GARETH BALE has been hailed the “greatest British footballer of all time” after hanging up his boots.
He won five Champions League trophies and led Wales to a Euro semi-final – but is he really the best?
Here, pundits and writers name their top pick.
And you can have YOUR say by voting in our online poll at thesun.co.uk/the-greatest.
Harry Kane
ENGLAND, 2015-present
Appearances: 80
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Goals: 53
By Clemmie Moodie
WHEN Diego Maradona passed away, Pele said the pair would one day play football together in heaven.
Well, sadly, now they can – quite possibly using the ball Kane punted there during the Qatar World Cup.
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That penalty blip aside, in today’s very modern game – VAR, Wags, tattoos and multi-million-pound salaries – England’s captain is an old-fashioned hero.
A legend in the making, he will soon, surely, be England’s highest ever goal scorer. And he’s still only 29.
A World Cup Golden Boot and 53 goals in 80 appearances for his country is a tremendous return.
He may not have the speed of a gazelle, the tricks of a circus chimp or the surging runs of a Madrid bull.
But he has the rat-like cunning of a true predator.
Gentleman Harry is the glue that holds this England generation together.
Steven Gerrard
ENGLAND, 2000-2014
Appearances: 114
Goals: 21
By Adrian Chiles
THOUGH he never won the Premier League and, with England, was part of the under-achieving so-called golden generation, in my book he is as great as anyone.
With Liverpool, you felt their trophies wouldn’t have been won without him.
There was that corker of a last-minute equaliser against West Ham in the 2006 FA Cup final and his incredible second-half performance in Istanbul to win the Champions League in 2005.
Always trying harder and seeming to care more than anyone else, time and again he was unstoppable.
His love for the game – and his club – shone out.
And he didn’t seem to care much for the trappings of his fame.
He must be the only player of his generation who, boy and man, stuck with the same haircut.
A mark of greatness in my book all day long.
John Barnes
ENGLAND, 1983-1995
Appearances: 79
Goals: 11
By Oliver Harvey
PERCHED on the sofa at home in 1986, I screamed at the TV as cheating Maradona’s Argentina were 2-0 up against England in the World Cup quarter-final.
Then, when all seemed lost, Barnes was thrown into the fray with 15 minutes to go.
The Watford winger soon went on a mazy run and delivered an exquisite cross, which Gary Lineker headed home.
Shortly afterwards he did it again, yet this time Lineker’s header was cleared. Denied by a whisker.
Then there was that brilliant 1984 solo goal where he out-Braziled Brazil, in Brazil.
Despite his mould-breaking wing play, Barnes was subjected to vile racist abuse from the terraces.
Yet through measured words he took on the racists.
A brilliant player and thoughtful man, he helped change the face of football – and wider society too.
Wayne Rooney
ENGLAND, 2003-2018
Appearances: 120
Goals: 53
By Dylan Jones
THE numbers don’t just speak for themselves, they scream.
Rooney is record goalscorer for both Manchester United and England (now joint with Harry Kane).
He also holds the record for the most appearances of any outfield player for England.
Along with former team-mate Michael Carrick, he is the only player to win the Premier League, the FA Cup, the League Cup, the Europa Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Champions League.
He is still England’s youngest ever goal scorer (17).
He played in three World Cups and won the England Player of the Year Award four times.
Wazza also played football like a tank on roller skates and always attacked the opposing team like a primate on steroids.
Oh, and to cap it all, he never played for Tottenham. Job done.
Kenny Dalglish
SCOTLAND, 1971-1986
Appearances: 102
Goals: 30
By Bill Leckie
WHEN my first kid was on the way we were only ever going to have a girl or a Kenny.
Dalglish was the most creative footballer Scotland ever produced.
But even more than that, a guy who played the game not so much with a smile on his face as a grin that split it in two.
Every time he scored – 250-plus times for Celtic, Liverpool and Scotland – his happiness lit up the dreariest day.
He loved putting the ball in the net, he loved setting up goals. He just loved being on that pitch, full stop.
That’s what I wanted for my kids – for them not just to love whatever they chose to do but to let the world see that they loved it.
Because when you radiate happiness, it can’t help but brighten up the lives of all those around you.
King Kenny had so many talents as a player. He saw passes others could only dream of and he calculated angles like a maths genius.
But it’s the joy he took from doing what he did that set him apart as my hero.
Paul Gascoigne
ENGLAND, 1988-1998
Appearances: 57
Goals: 10
By Piers Morgan
THERE have been many great British footballers down the years but none that stirred the soul quite like Paul Gascoigne.
He was quick, strong, impish, swashbuckling and wondrously skilful.
Gazza, in full, glorious flight, was a supreme entertainer.
And if it hadn’t been for injuries and his addiction issues he would be right up there in the same conversation as the two Ronaldos, Maradona, Messi and Pele as one of the world’s all-time greats.
Gazza was indisputably the most fantastic character to ever play the game – a hyperactive, ebullient, crazy bundle of Geordie fun never happier than when he was pulling pranks on team-mates, opponents or even referees.
