Sports (HarperCollins)

Following The Football 100 and The Basketball 100, the experts and award-winning journalists at The Athletic present their definitive ranking of the greatest male soccer players to ever grace the pitch. The Athletic is back, returning with 100 compelling profiles of soccer's most celebrated characters, from Dixie Dean, whose 1928 record for the most goals scored in an English top-flight season remains unbroken, to Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, whose stellar performances in the 2022 World Cup final drew almost 1.5 billion television viewers. Each feature brings to life a player who has left his own mark on the game, whether he is known for a distinct trademark flash of skill-such as Johan Cruyff's celebrated turn-or renowned for reinventing tactics or even entire positions. Some, like Pelé, Ferenc Puskás, Lev Yashin, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Diego Maradona, have become national icons. Others have carried club teams to silverware, conjured goals that have gone down in folklore, or found ways to stifle the sport's most prolific forwards through their defensive excellence. Plenty suffered for their art along the way, yet their brilliance still illuminated matches on the most glittering of stages. With a team of writers covering the sport worldwide, The Athletic leaves no stone unturned charting the players who have decorated the game's most memorable moments. Through their stories, they reveal a global legacy and a sport that has divided the world through friendly rivalries while uniting it in overwhelming passion. The Soccer 100 is a celebration of the beautiful game and its storied history, as told through its 100 greatest players.

A celebration of basketball by way of the 100 greatest players to ever grace the court in the history of the NBA—from The Athletic’s foremost basketball writers and analysts the game has to offer. With a foreword by Charles Barkley. Over the course of 100 luminous player profiles, the best sports newsroom on the planet paints vivid portraits of the game’s most compelling characters. There’s George Mikan, who was cut from his high school team because he wore glasses, then went on to become the fledgling NBA’s first transcendent star. Gary Payton, called “The Glove” for his skintight defense, who talked as much trash to his teammates as he did to his opponents on the court. Dennis Rodman, who started playing basketball at age 20, and in a few short years went from working as a janitor at the airport to being one of the strangest superstars that sport has ever known. Allen Iverson, who drew inspiration from hip hop for his inimitable style and swagger, on and off the court. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was so dominant in the paint that they

In this must-have follow-up to the bestselling “The Baseball 100,” the sports media powerhouse The Athletic now turns to the definitive ranking of the greatest football players of all time. It is a question that has bedeviled football fans for generations: Who's the best? Of the more than 25,000 men who have suited up during the NFL's century of existence, which ones stood head and shoulders above all others? At The Athletic, this question would become a labor of love for dozens of the best football writers on the planet, including Mike Sando and Dan Pompei. Over the course of 100 essays, spanning more than 600 pages, these writers reveal their findings-and uncover the history of the NFL in the process. In the early days of the NFL, the game bore little resemblance to the product we see today. Points were scarce, the forward pass was an exotic strategic curiosity, and most players played all 60 minutes, both sides of the ball. It was on the shoulders of the many greats who starred in the League over the last century that the game of football blossomed. Each profile in “The Football 100” uses the vivid narrative storytelling for which The Athletic is known to bring to life extraordinary athletic talents, tactical geniuses who changed the way the game is played, and legendary, outsized personalities. Based on many hundreds of interviews with players, coaches, broadcasters, and others, this is an intimate look at the greatest players to ever don cleats and pads, as well as a view from the trenches of the harsh realities of a brutal game. 100 photographs throughout the text offer testament to both the glory and the physical toll of football. From #100 (Fran Tarkenton) to #1 (Tom Brady), from the Patriots in the east to the 49ers in the west, with names like Night Train (Lane, #51), Iron Mike (Webster, #58), Bulldog (Turner, #85), and Crazylegs (Hirsch, #93), The Football 100 is a joyful, deeply entertaining, maximalist ode to "America's game."