Eastern Europe has historically been fertile ground for top footballing talent.
That was especially true during the 20th century, when the likes of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Soviet Union were, at various stages, among the foremost powers in the global game.
And that part of the world has continued to produce some seriously special footballers into the 21st century, as you'll see from our far-reaching list of the best Eastern European players ever!
Capped 92 times by Bulgaria, helping them to a fourth-placed finish at the 1994 World Cup, Krasimir Balakov was up there with the best attacking midfielders of his era.
A two-time Bulgarian Footballer of the Year, Balakov starred for Sporting Lisbon and Stuttgart – claiming domestic cup glory with both clubs and forming the successful ‘magic triangle’ at the latter alongside Fredi Bobic and Giovane Elber.
A gifted attacking midfielder, Nicolae Dobrin was Romania’s standout player of the 70s, earning 48 caps for the national team.
Controversially left out of the team throughout the 1970 World Cup – despite being in the squad – Dobrin won two league titles with hometown club Arges Pitesti, where he later had multiple spells as manager.
The greatest player in Slovakia’s relatively short history as an independent nation, Marek Hamsik was a world-class midfielder capable of operating in all manner of roles.
Unmissable with his trademark mohawk, Hamsik captained his country on their major tournament debut at the 2010 World Cup, as well as wearing the armband for five years at Napoli – where he made more than 500 appearances, scoring over 100 goals.
Goalkeeping great Ivo Viktor placed third in the voting for the 1976 Ballon d’Or after playing a key role in Czechoslovakia’s European Championship triumph that summer.
One of the finest shot-stoppers in the business in his prime, the five-time Czechoslovak Footballer of the Year made the vast majority of his club appearances for Dukla Prague, helping them to two league titles.
Born in Ukraine while it was part of the Soviet Union, Igor Belanov was an integral member of the Dynamo Kyiv team which won the 1985/86 Cup Winners’ Cup under iconic coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi.
Top scorer in that competition and winner of the 1986 Ballon d’Or, Belanov was a devastatingly fast striker (at one point, he almost matched the 50m world record) with a seriously powerful shot who helped his country to the final of Euro 1988.
Easily Bulgaria’s best player of the 21st century, Dimitar Berbatov scored more than 300 goals for club and country, sharing the 2010/11 Premier League Golden Boot as he fired Manchester United to the title.
Also a major trophy winner with Tottenham, lifting the 2007/08 League Cup, Berbatov – who was named Bulgarian Footballer of the Year on a whopping seven occasions – found the net 48 times in 78 international caps, featuring at Euro 2004.
Hungary had some seriously clinical strikers back in the day, and Ferenc Deak was certainly one: in 20 international caps, he scored 29 goals – working out at an average of 1.45 per game (not too shabby).
A goalkeeper as a kid, Deak was actually banned from playing football by his parents after getting knocked out by a ball to the head – but, evidently, he enjoyed a pretty successful career, finding the net almost 800 times in all.
Averaging not far off a goal every other game in 100 caps for Poland between 1971 and 1984, Grzegorz Lato was a top-class winger who won the Golden Boot at the 1974 World Cup – where he helped his country finish third, a feat he would repeat in 1982.
Spreading his club career across his homeland, Belgium and – in a bit of a wildcard move – Mexico, Lato – also won gold with his country at the 1972 Olympics and silver four years later.
Widely regarded as the greatest defender in the history of Russian football, Moscow-born Albert Shesternyov’s approach earned the nickname ‘Ivan the Terrible’.
A 1964 European Championship winner with the Soviet Union – who he went on to captain – Shesternyov was a one-club man at CSKA Moscow, captaining them to the title in 1970 – having been named skipper aged only 21.
A world-class playmaker, Kazimierz Deyna played a pivotal part in Poland’s run to the last four of the 1974 World Cup – in between helping his nation to Olympic gold and silver.
Third behind only Franz Beckenbauer and winner Johan Cruyff in the 1974 Ballon d’Or voting, Deyna scored 41 goals in 97 caps and was one of the first foreign players in England, joining Manchester City from Legia Warsaw – where he won two league titles – in 1978.
One of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, Rinat Dasayev represented the Soviet Union at three World Cups and captained them to the final of Euro 1988.
A two-time Soviet Top League champion with Spartak Moscow, Dasayev – who finished his career at Sevilla – was nicknamed ‘The Iron Curtain’ for his formidable nature the sticks.
