The best XI of the Italian top flight
The highest-rated player available at every position in the Italian top flight, drawn from 13,663 real career records across 120 squads. Nobody voted. The record book chose.
| Pos | Player | From | Record | Legend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GK | Samir Handanović | Inter Milan 2020s | 380 apps | 94 |
| RB | Franco Baresi | AC Milan 1990s | 531 apps · 16g | 94 |
| CB | Alessandro Costacurta | AC Milan 1990s | 458 apps · 3g | 94 |
| CB | Sergio Brio | Juventus 1990s | 379 apps · 24g | 93 |
| LB | Giorgio Chiellini | Juventus 2000s | 425 apps · 27g | 93 |
| RM | Pavel Nedvěd | Juventus 1990s | 247 apps · 51g | 93 |
| CM | Marco Simone | AC Milan 1990s | 168 apps · 49g | 93 |
| CM | Kaká | AC Milan 2000s | 193 apps · 70g | 93 |
| LM | Clarence Seedorf | AC Milan 2000s | 300 apps · 48g | 93 |
| ST | Alessandro Del Piero | Juventus 1990s | 513 apps · 208g | 94 |
| ST | Andriy Shevchenko | AC Milan 1990s | 208 apps · 127g | 94 |
Sixteen clubs across 120 squads, weighted toward the Milan, Inter and Juventus sides of the 1990s and 2000s — the period when Serie A paid the most and kept the best players longest.
Italian defensive records are unusually strong here, which is partly real and partly structural: defenders in this league accumulated long single-club careers, and long careers are what the ranking rewards.
What the table is doing
This eleven draws on 3 different teams and spans the 1950s to the 2020s. Each player is ranked against others in the same position, decade and team type, so a goalkeeper’s appearance record and a striker’s goal record can sit in the same list without one drowning the other. The full derivation, including where it is least certain, is in the methodology.
Public records contain errors, so this list can too. Every name above links to its squad page, and every squad page links to the Wikidata record behind the figures — if something here is wrong, it can be checked in two clicks, and corrections are welcome.
Common questions
How is this the best xi of the italian top flight chosen?
By record, not opinion. Every player in the Italian top flight is ranked on their real career output — appearances, goals, assists and honours — and the highest-rated available player fills each position in a 4-4-2. The pool here is 13,663 records across 120 squads.
Can I check these numbers?
Yes, and that is the point. Each player links to the squad page they came from, and every squad page links each name to the Wikidata record the figures were extracted from.
Can I play with this XI?
Not this exact eleven — the game deals you a random team and decade each turn and you draft from what you are given. That constraint is the game. These pages show what the strongest possible eleven would look like if you were never constrained at all.