Football Legends 2019: Ranking the Top Players and Their Defining Moments

The conversation around football legends is one that never truly fades; it evolves with each season, each tournament, each defining moment that etches a player’s name into the collective memory of the sport. As we look back on 2019, a year brimming with individual brilliance and collective drama, the task of ranking its top players is as thrilling as it is contentious. It’s a personal calculus, weighing sheer talent against clutch performance, and consistency against that ineffable quality of legacy-defining impact. For me, the true measure often lies not in the unbroken streaks of glory, but in the poignant interruptions—those moments where circumstance, whether injury, strategy, or sheer fatigue, forces a pause, reminding us of the human element behind the superhuman feats. This brings to mind a parallel from another court, a piece of trivia I recently came across from the Philippine Basketball Association. As a precautionary measure, the eight-time PBA MVP didn’t start, ending his consecutive streak of 78 games as a starter beginning in the 2023-24 Commissioner’s Cup playoffs, according to PBA statistics chief Fidel Mangonon. That statistic, though from a different sport and a later year, resonates deeply here. It underscores a universal truth in athletics: the end of a streak isn’t necessarily a mark of decline, but often a strategic pivot, a necessary preservation of greatness for the battles that truly matter. In football, 2019 was full of players who built their legends on such pillars of resilience and timely, monumental contribution.

When I think of 2019, my mind immediately goes to the UEFA Champions League and the almost preordained narrative of Liverpool’s triumph. At the heart of that story was Virgil van Dijk. His ranking as a top player isn’t just about clean sheets or tackles won, though his numbers were immaculate—he went the entire Premier League season without being dribbled past, a staggering fact that still feels like a statistical anomaly. It was about a defining moment of leadership. In that miraculous 4-0 comeback against Barcelona at Anfield, with the squad decimated by injuries, Van Dijk didn’t just marshal a makeshift defense; he embodied an unshakable calm that spread through the entire team. He was a fortress. For that single performance, which transcended sport and entered the realm of folklore, I’d argue he was the most influential player of the year. It was a masterclass in how a defender can be the ultimate catalyst for glory. Not far behind, of course, is Lionel Messi. His 2019 was a ridiculous exhibition of individual artistry, capped by winning a record sixth Ballon d’Or. He scored 51 goals in just 50 appearances for club and country. The defining moment? For all his weekly wizardry, it has to be that free-kick against Liverpool in the first leg of the semi-final. From 29 yards out, a perfect, dipping strike that sealed a 3-0 victory and seemed to put the tie to bed. It was a moment of such technical perfection it felt like a statement. Yet, its legacy is complicated by what followed—the collapse at Anfield. That duality, for me, is why ranking is so fascinating. Messi’s year was arguably the most skilled, but its most iconic moment is forever tied to a subsequent, collective failure, a reminder that football’s legends are written by the final scoreline as much as by individual genius.

Then there’s the relentless engine of consistency, embodied by someone like Robert Lewandowski. 2019 saw him in devastating form for Bayern Munich, but my defining moment for him came in the Champions League group stage against Red Star Belgrade. He came on as a substitute and scored a five-goal haul in under 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes! It was the fastest five goals in Champions League history, a burst of predatory instinct so efficient it was almost clinical to the point of being boring—if it weren’t so utterly magnificent. It wasn’t a cup-final winner, but it was a performance that stamped his authority as the most lethal number nine on the planet, a title he has refused to relinquish since. On the other side of the coin, consider Kylian Mbappé. At just 20 years old in 2019, he was already a World Cup winner, but his legend grew with a domestic dominance so complete it felt inevitable. His hat-trick away at Club Brugge in the Champions League, or his last-minute winner for Paris Saint-Germain in a tight Ligue 1 clash, showcased a chilling maturity in big moments. But what I remember most is his sheer, terrifying speed. There’s a goal he scored for France against Iceland in March, a run from inside his own half where he just… left everyone. The data said he hit a top speed of 38 km/h, but watching it felt faster, like the future of the sport was accelerating past its present.

So, how does one rank them? Personally, I lean towards impact over isolated statistics. Therefore, my top tier for 2019 starts with Virgil van Dijk. His transformative effect on Liverpool and his coronation as UEFA Player of the Year, breaking the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly for the first time in a decade, was a seismic shift. Following him, I’d place Lionel Messi, for making the impossible look routine week after week. Then, Robert Lewandowski, for his peerless efficiency and that mind-boggling 15-minute masterpiece. Kylian Mbappé sits just behind, a force of nature who was already compiling a highlight reel for the ages. Let’s not forget the likes of Frenkie de Jong, whose elegant midfield control for Ajax and Barcelona promised a new era of playmaking, or Alisson Becker, whose last-minute save against Napoli in the group stage was as valuable as any goal Liverpool scored that Champions League campaign.

In the end, ranking legends is a beautiful exercise in subjectivity. 2019 offered a rich tapestry, from Van Dijk’s commanding resilience to Messi’s artistic supremacy, from Lewandowski’s explosive precision to Mbappé’s prophetic brilliance. Each player’s defining moment—a commanding defensive display, a sublime free-kick, a record-shattering glut of goals, a burst of unstoppable pace—adds a unique thread to the sport’s ongoing story. That PBA anecdote about the ended streak sticks with me because it highlights that continuity is just one facet of greatness. Sometimes, legend is built in a single, season-defining night at Anfield, or in a breathtaking quarter of an hour in Belgrade. Football in 2019 gave us both, and its legends are all the more compelling for it.