Of the 100 best football players of all time, footballers from bygone eras compete with stars from the modern game, though fewer and fewer are still showcasing their talents in the glare of the European game. In fact, two of our top 10 have left the continent in recent times.
With Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo riding off into the sunset of warmer climes, it's easy to become misty-eyed about the good old days; of how we'll never see another pair quite like those again. But when they do eventually call it a day, their absence will leave no void: it's just the turning of a page. Football is cyclical: nothing is new and in a century and a half of the beautiful game, we've seen just about everything possible. The rise of dynasties, the fall of gods, the downright unexpected and scripts we all saw coming.
