Greatest Ever: Football: The Greatest Football Team of All Time

The 26th installment of Barney Corkhill's Greatest Ever series is here!

In this series, I will look at the greatest talents to grace various sports. Here, I continue to look at football.

Over the past few weeks I have been counting down the top 10 players of every position. I am going to take the top player from each one, or the top two if there are two places to be filled, to create the all-time greatest football XI.

Enjoy!

Goalkeeper: Lev Yashin (USSR)

Right Back: Cafu (BRA)

Centre Back: Franz Beckenbauer (GER) (c)

Centre Back: Bobby Moore (ENG)

Left Back: Paolo Maldini (ITA)

Right Midfield: Garrincha (BRA)

Centre Midfield: Johan Cruyff (NED)

Centre Midfield: Alfredo Di Stefano (ARG)

Left Midfield: Francisco Gento (SPA)

Striker: Diego Maradona (ARG)

Striker: Pele (BRA)

Manager: Sir Alex Ferguson (SCO)

Representatives:

1. Brazil - 3

2. Argentina - 2

3. USSR - 1

= Germany - 1

= England - 1

= Italy - 1

= Holland - 1

= Spain - 1

For this team I picked the 11 best individuals, so it may not be the most balanced, but it's not exactly a bad team!

As a bonus, I have included the second team on the next page. This is made up of the players who finished as runners-up to those who got into the first team.

Reserve Team:

Goalkeeper: Peter Schemichel (DEN)

Right Back: Carlos Alberto (BRA)

Centre Back: Daniel Passarella (ARG) (c)

Centre Back: Franco Baresi (ITA)

Left Back: Roberto Carlos (BRA)

Right Midfield: Stanley Matthews (ENG)

Centre Midfield: Zinedine Zidane (FRA)

Centre Midfield: Michel Platini (FRA)

Left Midfield: Zoltan Czibor (HUN)

Striker: Eusebio (POR)

Striker: Ferenc Puskas (HUN)

Manager: Rinus Michels (NED)

Representatives:

1. Brazil - 2

= France - 2

= Hungary - 2

2. Denmark - 1

= England - 1

= Italy - 1

= Portugal - 1

= Argentina - 1

Just think of some of the names that didn't even make it into the reserve side: George Best, Gerd Muller, and Ronaldo. That speaks volumes for the number of quality players we have seen over the years.

I ask you two questions: What would your all-time XI be and, in a match between the first team and reserve team, who do you think would win?