Right up there among the most prolific goalscorers of all time, Ferenc Bene found the net at least 1,425 times in 1,480 games official and unofficial (according to football data boffins RSSSF).
A 1964 Olympic gold medallist with Hungary – who he also helped to third place at that summer’s European Championship – Bene notched 36 international goals at an average of better than one every other outing, and won eight domestic titles and three cups with Ujpest.
Igor Netto was a midfielder by trade, but he excelled in a wide variety of positions, cementing his place as one of the very best Russian footballers of all time.
Capped 54 times by the Soviet Union, helping them to victory at the inaugural European Championship in 1960, Netto was a one-club man at Spartak Moscow – where he won five league titles and three Soviet Cups.
Among the finest footballers of the pre-war era, Gyorgy Sarosi scored a prolific 42 goals in 62 caps for Hungary – and an even more impressive 421 in 450 outings for Ferencvaros, where he spent his entire career.
Hungary skipper for their run to the 1938 World Cup final – where he scored in his nation’s 4-2 defeat to Italy – Sarosi wasn’t even a centre-forward (ridiculous right): usually deployed a second striker, he was similarly adept in midfield and defence. The ultimate utility man.
Polish football’s biggest star of the 80s, Zbigniew Boniek is nothing short of an icon in his homeland, standing out as one of the best players in the world in his prime.
A highly versatile midfielder, the distinctively moustachioed Boniek played a starring role as Poland reached the 1982 World Cup semi-finals – coming third in the voting for that year’s Ballon d’Or – and enjoyed Serie A, Coppa Italia and European Cup success with Juventus.
An exceptionally well-rounded midfielder who predominantly played out wide – where he could put his elite crossing ability to maximum use – Pavel Nedved is undeniably one of the greatest players in the history of Juventus, Lazio and the Czech national team, captaining his nation to the last four of Euro 2004.
At the peak of his powers around the turn of the 21st century, Nedved – a Serie A champion with both aforementioned clubs – scooped the 2003 Ballon d’Or ahead of Thierry Henry and Paolo Maldini.
Another Czech goalkeeping great, Frantisek Planicka produced inspirational performances on a regular basis for club and country.
An eight-time league champion with Dukla Prague, Planicka – who was renowned for his outstanding reflexes and fair play, never receiving a card during his career – starred prominently as Czechoslovakia made it to the final of the 1934 World Cup.
A hugely gifted striker, Oleg Blokhin holds the all-time caps and goals records for the Soviet Union, finishing his international career with tallies of 112 and 42 respectively.
Winner of the 1975 Ballon d’Or, a three-time Soviet Footballer of the Year and nine-time Ukrainian Footballer of the Year Blokhin spent the vast majority of his career at hometown club Dynamo Kyiv – where, among other honours, he won eight league titles and two Cup Winners’ Cups, scoring in borh finals of the latter.
The greatest goalkeeper of the Premier League era, former Chelsea and Arsenal star Petr Cech’s competition record of 202 clean sheets may never be broken.
An imposing presence between the sticks at six-foot-five tall, Cech won every major trophy available during his 11-year spell with the Blues – where he returned to his elite best after suffering a life-threatening head injury in 2006, which saw him play wearing a rugby-style headguard for the rest of his career.
Bulgaria’s best ever player, peak Hristo Stoichkov was a scarily free-scoring striker who tore many a defence a new one during the late 80s and early 90s.
An explosively quick dribbler as well as a sublime finisher, Stoichkov struck up a devastating partnership with Romario at Barcelona – where he had previously won the 1991/92 Champions League as a member of Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’ – and won the 1994 Ballon d’Or after sharing the Golden Boot at the 1994 World Cup, where he fired his country to the semis.
Dubbed ‘The Maradona of the Carpathians’, Gheorghe Hagi was one of the finest players on the planet towards the back end of the 20th century, firmly establishing himself as Romania’s greatest of all time.
An elite attacking midfielder with a knack of scoring spectacular long-range goals, Hagi – who struck 35 times in 124 international outings – won multiple Romanian titles with Steaua Bucharest before turning out for both Real Madrid and Barcelona – then going out on a high by winning the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup with Galatasaray.
Among the leading lights of Hungary’s immortal ‘Magical Magyars’ team who reached the 1954 World Cup final – where he put his side 2-0 up (they ended up losing 3-2 to West Germany) – and so (in)famously dismantled England at Wembley in 1953’s ‘Match of the Century’, Zoltan Czibor was a sublime left-sided winger with a great eye for goal.
