A list of the Goalhanger's favourite footballers from the 2000's.
With the interweb now in full flow, the 2000's saw easy access to YouTube clips of players
from all over the world, so the Goalhanger could have 24/7 coverage of outrageous skills
and goals from all sorts of obscure footballers and clubs.
But obviously some of our favourite players from the 2000's weren't the obvious stars,
but the likes of Kevin Pressman, Moritz Volz and Steffen Freund, who'd all achieved cult status at
various clubs.
So here's a list of our favourites from the 2000's, including the club(s) they were playing at when we really liked them...
Madjid Bougherra
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Algeria
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Madjid Bougherra | Sheffield Wednesday | Had decent spells at Crewe, Charlton and Rangers, but it was his season at Sheffield Wednesday where he really stood out - unbelievably good bringing the ball out from the heart of the defence and running at the opposition. |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Argentina
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Pablo Aimar | Valencia | |
Roberto Ayala | Valencia | |
Hernán Crespo | Lazio | |
Kily González | Valencia | |
Claudio López | Valencia, Lazio | |
Lionel Messi | Barcelona | |
Ariel Ortega | River Plate | |
Juan Román Riquelme | Boca Juniors, Villareal | |
Javier Saviola | Barcelona, Sevilla | |
Javier Zanetti | Inter Milan | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Brazil
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Cafu | Roma, AC Milan | |
Denilson | Real Betis, Bordeaux | |
Roberto Carlos | Real Madrid | |
Juninho Paulista | Vasco da Gama, Middlesbrough | |
Juninho Pernambucano | Lyon | If you liked bending free-kicks then you liked Juninho Pernambucano at Lyon. |
Kaka | São Paulo, AC Milan, Real Madrid | |
Lúcio | Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich | Great eyebrows. Great centre back. |
Rivaldo | Barcelona, Olympiacos | Often overlooked in favour of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, the great Rivaldo was just a joy to watch. Great skills on either flank, scorer of great goals, and the archetypal sweet-left-foot. |
Ronaldo | Inter Milan, Real Madrid | A scoring-rate second to none. One of the greatest strikers ever. Simple as that. |
Ronaldinho | Grêmio, PSG, Barcelona, AC Milan | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from the Czech Republic
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Pavel Nedved | Lazio, Juventus | Nedved had everything in the 1990's, and even more in the 2000's! More pace, more energy, more skill, more perfect passing. Brilliant at both Lazio and Juventus. |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Denmark
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Jesper Grønkjær | Chelsea | |
Thomas Helveg | AC Milan | |
Dennis Rommedahl | PSV, Charlton Athletic, Ajax | |
Jon Dahl Tomasson | Feyenoord, AC Milan | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from England
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
David Beckham | Manchester Utd, Real Madrid | |
Sol Campbell | Arsenal | |
Ashley Cole | Arsenal, Chelsea | |
Kieron Dyer | Newcastle Utd | |
Steven Gerrard | Liverpool | |
Gary Neville | Manchester Utd | |
Michael Owen | Liverpool | |
Kevin Pressman | Sheffield Wednesday | Received some stick from rival fans for his chunky appearance but he was a top keeper. Sent off after just 13 seconds against Wolves in 2000, a record at the time. |
Paul Scholes | Manchester Utd | |
Bobby Zamora | Brighton HA | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from France
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Thierry Henry | Arsenal, Barcelona | |
Steed Malbranque | Fulham | |
Zinedine Zidane | Juventus, Real Madrid | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Germany
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Michael Ballack | Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Chelsea | |
Steffen Freund | Spurs | |
Oliver Kahn | Bayern Munich | |
Bernd Schneider | Bayer Leverkusen | |
Moritz Volz | Fulham | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Italy
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Gianluigi Buffon | Juventus | |
Fabio Cannavaro | Juventus, Real Madrid | World Cup winning captain who was widely regarded as one of the top central defenders of the decade. |
Gennaro Gattuso | AC Milan | |
Angelo Di Livio | Fiorentina | |
Paolo Maldini | AC Milan | Legendary left-back. |
Christian Panucci | Roma | Great leader and attacking right-back for the Giallorossi. |
Alessandro del Piero | Juventus | Technically gifted forward who scored and created goals galore at Juventus. |
Francesco Totti | Roma | |
Christian Vieri | Inter Milan | Cricket-loving striker who bagged more than 100 goals for Inter. |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Japan
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Junichi Inamoto | Fulham, West Brom | |
Hidetoshi Nakata | Roma, Parma | |
Shinji Ono | Feyenoord | Attacking midfielder blessed with superb passing ability and vision. |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Mexico
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Cuauhtémoc Blanco | América, Chicago Fire | |
Rafael Márquez | Barcelona | Elegant central defender, great on the ball. Barcelona's most capped non-European. |
Gerardo Torrado | Poli Ejido, Sevilla, Cruz Azul | All action midfielder. |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Paraguay
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Roque Santa Cruz | Bayern Munich, Blackburn Rovers | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Portugal
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Luis Figo | Real Madrid, Inter Milan | Having been adored at Barcelona in the 1990s, Figo certainly showed some bottle to swap the Camp Nou for the Bernabéu in July 2000. Despite being the focal-point of the great rivalry (culminating in the famous pig's head incident of Nov. 2002), Figo managed to keep doing his talking on the pitch and proved time and again that he was one of the greatest wingers in world football. |
Cristiano Ronaldo | Manchester United, Real Madrid | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Senegal
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Papa Bouba Diop | Lens, Fulham, Portsmouth | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Spain
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Rubén Baraja | Valencia | |
Luis Enrique | Barcelona | Attacking midfielder with an eye for a goal. |
Fernando Hierro | Real Madrid | Fantastic defender whose passing was superb and his strike rate, for a defender, unbelievable. 102 goals for Real Madrid in 439 matches ! |
Gaizka Mendieta | Valencia, Barcelona, Middlesbrough | |
Fernando Morientes | Real Madrid, Liverpool, Valencia | |
Carles Puyol | Barcelona | |
Raul | Real Madrid | |
Juan Carlos Valerón | Deportivo La Coruña | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Sweden
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Henrik Larsson | Celtic, Barcelona, Helsingborgs IF | |
Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from Turkey
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Rüstü Reçber | Fenerbahçe | |
Hakan Ünsal | Galatasaray | |
Tugay Kerimoglu | Blackburn Rovers | Deep-lying playmaker who is one of the finest ball-playing midfielders that the Premiership has seen. |
Yildiray Bastürk | Bayer Leverkusen | |
Hasan Sas | Galatasaray | Exciting left winger who had a great period in the early 2000's for Galatasaray and Turkey. |
Hakan Sükür | Galatasaray | |
Favourite Footballers of the 2000's from the USA
Player | Favourite Club(s) in the 2000s | Why ? |
Brad Friedel | Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa | |
Landon Donovan | LA Galaxy | |
Brian McBride | Fulham | |
Claudio Reyna | Rangers, Manchester City | |