Franco Baresi was an Italian football player. He mainly played as a sweeper or as a central defender, and spent his entire 20-year career with Serie A club Milan, captaining the club for 15 seasons. He is considered one of the greatest defenders of all-time and was ranked 19th in World Soccer magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of the 20th century. With Milan, he won three UEFA Champions League titles, six Serie A titles, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, two European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.
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Franz Anton Beckenbauer is a German former professional footballer and manager. Early in his playing career he was nicknamed Der Kaiser ("The Emperor") because of his elegant style, dominance and leadership on the field, and also as his first name "Franz" is reminiscent of the Austrian emperors. He is widely regarded to be one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. A versatile player who started out as a midfielder, Beckenbauer made his name as a central defender. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper or libero.
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Laurent Robert Blanc is a French football manager and former player. He has the nickname Le Président, which was given to him following his stint at Marseille in tribute to his leadership skills.
Blanc played professional football for numerous clubs, including Montpellier, Napoli, Barcelona, Marseille, Inter Milan and Manchester United, often operating in the sweeper position. He is also a former French international, earning 97 caps and scoring 16 international goals. He represented the country in several international tournaments, including the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000, both of which France won. |
Marcos Evangelista de Morais, known as Cafú, played as a defender. With 142 appearances for the Brazil national team, he is the most internationally capped Brazilian player of all time. He represented his nation in four FIFA World Cups between 1994 and 2006, and is the only player to have appeared in three consecutive World Cup finals, winning the 1994 and 2002 editions of the tournament, the latter as his team's captain where he lifted the World Cup trophy. With Brazil, he also took part in four editions of the Copa América, winning the title twice, in 1997 and 1999.
He is best known for his spells at São Paulo, Roma and Milan, teams with which he made history. |
Cannavaro is considered to be one of the greatest defenders of all time. He spent the majority of his career in Italy. He started his career at Napoli before spending seven years at Parma, with whom he won two Coppa Italia titles, the 1999 Supercoppa Italiana, and the 1999 UEFA Cup. After spells at Internazionale and Juventus, he transferred (along with manager Fabio Capello) from Juventus to Real Madrid in 2006, with whom he won consecutive La Liga titles in 2007 and 2008.
Cannavaro led Italy to victory in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, and was given the nickname "Il Muro di Berlino" ("The Berlin Wall") by the Italian supporters due to his defensive performances, which saw Italy keep five clean sheets and concede only two goals, neither of which were in open play. After that World Cup he won the Fifa Golden Ball. |
Carlos Alberto "Capita" Torres, also known as "O Capitão do Tri", was a Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the best defenders of all time. He captained the Brazil national team to victory in the 1970 World Cup, scoring the fourth goal in the final, considered one of the greatest goals in the history of the tournament.
Carlos Alberto was a member of the World Team of the 20th Century, and in 2004 was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. He was an inductee to the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame, and was a member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame. |
Gentile appeared for Italy in two World Cup tournaments, and played for the winning Italian team in the 1982 final. His club career was notably spent with Juventus for whom he made almost 300 league appearances, winning six national titles and two major European trophies.
A tough, strong, tenacious, ruthless, and uncompromising defender, Gentile was regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation, one of the toughest ever players in his position, and as one of the greatest Italian defenders of all time. |
Ronald Koeman was a composed player on the ball, he was capable of being deployed both as a defender and as a midfielder, and he frequently played as a sweeper, due to his vision and his ability on the ball. Regarded as one of the best and most prolific attacking central defenders of all time, Koeman was renowned for his long-range passing, as well as his shooting accuracy and power from distance, especially on free kicks, and is the top scoring defender in world football; he was also an accurate penalty kick taker.
At international level, Koeman was one of the stars of the Netherlands national team, alongside Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Dennis Bergkamp. During his career with the Netherlands, Koeman won UEFA Euro 1988 and played at the 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups, captaining the team at the latter. |
Rudolf ("Ruud") Jozef Krol is a Dutch retired footballer who was capped 83 times for his native country. Most of his career he played for his home town club, Ajax, and he became a coach after retirement. Regarded as one of the best defenders of all time, Krol mainly played as a sweeper or left-back, however he could play anywhere across the back line, or in midfield as a defensive midfielder, due to his range of passing with both feet, temperament, tactical intelligence, and ability to start attacking plays after winning back the ball.
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Paolo Cesare Maldini played as a left back and central defender for A.C. Milan and the Italy national team, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders ever, and as one of the greatest players of all TIME. He spent all 25 seasons of his career in the Serie A with Milan, before retiring at the age of 41 in 2009. He won 26 trophies with Milan: the UEFA Champions League five times, seven Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia, five Supercoppa Italiana titles, five European Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.
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Robert Frederick Chelsea Moore was an English professional footballer. He most notably played for West Ham United, captaining the club for more than ten years, and was the captain of the England national team that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time, and was cited by Pelé as the greatest defender that he had ever played against.
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Widely considered to be one of the best centre backs of his time and also as one of the greatest defenders ever, he was best known for his pace, artistic tackles, elegance on the ball, distribution and tight marking of opponents. He made over 400 Serie A appearances in a 20-year career spread between Lazio and Milan, winning domestic and European honours with both clubs as well as playing in Major League Soccer (MLS) for the Montreal Impact.
Nesta is a four-time Serie A Defender of the Year and a four-time member of the annual UEFA Team of the Year. In 2004, he was named as one of the Top 100 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA's 100th anniversary celebration. |
Daniel Alberto Passarella is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a centre back. He was captain of the Argentina team that won the 1978 World Cup.
Considered one of the greatest defenders of all time, Passarella was also a proficient goalscorer; at one point he was football's top scoring defender, with 134 goals in 451 matches, a record subsequently broken by Dutch defender Ronald Koeman. In 2004, Passarella was named one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony. |
Carles Puyol Saforcada is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played his entire career for Barcelona. Mainly a central defender, he could also play on either flank, mostly as a right-back, and is regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation.
He was Barcelona's captain from August 2004 until his retirement in 2014, and appeared in 593 competitive matches for the club. He won 20 major titles, including six La Liga trophies and three Champions League titles. |
Sergio Ramos García is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for and captains both Real Madrid and the Spain national team as a centre back. He can also play as a right back.
After emerging through Sevilla's youth academy, Ramos moved to Madrid in the summer of 2005. Since then, he has gone on to become a mainstay for Real Madrid where he has won 20 major honours and developed into one of La Liga's top scorers from a defensive position. Those honours include: four La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles. He played a crucial part in the build up to all four UEFA Champions League titles, being named to the UEFA Squad of the Season each time. He also notably scored the equalizer in the 93rd minute of the 2013–14 final. |
Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha, more commonly known simply as Roberto Carlos, is a Brazilian retired professional footballer. He started his career in Brazil as a forward but spent most of his career as a left back and has been described as the "most offensive-minded left-back in the history of the game". Carlos is also widely considered one of the best left backs in history.
At club level, he joined Real Madrid in 1996 where he spent 11 highly successful seasons, playing 584 matches in all competitions and scoring 71 goals. At Real, he won four La Liga titles and the UEFA Champions League three times. He played in three World Cups, helping the team reach the final in 1998 in France, and win the 2002 tournament in Korea/Japan. He was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team in 1998 and 2002. With 125 caps he has made the second most appearances for his national team. |