leading man vs player

leading man and player both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
leading man	Yes	No	No	No
player	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, player is a hypernym of leading man; that is, player is a word with a broader meaning than leading man:

Other hypernyms of leading man include actor, histrion, role player, thespian, adult male, man.

leading man (noun)	player (noun)
actor who plays the leading male role	a theatrical performer
	a person who participates in or is skilled at some game
	someone who plays a music as a profession
	a person who pursues a number of different social and sexual partners simultaneously
	someone who takes part in an activity