10 Best Footballers of the 2020s so far (Ranked)

The 2020s have seen the next generation of footballing greats emerge following a decade of dominance from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Rewind back to the beginning of 2020: VAR’s inception into the Premier League had only just begun, the concept of having to play entire seasons in empty stadiums sounded like a dystopian horror story and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool appeared the everlasting dominant force of European football.

In the four years that have passed since the turn of the decade, football, like the wider world around it, has undergone humungous changes with more appearing on the horizon. Nonetheless, as we approach the middle of a decade that’s seen rapid societal and football change, there have been several world-class talents that have emerged from obscurity to global prominence, while a number of legends of the game have continued their fine from the 2010s and taken it into the 2020s.

But who has been the greatest? Throughout the 2010s, it was almost impossible to answer anything other than the era-defining ‘Lionel Messi’ or ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’, but as we sit here in 2024, the ‘greatest player’ debate is shared among far more hopeful candidates. So, as we look to crown the greatest player of the 2020s (so far), GIVEMESPORT has proposed the following criteria to judge each of their first four years of the decade.

10. Cristiano Ronaldo

It’s been over 20 years since a skinny, teenage Cristiano Ronaldo first lit up the pitches of the Premier League with his unmistakable quick feet and, incredibly, the Portuguese superstar has still been delivering the goods throughout the 2020s.

The Real Madrid icon, who entered the decade already with five Champions League trophies and five Ballon d’Or awards, started the 2002s with Italian giants, Juventus. He scored a staggering 101 goals in 134 appearances in Turin, before making a sensational return to Manchester United in 2021.

Though his time at Old Trafford ended sourly, Ronaldo carried the weight of England’s biggest clubs on his shoulders during the 2021-22 season, scoring 18 goals in 30 appearances for a Manchester United side that relied on his goal tally just to finish in 6th place.

9. Luka Modric

At the start of the decade, despite having already got his hands on the Champions League on four occasions, many would’ve argued that Luka Modric had a weaker reputation in the game than his ‘El Classico’ rival midfielders, Xavi and Iniesta.

But the ageing Croatia and Real Madrid midfielder has only reinforced himself as one of the greatest midfielders of this century, if not history, with his composure, passing range, and experience helping Real Madrid to a further two Champions League titles.

The 38-year-old’s best moment of the 2020s occurred during the second leg of Real Madrid’s 2022 Champions League semi-final against Chelsea. Modric’s stunning 20-yard trivella pass landed perfectly on the boot of Rodrygo, who scored and sent Real Madrid to yet another European final.

8. Rodri

Rodri joined Manchester City at the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, and it’s been pretty plain-sailing for the Spanish defensive midfielder since stepping foot on English soil. Manchester City’s relentless winning machine has several cogs that make it tick, but Rodri is fundamental to the functioning of the entire operation.

Manchester City lost just two of the 53 games Rodri started in 2023, but tasted defeat in six of the 12 games the 27-year-old was missing from. With four Premier League titles and a Champions League, in which Rodri netted the winner, within the first four years of the decade, the Spaniard is well worth his spot at number eight in the list.

7. Harry Kane

Possibly the most dependable goalscorer in world football, Harry Kane continues to thrive through the 2020s. The English striker, who is only 47 goals shy of Alan Shearer’s all-time Premier League top scorer record, grew frustrated at Tottenham Hotspur’s failure to consistently compete for major trophies and made the move to serial Bundesliga winners, Bayern Munich.

Incredibly, despite Kane’s outstanding 36 goals in 32 Bundesliga appearances, the German superpower would lose out on the title for the first time in 11 years. Kane will have another chance for his first taste of glory at this summer’s UEFA European Championships with England, but the striker’s individual goal record solidifies him a place at number seven.

6. Mohamed Salah

The goals and silent leadership of Liverpool’s talisman, Mohamed Salah, took the six-time European champion within touching distance of an unprecedented quadruple in 2022. Ultimately, his side fell short; but that doesn’t diminish the legacy Mo Salah holds within English and world football.

