Soccer has the least information available of any of the sports Apples & Oranges is rating. This is true both in the sense that there is no comprehensive statistical record, and because what data is available is mostly limited to just two categories — games played and goals scored.

But I was determined not to leave out the world’s most popular sport, and worked to cobble together a workable formula that would put soccer players’ careers into the proper context with other athletes. I had established the precedent in American football to give players credit for their team success. In soccer, Apples & Oranges would rely on that concept even more. So, forwards get credit for the goals their teams score, defenders for the goals their teams prevent, and midfielders benefit from both.

Goal-scoring still dominates the rankings. All other things being equal, scoring more goals leads to a higher rating. That led to a secondary problem; as we know from studying advanced stats, high-scoring players score a lot of goals because they take a lot of shots … which means they miss a lot of shots, too. As with basketball, I needed a way to penalize a player for the effect his missed shots have on the team’s defense. But it proved impossible to isolate the effect a player’s shooting volume had on his team.

So I settled for an inelegant solution, which was to weigh the Offense 1 category (individual goal-scoring) at a 2-to-3 ratio with Offense 2 (team scoring). By blunting the effect of extremely high goal totals this way, it balanced the playmakers against the gunners. Pelé and similar volume-shooters are still way out in front, but now they’re not lapping the field. The Maradona/Dalglish types catch up a little bit.

Because of all this, forwards end up with defensive ratings of zero. If we had better data, their offensive ratings would be higher, and that would be balanced out by slightly negative defensive ratings.

Defense 1 is based on our established method of counting goals conceded at less than 1.5 times the league average. Goalies get full credit; defenders and midfielders get a piece of the team total. For extremely low-scoring leagues (like Serie A in the 1980s), this doesn’t leave quite enough margin, so Defense 2 is a bonus (for goalies and defenders only), based on team shutouts.

Lastly, post-Franz Beckenbauer sweepers, who functioned as playmakers as well as the last line of defense, benefit from all the team-based stats: team scoring, team goals prevented and team shutouts.

Picking which position a player played was fairly straightforward, except for the No. 10’s. Some are forwards, waiting for their teammates to win the ball for them; others (like Maradona, Zico, Cruijff, etc.) go into the midfield and win possession back themselves.

I didn’t count games from every league. I selected top-division and cup games from England, Scotland (through about 2005), Spain, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina, plus continental cups and all national-team games. For Brazil and Germany before a federally unified league began, I use the regional leagues.

