All-Time Soccer Fantasy Draft

I randomly came across this fun article about drafting a fantasy soccer team, with the player pool being all players in history.

A guy with his initials on Louis Vuitton luggage? A power move only a true soccer don like Zizou can pull off.

Soccer doesn't match up that well with the fantasy game given the paucity of statistics, so these selections were made with team building and chemistry in mind, and assumed that all players would be in their prime. Take a look at the list of first rounders after the jump.

1. Lionel Messi
2. Diego Maradona
3. Johan Cruyff
4. Pele
5. Franz Beckenbauer
6. Lev Yashin
7. Michel Platini
8. Bobby Moore
9. Zinedine Zidane
10. Ferenc Puskas

Looking over the draft in its entirety, I scratch my head at some of the selections, most of all the lack of Barcelona legend Ladislao Kubala. He was a crazy Hungarian bastard who kept FCB in a tight rivalry with Real Madrid and their legend, Alfredo di Stefano, in the 1950s. Given how epic that rivalry was described by Jimmy Burns, I'm surprised that di Stefano gets drafted in the second round and Kubala goes completely undrafted. Plus there was actually solid representation for other old-time Hungarian legends, so that just stuck out to me. Surely he demands selection over Brad freaking Friedel.

Kubala's statue outside of Camp Nou. Frighteningly, his legs were nearly that ripped.

Other than that, there were just some nit-picky things I thought were weird, like Rivaldo getting picked a couple rounds after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Lillian Thuram going so early, though all are very good players obviously.

Probably my favorite team is this guy's. I love Messi to death for not being a temperamental primadonna like Diego Maradona, but in terms of pure domination during his prime, I'd go with Maradona as my first pick, too. I also love some of his other picks, like Roberto Carlos, Bobby "The Comb Over" Charlton, Gheorge Popescu, and Oliver KAHHHN! Plus Samuel Eto'o in the second to last round, are you kidding me?!

That's Sir Bobby Charlton to you, pleb.

Thoughts and reactions? Who are your top picks?