nbsp;Portugal&nbsp;qualified for the Nations League Finals, which is a knockout tournament consisting of the&nbsp;group winners of League A. If they needed any additional motiviation, the finals would be played in Portugal
After beating Switzerland in the semifinals, they took on the Netherlands in the final. It would be a close game, but&nbsp;Portugal would go on to win&nbsp;1-0&nbsp;and Cristiano would add another&nbsp;trophy to his already incredible list of achievements.

UEFA Nations League champions

Although Juventus have won consecutive Serie A titles since 2011, the 2018/2019 edition was&nbsp;Cristiano&rsquo;s first league triumph&nbsp;with the Italian club. As is no surprise, Ronaldo was instrumental in leading Juve to the title with several clutch moments in big games.&nbsp;He finished&nbsp;the&nbsp;season with a&nbsp;total of 21 goals&nbsp;and was&nbsp;named&nbsp;Serie A&nbsp;player of the season.
This title would also make Cristiano one of the select few players who have&nbsp;won a league title in three different countries. He won three Premier League titles while playing for&nbsp;Manchester United and two&nbsp;in La Liga&nbsp;with Real Madrid.

Serie A title

After finishing&nbsp;top of their group,&nbsp;Portugal qualifed for the Nations League Finals&nbsp;where&nbsp;they would&nbsp;take on Switzerland&nbsp;in the&nbsp;semifinal game. With the finals&nbsp;being played in&nbsp;Portugal, they were fully determined to win the inaugural tournament.
Although Portugal were playing in their backyard, Switzerland were determined to get to the final and do what they could to win. However, Cristiano made sure that would not happen and went&nbsp;on to score a hat-trick as&nbsp;Portugal won 3-1 to advance to the final&nbsp;where they would take on the Netherlands, who beat England in their semifinal match.

UEFA Nations League semifinal performance

Real Madrid began the&nbsp;2017/2018 season taking on&nbsp;Barcelona in the Spanish Supercup, with the first leg being played in Camp Nou. Even though it is a summer competition, both teams wanted to start the campaign on a high by winning the first trophy of the season and beating their historic arch-rivals. Ronaldo would start the game on the bench as he had just returned from his vacation the previous week.
However, with the score tied at&nbsp;1-1, Cristiano would come on in the second half and completely change the game. After a quick counter attack, Cristiano found himself on the edge of the box and would score a&nbsp;brilliant top corner goal to give Madrid a 1-2 lead and would celebrate by showing jersey to the opposing fans. Although he would be red-carded later in the game, Real Madrid went on to win 1-3 and would eventually go on to claim the Spanish Supercup.&nbsp;

Spanish Supercup goal vs Barcelona 

Even at 38, Ronaldo managed to break records. With his presence in Portugal's comfortable 4-0 win over Liechtenstein in the Euro qualifiers in March 2023, he reached 197 caps, becoming the player with the most international appearances.
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The record belonged to&nbsp;Bader Al-Mutawa, but Ronaldo made sure to take it away from him. To make things even better, CR7 bagged a brace in that commanding victory.
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Most international appearances

An encounter between Real Madrid and Atl&eacute;tico de Madrid is always enticing. However, the first round matchup in the 2016/2017 season was extra important as it was the final&nbsp;La Liga game played at Atl&eacute;tico&rsquo;s Vicente Calder&oacute;n Stadium&nbsp;and they were looking to close it out in the best way possible by beating their arch city rivals.
Despite the hype and expectations, Cristiano would quickly quiet the Atl&eacute;tico fans by scoring the first goal of the game and would go on to&nbsp;get&nbsp;a hat-trick.&nbsp;Real Madrid thrashed Atl&eacute;tico 0-3 as they continued their quest to win La Liga.&nbsp;

La Liga hat-trick vs Atlético de Madrid

In the 2016/2017 season, Real Madrid were on a&nbsp;mission to win La Liga, a title they had not won since&nbsp;2012. This would be an interesting campaign for Cristiano as he would miss the first month due to the injury he suffered in the Euro 2016 final against France and&nbsp;then his minutes were&nbsp;significantly throughout the season&nbsp;due to Zidane&rsquo;s rotation policy.
Although Ronaldo would not be named the top La Liga scorer, it would be one of his best seasons with Madrid and he constantly appeared&nbsp;in big&nbsp;moments. Some of his best performances included a hat-trick against Atl&eacute;tico de&nbsp;Madrid in the Calder&oacute;n Stadium, some late goals against Las Palmas to get an important point, and two vital goals against Sevilla. Ronaldo would score a&nbsp;total of 25 goals&nbsp;and&nbsp;Madrid would win the league&nbsp;on the final day against M&aacute;laga.