Strikers	Games	Total	Per 160	Sqr Root	Sum		Off	Def
Pelé	680	114.59	26.96	10.70	37.67		53.93	0.00
Eusébio	532	88.49	26.61	9.41	36.02		53.05	0.00
Ferenc Puskás	355	56.66	25.54	7.53	33.06		49.57	0.00
Gerd Müller	625	86.01	22.02	9.27	31.29		44.04	0.00
Gunnar Nordahl	329	48.35	23.52	6.95	30.47		47.03	0.00
Romário	614	81.06	21.12	9.00	30.13		42.25	0.00
Ronaldo	569	75.46	21.22	8.69	29.91		42.44	0.00
Hugo Sánchez	499	66.49	21.32	8.15	29.47		42.64	0.00
Marco van Basten	425	56.85	21.40	7.54	28.94		42.80	0.00
Luigi Riva	379	51.54	21.76	7.18	28.94		43.51	0.00
Sándor Kocsis	196	28.28	23.09	5.32	28.40		46.17	0.00
Gabriel Batistuta	565	70.40	19.94	8.39	28.33		39.87	0.00
Just Fontaine	229	31.88	22.27	5.65	27.92		44.55	0.00
Tostão	364	46.98	20.65	6.85	27.50		41.30	0.00
Roberto Dinamite	392	48.62	19.84	6.96	26.82		39.69	0.00
Christian Vieri	442	53.49	19.36	7.31	26.68		38.73	0.00
Jimmy Greaves	653	73.66	18.05	8.58	26.63		36.10	0.00
Giuseppe Meazza	525	61.56	18.76	7.85	26.61		37.52	0.00
Fritz Walter	481	57.03	18.97	7.55	26.52		37.94	0.00
Telmo Zarra	372	45.09	19.39	6.71	26.11		38.79	0.00
Roberto Baggio	658	71.40	17.36	8.45	25.81		34.72	0.00
Thierry Henry	772	80.69	16.72	8.98	25.71		33.45	0.00
Didier Drogba	610	65.99	17.31	8.12	25.43		34.62	0.00
Dixie Dean	410	47.29	18.45	6.88	25.33		36.91	0.00
Raúl	917	90.31	15.76	9.50	25.26		31.51	0.00
Alan Shearer	788	80.08	16.26	8.95	25.21		32.52	0.00
Omar Sívori	416	47.56	18.29	6.90	25.19		36.59	0.00
Ian Rush	809	81.26	16.07	9.01	25.09		32.14	0.00
Samuel Eto’o	666	68.16	16.37	8.26	24.63		32.75	0.00
Mario Kempes	461	50.39	17.49	7.10	24.59		34.98	0.00
Alessandro Del Piero	752	74.87	15.93	8.65	24.58		31.86	0.00
Francesco Totti	839	80.45	15.34	8.97	24.31		30.68	0.00
Gary Lineker	519	54.81	16.90	7.40	24.30		33.79	0.00
Kenny Dalglish	925	85.62	14.81	9.25	24.06		29.62	0.00
Uwe Seeler	458	48.80	17.05	6.99	24.03		34.10	0.00
Hughie Gallacher	528	54.80	16.61	7.40	24.01		33.21	0.00
Vivian Woodward	159	19.43	19.55	4.41	23.96		39.10	0.00
Arsenio Erico	332	36.62	17.65	6.05	23.70		35.29	0.00
Wayne Rooney	793	74.52	15.04	8.63	23.67		30.07	0.00
Hristo Stoichkov	366	39.47	17.25	6.28	23.54		34.51	0.00
Silvio Piola	587	58.29	15.89	7.63	23.52		31.77	0.00
Steve Bloomer	612	60.09	15.71	7.75	23.46		31.42	0.00
Emilio Butragueño	524	52.95	16.17	7.28	23.44		32.33	0.00
Tommy Lawton	216	24.50	18.15	4.95	23.10		36.30	0.00
John Charles	294	31.93	17.38	5.65	23.03		34.35	0.40
Denis Law	573	55.48	15.49	7.45	22.94		30.99	0.00
Dennis Bergkamp	787	70.77	14.39	8.41	22.80		28.77	0.00
George Weah	532	51.75	15.56	7.19	22.76		31.13	0.00
Paolo Rossi	317	33.59	16.95	5.80	22.75		33.91	0.00
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	624	58.32	14.95	7.64	22.59		29.91	0.00
Rudi Völler	613	56.89	14.85	7.54	22.39		29.70	0.00
Jürgen Klinsmann	626	57.72	14.75	7.60	22.35		29.50	0.00
Nat Lofthouse	535	48.86	14.61	6.99	21.60		29.23	0.00
Eric Cantona	449	40.78	14.53	6.39	20.92		29.06	0.00
Vavá	279	26.86	15.40	5.18	20.59		30.80	0.00
Allan Simonsen	429	37.49	13.98	6.12	20.11		27.97	0.00
Kevin Keegan	602	48.76	12.96	6.98	19.94		25.92	0.00
José Manuel Moreno	406	33.33	13.13	5.77	18.91		26.27	0.00
Zizinho	463	36.81	12.72	6.07	18.79		25.44	0.00
Matthias Sindelar	325	27.21	13.40	5.22	18.61		26.79	0.00
Juan Alberto Schiaffino	469	34.33	11.71	5.86	17.57		22.29	1.13

Pelé has the third-highest offensive rating in any sport, behind a couple of NFL players, and is No. 2 overall, trailing only a Victorian Age cricketer who died in 1915. He is easily the greatest sportsman of the 20th Century.

That said, Eusébio came in pretty close. It’s a steep drop-off after him, though; even great goal-scorers find it difficulty to keep output high, year after year.

