Top 10 best footballers of the 1980s

The 1980s was an era when defenders could dish out far more savage retribution than they are able today, leaving attacking-minded players of yesteryear to run the gauntlet. Despite the added danger, it is the more attacking and creative players that dominate the rankings.

The players within the list are some of the most elegant and clinical to have played the game. It will come as no surprise that Diego Maradona tops the rankings, but who else joins him? With all that in mind, here are the 10 greatest players of the 1980s, ranked.

10. Michael Laudrup

The Dane went on to become a great of the game in 1990s during his time at Barcelona and Real Madrid, with Franz Beckenbauer being quoted that Michael Laudrup was the best player of the 1990s. As a key part of the Denmark team in the 1986 World Cup which were so easy on the eye, Laudrup also won Serie A and the Club World Championship with Juventus in 1985. A player who made the game look so easy, who is perhaps not as well appreciated as he should be.

9. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

By the time the 1980s arrived, West German striker Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had already won back-to-back European Cups for Bayern Munich, but it was in the eighties when he truly asserted himself on the international stage as one of West Germany’s leading lights, firstly by being a vital part of the national team that won Euro ’80, then being named winner of the Ballon d’Or for two years in a row in 1980 and 1981.

Despite reaching consecutive finals in Spain in 1982 and in Mexico in 1986, a game in which he scored in, a World Cup winners medal remained elusive. After 10 successful years spent with Bayern, he left in 1984 for Inter Milan. Injuries hampered him towards the end of his career, but his consistency at the top level, and for what he achieved, edges him past his compatriot Lothar Matthaus – his finest hour was in the 1990 World Cup.

8. Kenny Dalglish

Liverpool were aleady well established title winners with a European Cup to their name, when 26-year-old Kenny Dalglish joined the club from Celtic in 1977. Dalglish scored the only goal of the 1978 European Cup Final against Club Brugge at Wembley. Throughout the 1980s he played a leading role in enabling them to win the competition twice more, against Real Madrid, in 1981 and in Rome on penalties against Roma in 1984 and was a key part of the Liverpool side that won five English titles in the 1980s, including the league and domestic cup double in 1986, a season by which time the Scot was player-manager of the club. Not only was he one of Scotland’s finest players, but he also ranks among the very best of the British.

7. Paolo Rossi

Paolo Rossi will forever be remembered for winning the Golden Boot at the 1982 World Cup. Those six goals inspired Italy to win the tournament, with a famous hat trick against a much-fancied Brazilian team, then the opening goal in the final against the West Germans. Quick and nimble, he also excelled for Juventus, the dominant force in the first half of the decade in Italian football, winning two Serie A titles and the 1985 European Cup. While it could be argued he did not deliver as other attacking players on this list as consistently and for as long as Rummenigge, it’s his achievements on greatest stage, at a time when the World Cup Final far surpassed the European Cup, is what really was that Rossi earns him his place in the rankings.

6. Zico

Zico played during an era when South Americans didn’t move instantly to Europe. Without TV coverage of foreign leagues, let alone the internet, the World Cup was the time fans could witness these unknown superstars and Zico certainly had that quality, being a key part of the Brazil 1982 team so many expected to win the World Cup.

While Zico’s career wasn’t filled with as many trophies as some on this list, it’s what he represented at the time, a free-kick specialist in that special yellow Brazil shirt. If anyone doubted his ability they need only dig out his performance from footage of the 1981 Intercontinental Cup (match played in Tokyo between the South American and European champions), when Zico helped Flamengo tear Liverpool to shreds in a three-nil win.

5. Socrates

Only in the 1980s could you have a qualified physician playing professional football, who was also fond of a cigarette or two. Wonderfully elegant and graceful, with seemingly endless time on the ball, Socrates was captain of the great Brazilian team at the 1982 World Cup, which along with the Dutch teams of the 1970s, remains one of the greatest and most popular international sides to have not won the World Cup.

Socrates only played a single season in Europe for Fiorentina, and he’s extremely low on honours compared to all others on this list. But he perfectly encapsulates the wonder of the decade when it came to international tournaments and witnessing such players for the first time. Some of his goals and performances in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups – which ensure his place on the rankings alone – resemble a Brazilian style of play that seems to have been lost forever.

4. Marco van Basten

There’s a very strong argument to say Marco van Basten scored the greatest volley seen in a final of all time in the final of Euro ’88. Not to say this goal of such quality was a fluke – he amassed a catalogue of wonderful finishes for Ajax before AC Milan bought him in 1987. The Italians hadn’t won the Serie A title since 1978, but van Basten scored goals late in the season to bring success and the title back to San Siro, with the following season seeing the Dutchman score two in the European Cup Final in a four-nil rout over Steaua Bucharest, having destroyed Real Madrid five-nil in the second leg of the semi-final and scoring a spectacular header. His spectacular volley against the Soviet Union in the Euro ’88 final is probably what he is most recognised for, helping the Dutch finally win an international tournament.

3. Rudd Gullit

With his distinctive dreadlocks and moustache, Ruud Gullit was the charismatic and instantly recognisable skipper of the Dutch national team that put the disappointment of losing back-to-back World Cup Finals of 1974 and 1978 to bed, with a famous victory at Euro 88. Wonderfully athletic and incredibly versatile, Gullit had the ability to play sweeper, in midfield or up front or on the wing.

He opened the scoring in the Euro ’88 final victory over the Soviet Union with a bullet header. Remembered alongside his Dutch counterparts van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, who were a vital part of the all-conquering AC Milan team, Gullit was simply an irresistible sight when in full flow. He is certainly one of his nation’s greatest footballing exports.

2. Michel Platini

Michel Platini’s performance in the semi-final of Euro ’84 in Paris inspired some of John Motson’s most breathless and memorable commentary. The Frenchman was instrumental in his nation’s win in that tournament, finishing top scorer with nine goals. While the World Cup remained elusive, with semi-final defeats to West Germany in both the 1982 and 1986 finals, Platini’s contribution to club football was even more impressive. After inspiring St Etienne to the French title in 1981, he was sold to Juventus where he won multiple honours, including three Ballon d’Ors on the trot between 1983 and 1985. A creative attacking midfielder with vision, he was also a prolific and regular goalscorer who retired in 1987 at only 32.

1. Diego Maradona

It will come as little surprise to see Diego Maradona topping the list, although it was the latter half of the decade that the diminutive Argentine genius cemented his place in football folklore. For the first half of the 1980s, many of his more memorable moments were synonymous with controversy and violence – sent off for a stamp against Brazil in the 1982 World Cup and while in a Barcelona shirt, at the centre of a riot at the end of the 1984 Copa del Rey final. Barcelona was never really the ideal home for him that many felt it should have been, but when he moved to Napoli everything clicked in a city that continues to idolise him, during a time when Serie A was the toughest and best division in the world, but at a club that had never won the title.

By the end of the decade, Maradona had inspired them to two Serie A crowns. Of course, his finest hour came in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, as his country’s captain, with his second goal in the quarter-final against England being described by some as the goal of the century, was followed by both Argentina’s goals in the semi-final against Belgium, before playing the through ball seven minutes before the final whistle that won the tournament. There are many that do not agree that Maradona was the best player of the 1980s, for they see him as the best of all time.

Source: GiveMeSport