The Copa América is the oldest international competition in the world: 48 editions between 1916 and 2024, older than the World Cup (1930) and the Euro (1960), and with more editions than the two of them combined. In the game it follows the competition's most recent format, the one used in 2016 and 2024: 16 national teams, split into four groups of four, played over a single round — three matches, all in the host country. The top two of each group advance, eight qualifiers in total, with no third-place teams rescued at all — every third-placed team goes home. From there it's all knockout, single match, always on neutral ground: quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final. The perfect campaign in this competition is therefore a 6-0.
As in every competition in the game, the 100 doesn't belong to whoever had the single best campaign — it belongs to whoever dominates the competition's HISTORY. Here the bar is tighter than in the others: only two measures exist the same way in 1917 and in 2024, goals and titles — assists weren't recorded before the modern era, and the tournament's best-player award has only been official since 1987 — before that, it's the name RSSSF retroactively credits for each edition, back to 1916. The card's season is only the one that shows the player best, not the criterion itself. In the Copa América, that player is Norberto Méndez.
The competition's all-time great
Norberto Méndez — Argentina 1947
Shares the competition's all-time goalscoring record — 17, with Zizinho — but scored them across just three editions and won all three: 6 goals in 1945, 5 in 1946 and 6 in 1947. That's a rate of 5.7 goals per tournament, against 2.8 for Zizinho, 2.0 for Messi and 1.3 for Romano — the highest by a wide margin among the competition's top scorers. The season is 1947, the year that closes out the three-peat and crowns him the competition's all-time top scorer, surpassing the 15 that had until then been the ceiling, held by Severino Varela and Teodoro Fernández.
GK
Américo Tesoriere — Argentina 1921
Goalkeeper of the Argentina side that won in 1921 and again in 1925, and the man who reached the match that settled an edition more often than anyone else in the competition: five times, between 1920 and 1925. Two titles is the most any goalkeeper has managed here, and eight of them share it — the five appearances are his alone, against Taffarel's four and the two apiece of Goycochea, Emiliano Martínez and Claudio Bravo. The season is 1921, Argentina's first title, won at home without conceding a goal.
RB
José Nasazzi — Uruguay 1923
Champion in four editions — 1923, 1924, 1926 and 1935 — the highest title tally of any defender in the competition's history: no other back reaches three titles. RSSSF also credits him as the tournament's best player in 1923 and again in 1935, twelve years apart — a retroactive designation, and the award has only been official since 1987.
CB
Domingos da Guía — Brazil 1945
The highest-rated centre-back card in the competition — 92, in 1945, four points clear of the next one. It is the only measured argument this card has, and it is not enough to decide: Domingos da Guía never won the tournament, finishing runner-up in 1945 and again in 1946, and thirteen centre-backs of the competition have won it twice each — Otamendi, Lorenzo Fernández, Aldair, Gary Medel and Oscar Ruggeri among them. That makes it the most arguable card in this eleven, and it is said out loud.
CB
Heriberto Herrera — Paraguay 1953
Champion in 1953, the only Copa América Paraguay ever won away from home, and credited by RSSSF as that edition's best player — a retroactive designation, and the award has only been official since 1987.
LB
Alcides Silveira — Uruguay 1959 (Ecuador)
Champion in the Ecuador edition, scorer of two penalties in the 5-0 rout of Argentina that decided the title, and the highest-rated left-back card in the competition — 88, a figure he shares with Roberto Carlos. It is the only axis on which he leads, and it is tied: he has one title, exactly like Nilton Santos, and sits behind Alfredo Foglino, the Uruguay full-back who won in 1916, 1917 and 1920. No measure in this game separates the candidates for this place.
CDM
Obdulio Varela — Uruguay 1942
The highest rating of any defensive midfielder in the competition — 92, in 1942 — unbeaten champion that year, eight years before captaining the Maracanazo. RSSSF also credits him as the 1942 tournament's best player, a retroactive designation: the award has only been official since 1987.
CM
José Leandro Andrade — Uruguay 1926
Known as "The Black Marvel", he is a three-time champion — 1923, 1924 and 1926 — the highest title tally at his position. RSSSF also credits him as the 1926 tournament's best player, a retroactive designation: the award has only been official since 1987.
CAM
Enzo Francéscoli — Uruguay 1995
Three-time champion — 1983, 1987 and 1995 — and voted the tournament's best player in 1995, by then the official award. RSSSF also credits him as 1983's best player, but that is a retroactive designation, four years before the award existed.
RW
Lionel Messi — Argentina 2021
Voted the tournament's best player twice — in 2015 and in 2021, the latter shared with Neymar — back-to-back champion in 2021 and 2024, and with 14 goals in the competition — the 2021 Golden Boot included. He gets the blue 99, not the red 100: setting aside the metrics only his era has, that leaves 14 goals and two titles, against Méndez's 17 goals and three titles.
LW
Ángel Romano — Uruguay 1924
The competition's all-time record holder for titles, with six — a number the modern era can no longer reach, because ten editions were played between 1916 and 1926, in just eleven years, and today the Copa América comes around once every four. That's on top of 12 goals and two-time top scorer of the competition, in 1917 and in 1920.
ST
Gabriel Batistuta — Argentina 1993
Champion in 1991 and again in 1993, top scorer of the 1991 edition and scorer of both goals in the match that settled the 1993 one — the highest-rated forward card in the competition, 95, level with Méndez's 1947 card at the top of the whole census. It was the most contested call in this eleven, and it still is: Teodoro Fernández, champion in 1939, has 15 goals in the tournament against his 13, and José Piendibene, of the early Uruguay side, has three titles against two — and the only forwards in the competition with as many or more are already in this eleven, Romano with six and Méndez with three. What stands for Batistuta is titles against Fernández and the rating scale against Piendibene; neither axis separates him by much.