Rummenigge, Völler and Klinsmann finished with almost identical numbers; it’s like West Germany had an assembly line for strikers for 15 years. Another coincidence: Dennis Bergkamp was named after Denis Law and they ended up 0.14 points apart.

Wingers	Games	Total	Per 160	Sqr Root	Sum		Off	Def
Rivaldo	543	54.96	16.19	7.41	23.61		32.39	0.00
Jairzinho	329	34.70	16.88	5.89	22.77		33.75	0.00
Arjen Robben	698	61.34	21.89	7.83	21.89		28.12	0.00
George Best	523	43.03	13.16	6.56	19.72		26.35	0.00
Francisco Gento	649	50.66	12.49	7.12	19.61		24.98	0.00
Tom Finney	478	38.68	12.95	6.22	19.17		26.57	0.00
Ryan Giggs	854	60.07	11.25	7.75	19.00		21.39	1.12
Luís Figo	898	62.16	11.08	7.88	18.96		22.15	0.00
Zbigniew Boniek	303	25.74	13.59	5.07	18.67		27.19	0.00
Paulo Futre	437	33.65	12.32	5.80	18.12		24.64	0.00
Garrincha	384	28.97	12.07	5.38	17.45		24.14	0.00
Billy Meredith	599	30.94	8.26	5.56	13.83		16.53	0.00
Stanley Matthews	771	33.33	6.92	5.77	12.69		13.83	0.00
Billy Bassett	310	15.86	8.19	3.98	12.17		16.38	0.00

Wingers, as a group, are the most overrated of all athletes, especially Stan Mathews (who basically stopped scoring goals after World War II). They tend to have excellent dribbling skills, which get a lot of attention from the press and fans, but they are tactically peripheral figures with a limited ability to impact the game.

I treated them as forwards, even if they were nominally midfielders.

Midfielders	Games	Total	Per 160	Sqr Root	Sum		Off	Def
Johan Cruijff	618	88.12	22.81	9.39	32.20		38.81	6.82
Zico	402	59.30	23.60	7.70	31.30		41.96	5.25
Alfredo Di Stéfano	695	93.06	21.42	9.65	31.07		36.37	6.48
Michel Platini	620	80.73	20.83	8.98	29.82		35.92	5.75
Diego Maradona	676	85.15	20.15	9.23	29.38		35.20	5.11
Ronaldinho	681	73.08	17.17	8.55	25.72		28.54	5.93
Ruud Gullit	565	62.59	17.72	7.91	25.64		28.54	6.91
Frank Lampard	959	94.74	15.81	9.73	25.54		25.29	6.32
Sandro Mazzola	631	67.84	17.20	8.24	25.44		28.72	5.68
Sócrates	217	26.40	19.47	5.14	24.60		33.45	5.48
Enzo Francescoli	636	65.31	16.43	8.08	24.51		27.67	5.19
Gianni Rivera	735	72.10	15.70	8.49	24.19		25.70	5.69
Teófilo Cubillas	207	24.48	18.92	4.95	23.87		32.62	5.22
Paul Scholes	754	70.59	14.98	8.40	23.38		23.38	6.62
Steven Gerrard	819	75.25	14.70	8.67	23.38		22.99	6.41
Lothar Matthäus	888	79.72	14.36	8.93	23.29		21.87	6.85
Michael Ballack	627	60.72	15.49	7.79	23.29		24.62	6.36
Luis Suárez	616	59.86	15.55	7.74	23.28		25.27	5.82
Michael Laudrup	616	59.79	15.53	7.73	23.26		25.99	5.07
Mário Coluna	601	57.08	15.20	7.56	22.75		23.49	6.91
Pavel Nedvěd	605	57.36	15.17	7.57	22.74		25.34	5.00
Roberto Rivellino	386	39.58	16.41	6.29	22.70		22.70	6.13
Bobby Charlton	865	75.22	13.91	8.67	22.59		23.87	3.96
Zinedine Zidane	789	69.97	14.19	8.36	22.55		22.89	5.49
Andrés Iniesta	781	67.30	13.79	8.20	21.99		20.31	7.26
Xavi	878	73.23	13.34	8.56	21.90		19.81	6.88
Gérson	328	32.64	15.92	5.71	21.64		26.40	5.45
David Beckham	695	60.12	13.84	7.76	21.60		21.66	6.03
Didí	443	41.54	15.00	6.45	21.45		23.89	6.12
Frank Rijkaard	571	50.23	14.07	7.09	21.16		21.19	6.96
Nils Liedholm	415	38.59	14.88	6.21	21.09		24.61	5.15
Enzo Scifo	443	39.76	14.36	6.31	20.67		23.30	5.43
Xabi Alonso	790	61.12	12.38	7.82	20.20		18.12	6.64
Gheorghe Hagi	360	32.49	14.44	5.70	20.14		23.95	4.93
Gunnar Gren	274	25.76	15.04	5.08	20.12		25.04	5.04
Roy Keane	695	53.57	12.33	7.32	19.65		18.61	6.06
Paul Gascoigne	504	41.57	13.20	6.45	19.64		21.42	4.97
Graeme Souness	716	54.52	12.18	7.38	19.57		17.51	6.86
Raymond Kopa	545	43.65	12.81	6.61	19.42		21.65	3.97
Wolfgang Overath	620	48.12	12.42	6.94	19.35		19.42	5.42
Paul Breitner	533	41.55	12.47	6.45	18.92		18.24	6.70
Liam Brady	716	52.13	11.65	7.22	18.87		18.29	5.01
Michael Essien	539	40.93	12.15	6.40	18.55		18.00	6.30
Stefan Effenberg	538	40.79	12.13	6.39	18.52		19.20	5.06
Thomas Häßler	742	51.20	11.04	7.16	18.20		16.88	5.20
Edgar Davids	577	41.59	11.53	6.45	17.98		16.56	6.50
Jean Tigana	562	35.81	10.20	5.98	16.18		14.92	5.47
Ernst Ocwirk	216	15.27	11.31	3.91	15.22		20.20	2.41
Danny Blanchflower	593	31.57	8.52	5.62	14.14		12.82	4.21
Carlos Valderrama	249	15.31	9.84	3.91	13.75		14.79	4.84

