Football is an unpredictable game. One week, your team can look like world beaters and the next, they'll lose against the team at the bottom of the league and make you wonder why you ever decided to support them in the first place. Players can dip in and out of form in an instant, but there are some who maintain incredible levels throughout their whole career.

We're talking about some of the greatest footballers of all time here; players who you never have to worry about letting you down; players who will step up time and time again to deliver crucial saves, tackles, or goals to change a game.

To have just one good season as a footballer is pretty special, but to build a whole career at the highest level is the stuff legends are made of. So, which players throughout history have been the most reliable and relentless; the kinds of players you could put your mortgage on?

With that question in mind, here is a list of the most consistent players in football history, including those who are still performing at the top of their game, and others who never failed to entertain week in week out.

Ranking Factors

• Trophies won
• Individual performances
• Attackers benefit from high goal tally across multiple seasons
• Career longevity

The most consistent players in pictures

10 Mohamed Salah

Liverpool, FC Basel, Egypt

Granted, the first few seasons of Mohamed Salah's career were pretty unremarkable. A couple of ten goal campaigns with FC Basel led to a switch to Chelsea, and it's fair to say Salah's time in London was a bit of a disaster. It was with AS Roma that his career really started to take off and, after 29 league goals in two years in Serie A, the Egyptian was heading back to England to join Liverpool, and the rest is history.

44 goals in his first season for the Reds, including 32 in 36 games in the Premier League is a frankly ludicrous debut campaign. And Salah has barely let up since. He's won three Golden Boot awards, and Salah remains an absolute banker to pop up with a goal whenever he's on the pitch.

9 Sergio Ramos

Real Madrid, PSG, Spain

From his early days at Sevilla, it was clear Sergio Ramos was set for the very top, and he soon made the move to Real Madrid, where his career would explode. One of the most passionate, tenacious, and intelligent defenders of the modern era, Ramos became an inspired leader for Madrid, guiding the club to four Champions League wins, five La Liga titles, and six domestic cups.

He made 671 appearances for the Spanish giants and scored a rather incredible 101 goals, before moving on to PSG, where he continued to win trophies. If that wasn't enough, he also won the World Cup and two European Championships with his country.

8 Thierry Henry

Arsenal, Barcelona, France

Much like Mo Salah, Thierry Henry's career took a little time to get going. Spells with Monaco and Juventus were enough to show Arsène Wenger that this young, French winger had potential, and he brought him to Arsenal, deciding he was better suited as a forward. From there, one of the best Premier League strikers of all time emerged.

Henry got better each year, it seemed, going from 17 goals a season, to 25 goals a season, and an incredible 30 goals in the year Arsenal completed the Invincibles league title win. He continued to show his flair and impeccable finishing skills at Barcelona and in the MLS, and even came back to Arsenal briefly to show he still had the golden touch.

7 Wayne Rooney

Manchester United, Everton, England

From the moment he first stepped on to the pitch as a 16-year-old for Everton, Wayne Rooney was a star of the highest order. His first-ever goal, against Arsenal, was truly special, but his career with Manchester United thereafter is the mark of a generational talent. His 208 Premier League goals make him the third-highest scorer in the competition's history, and he had a similar impact at international level with England.

Rooney won five Premier League titles, the FA Cup, four League Cups, and the Champions League with the Red Devils. He will stand forever as one of the most special talents of the modern era.

6 Luka Modric

Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, Croatia

Everyone could see Luka Modric was a quality player when he arrived at Tottenham Hotspur, and for four years he wowed the crowds at White Hart Lane. But, greatness beckoned the little Croatian in the form of a move to Real Madrid.

After the Champions League win last season, Modric is now Madrid's most decorated player of all time, and even at the age of 39, he continues to showcase his magical talents in the middle of the park. It's safe to say Modric can retire happy, with four La Liga titles, six Champions League wins, and even a Ballon d'Or to his name.

5 Gianluigi Buffon

Juventus, Parma, Italy

It is quite possible that there has never been a safer pair of hands in world football than those belonging to Gianluigi Buffon. The Italian dominated the game in his area of expertise for more than 20 years before he retired last summer at the ripe old age of 45.

During his 17 years of service with Juventus, Buffon won ten Serie A titles, 13 domestic cups, and was named goalkeeper of the season ten times. It was almost unfair how relentlessly good Buffon was in his career, and that's without even mentioning the fact he won a World Cup, too.

4 Ryan Giggs

Manchester United, Wales

Nobody has more assists in the Premier League era than Ryan Giggs, and the Welsh wizard was an integral part of Manchester United's dominance through the 1990s and early 2000s. He played for the Red Devils for his whole career, making almost 1000 appearances before retiring in 2014 at the age of 40.

A truly phenomenal, timeless player, who dazzled down the wing for two decades.

3 Harry Kane

Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich, England

After his 21-goal season in 2014/15, some claimed Harry Kane would be a one-season wonder. How wrong they were. The former Spurs man went on to bag 213 Premier League goals in 316 appearances, became the North London club's all-time leading goalscorer, and took the record for England, too.

Now, he's showing what he can do in Germany, with a ridiculous goal return in his first season in the Bundesliga. If Kane can just add a trophy to his long list of personal honours, and keep scoring at the rate he is, he has a shout at being one of the most consistent player of all time.

2 Cristiano Ronaldo

Real Madrid, Manchester United, Portugal

At his peak, Cristiano Ronaldo was among the top two players of his generation, and is undoubtedly one of the very best players to ever grace a football pitch. More machine than man, Ronaldo has always been an unfathomably athletic, near-perfect forward, with incredible shooting, skill, and physicality.

His goalscoring record for Real Madrid was phenomenal, and he's won just about every trophy going, but the one thing stopping Ronaldo from being higher on this list is the brilliance of the one man ahead of him.

1 Lionel Messi

Barcelona, PSG, Argentina

There is only one man who could top this list. Lionel Messi has been world-class — actually, pretty much otherworldly — since he first broke through as a teenager at Barcelona. If Cristiano Ronaldo is a machine, Messi is a god of the footballing world, and very few have ever been capable of the pure genius he has exhibited year after year.

731 club goals and counting, over 100 goals for Argentina, a ridiculous eight Ballon d'Or wins, and a World Cup to boot. Messi has done it all, and the scary thing is, he never needed time to reach those levels; he simply arrived, and immediately the world knew a one-of-a-kind talent had emerged.