But with a football at his feet, he was a genius and, for me, the British GOAT.
George Best
NORTHERN IRELAND, 1964-1977
Appearances: 37
Goals: 9
By Ally Ross
HE was a player who had it all. He could run like an antelope, pass, dribble, score with both feet, ride the most brutal tackles, head the ball better than most and, if nothing else was on, nutmeg a defender.
George had the genius to do it and knew, instinctively, he was in the entertainment industry.
Just listen to Pele, who described him as “a footballer without comparison” and so good “all you could do was foul him”.
If George was a clean-cut, Home Counties people pleaser there wouldn’t even be any debate about his supremacy.
But he was a tormented soul from east Belfast who, when he got bored of being better than everyone else, went to the pub and never really came back.
George walked out on Manchester United aged just 27 and ended his significant playing days with Hibernian instead of rising to even greater glory than he’d known at Old Trafford and signing for Aberdeen.
Oh Georgie Boy. What might have been.
Gareth Bale
WALES, 2006-2022
Appearances: 111
Goals: 41
By Hugh Woozencroft
IT is easy to make the case for a number of players if you use a multitude of factors.
Some of those factors are relevant – longevity, success, big moments. Some just aren’t.
It doesn’t matter if Bale was injured a lot. It doesn’t matter if he retired early. It doesn’t matter if he wasn’t at his best at the last World Cup and it doesn’t matter if he loves golf more than football (allegedly).
What matters is talent.
On his day, and in his generation, the only two other players who could grab a game and win it all on their own were two of the greatest of all time, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Bale was capable of majestic, powerful, skilful, unflinching, inspirational football.
He carried the game in Wales from a laughing stock to the pride of Britain at Euro 2016 and to a first World Cup in 64 years in 2022.
Maybe it was all too fleeting, I don’t care. Unless you reached those incredible heights you can’t get into the conversation with Gareth. He was The Best.
Bobby Charlton
ENGLAND, 1958-1970
Appearances: 106
Goals: 59
By Jeremy Kyle
WITH a thunderbolt shot, exquisite, slide-rule passes and raw athleticism, Sir Bobby was the complete footballer.
And Bobby won it all. The World Cup, the European Cup, three First Division titles and the FA Cup.
Not only that but he was a consummate gentleman who played the game with a British sense of fair play.
No backchat to referees or disrespect for opponents.
Can you imagine Bobby – a survivor of the Munich air disaster – rolling around feigning an injury?
In that glorious summer of ’66 Bobby scored three goals on the way to the final before winning the Ballon d’Or as Europe’s best footballer.
As his Man Utd manager Sir Matt Busby said: “He was as near perfection as man and player as it is possible to be.”
Jimmy Greaves
ENGLAND, 1959-1967
Appearances: 57
Goals: 44
By Arthur Edwards
JIMMY was a goal-scoring genius. The hat-trick king.
No other player excited me like Greavsie. At Tottenham I’d watch him dribble through the defence before scoring the most incredible goals.
Lionel Messi does it now but Greavsie was playing on pitches that were a sea of mud. He scored an incredible 266 goals for Spurs.
I have watched Gareth Bale, Gazza and Bobby Moore, but Jimmy, although he was only 5ft 8in, stood head and shoulders above them.
When I started covering West Ham’s matches I switched allegiance.
Jimmy joined The Hammers and, as he did at every club he joined, he scored on his debut – two goals in a 5-1 victory at Man City.
Despite him not being in that amazing ’66 World Cup team, to me he was Britain’s greatest footballer.
Bobby Moore
ENGLAND, 1962-1973
Appearances: 108
Goals: 2
By Karren Brady
WIPING the mud from his hand like a true gent, Bobby Moore accepted the Jules Rimet Trophy from a delighted Queen, the only Brit ever to do it.
But it’s not just that trophy that makes Bobby the greatest.
He was the ultimate defender – a fantastic tackler who was brilliant in the air and who glided over the turf as he began an attack. His reading of the game was astonishing, too.
Bobby was also a captain and leader who inspired the players around him to greater heights.
Don’t just take it from me. Pele called him the greatest defender he’d ever played against.
Ex-West Germany captain Franz Beckenbauer described Bobby as “the best defender in the history of the game”, while Sir Alex Ferguson called him “the best defender I have ever seen”.
Alan Shearer
ENGLAND, 1992-2000
Appearances: 63
Goals: 30
By Ken Gibson
AS a Geordie, I have to go with my local hero.
For me, and thousands of Toon fans, Shearer was the greatest, a supreme striker who terrorised the best defenders in the world.
The Premier League’s top scorer, he could score with left or right foot and was brilliant with his head. He was also a great team player.
Shearer delivered at club and international level. His record was phenomenal over a long period of time.
He also had the perfect temperament. Fiercely competitive, he knew how to play right on the edge and bend the rules.
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I also loved the fact that he gave up the opportunity to win major medals with other clubs, preferring Newcastle.
Loyalty is also a key part of being Britain’s greatest footballer.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