Cruijff and Di Stefano were ostensibly forwards, but they played a midfielder’s game. Cruijff, of course, was the centerpiece of Dutch “total football,” doing everything, everywhere. Di Stefano was similar — clearing a ball off the line one moment, then racing down the field and delivering a killer pass — but they didn’t have a name for it yet.

Zico, Platini and Maradona were all of a type: midfielders wearing the No. 10 shirt, and controlling virtually the entire game from the center of the field. Zico rates higher on offense because of the enormous number of free kicks he scored. Maradona comes up a bit short because his level of play fell off drastically after 1990.

Bobby Charlton started out as a center forward, then moved to the midfield, which is why is offense/defense ratio is a bit different.

Defenders	Games	Total	Per 160	Sqr Root	Sum		Off	Def
Ronald Koeman	754	86.09	18.27	9.28	27.55		27.40	9.14
Gaetano Scirea	648	53.87	13.30	7.34	20.64		17.28	9.33
Franco Baresi	715	56.29	12.60	7.50	20.10		14.69	10.51
Sinisa Mihajlovic	509	43.02	13.52	6.56	20.08		20.31	6.73
Franz Beckenbauer	673	53.59	12.74	7.32	20.06		17.09	8.39
Matthias Sammer	332	29.24	14.09	5.41	19.50		19.57	8.62
Daniel Passarella	580	42.42	11.70	6.51	18.22		15.09	8.32
Giacinto Facchetti	723	35.60	7.88	5.97	13.84		6.51	9.25
Roberto Carlos	814	35.63	7.00	5.97	12.97		5.87	8.14
Paolo Maldini	1012	38.58	6.10	6.21	12.31		2.21	9.99
Bixente Lizarazu	656	26.39	6.44	5.14	11.57		3.05	9.82
Marcel Desailly	753	25.54	5.43	5.05	10.48		1.72	9.13
Carlos Alberto	467	20.30	6.96	4.51	11.46		5.48	8.43
Alessandro Nesta	656	20.17	4.92	4.49	9.41		0.96	8.88
Roberto Ayala	666	20.31	4.88	4.51	9.39		1.74	8.02
Elías Figueroa	302	10.74	5.69	3.28	8.97		2.20	9.19
Nílton Santos	492	15.26	4.96	3.91	8.87		0.66	9.27
Bobby Moore	775	18.30	3.78	4.28	8.06		1.61	5.94
Billy Wright	645	16.09	3.99	4.01	8.00		1.25	6.73

