Lionel Messi
Michel Platini
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Lionel Messi leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Lionel Messi at #1 and Michel Platini at #11.
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The case for Lionel Messi
The most complete statistical résumé the sport has produced, attached to its most aesthetically singular player. Messi holds the records for Ballons d'Or (8), goals for a single club (672 for Barcelona in 778 games), goals in a calendar year (91 in 2012), and assists in La Liga history, alongside 850+ career goals and 380+ assists as of the 2024-25 season — meaning he has been the best passer and the best scorer of his era simultaneously. He won four Champions Leagues and ten La Liga titles with Barcelona, anchoring the 2009 sextuple side and the 2011 team many rate the best in club history. The old asterisk — nothing with Argentina — was demolished by the 2021 Copa América, the 2022 World Cup, where his 7 goals and second Golden Ball made him the first player to win the award twice, and the 2024 Copa América. With 45+ senior trophies, he is also the most decorated player ever. Peak, longevity, achievement, influence: he leads on every axis but pure goal volume.
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.