La Liga title 2016/2017

Cristiano had several important performances at Euro 2016, which included&nbsp;the final&nbsp;group stage game against Hungary. After drawing their previous group games to Iceland and Austria, Portugal needed to get&nbsp;a positive result&nbsp;if they wanted to the advance to the next&nbsp;round.
Throughout the match, Portugal trailed Hungary and never led at any point during the game. It was an incredible game&nbsp;that saw several goals.&nbsp;Despite their struggles, Portugal&nbsp;fought back and were able to get a 3-3 draw;&nbsp;enough&nbsp;to see&nbsp;them&nbsp;through to the knockout stages.&nbsp;Cristiano scored&nbsp;two&nbsp;vital&nbsp;goals, which included a brilliant backheel.&nbsp;

Euro 2016 goals vs Hungary

In the 2015/2016 Champions League, Real Madrid took on Wolfsburg in the quarterfinals. On paper, it was seen an easy matchup for Madrid, but Wolfsburg would make things interesting by winning the first leg 2-0&nbsp;and putting Madrid in jeopardy of being eliminated.
Despite the second leg being played in Madrid, it was seen as unlikely that Real Madrid could overturn the result and go through. However,&nbsp;Cristiano would quickly score two goals&nbsp;in early minutes of the first half to tie the aggregate. Then in the second half,&nbsp;Ronaldo scored the game winning goal&nbsp;from a free kick to&nbsp;win the game 3-0&nbsp;and help Madrid through to the semifinals.

Comeback vs Wolfsburg in CL

In the 2018 World Cup,&nbsp;Portugal began the tournament taking on Spain, who would be their biggest challenger in the group stage. Many experts believed this game would decide the group winner and it would be considered one of the best game in the World Cup, with Ronaldo as a&nbsp;key&nbsp;protagonists.
The first half went perfectly for Portugal as they led at&nbsp;halftime&nbsp;2-1&nbsp;with both goals scored by Cristiano. Although Spain&nbsp;turned the result&nbsp;around&nbsp;in the second half&nbsp;and led&nbsp;2-3 draw,&nbsp;Portugal would get an opportunity to tie the game just before added time as they were awarded a dangerous&nbsp;free kick. With all the pressure on him,&nbsp;Cristiano stepped up and scored a brilliant goal&nbsp;to tie the game&nbsp;at&nbsp;3-3&nbsp;and take a point.

2018 World Cup goals vs Spain 

Another brilliant Euro 2016 performance by&nbsp;Cristiano came in the semifinal matchup against Wales, who was the revelation of the tournament and had just eliminated Belgium in the quarterfinals. The game was tight in the first half with both teams being defensively strong.
However, the game would light up in the second half as a dangerous cross found the head of&nbsp;Cristiano, who&nbsp;powerfully headed&nbsp;the ball into the goal to give Portugal the lead. A few of minutes later, Nani extended Portugal&rsquo;s lead as they went on to win and advanced to the final where they would take on the host country France.

Euro 2016 semifinal performance vs Wales

In the 2015/2016 Champions League final,&nbsp;Real Madrid took on city rivals Atl&eacute;tico de Madrid. It would be a&nbsp;repeat of&nbsp;the 2013/2014 final, which&nbsp;saw&nbsp;Madrid come out victorious. After Sergio Ramos opened the scoring, Yannick Carrasco would tie it in the second half and take the game into extra time, where it would remain scoreless and go&nbsp;into a penalty shootout.
Both sides were making their penalties until Atl&eacute;tico de Madrid defender, Juanfr&aacute;n, missed to give Real Madrid an opportunity to win the title. As was expected, the decisive penalty was taken by Cristiano, who calmly&nbsp;scored it&nbsp;to win the Champions League title.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Game winning penalty vs Atlético de Madrid