Franz Beckenbauer revolutionized the sweeper position in the late 1960s and, through the end of the 20th Century, the deep-lying defender who initiated and controlled the attack was one of the dominant tactical developments in world soccer. The change to the back-pass rule in 1992 meant that the position went extinct in about a generation — coaches were no longer willing to build from the back without the safety valve of being able to pass the ball back to the goalkeeper.

Beckenbauer himself was, according to the chart, overshadowed by men who followed his example. Koeman is way out in front because he scored more than 200 goals, mostly on free kicks and penalties.

Non-sweeper defenders face the same issue we’ve seen with defensive specialists in other sports; credit is spread too evenly for stars to dominate like they do on offense.

Goalies	Games	Total	Per 160	Sqr Root	Sum		Off	Def
Edwin van der Sar	926	109.83	18.98	10.48	29.46		0.05	37.91
Petr Čech	837	100.46	19.20	10.02	29.23		0.00	38.41
Ray Clemence	1047	119.39	18.24	10.93	29.17		0.00	36.49
Iker Casillas	1048	116.51	17.79	10.79	28.58		0.00	35.58
Oliver Kahn	851	91.37	17.18	9.56	26.74		0.00	34.36
Peter Schmeichel	663	71.56	17.27	8.46	25.73		0.22	34.32
Dino Zoff	878	88.82	16.19	9.42	25.61		0.00	32.37
José Luis Chilavert	604	65.60	17.38	8.10	25.48		3.92	30.84
Peter Shilton	1186	110.39	14.89	10.51	25.40		0.04	29.75
Ricardo Zamora	219	27.26	19.92	5.22	25.14		0.00	39.83
Sepp Maier	709	71.31	16.09	8.44	24.54		0.00	32.18
Amadeo Carrizo	565	59.21	16.77	7.69	24.46		0.00	33.54
Lev Yashin	400	44.12	17.65	6.64	24.29		0.00	35.29
Walter Zenga	588	59.53	16.20	7.72	23.91		0.00	32.40
Jean-Marie Pfaff	267	30.58	18.33	5.53	23.86		0.00	36.66
Pat Jennings	1034	91.15	14.10	9.55	23.65		0.00	28.21
Rinat Dasaev	535	54.37	16.26	7.37	23.63		0.00	32.52
Ubaldo Fillol	758	70.56	14.89	8.40	23.29		0.00	29.79
Gianluca Pagliuca	772	62.29	12.91	7.89	20.80		0.00	25.82
Gordon Banks	672	54.24	12.91	7.36	20.28		0.00	25.83

Watching van der Sar, I thought I was seeing the best ever and I wondered why he never got the credit I thought he deserved. It was gratifying to see the formula bear that out.

I have Ray Clemence way ahead of Peter Shilton, in case anyone wants to reignite the great English goalkeeping debate of the ’80s. This highlights a trend of top English goalies and defenders staying at mediocre clubs throughout their careers — Shilton was at Nottingham Forest for their glory years, but spent most of his time at Leicester, Stoke, Derby, etc. … Gordon Banks played at Leicester and Stoke; Bobby Moore played his entire first-division career at West Ham; Billy Wright was a lifer for Wolves. In Italy, all these guys would have ended up at Milan, Inter or Juventus. If they were Spanish, then Barcelona or Real Madrid. In England, somehow, it’s Leicester and Stoke …

To do list:

Hughie Gallacher
Oleg Blokhin
Cliff Bastin
Johnny Rep
Charlie Buchan
Jürgen Kohler