Footballers being overrated or underrated is one of the surefire ways to spark debate.

It would only take me to say that Steven Gerrard was overhyped or that Lionel Messi doesn't get the credit he deserves to strike a nerve with at least somebody reading this article.

But that's the beauty of such a metric. Nobody is denying that players like Gerrard or Messi are superb, but debating whether they do or do not get due praise is a completely different ball game.

Overrated footballers

So, allow us to play a little social experiment by looking at who the fans themselves consider to be the most overrated footballers of all time and see whether you think the masses have got it right.

To achieve this we're calling on thetoptens.com, which allows visitors of their website to either down-vote, up-vote or add candidates to a series of lists ranging from sport, music, films and more.

The list we're calling upon today is: 'Top Ten Most Overrated Football (Soccer) Players of All-Time' and we've drawn out the top 50 players as the voting stood at the time of writing.

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Fans vote on the top 50

With the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele, Paul Scholes and more making appearances in the list, you know you're in for an anger-inducing and debate-fuelling ride, so check it out down below:

50. Paul Scholes

49. Timothy Weah

48. David de Gea

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47. Johannes Dhalum(???)

46. Franco Armani

45. Emre Mor

44. Edgar Davids  

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43. John Arne Riise 

42. Sadio Mané

50-41 summary

Ah, it wouldn't be one of these lists without Scholes, would it? Some football fans are just so paranoid about the fact that so many ex-professionals rate him above Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.

De Gea is also another staple in these sorts of lists, but that's more down to the fact he's fallen from his perch as the world's best goalkeeper to arguably not even being the best shot-stopper at his own club.

As for Bradley, no offence to the lad, but who was rating him in the first place?

And we're inclined to think 'Johannes Dhalum' has been added as somebody's mate because unless we've had a complete brain fart, we can't find him in the history books for the life of us.

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40. Gabriel Morales

39. Antoine Griezmann

38. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

37. Robert Lewandowski

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36. Michael Carrick

35. Jordan Henderson

34. Vincent Kompany

33. Gareth Bale 

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32. Mohamed Salah 

31. Ronaldinho

40-31 summary

Go on, own up, who put Ronaldinho on this list? There's not a chance in hell we're allowing a Ballon d'Or, World Cup and Champions League winner who played with such an entertaining style to be called 'overrated'.

Lewandowski is equally scandalous considering he just passed 50 goals for the season last week, essentially establishing him as the favourite for the Ballon d'Or.

And as far as Henderson and Carrick are concerned, we're inclined to think they're more 'underrated' than anything. It's rare that you hear them eulogised about and certainly not from rival fans.

We are, however, happy to go along with Ibrahimovic taking his place on this list, but that's more to down to the fact he acts as though he's the greatest athlete of all time as opposed to him actually being a bad player.

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PART TWO: CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT WHO FINISHED IN THE TOP 30