Best left backs of all time

The 25 greatest left backs in football history, ranked by a composite of career goals, assists and appearances.

#	Player	Position	Citizenship	Status	Career goals	Assists	Apps
1	Roberto Carlos	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil Spain	Retired	100	146	773
2	Daniel Brückner	Defender - Left-Back	Germany Algeria	Niendorfer TSV	89	73	589
3	Jan Kalabiska	Defender - Left-Back	Czech Republic	FC Zlin	100	51	541
4	Jordi Alba	Defender - Left-Back	Spain	Inter Miami CF	48	131	693
5	Caner Erkin	Defender - Left-Back	Türkiye	Sakaryaspor	45	129	618
6	Reinaldo	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil	Mirassol Futebol Clube (SP)	68	78	676
7	Marcelo	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil Spain	Retired	52	108	663
8	Alejandro Grimaldo	Defender - Left-Back	Spain	Bayer 04 Leverkusen	52	112	498
9	Giovanni van Bronckhorst	Defender - Left-Back	Netherlands	Retired	73	67	598
10	Simon Handle	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	FC Viktoria Köln	86	43	483
11	Stephen McLaughlin	Defender - Left-Back	Ireland	Mansfield Town	67	75	546
12	Alexandru Chipciu	Defender - Left-Back	Romania	FC Universitatea Cluj	65	77	531
13	Grigoris Georgatos	Defender - Left-Back	Greece	Retired	68	63	460
14	Stuart Pearce	Defender - Left-Back	England	Retired	86	18	660
15	Marcel Gaus	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	Retired	73	48	459
16	Petr Mares	Defender - Left-Back	Czech Republic	FC RFS	60	73	434
17	Raphaël Guerreiro	Defender - Left-Back	Portugal France	Bayern Munich	63	65	500
18	Levan Kobiashvili	Defender - Left-Back	Georgia	Retired	66	56	566
19	Ehsan Hajsafi	Defender - Left-Back	Iran	Sepahan FC	63	59	603
20	DaMarcus Beasley	Defender - Left-Back	United States	Retired	61	64	509
21	Nuno Santos	Defender - Left-Back	Portugal	Sporting CP	58	73	362
22	Ezgjan Alioski	Defender - Left-Back	North Macedonia Switzerland	FC Lugano	63	58	471
23	Joe Jacobson	Defender - Left-Back	Wales	Retired	55	67	657
24	Carlos Morales	Defender - Left-Back	Mexico	Retired	70	34	688
25	Fábio Santos	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil Portugal	Retired	66	38	825
26	Michael Tarnat	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	Retired	51	73	618
27	Philipp Max	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	Panathinaikos FC	47	80	482
28	Joachim Soltvedt	Defender - Left-Back	Norway	SK Brann	55	67	308
29	Aleksandar Kolarov	Defender - Left-Back	Serbia	Retired	52	67	508
30	John Arne Riise	Defender - Left-Back	Norway	Retired	55	55	713
31	Jesús Gallardo	Defender - Left-Back	Mexico	Deportivo Toluca	62	46	453
32	Wederson	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil Türkiye	Retired	51	68	444
33	Alex Telles	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil Italy	Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas	39	89	529
34	Christian Fuchs	Defender - Left-Back	Austria	Retired	40	83	598
35	Hendrick Zuck	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	1.FC Kaiserslautern II	51	65	422
36	Robin Gosens	Defender - Left-Back	Germany Netherlands	ACF Fiorentina	58	48	454
37	Dmitriy Kombarov	Defender - Left-Back	Russia	Retired	46	70	525
38	Alexander Nollenberger	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	1.FC Magdeburg	62	44	245
39	Sean Newton	Defender - Left-Back	England	Ashton United	57	48	445
40	Andreas Ulmer	Defender - Left-Back	Austria	Retired	27	101	709
41	Danny Grainger	Defender - Left-Back	England	Retired	47	63	460
42	Gilberto	Defender - Left-Back	Brazil	Retired	61	35	449
43	David Raum	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	RB Leipzig	41	77	345
44	Lukas Scepanik	Defender - Left-Back	Germany	Alemannia Aachen	46	66	383
45	Thomas Salamon	Defender - Left-Back	Austria	Young Violets Austria Wien	50	55	464
46	Leighton Baines	Defender - Left-Back	England	Retired	43	66	581
47	Marcos Acuña	Defender - Left-Back	Argentina	CA River Plate	40	72	552
48	Domenico Criscito	Defender - Left-Back	Italy	Retired	54	42	551
49	Martin Mikovic	Defender - Left-Back	Slovakia	Spartak Trnava	49	54	451
50	Derry Murkin	Defender - Left-Back	England Netherlands	FC Utrecht	56	44	282

How the ranking works

We rank each player by a composite score: career_goals × 4 + career_assists × 2 + career_matches × 0.05. This rewards finishers, creative players and longevity in equal measure — without depending on subjective awards or trophies. The list filters by position keyword so wingers, full-backs and centre-backs each get their own ranking.