Top 10 football video games of all time

World Cup Special: The Top Ten soccer games of all time

Soccer — or ‘kickey’, to give it its proper name — is generally considered to be the most popular sport in the world. They’re completely bananas for football in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and pretty much anywhere there are people with legs.

It’s therefore unsurprising that so many video games have attempted to replicate the sport over the years. While other genres come and go, the football simulation remains eternal — from the spritely 8-bit era right up to the high-def photorealism of today.

In celebration of this year’s impending football World Cup, we’ve assembled an all-star team of the world’s 10 best soccer games. [Er, surely that should be eleven? — Ed.] For variety’s sake, we’ve deliberately cast our net wide, with cutesy arcade games jostling alongside football management sims.

Every (world) game on this list delivers top-shelf entertainment that’s worthy of appearing in Match of the Day. So without further ado, let’s kick off this feature in traditional hackneyed countdown style...

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