Barcelona’s Greatest Players Of All Time Have Been Ranked by Fans

#1 Diego Maradona

The only Argentinian who is spoken about at the same level as Messi,Maradona played as a forward for the most of his career, sitting slightly behind a traditional striker. The position is once again made ‘famous’ by Barcelona deploying a player as a ‘False 9′. He would move from midfield to a more advanced position as the game progressed.At the age of 15 he made his professional debut in 1976. and his international debut against Hungary at 16, in Buenos Aires. He was part of the Argentine Youth team that won the 1979 Youth World Cup.

With Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. Maradona played in four World Cups, including the 1986 in Mexico where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player.He holds the record for making the most number of appearances as captain of any country in a World Cup with 16 occasions.

Maradona was transferred to Barcelona from Boca Juniors for a world record fee of £5 million back at those times. During his first year in Spain, he provided a stunning performance against Madrid in 1983 Copa Del Rey final. Barcelona eventually won the Spanish Super cup in the same year. He  scored 22 goals in 36 games before a move to Napoli where he lead them to the 1986/87 Serie A title.

Maradona was technically good. His dribbling, vision and creativity, ball control, and passing were all phenomenal. He was especially adept at luring multiple defenders to close him down, only to burst past them out of the melee with a sudden burst of speed. But apart from his physical and technical skills, he was very cunning and mischievous. In the 1986 World Cup, he scored the controversial ‘Hand of God’ goal against England, hitting the ball into the goal with his hand whilst pretending to head it. In the 1990 World Cup, he used his hand again to block a shot on the goal-line against the Soviet Union. In both instances he was not penalized for it.

According to Italy football legend, Andrea Pirlo, Maradona is regarded by many as the best footballer in history.West Germany football legend , Karl Heinz Rummenige who played in the FIFA World Cup Final 1982 as well as 1986 delightfully said that Maradona is the greatest ever footballer.The IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) recently awarded Maradona ‘the player of the century’ award .