Before hanging up his boots for good after the 2006 World Cup, two moments, across six years of this particular decade, defined Zinedine Zidane
A celebration of These Football Times’ writers’ favourite stars of the 2000s.
By These Football Times
“Xavi is eternal. Even when he is not at his very best level physically, he plays a kind of football that gives oxygen to a team. He is football”
With two Olympics golds, a World Cup win and a FIFA Player of the Year award, Abby Wambach became the face of US soccer and a cultural movement
Valerón will be best remembered for his part in the Depor side of the turn of the 21st century. A quiet, loyal man, his 13-year spell was seminal
Named as one of Fiorentina and the Czech Republic’s greatest defenders, Tomáš Ujfaluši was one of the 2000s most underrated players
The Fernando Torres of the 2000s may not always have been blessed with world-class teammates, but he was a force like no other
Football has changed dramatically in the two decades since Andriy Shevchenko burst onto the scene, but his legacy remains unblemished
Wayne Rooney is the best British footballer of this century yet somehow he still doesn’t receive the recognition or accolades that he deserves
It is for his silky skills, not his various deficiencies, that Quaresma will be remembered as time slowly wears the memories of his fleeting career away
Carles Puyol was the architect of an enduring legacy that heralds him one of the best defenders in Barcelona and world football history
You can choose to remember Owen in any way you want, but consider yourself lucky that you weren’t playing against him during his golden years at Liverpool
Despite falling short of the biggest prizes for both club and country, Nedvěd would go down as one of the best players of the decade, a Juventus legend
There’s a reason people who’d seen him play would joke, “If Paolo Maldini was the Minister of Defense, no country would want to attack Italy.”
Gerrard was a monster, while Scholes was sublime. But if you take the raw stats and impact over a decade, no midfielder can top Frank Lampard
Unfortunately, Kaká never really belonged to us mere mortal. Nevertheless, so great were his gifts, football could not help but praise him on high
Try as they might, studying his game as fervently as they can, nobody will ever strike a dead ball quite like Juninho Pernambucano. Nobody
It was between 2000 and 2010 that Ibrahimović reached a peak he would maintain into the next decade and discovered what kind of man he wanted to be
There are few players who define a generation as adroitly as Thierry Henry, the man who reinvented what it meant to be a striker in England
Some people will argue Guti should be nowhere near this list, but they miss the point of what he was: the most bafflingly brilliant footballer of his era
To this day “Luís Figo pig head” is the first search suggested by Google when you type his name. It’s a shame. He was greater than that, far greater
The greatest son of his nation and a true African legend, Samuel Eto’o would forge a unique path to immortality at Barcelona in 2000s
Over the course of the 2000s, how strikers played changed vastly, and much of this was down to the attributes Didier Drogba brought to his game
Through his rise above adversity, Iker Casillas can instigate a change in one’s perception of greatness, which suggests a talent worth celebrating
Despite his near-misses, when leading men, when redefining a role and offering hope where none was to be found, Michael Ballack was king
The owner of an absorbent footballing brain, Xabi Alonso would become one of the world’s most perceptive and intelligent midfielders in the 2000s
“A decade that changed football beyond recognition” Bruno Conti