After eliminating Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the 2016/2017 Champions League, Real Madrid would take on city rivals Atl&eacute;tico de Madrid in the semifinals. Atl&eacute;tico were looking to get back to the final and also wanted revenge as they had lost the previous season to Madrid.
However, Cristiano made sure that&nbsp;did&nbsp;not happen and would go on to&nbsp;score a hat-trick&nbsp;in the&nbsp;first leg&nbsp;to lead&nbsp;Madrid to a 3-0 victory. In the second leg, Atl&eacute;tico made the tie close, but it would not be enough and Real Madrid advanced to the Champions League final as they looked to defend their title against Juventus.

Champions League performance vs Atlético de Madrid

Cristiano has scored many incredible throughout his career, but his&nbsp;NBA-style goal&nbsp;he scored against Sampdoria left even the opposing manager with his jaw dropped. A goal which was similar to the one he scored in the Champions League knockout stages against Manchester United while playing for Real Madrid in the game 2012/2013 season.
What is remarkable is not just the height of his jump, which was a&nbsp;remarkable&nbsp;8 feet and 5 inches,&nbsp;but also how long he hung in the air. His&nbsp;hang time was 1.5 seconds&nbsp;as he jumped over the Sampdoria defender and&nbsp;headed the ball into far corner of the net.

Goal vs Sampdoria

Cristiano is not just Real Madrid&rsquo;s all time leading goal scorer, he did it in record fashion. The previous record was held by Ra&uacute;l Gonz&aacute;lez, who&nbsp;played 741 games&nbsp;for&nbsp;the club&nbsp;and would go on to score a&nbsp;total of 325 career goals&nbsp;by the time he left&nbsp;after the 2009/2010 season.
However, after Cristiano arrived in the summer of 2009, he began to score goals at rapid pace that no player had ever done before and would go to break Ra&uacute;l&rsquo;s record by the end of&nbsp;2015. When Ronaldo left the club in the summer of 2018, he played a&nbsp;total of 438 games&nbsp;and would go on to&nbsp;score 450 career goals. Another player could potentially break his record, but it will not be done at rate Cristiano did.

Real Madrid all time leading goal scorer

In the 2016/2017 season, Real Madrid had an enticing Champions League quarterfinal matchup against their historic&nbsp;European rival Bayern&nbsp;Munich. Before the game, Bayern were considered the favorites, but it was still seen as a close encounter that could go in any direction. This tie would see one of Cristiano&rsquo;s best performances.
In the first leg, despite losing 1-0 at halftime,&nbsp;Ronaldo&nbsp;scored&nbsp;two goals&nbsp;in the second half to help&nbsp;Madrid&nbsp;win 1-2 in Munich. The&nbsp;return leg saw an epic game as Bayern&nbsp;tied the aggregate score and took&nbsp;it into extra time, but&nbsp;Ronaldo would&nbsp;go on to get&nbsp;a hat-trick&nbsp;to&nbsp;lead Madrid into the semifinals.

Champions League performance vs Bayern Munich

In the 2017/2018 season, Real Madrid took on Juventus in the Champions League quarterfinals, with the first leg being played in Turin. Both sides met in the final the previous season where Madrid thrashed the Italians and would win their second consecutive Champions League title. Like in the final, Madrid would once again dominate Juventus as they would beat them&nbsp;0-3&nbsp;in Turin, with&nbsp;Cristiano scoring two goals.
However, Ronaldo&rsquo;s second goal is what everyone remembers when this game is mention as he would score an&nbsp;incredible bicycle kick&nbsp;that went into the side corner of the goal. A goal that could be the greatest he has scored in his career.

Bicycle kick goal vs Juventus 

After Juventus lost the&nbsp;first leg to Atl&eacute;tico de Madrid 2-0, many thought the tie was over. Atl&eacute;tico may not be the most glamours team, but they are always a strong defensive unit that is hard to break down, which made the idea of Juventus scoring three goals extremely unlikely. Not to mention Juve had to also make sure Atl&eacute;tico did not score any goals in the return leg.
However, back in Turin for the second leg, Cristiano had other ideas and would lead Juventus to an historic comeback. He scored all of Juve&rsquo;s goals, with the game winner coming from the penalty spot as they&nbsp;beat Atl&eacute;tico 3-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Comeback vs Atlético de Madrid 

At Qatar 2022, Ronaldo became the first player to score in five consecutive FIFA World Cups. With his penalty goal scored against Ghana in the opening match, CR7 achieved a feat not&nbsp;even the likes of Messi or Pele could.
Things eventually didn't go according to plan, since Ronaldo failed to score another goal and his team was eliminated by Morocco in the quarterfinals. Even so, he managed to set a record.

