Cristiano Ronaldo
Michel Platini
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Cristiano Ronaldo leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Cristiano Ronaldo at #4 and Michel Platini at #11.
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The case for Cristiano Ronaldo
The greatest accumulator in the history of the sport, and its most relentless big-stage scorer. Ronaldo passed 900 career goals in September 2024 and has continued adding to a total no player has approached; he owns the Champions League records for goals (140) and titles among modern forwards (5, one with Manchester United and four with Real Madrid, including the 2016-18 three-peat in which he was top scorer every season), and the all-time international record with 135+ goals in 215+ appearances for Portugal, whom he led to Euro 2016 and two Nations League titles (2019, 2025). He won league championships in England, Spain and Italy and the Ballon d'Or five times, finishing second to Messi in the award more often than anyone. The case against him is the case for him inverted: less a creator or orchestrator than a finishing machine of unmatched consistency, whose remade body and self-management extended a world-class peak from age 21 to nearly 40. On durability and output, he has no rival on this list.
The case for Michel Platini
The most dominant individual run of the 1980s: three consecutive Ballons d'Or from 1983 to 1985, a feat matched only by Messi and Cruyff at the time. An attacking midfielder with a striker's instinct for arriving late in the box, sublime vision and dead-ball mastery, Platini was the creative fulcrum of a golden French generation and of Juventus, whom he led to the 1985 European Cup — the trophy forever marked by the Heysel disaster that preceded it. His defining team achievement was Euro 1984 on home soil, where he scored an astonishing nine goals in just five matches, including two hat-tricks, a scoring feat at a major tournament never remotely approached. He finished with three Serie A top-scorer titles, around 350 career goals, and 41 in 72 for France, redefining what a midfielder could contribute to the scoresheet. His later career as a disgraced UEFA administrator clouds the legacy off the pitch, but on it he was, for three years, simply the best player in the world.