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There is nothing like a bit of nostalgia on a Saturday morning, and FourFourTwo have given us a perfect dose of that with their countdown of the best 50 players of the noughties.

There are some absolute ballers in this countdown; domestically, the decade which started with stars of Manchester United and Arsenal going head-to-head for Premier League dominance, before Roman Abramovich injected his millions to give Chelsea a seat at the top.

In Europe, we were dazzled by the two most recent AC Milan Champions League winning teams, and the excitement of Real Madrid's Galácticos was in full swing. It was an era where footballers became global megastars, and obscene transfer fees became the norm.

With a number of incredible world-class talents to choose from in an unforgettable decade, it is a thankless task to rank 50 players and provoke the inevitable backlash from football fans. But FourFourTwo never shirks away from this kind of task, and it is hard to argue too much against their current top 10.
 

Among these, includes the two modern-day GOATS in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, while Messi's heir-apparent at Barcelona, Ronaldhino takes his place on top spot.
 

The 2005 Ballon d'Or winner won titles in Spain and Italy, as well as the World Cup and Copa América for Brazil. His iconic cheesy grin and outrageous skills will live in the hearts of every football fan, and rightly takes a place at the top of this illustrious list.
 

The full top 50 can be viewed below.

 

1. Ronaldinho

2. Zinedine Zidane

3. Kaka

4. Thierry Henry
5. Cristiano Ronaldo

6. Xavi

7. Ronaldo

8. Andres Iniesta

9. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

10. Lionel Messi

11. Wayne Rooney

12. Steven Gerrard

13. Samuel Eto'o
14. Frank Lampard

15. Raul
16. Rio Ferdinand

17. Fernando Torres

18. Paul Scholes

19. John Terry

20. Andriy Shevchenko

21. Ashley Cole

22. Claude Makelele

23. Alessandro Nesta

24. Rivaldo

25. Iker Casillas

26. David Beckham

27. Andrea Pirlo

28. Carles Puyol

29. Didier Drogba

30. Francesco Totti

31. Luis Figo
32. Paolo Maldini

33. David Villa

34. Patrick Vieira

35. Pavel Nedved

36. Nemanja Vidic

37. Ruud van Nistelrooy

38. Fabio Cannavaro

39. Oliver Kahn

40. Ryan Giggs

41. Roberto Carlos

42. Michael Ballack

43. Cafu

44. Xabi Alonso

45. Gianluigi Buffon

46. Javier Zanetti

47. Edwin van der Sar

48. Henrik Larsson

49. Juan Roman Riquelme

50. Petr Cech


Source: Sports Bible