Ranking the 11 Best Crossers in Football History

Highlights

• Crossing is one of the most spectacular ways to set up a goal but is not a high-percentage play.

• English football has produced a gaggle of legendary wingers who excelled at repeatedly whipping the ball into the box.

• Even though crossing is not as common in the modern-day game, the Premier League boasts two of the best-ever technicians.

Crossing is not an efficient route to goal. On average, only one in 90 open-play crosses end up in the back of the net. There's a better chance of a flipped coin landing on heads six times in a row. But a select group of individuals has been able to make a mockery of these unflattering figures.

Long before the ineffectiveness of crossing was quantified, beating an opponent and swinging the ball into the penalty box was the only job of the best wingers in the world for decades. Even in the modern day, when elite clubs have vast data departments stuffed with astrophysicists and mathematicians, some of the greatest players on the planet have reached those lofty heights by mastering the most inefficient aspect of the game.

Wide players, rampaging full-backs and wandering midfielders have all had the ball on the end of a string. Here are the maverick figures who have consistently confounded the calculations and established themselves as the best crossers ever to take to a football pitch.

Ranking Factors

• Assists - The ultimate aim of any delivery into the box is to tee up a goal.

• Reputation - In the absence of detailed data beyond the last decade, the praise a player earned for their crossing ability has been considered.

• Level - The best crossers have been able to find their range in the most competitive settings.

• Longevity - To reach the summit of the sport is one thing, but to stay there is all the more impressive.

11 Dragan Dzajic

1963-1976

Dragan Dzajic was at his beguiling, brilliant best in the late 1960s and early '70s, a time when football and life - especially behind the Iron Curtain in Yugoslavia - were much simpler. The orthodox, left-footed, left winger once described his Peugeot 404 as "my second love", behind his boyhood club, Red Star Belgrade.

National restrictions prevented Dzajic from ever moving to one of the best teams in the world, spending a decade-and-a-half at his beloved Red Star before a two-year stint with French side Bastia at the end of his career. Dzajic exploded beyond his club's subdued status with the winning goal against England in the semi-finals of Euro 1968. Not only were Sir Alf Ramsey's side the reigning world champions, but their success was based on a system without any wingers. It was ironic then, that a classic, cross-happy wideman should spark the nation's downfall.

10 Francisco Arce

1989-2006

During the 2002 World Cup, Brazilian goalkeeper, Marcos, claimed that Paraguay's right-back Francisco Arce surpassed David Beckham when it came to getting the ball into the box. "For me, Arce crosses better. Beckham is more valued simply because he plays in Europe."

Arce played at two World Cups and three editions of the Copa America, registering seven assists at the highest available level of international competition. While Marcos may have gotten slightly carried away with his comparison to Beckham, the perfectly named Arce could send the ball on any trajectory he wanted during a career which took him to continental glory with two different clubs.

9 Roberto Carlos

1991-2016

The worst cross of Roberto Carlos' career is his most famous. Halfway through the 2002 Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid's left-back saw a flash of white out the corner of his eye and hooked the ball into the dark Glasgow sky. Fortunately for Carlos, his "terrible" cross landed on Zinedine Zidane's laces and sailed into the top corner.

The converted winger never lost his attacking instincts, cantering up (and rarely back down) the left flank each match. Carlos was unbridled by the burden of failure. Whether he was taking aim from an outrageous angle or attempting to whip an audacious cross into the box, the joyful character ploughed on regardless. "Many times my play came out well, many times it didn't," he shrugged, "but I always played without fear."

8 Trent Alexander-Arnold

2016-Present

Jurgen Klopp built his first great Liverpool team to suit the natural talents of the players at his disposal. No squad member was more gifted than Trent Alexander-Arnold. A midfielder for the youth team who would peer over the wall of Liverpool's training ground to get a glimpse of his idols was eventually shifted into the right-back position, but still possessed the passing ability he had honed during his time in the middle of the park.

Between 2018 and 2022, Alexander-Arnold delivered a staggering tally of 44 Premier League assists - for comparison, Arsenal's legendary midfielder, Robert Pires, only created 41 top-flight goals during his entire career in English football. Most of Alexander-Arnold's assists during this period came from wide on the right-hand touchline, sweeping beyond the bamboozled defenders and into the stride of his ever-grateful teammates.

7 Andreas Brehme

1978-1998

It was evident from a young age that Andreas Brehme was technically gifted. The future German international entertained the modest crowds at his father's amateur side, HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst, with a half-time juggling performance when he was just five. The former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan full-back had such a mastery of the ball that he could use either foot. "My left is harder," he once explained. "My right is more precise."

