Football has changed dramatically across generations, and perhaps no position illustrates that evolution better than the winger.
The traditional winger was expected to stay wide, beat a full-back and deliver crosses. Modern wide forwards are often goalscorers first, creators second and touchline wingers only when the situation demands it.
That makes comparing players from different eras incredibly difficult.
For this ranking, we have used a broad definition of the position. A player qualifies if he spent a significant part of his prime operating from either flank, even if he later evolved into a central forward or playmaker.
Peak ability, longevity, individual quality, performances on the biggest stage, trophies and overall influence on football have all been considered.
Here are Beyond the Pitch’s 20 greatest wingers in football history.
20. Jimmy Johnstone
A Celtic icon and one of the great entertainers of British football.
Small, explosive and extraordinarily difficult to dispossess, Johnstone could torment defenders with rapid changes of direction and fearless one-on-one play.
His reputation may not carry the same global weight as some modern superstars, but within his era, few wide players were more feared.
19. Tom Finney
Before modern wide forwards existed, Tom Finney demonstrated just how complete a wide attacker could be.
He possessed acceleration, balance, intelligence and outstanding technical quality, while being comfortable operating on either wing or through the middle.
Finney’s greatness was not built around highlight reels or huge scoring numbers. It came from his remarkable versatility and influence over matches.
18. Sadio Mané
At his best, Sadio Mané represented almost everything the modern winger had become.
Explosive without the ball, devastating with it and exceptionally intelligent in transition, he could score like a striker while still providing the pressing intensity demanded from an elite wide forward.
His peak at Liverpool helped redefine the role of the left-sided attacker in a high-pressing system.
17. John Barnes
Few English wingers have ever combined physical power and technical elegance as naturally as John Barnes.
During his peak, he was much more than a touchline dribbler. Barnes could carry the ball through midfield, create chances, score goals and dictate attacks from wide areas.
His combination of strength, balance and close control made him one of the most complete attacking players of his generation.
16. Dragan Džajić
One of the greatest European wingers many younger fans have never properly seen.
Džajić was a magnificent left winger with graceful dribbling, superb crossing and a devastating left foot.
He also came remarkably close to winning the 1968 Ballon d’Or, finishing behind George Best in a year that demonstrated just how highly he was regarded across Europe.
15. Eden Hazard
Peak Eden Hazard was almost impossible to defend.
He did not overwhelm opponents through raw speed alone. His greatest weapon was his ability to manipulate defenders with balance, body movement and extraordinary close control.
Hazard could receive the ball under pressure, eliminate two defenders and suddenly transform a harmless possession into a dangerous attack.
His absolute peak was shorter than many names above him, but the level he reached deserves a place among the greats.
14. Ryan Giggs
Longevity matters, and few elite wingers can compete with Ryan Giggs in that category.
The teenage Giggs was a direct, lightning-fast dribbler who attacked defenders relentlessly. As he aged, he gradually became a more controlled creator capable of influencing matches through intelligence rather than pure acceleration.
That ability to reinvent himself helped him remain important at the highest level for an extraordinary amount of time.
13. Franck Ribéry
Ribéry was chaos with a football at his feet.
Aggressive, unpredictable and constantly looking to attack his defender, the Frenchman could create chances from nothing while contributing goals of his own.
His partnership with Arjen Robben became one of the defining features of Bayern Munich’s greatest modern teams.
At his peak, Ribéry was not simply one of the world’s best wingers. He was one of the world’s best players, regardless of position.
12. Arjen Robben
Everyone knew what Arjen Robben wanted to do.
Almost nobody could stop him.
Starting on the right, accelerating inside onto his left foot and curling the ball towards the far corner became one of football’s most recognizable attacking patterns.
The predictability somehow made Robben even more impressive. Defenders knew exactly what was coming, prepared specifically for it, and still repeatedly failed to prevent it.
Few players have ever perfected one attacking weapon so completely.
11. Paco Gento
Pure speed has terrified defenders for generations, and Paco Gento was one of football’s original masters of it.
The Real Madrid legend operated from the left and became an essential component of one of the most dominant teams football has ever seen.
Gento made 600 competitive appearances for Real Madrid, scored 182 goals and won six European Cups.
His legacy goes far beyond numbers. He helped establish the template for the devastating, high-speed left winger.
10. Stanley Matthews
The first winner of the Ballon d’Or was a winger.
Stanley Matthews built his reputation around remarkable dribbling, professionalism and longevity. Even deep into his career, defenders struggled with his ability to change direction and accelerate past them.
He won the inaugural Ballon d’Or in 1956, a remarkable achievement for a player already in his forties.
Modern football owes more to pioneers like Matthews than is sometimes remembered.
9. Jairzinho
Jairzinho brought a different type of threat from the wing.
Powerful, direct and extremely dangerous in front of goal, the Brazilian could attack from wide positions before driving into areas normally occupied by centre-forwards.
He perfectly represented the attacking freedom of one of Brazil’s greatest generations.
Unlike the classic winger whose primary responsibility was creating chances, Jairzinho could finish moves just as effectively as he started them.
![Jairzinho, O Furacão [Goals & Skills]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w5__lsTL5n0/maxresdefault.jpg)
8. Luis Figo
Figo rarely needed extraordinary athleticism to dominate a defender.
