A celebration of the beautiful game and its 100 greatest players, from the pre–World War II exploits of Dixie Dean to the modern-day genius of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi These players left legacies, redefined the game with trademark skills, and grew into national icons. They have their stats—the goals, the wins, the trophies—but, more importantly, they have their stories. One World Cup winner owned a nightclub that briefly transformed a corner of industrial Germany into one of the hippest places around. An Austrian forward’s death is still shrouded in mystery. A striker who might have become a telephone technician had he not been spotted playing soccer was eventually elected president of his country. And there are unanswered questions. How did Pelé’s Brazil shirt from the 1958 World Cup quarterfinal go missing in a Welsh school? Which goalkeeper was so good that one opponent considered scoring against him akin to “winning a trophy”? Through extensive research and interviews, The