Luka Modric has been crowned Goal 50 winner for 2018, so where does the Real Madrid and Croatia ace rank among the greatest centre-mids of all time?
We chose our list based on a player's overall quality for both club and country, trophies won, big-game performances, consistency and longevity.
We only included players who generally featured and excelled regularly in either a two-man or three-man central midfield. Midfielders who mostly played further up the pitch were not considered.
Therefore, the likes of Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane and Zico were not selected by our writers, Carlo Garganese and Mark Doyle.
20Graeme Souness
As brilliant as he was brutal, Graeme Souness was the complete midfielder. He both scored and created goals.
The Scot was also one of the toughest, most uncompromising players in football history – a man who once broke the jaw of an opponent, Movila of Dinamo Bucharest, for having the audacity to beat him with an audacious piece of skill.
Souness wasn't a man who made many friends on the pitch. He wasn't even universally popular among his Liverpool team-mates but he commanded respect.
A pure winner, the former Reds captain won five league titles and three European Cups during his six-year spell at Anfield. As former team-mate Alan Hansen once mused, "Among midfielders, Graeme was the king."
AdvertisementGetty Images19Jean Tigana
The engine of the wonderful France team that won Euro '84 and heartbreakingly lost on penalties in the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup, Jean Tigana was a member of arguably the best international midfield Europe has ever seen – at least, until Spain’s Golden Era – along with Alain Giresse, Jean Fernandez and Michel Platini.
Tigana was a tireless runner who would hunt down opponents and win the ball off them to launch attacks. He was also extremely intelligent positionally and he played a crucial role in the legendary 3-2 extra time win over Portugal at Euro ’84, cutting back for Platini to score in the dying seconds.
Tigana was also a key part of the wonderful Bordeaux side that dominated French football in the 1980s and reached the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1985, only to lose narrowly to eventual winners Juventus.
Getty18Roy Keane
Roy Keane was such a troubled character that questions over his temperament regularly overshadowed his talent. He clashed with opponents and team-mates throughout his career on account of an insatiable thirst for success that proved both a blessing and a curse.
Just like his manager at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson, he demanded nothing less than 100 per cent commitment from himself and those around him. As a result, he effectively became United's on-field boss.
Keane and Ferguson would later fall out, resulting in an acrimonious exit, but not before the Irishman had lifted seven Premier League titles and one Champions League.
The Corkonian missed the final of the latter through suspension but, as Ferguson was at pains to point out, their treble-clinching triumph in Barcelona in 1999 would not have been possible without Keane, who produced a Herculean performance in the semi-final second-leg win over Juventus in Turin.
“It was the most emphatic display of selflessness I have seen on a football field," the Scot enthused. "I felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player."
Getty Images17Didi
Voted best player at the 1958 World Cup, Didi was one of the first Brazilian free-kick masters and, fittingly, the man believed to be responsible for coining the term 'The Beautiful Game'.
The ex-Fluminense, Botafogo and Real Madrid star was the inventor of the ‘dry leaf’ free kick, so-called because it would dip and swerve in unpredictable directions. Of the 20 goals he scored for the Selecao, a dozen came from dead-ball situations.
He was also a brilliant passer and dictator of the play, winning two World Cups and scoring the first ever goal at the legendary Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.