His intelligence, technique, crossing and ability to manipulate space allowed him to control the right flank.
He could beat opponents outside, cut into central areas or simply wait for the perfect moment to deliver the final pass.
Figo’s peak eventually earned him the 2000 Ballon d’Or and established him as one of the defining wide players of his generation.
7. Mohamed Salah
At some point, Mohamed Salah stopped being merely one of the greatest Premier League wingers and entered the all-time conversation.
His transformation at Liverpool produced one of the most prolific wide forwards football has ever seen.
Salah combines the movement of a striker with the starting position of a winger. He attacks the space between full-back and centre-back, arrives inside the penalty area and consistently produces goals from positions previous generations of wingers rarely occupied.
By the 2025/26 season, Salah had become the first African player to reach 50 Champions League goals.
His longevity at elite scoring levels pushes him above several more aesthetically celebrated wingers.
6. Neymar
Talent alone could place Neymar even higher.
At his best, he possessed virtually everything you could want from a left-sided attacker: acceleration, imagination, passing, finishing, combination play and arguably the greatest one-on-one dribbling ability of his generation outside Lionel Messi.
He could entertain without sacrificing productivity.
What keeps Neymar outside the Top 5 is not ability. It is the feeling that injuries and circumstances prevented us from seeing quite as many years of his absolute peak as his talent deserved.
Peak Neymar, however, could stand beside almost anyone on this list.
5. Ronaldinho
There have been more productive players.
There have been players with longer peaks.
There may never have been another footballer who made dominating world-class opponents look quite as joyful as Ronaldinho.
From the left side, he could dribble, create, shoot, improvise and completely change the emotional atmosphere of a match.
At his absolute best, Ronaldinho played football with a level of freedom that seemed almost impossible at elite level.
His peak was relatively brief compared with Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but few peaks have ever been more unforgettable.
4. George Best
George Best was decades ahead of his time.
He possessed the dribbling ability of a traditional winger, the finishing of a forward and the freedom to appear virtually anywhere across the attack.
Best could glide past defenders on terrible pitches while absorbing challenges that would produce immediate cards in the modern game.
In 1968, after helping Manchester United conquer Europe, he won the Ballon d’Or at just 22.
At his peak, Best was not simply the world’s greatest winger.
He had a legitimate claim to being the world’s greatest footballer.
3. Garrincha
If this ranking were based purely on the art of wing play, Garrincha might be No.1.
The Brazilian turned one-on-one situations into theatre.
Defenders often knew he would attempt to beat them. Then beat them again. Then occasionally wait for them to recover simply so he could do it once more.
But Garrincha was far more than an entertainer.
He became one of Brazil’s defining figures and produced one of the great individual World Cup performances in 1962.
As a pure right winger, there may never have been anyone better.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo
The Cristiano Ronaldo who arrived at Manchester United was a winger obsessed with tricks.
The Cristiano Ronaldo who left England had become one of the most devastating attacking players football had ever seen.
That transformation continued at Real Madrid.
Ronaldo gradually moved closer to goal, reduced unnecessary touches and turned himself from an explosive winger into a historic goalscorer.
Yet much of his prime still began from the left.
Few wide players have ever combined acceleration, aerial ability, long-range shooting, off-ball movement and ruthless finishing at anything approaching Ronaldo’s level.
If the definition were restricted strictly to traditional wingers, he would rank lower.
If wide forwards are included, leaving him outside the Top 2 becomes almost impossible.
1. Lionel Messi
The greatest winger in football history is also arguably the greatest footballer in football history.
Young Lionel Messi was primarily a right-sided attacker.
He would receive the ball near the touchline, accelerate diagonally towards goal and somehow maintain complete control even while defenders surrounded him.
Eventually, Messi evolved.
He became a false nine, a playmaker and later an almost positionless attacking conductor.
But the winger version never completely disappeared.
No other player on this list combines Messi’s dribbling, chance creation, goalscoring, vision and ability to control an entire match.
Garrincha may have been the purer winger.
Cristiano Ronaldo eventually became the greater penalty-box weapon.
Ronaldinho may have been the greater entertainer.
But Messi combined almost every quality associated with the position while reaching a level of overall footballing influence that nobody else here could consistently match.
That makes him our No.1.
The Full Ranking
- Lionel Messi
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Garrincha
- George Best
- Ronaldinho
- Neymar
- Mohamed Salah
- Luis Figo
- Jairzinho
- Stanley Matthews
- Paco Gento
- Arjen Robben
- Franck Ribéry
- Ryan Giggs
- Eden Hazard
- Dragan Džajić
- John Barnes
- Sadio Mané
- Tom Finney
- Jimmy Johnstone
Who Did We Miss?
Thierry Henry? Roberto Rivelino? David Beckham? Robert Pirès? Gareth Bale?
The answer depends heavily on how strictly we define the word “winger”.
And that is exactly why ranking the greatest wide players in football history will never produce one universally accepted list.
But one thing is certain.
From Matthews and Garrincha hugging the touchline to Messi and Ronaldo attacking the penalty area, the winger has evolved enormously.
The methods changed.
The objective never did.
Get the ball. Face the defender. Create something.
