Summary
Many legendary footballers never played in a World Cup due to various circumstances.
Players like Cantona, Giggs, and Weah missed out on the opportunity to showcase their skills.
Tragedies, injuries, and politics prevented icons like Di Stefano and Mazzola from World Cup participation.
While the Champions League sees every year the best players on the planet compete for the cup with the big ears, the vast majority would certainly be prepared to give it up to win a World Cup.
Make no mistake: we are talking about the most prestigious football competition in the world.
The World Cup is a very important way to measure the good players, and the great ones. It is a test of a great player.
A global tournament of such high standards that even some of the game's greatest legends have never won it, leaving the opportunity to lay their hands on the mythical golden trophy to slip away before their very eyes. But there is nothing trivial about simply taking part in this extraordinary event.
In fact, many players would trade part of their record of achievements for the chance to take part. That's why GIVEMESPORT has compiled a list of the 10 greatest players who have never had the honour of playing in a World Cup finals.
|10 Best Players to Never Play at a World Cup|
|Rank|Player|Nationality|Caps|International Span|Position|
|1.|Alfredo Di Stefano|Argentina, Spain|6, 31|1947-1961|Forward|
|2.|George Best|Northern Ireland|37|1964-1977|Winger|
|3.|Laszlo Kubala|Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Spain|6, 3, 19|1946-1961|Striker|
|4.|Valentino Mazzola|Italy|12|1942-1949|Forward|
|5.|George Weah|Liberia|75|1986-2018|Striker|
|6.|Ryan Giggs|Wales|64|1991-2007|Winger|
|7.|Gunnar Nordhal|Sweden|33|1942-1948|Striker|
|8.|Eric Cantona|France|45|1987-1995|Forward|
|9.|Ian Rush|Wales|73|1980-1996|Forward|
|10.|Duncan Edwards|England|18|1955-1957|Midfielder|
|---|
10 Duncan Edwards
England
Among the top players who have never played a single World Cup match, there are many whose presence in this ranking would be legitimate. Perhaps even more so than Duncan Edwards. After all, the former Manchester United player has never really been able to show the world the full extent of his talent. Or at least, he never really had the opportunity.
The victim of the infamous Munich Air Disaster, the young midfielder disappeared before he even had the chance to shine on the biggest stage on the planet. Make no mistake about it, the five years he had just spent with the Red Devils would certainly have ensured him a place in Walter Winterbottom's squad.
9 Ian Rush
Wales
To talk about Ian Rush is quite simply to talk about the highest scoring Liverpool player in history. And that's all there is to it. A cold-blooded finisher, a predator of the box, who tormented defences in England and Italy - he played for Juventus from 1986 to 1988 - between the 80s and 90s, but never had the opportunity to express himself in the greatest of competitions.
One of his biggest regrets, as he himself has already said. Wales, whose only appearance at a World Cup dates back to 1958 and who had not qualified for an international competition since Euro 1976, were far too inconsistent.
8 Eric Cantona
France
MixCollage-26-Jan-2025-03-21-PM-1078
Rarely in the history of football has a player's career been so closely aligned with his personality. Eric Cantona's career is a perfect example. A gifted player, considered by many to be the best Premier League footballer of the 90s, he was as much known for the adoration he received across the Channel as for his proud character and his many antics.
All of which led to some notorious problems and certainly cost him a better adventure with the French national team. Not to mention the fact that he was part of a generation in search of a new identity, orphaned by Michel Platini and not yet guided by Zinedine Zidane. But Cantona's career was what it was, and that's another reason why his name remains so respected today.
7 Gunnar Nordahl
Sweden
Gunnar Nordahl
Sweden may not be considered one of the world's great footballing nations today, but it has nevertheless produced some immense players. Gunnar Nordahl is certainly one of the greatest. Yet the former striker, who is incidentally AC Milan's all-time top scorer, was never able to take part in the World Cup.
In fact, it was because he had decided to join the Italian club that he had to give up his national team, which at the time did not allow professional players from outside Sweden to wear its colours. A heavy price to pay for a player who nevertheless scored 33 goals in 43 appearances.
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6 Ryan Giggs
Wales
MixCollage-28-Jan-2025-01-19-PM-7348
Like Rush, Ryan Giggs never managed to qualify Wales for a World Cup finals. And this despite a more than positive personal record with the Dragons, who pulled on the famous red jersey 64 times (12 goals). But the step was too high for the British, and even a potential late-career move would not have allowed the winger to fill one of the only missing lines on his never-ending list of honours.
However, the fact that he did not take part in the global competition should not in any way overshadow all that the Cardiff-born winger has achieved. His status as the player with the most appearances in Manchester United's history is just one example.
5 George Weah
Liberia
George Weah lifts the Ballon d'Or
Few personalities in the history of Liberia have had as great an influence as George Weah. As well as being a formidable footballer - the first African to win the Ballon d'Or in 1995 - the former AC Milan player has also established himself as one of the country's leading political figures. He was even appointed president in 2017, and remained president for six years.
A career as extraordinary as it is atypical, a qualification for the World Cup would almost have made it seem supernatural. And that is exactly what almost happened in 2002, when his team lost out on a ticket to the World Cup by just one point to Nigeria.
4 Valentino Mazzola
Italy
Although only 30 at the time of his death, Valentino Mazzola, like Edwards, was also the victim of an unfortunate plane crash on his way back from a trip to Lisbon. It was a tragedy in 1949 that claimed the lives of the entire squad and staff of ‘Grande Torino’, then considered the best team in Italy and the main source of players for the Squadra Azzurra.
Mazzola was the captain of a group of highly talented players. It was a position the Turin playmaker would almost certainly have held at the 1950 World Cup, where he would obviously have taken part and perhaps even lifted the trophy had fate not decided otherwise.
3 Laszlo Kubala
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Spain
Statute of Laszlo Kubala outside the stadium
Looking back at Laszlo Kubala's career, one might almost think that taking part in a World Cup was not part of his destiny. Yet he has had the opportunity.
Although he was born in Budapest and represented Hungary at international level, the legendary Barcelona player, who was politically exiled in Catalonia, took advantage of the lack of regulations regarding the change of allegiance to also play for the Czech and Spanish national teams. But when, in 1962, he finally came close to experiencing the exhilaration of a World Cup selection with his adopted country, an unfortunate injury finally kept him away, sounding the death knell for a career of a thousand stories.
2 George Best
Northern Ireland
George Best at Manchester United
George Best was always clear about the fact that representing Northern Ireland would certainly prevent him from taking part in major international competitions. Even to the point of describing the matches he played for the Green and White Army as ‘recreational football’ - in his own words.
But this did not stop him from wearing the colours 37 times (scoring nine goals) between 1964 and 1977, and being described by the Irish Football Association as the ‘greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland’. And rightly so, given the pedigree of the legendary Manchester United player, whose career was rewarded with a Ballon d'Or award in 1968.
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1 Alfredo Di Stefano
Argentina, Spain
Di Stefano
Hardly anyone today can claim to have seen Alfredo Di Stefano play with their own eyes. But the stories of those who did are enough to give you an idea of the kind of player he was. And if that's not enough, the simple fact that Pele himself called him the greatest player of all time should convince you.
The Buenos Aires native is certainly a legend. Not just of Real Madrid, of course, but of football in general. Which makes it all the more remarkable that he never played a single minute of a World Cup. And in 1962, when he came closest, an injury forced him to watch his Spanish team-mates (Di Stefano had changed sporting nationality six years earlier) be ejected from the competition in the first round.
All stats correct as of 03-03-2025.