A powerful striker of the ball blessed with excellent pace, Czibor won 1952 Olympic gold with his country and claimed several notable honours outside Hungary at Barcelona – including the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1960.
Star midfielder of the ‘Magical Magyars’ and a one-club man at Honved in his hometown of Budapest, Jozsef Bozsik was a technically gifted and wonderfully creative half-back (akin to the modern deep-lying playmaker).
A 1952 Olympic gold medallist and later included in the team of the tournament as Hungary finished as 1954 World Cup runners-up, Bozsik starred in five Hungarian title triumphs with Honved.
Spending his whole career with boyhood club Ferencvaros – tasting European glory in the form of the 1964/65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup – Florian Albert established himself as an indisputable legend of Hungarian football and, in 1967, claimed the game’s ultimate individual prize: the Ballon d’Or.
Fondly known as ‘The Emperor’, Albert was a supremely graceful forward who racked up well over 300 career goals – including 31 for his country, finishing as joint top scorer at the 1962 World Cup.
The role didn’t have that name back then, but Nandor Hidegkuti was arguably the first ever false nine, proving as good as unplayable there in Hungary’s landmark 6-3 downing of England in 1953, hitting a hat-trick as the ‘Magical Magyars’ ran riot at Wembley.
A 1952 Olympic gold medallist and a three-time Hungarian champion with MTK Hungaria, Hidegkuti mad the team of the tournament as he starred in his country’s run to the 1954 World Cup final.
Ukraine’s greatest player of all time, Andriy Shevchenko was one of the early 20th century’s most devastating strikers, banging the goals in for Milan – where he won the Serie A title, Coppa Italia and Champions League, and set a new goalscoring record in the Milan derby.
Winner of the 2003/04 Ballon d’Or, Shevchenko – who captained his nation to the quarter-finals of their debut World Cup in 2006 – was an elite attacking operator effective across the forward line who amassed almost 400 career goals.
The greatest ever Czech footballer, Josef Masopust combined great tackling ability, dribbling and passing to become of the best midfielders of his era.
Ballon d’Or winner in 1962 after playing a starring role in Czechoslovakia’s run to the final of that summer’s World Cup, Masopust enjoyed sustained club success with Dukla Prague – helping them to eight top-flight titles.
Laszlo Kubala made most of his international appearances for Spain (such was the ease of switching allegiances back then), but he also represented his birth nation of Hungary and Czechoslovakia – so he qualifies for this list.
A supremely talented striker who scored freely for Ferencvaros and, most prominently, Barcelona – who he fired to four LaLiga titles and two Inter-Cities Fairs Cups – Kubala, who possessed excellent dribbling and free-kick abilities – placed fifth in the voting for the 1957 Ballon d’Or.
Poland’s finest player of all time and one of the deadliest strikers ever to take to the pitch, Robert Lewandowski had racked up well over 600 goals for club and country by the age of 35.
Long-time captain of the Polish national team, Lewandowski proved his prowess as a complete centre-forward during his glittering eight-year stay at Bayern Munich – where he notched 344 goals in 375 appearances, including 50+ in a season on two occasions, and did the treble in 2019/20.
Another standout star of Hungary’s ‘Magical Magyars’ team, Sandor Kocsis was a natural goalscorer who made the net ripple time and time again for a succession of clubs – including Barcelona, where he spent the last seven years of his career, winning two LaLiga titles and the Fairs Cup.
Having helped his country to 1952 Olympic Gold, the prolific striker scooped the Golden Boot with 11 goals en route to the 1954 World Cup final (the second-most ever scored in a single edition of the tournament).
It’s been almost 60 years since Lev Yashin played his last game, but he’s still widely – and rightly – regarded as the finest goalkeeper in football history.
A national hero in Russia for his inspirational displays between the sticks, the man known as the ‘Black Spider’ (his customary ‘black’ kit was actually very dark blue, but…) helped the Soviet Union to 1960 European Championship glory and remains the only ‘keeper to win the Ballon d’Or, doing so in 1963.
Unquestionably one of the finest footballers there ever was, Ferenc Puskas spearheaded the ‘Magical Magyars’, racking up a truly prolific 84 goals in 85 international caps overall (he wasn’t even an out-and-out striker).
Amassing more than 700 goals for club and country over the course of his career, the 1952 Olympic gold medallist – who somehow never won the Ballon d’Or – scooped the Golden Ball after inspiring Hungary to the 1954 World Cup final and lifted the European Cup three times with Real Madrid, finishing as top scorer in that competition on two occasions.
