Goal.com's Top 50 English Players Of All Time

The World Cup is just around the corner, and Fabio Capello's England side appear to be in good shape for a tilt at the South African crown in 2010. Furthermore, Premier League clubs have been dominant in the Champions League in recent times - so perhaps the country is preparing to enter a golden era.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the achievements of yore. World Cup '66 may have occurred before many of us were born, but the ghost of this success on home soil still lingers. This, along with many other domestic and continental watersheds, has set benchmarks which today's young guns still dream of equalling.

We at Goal.com are nothing if not gluttons for punishment, so we set ourselves the ultimate task: ranking the Top 50 English Players Of All Time!

Every blade of grass has been covered, from the pre-war era to the present day, and hundreds upon hundreds of players considered.

Hair has been pulled out, archives and memories exhausted, points argued to the hilt and friendships ruined forever, but it's all been worth it. Now, our experts have settled on what we believe to be the definitive article: our final selection.

Every day, starting on Monday April 27 with No.50, we will profile a legend in all his glory. The countdown will continue for seven weeks, with a new profile published every day, until our writers have found their way to No.1.

Each individual player article will explain our choice by outlining his achievements for both club and country. All the medals, all the goals, all the controversy will be laid out bare, backed up by video content, trivia and some great pictures.

We don't expect you to agree completely, of course. Everyone has their own distinctive memories of players, teams, games and everything else which makes up the footballing landscape, so we want you to get involved.

If you feel that a player has placed too highly, then vote on our poll. Then, leave us a comment - or an outright rant - and we'll read them all, publishing the best on the profile itself.

Finally, you can head over to our England football forums for some real in-depth discussion with fans from around the world.

Goal.com's Top 50 English Players Of All Time - The Countdown So Far...

No.50 - John Terry
No.49 - Tony Currie
No.48 - Terry Butcher
No.47 - Gerry Hitchens
No.46 - Paul Ince
No.45 - George Camsell
No.44 - Wayne Rooney
No.43 - Jackie Milburn
No.42 - Roger Hunt
No.41 - Rio Ferdinand
No.40 - Wilf Mannion
No.39 - Frank Lampard
No.38 - John Barnes
No.37 - Nat Lofthouse
No.36 - Eddie Hapgood
No.35 - Chris Waddle
No.34 - David Platt
No.33 - Phil Neal
No.32 - Johnny Haynes
No.31 - Peter Beardsley
No.30 - Ray Clemence
No.29 - Ted Drake
No.28 - Michael Owen
No.27 - Raich Carter
No.26 - Colin Bell
No.25 - Frank Swift
No.24 - Paul Scholes
No.23 - Tony Adams
No.22 - Martin Peters
No.21 - Billy Wright
No.20 - Geoff Hurst
No.19 - Cliff Bastin

No.18 - Steven Gerrard

No.17 - Glenn Hoddle
No.16 - Bryan Robson
No.15 - Alan Shearer
No.14 - Paul Gascoigne
No.13 - David Beckham
No.12 - Dixie Dean
No.11 - Alan Ball
No.10 - Peter Shilton
No. 9 - Gary Lineker
No. 8 - Duncan Edwards
No. 7 - Kevin Keegan
No. 6 - Jimmy Greaves
No. 5 - Tom Finney
No. 4 - Gordon Banks
No. 3 - Stanley Matthews
No. 2 - Bobby Moore
No. 1 - Bobby Charlton

--Goal.com team