The Five Greatest Players never to have played at the World Cup

1. Alfredo Di Stefano(Argentina/Colombia/Spain):
Alfredo Di Stefano is often regarded as one of the best 5 players that football has ever seen. The player, nicknamed "the Blond Arrow", who won 5 consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid, never got his chance to play at the biggest stage despite representing three major footballing nations during his career.

While representing his native Argentina, his side qualified for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil but Argentina refused to participate due to political reasons. In 1954 FIFA disqualified him from participating because he had been capped by both Argentina and Colombia. Di Stefano obtained Spanish citizenship in time for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, but unfortunately Spain failed to qualify. And when Spain had finally qualified for the 1962 World Cup, he got injured and had to miss the tournament.

2. George Best (Northern Ireland):
George Best is arguably one of the greatest players to have played for Manchester United and even the great Pele acknowledged him to be the best at that time. Unfortunately he played for one of the weaker countries of Europe and therefore his chances of making it to the World Cup was always very low. And when his country had finally qualified for the 1982 World Cup, he was too old and lacked fitness to get into the team.

3. Ryan Giggs (Wales)
Ryan Giggs might have won everything there is in club football and might be one of the greatest footballers of all time, but he played for Wales during a time when his country had no other stars and even after playing for more than 16 years for his country, he never got his chance to play at the World Cup.

4. George Weah (Liberia)
George Weah is regarded as the greatest footballer Africa has ever produced and remains till this date the only African to have won the Ballon d’Or. He was a legend at AC Milan, Paris St Germain and Monaco but like George Best and Ryan Giggs, he had played for a relative minnow Liberia and hence never got hi hance to display his skills at the World Cup.

5. Eric Cantona (France)
Eric Cantona might be an absolute legend for Manchester United but the temperamental French never go a chance to shine for his ountry at the World Cup for variety of reasons. France failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1990 and 1994 and, with Zinedine Zidane having taken his role in the team during his suspension due to the infamous ‘Kung-Fu kick’ in 1995, he never played for his country again on his return to the game and missed their 1998 triumph on home soil.

Honorable mentions: Arsenio Erico(Paraguay), Laszlo Kubala (Czechoslovakia/Hungary/Spain), Duncan Edwards(Englnd), Jari Litmanen(Finland), Bernd Schuster(Germany)