The ten best footballers of the last decade

We continue with our special edition of our anniversary and this time we review those that in our opinion have been the best of the decade.

These have undoubtedly been the Top 10 players in the last 10 years:

Despite the fact that it has been out of place for a couple of seasons, you have to recognize everything that Bale did until then. He led Tottenham to the quarterfinals of the Champions League and then helped Real Madrid win countless titles. His goals in finals against Barcelona in the Cup (2-1), Atlético de Madrid (4-1) and Liverpool (3-1) in the Champions League are the history of the club. He paints that he will retire this summer, but there he has left his legacy.

Florentino signed him very young from Lyon in 2009, hoping he would be a galactic who would make club history. He was not wrong. Benzema is the foreigner with the most games ever at Real Madrid, one of the captains and for 3 seasons, the best player and scorer of the club. He has also returned to France after almost 6 years and is together with Mbappé his great star. In between he has won 4 Champions, 3 leagues and has placed 4th on the list of top scorers in the history of the white club and the Champions League. Little thing…

Pure magic. That is the most accurate and simple definition of Andrés Iniesta. A player who forever changed the history of Barcelona and the Spanish team and is in the top3 of both teams without a doubt. Throughout the decade he did not get tired of leaving details of his class and winning titles, until he became the second most in the Barcelona shirt. Nor can we forget his key role in the European Championship won by the national team at the beginning of this decade.

Kanté is a player who could be even higher if we reduced the time range to the last five years. He started the decade in Ligue 2 but his rise was meteoric. Leicester, who made the league champion in one of the milestones in football history, Chelsea, who made the first league and European champion this season, and the French team, with which they won the World Cup. In all of them being indisputable and essential. A player who changes games without making any noise. He has been voted the best player in the Premier League twice. A scandal.

The truth is that the decade of Luis Suárez has been manual. He started it at Liverpool recently signed from Ajax. There he won a Golden Boot and was about to give them back the Premier 24 years later. He went to Barcelona and broke all the scoring records … removing Messi. As a Barça player he won the triplet the first year and in total he won 1 Champions League, 4 leagues and 4 King’s Cups. He left the summer of 2020 as a legend to Atlético de Madrid … and he was the decisive man for Simeone’s team to win an incredible league, 7 years after the previous one. His decade is worth studying. Team that Luis Suárez goes to, a team that changes completely and for the better.

This 2021 is being an ordeal for Sergio Ramos. Mind you, the previous 10 years have made him a soccer legend. Well, the previous 17 that he has been a professional. Captain of the national team and of Real Madrid after the departure of Casillas, he was the hero of La Décima with a historic goal in the 93rd minute. Then he lifted the 3 Champions League in a row by Zidane as white captain. He has also won 3 leagues, two Copas del Rey and a European Championship with the Spanish team. He is one of the best defenders in history, the player with the most games ever in the national team and the third of all time (180). A legend.

“40 million to cover shame”, “Song will be more important for Barcelona than Modric for Real Madrid” … these were some of the omens when the whites took him away from Tottenham in 2012. Nothing could be further from the truth. His first year was diesel, but he finished full and from the second he became the brain of Real Madrid. He changed the history of the club and has formed together with Kroos and Casemiro the best midfield ever in this team. In addition, in 2018 he led Croatia to the World Cup final and won a historic Ballon d’Or. He is going to renew one more season and will play at the New Bernabéu at the age of 38. Of course, he has also won the 4 Champions League, 3 leagues and 2 King’s Cups of the whites in this decade. Total player.

If Robert Lewandowski has not won the Ballon d’Or it is still a matter of mere bad luck. Last year it was his and this is the big favorite to win it. He started the decade at Klopp’s Borussia and won the league. He showed himself to the world as a lethal scorer, with an unforgettable poker game against Real Madrid in the semifinals in 2013 (4-1). A year later he signed for Bayern and there his legend has become eternal. He is the great world scorer without a doubt for a couple of seasons and one of the best ‘9’ in history. He is already the third highest scorer in the history of the Champions League, a competition he won in 2020 and of which he is already the third highest scorer in history. To this we must add 8 Bundesligas, 1 Borusser and 7 with Bayern. Lethal.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s decade has been a period. Together with Lionel Messi he has achieved the greatest two-player rivalry in football history. Everything changed at Real Madrid. Nine years in which he became the best player in his history and his best scorer, with 450 goals in as many games. He is Mister Champions and has won 5 in total, the second most of all time. He is the top scorer in the competition with 139 goals. Also of national team football, with 111 in total. The second who has played the most games after the Egyptian Alhi. He has also won 3 leagues and two Serie A, with Juventus, and continues to make history at United. Unforgettable his Euro Cup with Portugal and the first Nations League in history, against the Netherlands. Finally, remember that in this decade he has won no less than 4 Ballons d’Or. An alien.

The best player in history was obviously going to be the best player of the decade. He started it big, with a whopping 50 league goals and 91 in 2012 to remember. In Barcelona, ​​in these years he has won 7 leagues, 6 Cups and 1 Champions League to become the player with the most goals, the most games and the most titles in his history. No one in the history of football changed so much or was so decisive in any club. 6 Pichichi Trophies, 6 Golden Boots and of course, the unforgettable 4 Ballon d’Ors of this decade for a total of 6, which could be 7 in a couple of months. He had a bad time with Argentina after losing the final of the 2014 World Cup and the two finals of the Copa América in 2015 and 2016, but this summer he finally achieved the long-awaited Cup against Brazil and in Maracana. Unquestionably, Lionel Messi is the king of this list.