Both boots came in handy when swinging his signature crosses into the box. Brehme's brilliance was evident throughout a trophy-laden two decades at the top of European football. The World Cup winner perhaps peaked in 1989, when his Inter Milan side won Serie A, and he was voted as Italian Footballer of the Year above the likes of Marco van Basten, Roberto Baggio and Diego Maradona.

6 Sir Stanley Matthews

1931-1965

In an era when the maximum wage forced most footballers to supplement their income with part-time jobs, Sir Stanley Matthews was the ultimate professional. Long before nutritionists, physios or sports scientists, England's original wing wizard would jog up and down Blackpool beach with a set of weights. Countless hours were spent honing the intricacies of his famous body feint, all for the benefit of creating enough room to deliver an invariably accurate cross.

This unrivalled dedication ensured that Matthews spent three-and-a-half decades at the elite level. Five days after turning 50, the Stoke City icon still managed to skip past Fulham's Jim Langley and swing the ball in the stride of John Ritchie for the second goal in a 3-1 victory.

5 Cafu

1989-2008

Brazil was the birthplace of the back four in the 1950s and has produced some of the greatest right-backs to ever bomb down the wing. But few, if any, have ever boasted the same balance of stamina and skill as Cafu.

Dubbed 'Il Pendolino' by Roma fans, who compared him to the high-speed train that always arrived on time, the Brazilian's attitude and aerobic capacity constantly put him in a position to deliver his wonderfully flighted crosses. "Cafu just kept going," the full-back's former AC Milan teammate, Jaap Stam, wistfully remembered. "Up and down, up and down - and never gave up."

4 Luis Figo

1989-2009

On a mild night in November 2002, Luis Figo may have wished he wasn't so good at crossing the ball. Even in a side which boasted the quality of Guti, Steve McManaman and Roberto Carlos, the Portuguese winger was Real Madrid's designated set-piece taker for an away trip to arch-rivals Barcelona. Each time Figo trotted towards the corner flag, a volley of miscellaneous objects rained down on the pitch.

Coins, golf balls and, most famously, a cooked pig's head were aimed at the unwitting winger. This unprecedented show of hatred stemmed from Figo's unexpected departure from Barcelona in the summer of 2000, shortly after he had promised to stay in Catalonia. In many ways, it's a huge compliment to Figo's quality as a player that Barcelona fans were so devastated by his exit. Although, at the time, he was more concerned about his safety. "I was worried that some madman might lose his head that night," Figo fretted. One pig did.

3 Ryan Giggs

1990-2014

Five members of Manchester United's squad during Ryan Giggs' final season as a professional had not been born when the Welsh wizard made his senior debut in 1991. By the end of his two decades at the elite level, Giggs' game had dramatically evolved to match the ever-changing demands placed upon a winger.

For much of his career, the United icon bewitched England's top flight, so fleet of foot he wouldn't have left tracks in the snow, dancing down the left touchline before sending the ball into the box. This trademark approach helped Giggs rack up an unrivalled 162 Premier League assists. To offer some perspective, the Welshman's natural successor, Gareth Bale, only amassed 166 Premier League appearances.

3:19

2 Kevin De Bruyne

2008-Present

Kevin De Bruyne is the ultimate modern-day crosser. Rather than blindly slinging the ball into the box as the first and only option, the Belgian regularly finds himself presented with an opportunity to pick out his teammates at the end of Manchester City's painstakingly choreographed moves. When constantly faced with packed defences and low blocks, the space is out wide - which is where De Bruyne thrives.

Outside these planned routines, De Bruyne's appreciation of high-speed geometry is "unique" in the words of his manager, Pep Guardiola. "The vision he has," the Catalan coach has gushed on countless occasions. "He sees things others cannot see."

1 David Beckham

1992-2013

Sometimes the footballing fates have a sense of humour. On 7th May 1975, Sandra West gave birth to her first son, David Beckham, in Leytonstone, on the outskirts of London. The hospital that housed the greatest crosser of a football ever seen was fittingly called Whipps Cross. What are the chances?

Beckham's stratospheric celebrity persona can distract from his deserved status as one of the greatest English midfielders of all time. Blessed with endless stamina but not an abundance of pace, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid playmaker didn't have to get beyond the opposition defender, instead arcing the ball into the box from wherever he found himself on the pitch.

"When he passes the ball, it always seems to go where he wants it to go," the former England manager, Graham Taylor once noted. "That sounds simple, but believe me, it is not."