First player to score in five consecutive World Cups

Although Cristiano left Europe, his record as the&nbsp;Champions League all time top goal scorer looks safe as he has&nbsp;good distance from the player in second position, which&nbsp;happens to be Leo Messi. That being said,&nbsp;Ronaldo and Messi&nbsp;are the only players to score&nbsp;more than 100 goals&nbsp;in the Champions League.
An incredible achievement, especially taking into consideration&nbsp;Ronaldo began his Champions League&nbsp;career in 2003 and did not score his first goal until 2007.

All time Champions League goal scorer

As Euro 2016 was beginning, Portugal was not even considered as one of the favorites to win the competition. Even less when they failed to win any of their group games and only&nbsp;went through as one of the best third place teams.
However, their form improved greatly in knockout stages and would make it all the way to final where they would take on the&nbsp;host country France. Although Cristiano would leave the game early due to an injury, his clutch performances were fundamental in helping Portugal reach the final where they would upset&nbsp;France to win their first European championship.

Euro 2016 title

The 2016/2017 Champions League final between Juventus and Real Madrid is arguably&nbsp;Cristiano Ronaldo&rsquo;s greatest individual performance&nbsp;of his career. Although Madrid were defending champions, Juve had thrashed Barcelona in the quarterfinals that season and were seen as Madrid&rsquo;s toughest opponent in a European final.
In spite of the concerns, the game proved to be too much for Juventus and Real Madrid would go on to demolish the Italian side by a&nbsp;score of 4-1 with Ronaldo scoring two goals. After the game, Cristiano would be named the Man of the Match.

Champions League final performance vs Juventus 

Along with his collective achievements, Cristiano would add individual awards to his trophy cabinet. Ronaldo&nbsp;won&nbsp;three consecutive Ballon d&rsquo;Or awards between 2016 and 2018, which were the same seasons Real Madrid won their&nbsp;Champions League titles.
In addition to the Ballon d&rsquo;Or, he would also&nbsp;win three consecutive FIFA&rsquo;s The Best awards&nbsp;during that same period&nbsp;and was named the&nbsp;UEFA Men's Player of the Year&nbsp;in 2016 and 2017. Awards that are all well deserved taking into consideration his performances that led his club and country to great success.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Three consecutive Ballon d’Or awards

He won numerous trophies while playing for Real Madrid, but his most successful period with the club came between 2016 and 2018 when they made history by becoming the first team to&nbsp;win three consecutive Champions League titles.
As is no surprise, Cristiano played an instrumental&nbsp;part in winning those titles as he would be named the competition&rsquo;s&nbsp;top goal scorer during the&nbsp;three Champions League wins, as well as coming up with clutch performances throughout the tournament. Performances that would lead him to winning the UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards in 2016 and 2017.&nbsp;

Champions League titles with Real Madrid

With&nbsp;a double against Ireland in September 2021 during the World Cup qualifiers for Qatar 2022,&nbsp;Cristiano Ronaldo became the all-time international top scorer. That brace saw him break the record set by&nbsp;Ali Daei, who scored 109 goals for Iran.
Even though he's not getting any younger, Ronaldo will probably remain atop the list for a long time. And it will be even more difficult for Messi to surpass him if Cristiano continues to play for Portugal.

All-time international top scorer

Top 25 of Cristiano Ronaldo's best moments and achievements in recent years

top-25-of-cristiano-ronaldo-s-best-moments-and-achievements-in-recent-years

CONCACAF is known for players like Hugo S&aacute;nchez, Landon Donovan, Keylor Navas, and Mauricio Cienfuegos. Often overlooked are players from the Caribbean. Countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Haiti have produced many talented players over the years, but few sometimes know who they are and what they did in their careers.
Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago have all played in World Cups and have sent a heavy number of players to play abroad. So, without further ado, here are 25 of the best Caribbean Soccer players ever!

