Botham when he played for Scunthorpe. He got the ball and he ran with it. Nothing fancy like passing or dribbling, just running with a ball. Simple.

Bergkamp, Henry at their best, but, honestly?

Chris Waddle.

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/johan-cruyff

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/maradona-genius-or-villain

For the opposition (Man Utd): George Best.

For us (Ipswich): Kevin Beattie.

My Dad brought me to see N Ireland play Holland In Belfast in 1976. George Best played that day as did Johan Cruyff. Best nutmegged him that day.R.I.P my old da.He would have loved to see Messi. He seen Di Stefano play as well

amongst the greatest of all time, I'm lucky enough to have seen Cruyff, Platini, Best, and Maradona, and for me it would be between the first two of those, with Cruyff just edging it.

Cruyff just had it all, while Platini was an absolutely devastating attacking midfielder.

Here's Cruyff:

And Platini:

Edit: Forgot about Zidane. I saw him play and score for Real Madrid but I reckon this was his finest hour:

playing for Brentford around 1981.

It means I have had the pleasure of seeing George Best, Denis Law and Eric Cantona. Best was the one for me (Guess who I support).

Saw him playing for Glentoran in a friendly in 1982/3ish. Pace was gone, but by Christ he could dribble. Unreal.

Juninho

Middlesbrough's best player in living memory (you could argue about Wilf Mannion). The season we went down in 1997 he was simply unbelievable.

Never seen anyone like him since.

.. Jesus with a football.

Others of note, Rooney, Gascoigne, Robson, Waddle, Banks, Moore, and of course the best player ever to pull on the sacred red shirt - Ronnie Glavin.

My dear departed Dad took me to see The Belfast Boy many times that's why I support Newton Heath.Glazers OUT!!!!

Henrik Larsson, unerring and a mighty header of a ball for a not so big man. Strangely, missed a good few pens for Celtic, but scored goals at every level he played at.A thoroughly class act in every way.

For 45 years I'd always said "George Best" as the knee-jerk response to such an obvious question. After all, I'd seen him in his pomp at Old Trafford dozens of times. How could any player be better than that?

Then I went to see Leo Messi - and felt like I'd had the rug pulled out from under a universal truth.

Good Lord.

Messi, Dalglish, Zidane, Ronaldo, Romario, Figo, Cafu, Kaka, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Bergkamp, Henry, Ronaldinho, etc.

But the best game I ever saw a footballer play was by Garry Nelson for Brighton against Brentford in an FA Cup tie years ago. I am, however, willing to admit that he's not as good as the players I've mentioned above.

The first time I saw Messi play, he came off a very distant second to Kaka.

but certainly a very good one, and definitely the best moment I've ever seen at a match

He always seemed to have so much time on the ball. Booked 4 times in his career and never sent off. Legend.

Next subject please

Matty Le Tiss. The other player who astonished me was Paul McGrath. I know he was a big, hulking centre-half but his balance and precision was a thing of joy.

I saw Luis Figo at the height of his powers playing in a good Barcelona side. It was noticeable how all the Barcelona players looked to him and tried to get the ball out to him throughout the game. He had everything balance,speed, power and precision.

Gazza on his day was absolutely brilliant. Better than Hoddle, better then Waddle. If you could have wired up Linekers temperament to Gazza he would have been the best player in the world. Watched him take teams apart almost single handedly in his pomp a la Maradona. It was a shame he got himself injured, he was never the same after that. I also think he made a mistake going to Italy and why he went to Scotland I'll never understand. A brilliant talent never properly fulfilled. Outside of Tottenham I thought Georgi Kinkladze, in his Manchester City days, was a genius. Another wasted talent.

just because it was a joy to watch a player who didn't care for the more mundane aspects of football such as running, tackling and formations. A player that managers hated picking, but just through his sheer brilliance were left with little option.

the forties to the eighties.
He said the best he ever saw was Puskas.
Bizarrely, Pele never played at Wembley but managed to play at Hillsborough three times in his career.
Grandad saw him there in the sixties.

'Wow, how good was he Grandad?'

'He were alreet'.

who, at the start of their careers, had that priceless gift of inciting a collective intake of anticipatory breath amongst the crowd, but never really fulfilled their great promise:

Saw Barnesy score 5 goals in an 8-1 win for England Under-21s at Boothferry Park - believe me, we all thought he was The Future

Big Norm - achieved much, but it could have been so much more

And here's one who did:

The player about whom Clough made the "racehorse" comment...

Class, class and then more class. Here's that tackle:

(Which seemed to exist in the 1970s so I never really saw them first hand, only on re-runs of Match Of The Day etc)

Stan Bowles
Tony Currie
George Best
Charlie George
Rodney Marsh

Definition: Maverick Player = Long(ish) hair, socks rolled down and shirt untucked. And some sublime skills usually helps

One of the best goals I've ever seen.
Frank Worthington

The greatest footballer you never saw........... nor me actually.

My coat? It's over there

Kenny Dalglish, on T.V Zidane

"It's like the ball's glued to his foot!"

Maybe not the best ever footballer but certainly the best I've seen. There's been lots of talk over the years saying "if only he'd played for England".... Well he didn't.
He's probably the greatest winger of all time.

Kenny Dalglish. In particular an amazing goal in a World Cup qualifier against Spain.

dazzled for a brief period in the 1970s. Has to be one of the best dribblers I ever saw. In a pre-season game at the A***enal, he dribbled the defence and goalie, came back, took the ball around (I think) Alan Ball again and then put it in the net - class!

I once saw the late great Laurie Cunningham (I used to have a soft spot for the 'O's'), take the ball from the halfway line (Another pre-season friendly at Chelsea), beat 3 players and slam the ball in past a helpless Chelsea goalie. The Chelski fan sat next to me turned and said 'Bonetti would have saved that' - yeah right mate.

my dad took me to Bolton vs Stoke in 1963 or 1964 to see Sir Stanley Matthews. I was only 6 so I'm not 100% sure that he actually played in that match. I'd love to know for sure. So he's the greatest I might have seen.

The greatest I know for sure I have seen...the incomparable Colin Bell. From his time at Bury through the late '60s and early '70s at Man City. Power and grace.

this should be titled, which footballer has given you most pleasure. Greatness has nothing to do with it because it's impossible to compare eras. Best was impressive but only in comparison to the Bowles, Worthingtons and McKensies of the era. Undoubtedly gifted but the defenders were crap by today's standards, vicious yes but slow and limited. You only have to go back to 86 and see Maradonas goal against England (not that one) and look at Terry Butcher lumbering in his wake like a cart horse, and he was seen as being one of the best defenders of the time. Any premier league defender nowadays is is far better than Butcher ever was, not his fault, just a result of evolution.

I doubt Best would have been a superstar in today's football, he would just have been another David Bentley, immensely talented but ultimately lightweight. Let's face it, he was best known even then for his lifestyle and the fact that you never knew if he would turn up for the match. That's how I remember it at least.

The greatest is always the best one playing now, so I guess that means Messi or Kaka for most people but in 10 years time, football keeps developing as it is now, they will surely be eclipsed by the new greatest whose skills, fitness, speed and awareness will be at a new level which Messi and Kaka may never have reached.

Best exponent of the killer pass ever. Should have played for England many more times than he did, but the odious Mr Revie disliked him and his ilk.
Hard to believe that in those days Chelsea would sell their best player to Stoke and that they were the ones who relied on the long throw, courtesy of the late Ian Hutchinson.