The 2020 Premier League title winner has scored over 18 league goals in each of his last five seasons, and while he doesn’t elegantly display his Messi-esque dribbling abilities as regularly today, he is still always vital to Liverpool’s chances of winning silverware.

5. Vinicius Jr

While the likes of Ronaldo, Modric, Kane and Salah built their reputations in the 2010s and polished it during the 2020s, Vinicius Jr is one of the most exciting players to emerge this side of the turn of the decade. The Brazilian forward was riskily signed by Real Madrid for €46m as an 18-year-old in 2017, but has quickly gone on to become one of the most exciting talents in world football. Vinicius had to wait until the 2019-2020 season to reach 20 La Liga appearances, but his inclusion in the side coincided with Real Madrid’s return to European glory.

Vinicius Jr scored the winner in Real Madrid’s 1-0 win over Liverpool in the 2022 Champions League Final, netted in the 2024 showpiece at Wembley and already has three La Liga titles to his name. Watch out for his dancing feet and deadly finishing in the second half of the decade.

4. Kevin De Bruyne

Kevin De Bruyne’s passing, long-range shooting, and ability to, when required, save Manchester City from a rare defeat makes the Belgian attacking midfielder an obvious choice on our list. He’s been critical to Manchester City’s four Premier League titles and Champions League wins since the turn of the decade and will go down in history as one of the club’s greatest ever players.

Such is De Bruyne’s significance to Manchester City, the two-time PFA Player’s Player of the Year winner’s January 2024 return to fitness almost symbolically ended Arsenal and Liverpool’s brief period of 23/24 superiority over the Manchester club.

3. Lionel Messi

Had the dazzling former Barcelona forward retired at the end of 2019, he’d undoubtedly have gone down in history as one of the two or three greatest players to ever play the game, but one trophy eluded Lionel Messi: the FIFA World Cup.

At 34-years-of-age, an unrelenting, yet ageing Messi, operating in a slightly deeper role for his national team, Argentina, had one last chance to get his hands on the FIFA World Cup. After a string of awe-inspiring performances, where Messi’s dribbling skills, passing, and vision would constantly prove the difference in tight games, the Argentine legend finally won his first FIFA World Cup. Surely now solidified as the greatest player of all-time, but he’s also probably still been one of the top-performing players during the first half of the 2020s.

2. Kylian Mbappe

Already a FIFA World Cup winner and finalist scorer at 18, eclipsing his sensational teenage achievements was always going to be a challenge for Kylian Mbappe. But, despite ending up on the losing side of the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, Mbappe became the second player in history to score a hat-trick in the final of the prestigious tournament, and, at the age of just 23, holds the record number for total goals scored in FIFA World Cup final matches.

You get the impression that the extent to which Mbappe conquers club and international football over the next five years or so will determine whether history reflects on the French superstar as an iconic World Cup final goalscorer, or a true era-dominating all-time great. The Frenchman, despite reaching the final in 2021, is still yet to get his hands on the UEFA Champions League – a must if he wants to be remembered as one of the best in history.

1. Erling Haaland

The biggest star to emerge and the highest performer of the decade goes to Manchester City’s Erling Haaland. When Haaland scored a record-breaking nine goals in a U20 international match for Norway against Honduras in late 2019, whispers began to spread about the enormous potential of the 6’4″ striker.

Austrian club RB Leipzig would sign Haaland, where the Norweigian would score a ridiculous 29 goals in 27 games, alerting the interest of German giants, Borussia Dortmund. Haaland moved to Germany and quickly became regarded as the best striker in the world, finding the back of the net on 86 occasions in just 89 games.

Haaland’s outstanding goal-scoring form across the first two seasons of the decade made him the hottest property in world football. In 2022, Haaland signed for Premier League titleholders, Manchester City. The forward broke goal records once again, scoring 36 Premier League goals in his debut season with the Manchester club, as they marched on to a historic treble-winning campaign. So far, Haaland has scored 225 times in his 281 professional matches, and it’s frightening to think about what that figure may look like by the end of the 2020s.

Source: GiveMeSport