Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid also represented on the list.
The World Cup has, as one would expect, been graced by some of the planet’s finest ever footballers.
Who can forget Ronaldo’s masterclass in 2002, or Diego Maradona’s ridiculous brilliance in 1986, or even Zinedine Zidane’s moment of heat-butting madness in 2006?
However, some of the best players of all-time never got to feature at the World Cup finals.
ATTHEFARPOST writer Matt Joyce has listed 10 of the most talented individuals who, for various reasons, never got to display their skills on the grandest stage of all.
Read more articles by Matt Joyce.
10. Ian Rush – Wales
Rush is still Wales’ all-time leading scorer with 28 goals.
The prolific frontman is also Liverpool’s record marksman, having netted 346 times for the Anfield club.
He won five league titles and two European Cups with the Reds, but he was unable to fire his national side to the World Cup finals.
Wales would have reached the 1994 tournament had they beaten Romania at home in the last game of their qualifying campaign. However, Paul Bodin missed a penalty at 1-1, before Romania secured a 2-1 victory.
9. Bernd Schuster – Germany
The 54-year-old, who is currently the manager of Malaga, played for Real Madrid and Barcelona during a highly distinguished career.
Schuster was part of the West German side that won the European Championship in 1980, but he missed the following World Cup after falling out with the German FA and national team boss Jupp Derwall.
8. Eric Cantona – France
Cantona is hailed as one of the driving forces behind Manchester United surge the greatness in the 1990s.
The Frenchman had quite a temper, though, and that anger got the better of him when he openly criticised French head coach Henri Michel’s decision to drop him for a qualifier in 1990. Consequently, Cantona was banned from international matches.
He did eventually return to the France fold, but only temporarily. He was capped 48 times in total, but not once after his infamous kung-fu kick at Crystal Palace in 1995.
7. George Weah – Liberia
Weah is perhaps the best African player of all-time. He was named African Player of the Year in 1989, 1994 and 1995.
He also became the only ever African to win the Balon d’Or when he scooped the award in 1995, while playing for Serie A giants AC Milan.
Weah, who briefly represented Chelsea and Manchester City in 2000, scored 22 goals in 60 senior international appearances for Liberia, but his country has never qualified for a World Cup.
The Barcelona legend represented three different countries at international level.
He turned out six times for Czechoslovakia between 1946 and 1947, before playing three games for Hungary in 1948.
Following his move to Barca in 1951, Kubala became a Spanish citizen. In 19 games for Spain, he scored 11 goals.
He was called up to Spain’s 1962 World Cup squad, but an injury forced him out of the finals.
Mazzola captained the great Torino side of the 1940?s, before he was tragically killed in the Superga air disaster in 1949.
The influential attacking midfielder became famous for rolling up his shirt sleeves to signal when his team were under-performing.
He only represented Italy 12 times, between 1942 and 1949, scoring four goals for the Azzurri.
4. Duncan Edwards – England
Edwards was part of the original ‘Busby Babes’ at Manchester United.
He represented England 18 times before his life was claimed by the Munich air disaster of 1958. He died aged just 21.
Sir Bobby Charlton described Edwards as the greatest player he had ever seen.
3. Ryan Giggs – Wales
Giggs played schoolboy football for England, before committing his international to Wales.
The recently-retired Manchester United midfielder was unfortunate to be sandwiched between two generations of exceptional Welsh talent. He arrived on the international scene after John Toshack had finished his playing career and, although he played alongside Ian Rush, the Liverpool legend was, at that point, past his prime.
Giggs called time on his international career in 2007 – just before Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey became fully established members of the Welsh senior set-up.
Legendary Manchester United winger Best scored nine goals in 27 senior international appearances for Northern Ireland.
However, he never quite managed to drag his teammates to the World Cup.
The 1968 European Player of the Year is the best player of all-time if you believe Brazil legend Pele.
Di Stefano won five consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid and was twice named as the European Player of the Year – in 1957 and 1959.
He won the Copa America with Argentina in 1947, but that turned out to be his only international team honour.
Di Stefano played six games for Argentina, two for Columbia and 31 for Spain. He missed the 1950 World Cup, aged 24, because Argentina refused to enter.
After his switch to Spain, FIFA deemed him ineligible to play in Switzerland in 1954. He then acquired Spanish citizenship, but La Roja failed to qualify in 1958.
They did reach the 1962 finals, but Di Stefano missed out through injury.
