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10 - Neymar

In a post-Ronaldinho world, Neymar has taken on the mantle as Brazil’s national football icon, with his influence evident in both what he has and hasn’t achieved.

In 2014, Brazil’s quest to win their home World Cup was derailed by a quarter-final injury to their icon. His teammates held up shirts emblazoned with their absent captain’s name as they lined up for their semi-final to Germany, before famously losing the plot in a 7-1 defeat.

Two years later, he scored the winning penalty as his side got their revenge on Germany to claim Olympic gold on home soil.

Controversial, combustible, but undeniably sensational, Neymar’s presence has enriched football in the 21^st century. His £198m transfer to PSG in 2017 also changed the game forever.

9 - Kaka

One of only three Brazilian Ballon d’Or winners in the 21^st century, Kaka made the game look absurdly easy.

His natural ability with the ball, whether it be slaloming past opponents or unlocking defences with clever through balls, saw him crowned the best player in the world in 2007, the year in which he won his second Champions League trophy with AC Milan.

He was effectively a key part of two ‘Galactico’ teams. One alongside Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf and Andriy Shevchenko at Milan, before he signed for Real Madrid in the same summer as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

Though his international career may not be remembered among the very best, he was still part of the 2002 World Cup-winning squad, meaning that he is one of only eight players to win that, the Ballon d’Or and the Champions League.

8 - Jairzinho

If Jairzinho’s career had just been the 1970 World Cup, he still might have made this top 10.

The attacker scored in all six of Brazil’s matches on the way to lifting the Jules-Rimet trophy in Mexico, a legendary achievement that nobody has ever replicated.

His physical strength resembled a modern-day footballing athlete, with opponents rarely able to knock him off the ball or catch him once he got running.

Combining that with his technique, he was the perfect foil for Pele in one of football’s great attacking line-ups.

7 - Cafu

If you appear in three consecutive World Cup finals, you’re a player.

Cafu was a mainstay of a(nother) golden age of Brazilian football as they reached the showdown at all of the 1994, 1998 and 2002 tournaments, captaining his team to victory in the last of them.

He then went on to play at the 2006 event, too.

Endurance was not all that Cafu was about, though. His forward-thinking style has been imitated by countless modern full-backs who bring as much to their team in attack as defence.

6 - Romario

Romario’s tally of 55 international goals is only bettered by Pele, Ronaldo and Neymar, with his goals per game rate (0.78) considerably healthier than both of the latter two.

That tells you the story of Romario: a brilliant, opportunist goalscorer.

Considering that his 1998 and 2002 World Cup campaigns ended before they had begun, with tearful press conferences explaining his exclusion from the squads, it’s easy to forget his international legacy.

He scored five goals as Brazil won the 1994 competition and his partnership with Ronaldo catapulted his teammate onto the international stage.

5 - Zico

You have to be seriously special to have never won the World Cup but still considered one of the greatest players of all time as a Brazilian.

While he never got his hands on the trophy, Zico – like all the great Brazil players – was famed for how easy he made it look.

What The White Pele could do with a football is legendary. You were never safe when he was standing over a free-kick within shooting distance, such was his ability to move the ball not just left and right but up and down.

Most of his best work at club level was for Flamengo, for whom he orchestrated a 3-0 Intercontinental Cup win over Liverpool in 1981. Graeme Souness said after the game that ‘I wanted to see how he would react to a physical challenge but I couldn’t get close enough to find out’.

4 - Ronaldinho

Arguably the most iconic player on this list, and certainly one of the game’s all-time great entertainers, everybody wanted to be Ronaldinho.

The 2002 World Cup winner ushered in the FIFA Street era by bringing his mesmeric tricks and flicks to the top of the game, notably lifting Barcelona out of their early-2000s slump with a smile permanently attached to his face.

His unique flip-flap skill, and the mind-bending toe poke against Chelsea, will be what Ronaldinho is best remembered for, but they don’t tell the whole story of this enigma. Did he mean to score that free-kick against David Seaman? Could he really be crashing volley after volley off the crossbar in that TV advert?

A phenomenon that peaked when he won the 2005 Ballon d’Or, his influence meant that young children all over the world learnt to love the game in Barcelona shirts with ‘Ronaldinho’ on the back.

3 - Garrincha

Born with a crooked spine and uneven legs, Garrincha was not always destined for the top.

Against the odds, though, his rare physical attributes contributed to the development of one of the great dribblers that football has seen, earning him the nickname ‘The Angel With The Bent Legs’.

While he was a key contributor to Brazil’s 1958 World Cup victory, it was Pele who stole the limelight.

In 1962, however, when Pele went down injured in Brazil’s second game, he played a talismanic role, scoring four goals from the right wing to help his country defend the title without their best player. No team has won back-to-back World Cups since.

2 - Ronaldo

Of all the names for top-10 footballers of all time to be born with, two have to share the name ‘Ronaldo’.

And, totally unfairly, it does feel like the presence of Cristiano genuinely means that the Brazilian’s career is now downplayed.

But nobody could deny the brilliance of O Fenomeno, the winner of two World Cups, two Ballon d’Ors and multiple trophies at club level.

Topped only by the man above him in Brazil’s goalscoring charts, Ronaldo netted 414 goals in 616 appearances for club and country.

1 - Pele

Even if you were born 20 years after he retired, Pele was the first footballer you’d heard of.

The legend of he and Diego Maradona as the two greatest ever was undisputed, the players you copied in the playground despite never having seen them play.

Those who passed that message down a generation did so with good reason. The 1958 World Cup, when he scored six times as a 17-year-old, is what he is most associated with. That he was also fundamental to the champions of 1970 proves his remarkable longevity and skill.

Though his official scoring total is uncertain, it’s fair to say that not until the emergence of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo did anybody believe that there could be a goalscoring rival to the great Pele.

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