Allan &ldquo;Skill&rdquo; Cole was a Jamaican soccer player who played in the old NASL with the Atlanta Chiefs and in Brazil with N&aacute;utico. Cole was a highly skilled player, known for his creativity on the ball, he was praised by many during his playing days. On a side note, he also co-wrote the song &ldquo;War&rdquo; with nonother than Bob Marley, and was his tour manager. Allan is still the youngest player to represent the Reggae Boyz, earning his first cap at age 15.

Allan Cole (Jamaica)

Shalrie Joseph is considered one of the best defensive midfielders in MLS history. The Grenadian was an MLS best 11 four times and played over 250 games for the Revolution. Joseph represented Granada 20 times and today he works in the New England Revolution&rsquo;s academy.

Shalrie Joseph (Granada)

Pascal Chimbonda was born in France but represented Guadeloupe internationally. He was a smooth defender that played in France and in the English Premier League, most notably with Tottenham Hotspur. He also went to a World Cup, how you ask, well Guadeloupe, is considered a local branch of the French federation and despite Chimbonda playing 6 times for Guadeloupe, he was selected to the 2006 World Cup, although he did not play in the tournament representing France.
&nbsp;

Pascal Chimbonda (Guadeloupe)

Lindy Delapenha is a historical figure, he is the first Jamaican to play professionally in England. He played for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Mansfield Town from 1948 to 1960, where he scored 93 goals in total during his time in England. After retirement he became a sports journalist in his native Jamaica, he died of a stroke at the age of 89.

Lindy Delapenha (Jamaica)

Clyde Best played for West Ham in England during the late sixties and most of the seventies. He scored 58 goals for the Hammers in his seven seasons before playing in the United States and then having a stint at Feyenoord in the Netherlands. Best also coached the Bermuda national team for two years from 1997-1999.

Clyde Best (Bermuda)

Andy Williams is all CONCACAF, he was born in Canada, he represented Jamaica, and he played in MLS. The right midfielder was as steady as they came and always a leader and clutch player for any team he suited up for. In MLS he played for The Crew, Miami Fusion, New England Revolution, The MetroStars, Chicago Fire, and Real Salt Lake where he won 1 MLS Cup. He earned 97 caps for Jamaica, playing in the 1998 World Cup.

Andy Williams (Jamaica)

Paul Young might fall under the radar for most people, he did not play in Europe, and played in second division U.S. soccer leagues, but he scored 28 goals for the Reggae Boyz in 86 appearances, making him one of Jamaica&rsquo;s leading goal scorers. In MLS he played briefly for the Crew and Tampa Bay Mutiny.

Paul Young (Jamaica)

The Jamaican goalkeeper manded the nets for the Reggae Boyz for nearly 16 years. He earned 100 caps and played in England and the MLS, most notably for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Donovan Ricketts won 1 MLS Cup with the Galaxy and 2 Caribbean cups with Jamaica.

Donovan Ricketts (Jamaica)

The T&amp;T striker is still going strong today at 40! Cornell Glen scored 24 goals for Trinidad and played in MLS, India, and Portugal. He was one of Trinidad&rsquo;s best players in the 2006 World Cup.

Cornell Glen (Trinidad and Tobago)

Eloy Room is one of Cura&ccedil;ao&rsquo;s best exports, the goalkeeper has played in the Netherlands, most notably for PSV, and is a current Columbus Crew goalkeeper. He won 3 championships in his career at the club level and 2 titles with Cura&ccedil;ao.

Eloy Room (Curaçao)

Emmanuel Sanon will live in the minds of Haitians forever, he scored the countries two only World Cup goals in the 1974 tournament. One of those goals snapped Dino Zoff&rsquo;s no-goal streak and he went on to play many years in Belgium for Beerschot. France Football named Sanon one of the 100 Heroes of the World Cup. Sanon scored 47 goals in 100 caps for Haiti.

Soccer

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Top 25 of Cristiano Ronaldo's best moments and achievements in recent years

Top 25 best ever Caribbean Soccer Players

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Ranking: Top 25 Jamaican Soccer Players of All-Time

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