Rio Ferdinand Picks His Top Five Left-Footed Players

Rio Ferdinand has sparked a debate today after picking his five top left-footed players of all-time.

The six-time Premier League winner, who will be a pundit for BT Sport for their Champions League coverage on Tuesday and Wednesday, decided to stimulate the conversation prior to tonight's fixtures, taking to Twitter to reveal his list.

Image: PA

Popular opinion in football is that left-footed players are just easier on the eye, and that they are generally rarer in the game than those right-footed.

And Ferdinand, currently training to obtain his boxing licence to take part in a fight, got his followers talking about the topic today.

His list comprises of 1999 Ballon d'Or winner Rivaldo, the legendary Diego Maradona, five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi, Hristo Stoichkov and Ferdinand's long-time teammate Ryan Giggs.

I'm sure you'll agree that the five he's opted for have bags of quality and have left us in awe with their wand of a left peg - something that Messi, the only player on the list still playing, still does on a regular basis today.

There were a few notable omissions, given that the likes of Raul, Roberto Carlos,Paolo Maldini, Arjen Robben, David Silva, Robin van Persie ,Gheorghe Hagi, Adriano, Gareth Bale, Paulo Dybala, Mario Kempes, Ferenc Puskas and many others could all be thrown in.

There's a case for putting Alfredo di Stefano and Johan Cruyff in the mix, too, though they were more two-footed than left-footed.

Anyway, Ferdinand's purpose of his Tweet was to get a debate going and he definitely achieved that. Here are some of the replies, where they have been some great shouts:

What would your top five be?

Have your say in our comments section.