Ronaldo, Zlatan, Beckham: Europe's best ever XI according to fan votes

European football has produced some of the greatest ever players in the history of the men’s game.

South America has brought us legendary stars like Diego Maradona, Pele, Ronaldo Nazario and Lionel Messi, while Africa has offered up Georga Weah, Abedi Pele, Didier Drogba and Mohamed Salah.

And the rest of the world gave us the joy of Ali Daei, Park Ji-sung, Paulino Alcántara, Hugo Sánchez, Heung-min Son, Tim Cahill and Rafael Marquez to name just a few.

However, it’s Europe that has so often – rightly or wrongly – been considered the promised land of football with the allure of the top five leagues and Champions League regularly attracting global stars.

But even in a world where the beautiful game’s hub centred around Asia or Oceania, the inescapable reality is that so many of the sport’s finest ever players have hailed from Europe regardless.

Italy, Germany, England, France and Spain have all gotten their hands on the World Cup since its inception in 1930 and that’s in no small part thanks to the nauseating cohort of legends that they’ve been able to call upon.

From Ferenc Puskas to Gerd Muller and Franz Beckenbauer to Franco Baresi, the European continent has given us enough world-beating footballers to appreciate for three or four lifetimes.

However, what if we were to tell you that the pool of legendary players from Europe is so deep that not a single one of those icons has been voted by fans into the continent’s greatest ever XI?

Yes, that’s right, call it head-spinning depth or simply deluded supporters, but we’ve turned our attention to ranker.com to see who football’s patrons consider to be Europe’s finest ever players.

Using their interactive list titled: ‘The Best Soccer Players of All Time’, which has