5 of the best left-backs in world football (1997-2017)

#4 Bixente Lizarazu (France)

Lizarazu won everything possible with France

Clubs: Bordeaux, Athletic Bilbao, Bayern Munich (x2), Marseille

The France side which won consecutive major honours in ’98 and ’00 contained Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Didier Deschamps and many more blockbuster names.

So you would be forgiven for not remembering number four on the list, Bixente Lizarazu, who was a lynchpin in both the World Cup & European Championship winning sides, doing his job extremely well without any drama.

Lizarazu stated his club football at Bordeaux and it was there where he found his earliest success, winning the Ligue 2 title as they bounced back at the earliest opportunity after dropping from France’s top flight.

After a ten-year association with Bordeaux he was off to Spain and became the first French player to play for Athletic Bilbao (albeit being a French Basque, he fit into the club's Basque-only policy), however, it did not last long at all as he was soon off to Bavaria, to join the German giants who are Bayern Munich.

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International Caps (Goals): 97 (2) | Honours: Ligue 2, Intertoto Cup, DFB Ligapokal x4, DFB Pokal x5, Bundesliga x6, Champions League, Intercontinental Cup, World Cup, European Championships, Confederations Cup x2

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It was the 1996 UEFA Cup Final when Lizarazu, who was still at Bordeaux, first caught the eye of Bayern but instead of snapping him up on a free from the French club in the summer of the aforementioned final, then then had to spend over £4m to pry him from Athletic Bilbao, which back in 1997, was considered quite a bit of money.

Bayern, in hindsight, was his adopted footballing home and its where it all fell into place for Lizarazu, domestically and internationally. In the years he was at Munich he won a staggering SEVENTEEN winners medals in a spell where Bayern well and truly dominated Germany and he was also playing his club football won he won the honours with France, as well.

He had a brief spell away from Munich when he decided to go back to France to join Marseille. Unsurprisingly though, six months later, he was back at Germany’s most successful club and that’s also where he ended up his magnificent career.