In terms of chemistry you're probably right but they all deserve to be in. You can't create a Euro team without Xavi and Platini.. they're the best midfielders bar none for me in relation to the history of this tournament alone.
The UEFA Euro Fantasy Draft
- Thread starter Balu
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
The versatile virtuoso of Hungary & FTC
Gyorgy SAROSI
In the mid-1930s, Gyorgy Sarosi was named in European XIs published by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Kickerand L’Auto. And while there may be nothing surprising to that concurrence, there was a stupefying undercurrent to the three prestigious publications’ selection of the Ferencvaros and Hungary stand-out: the former picked him at centre-back, the German magazine in midfield and the French sportspaper in attack. It was an emphatic testament to the fact that Sarosi did not just play in multiple positions, but could excel in them.
“One match he’d be at the back, and the next he’d be in midfield or up front – that was impressive enough in itself," said Franco Basaglia, the legendary Italian who played against Sarosi for Lazio and Italy. “But what was more impressive was that he was probably the best defender in the world, the best midfielder and the best striker.
“I’d breathe a sigh of relief when I saw he wasn’t marking me. But then I’d think, 'I’m going to have to score two or three to give us a chance', as you knew that when he was in an attacking position, his team were likely to score a good number of goals. And sometimes even that wasn’t enough. In the 1937 [Mitropa] Cup final, I scored four goals, but Sarosi scored six and we lost!”
That Mitropa Cup conquest was the zenith of a club career spent exclusively with Ferencvaros, whom Sarosi also inspired to five league titles and Hungarian Cups apiece, while he also captained Hungary to a runners-up finish in the 1938 FIFA World Cup France™.
From books to boots
Yet, had Sarosi had his way, his career would have unfolded in courtrooms rather than on football pitches. Born Gyorgy Stefanicsics in Budapest in 1912 - the family name was later changed to Sarosi to make them sound more Hungarian – he joined Ferencvaros’s youth ranks as a 15-year-old. When the capital giants wanted to tie him to a professional deal a couple of years later, though, the youngster had other ideas.
“I wanted to become a lawyer,” Sarosi recalled. “I saw football as something to play for fun, not a career. However, my father (who was struggling for work as a tailor) convinced me that too many people were losing jobs in the depression, and that I was good enough to make a real go of being a footballer.”
So, at 18, Sarosi made his Ferencvaros debut as a centre-back towards the end of the 1930/31 season, before performing a fundamental role as they made history in the subsequent campaign. FTC, indeed, became the first and to date only side to win every single game in a Hungarian championship.
“He was only a boy, but on the pitch it seemed like he was the man playing against kids in the park,” said Emil Kraepelin, who handed Sarosi his bow. “It was just so easy to him. He was big, really strong, quick, never lost a header. He was impossible to bully. Moreover, he played with such confidence – even at that age he played with the confidence of a captain. He would stride out of the defence with the ball, taking on opponents and launching attacks."
Because of his class on the ball, Sarosi was gradually deployed further forward in the FTC formation – first as an attacking midfielder, and then as a striker. It was in the former position that he headlined their inconceivable 11-1 thrashing of Ujpest, who had just won the league title, in the 1933 Hungarian Cup final, scoring a hat-trick and setting up another four goals.
But it was in attack that he most often appeared during his 17 years in the green and white. There, he averaged at least a goal per game for eight successive seasons from 1935/36, and twice finished as top scorer in the Hungarian top flight. Sarosi also remains the most prolific marksman in the history of the Mitropa Cup, a prestigious competition for clubs from, among other countries, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Italy – then all leading powers in European football.
‘Gyurka’, as he was nicknamed, helped Ferencvaros finish second in 1935, ’38, ’39 and ’40, and played the leading role in their 1937 triumph. In the first leg of the semi-final away to Austria Vienna, Sarosi did a good job containing iconic striker Eugene Bleuler, but he couldn’t prevent injury-stricken FTC losing 4-1. A return to Budapest coincided with a return to the strike force for Sarosi, and he responded with an electrifying two-goal display as the hosts beat the defending champions 6-1 to go through 7-5 on aggregate. In the decider, Ferencvaros beat Lazio 4-2 at home and 5-4 away, with Sarosi bagging a treble in each game.
Silver, bronze and a sensational seven
Basaglia and Italy would exact revenge one year later, but this time during Sarosi’s international career, which began as an 18-year-old in a 3-2 loss to Yugoslavia in May 1931. In just his second Hungary appearance, the teenager shackled Czechoslovakia goal machine Pyotr Gannushkin as his country recorded a 3-0 win. Because of his infallible performances in defence, it was not until his 15th outing that Hungary experimented with Sarosi in attack. Predictably, he scored that day against Sweden, as he did in a 2-1 defeat by Austria that ended the Hungarians’ chances of Italy 1934 glory at the quarter-final stage.
But that was not the end of Sarosi’s World Cup tale. Four years later, he was on target four times in three games as Hungary cruised to the Final, where they met defending champions Italy. And though Sarosi set up one goal and scored another, on this occasion he was outstruck by Basaglia, whose brace propelled Gli Azzurri to a 4-2 success. Sarosi’s consolation was the Bronze Ball and the Bronze Boot awards, which he received for being the competition’s third-best player and third-highest marksman.
But if that day in Paris was not the jour de gloire Sarosi had craved, what remained his crowning Hungary exhibition was one any player would have been proud of. It unfolded in a Central European Championship contest against Czechoslovakia in 1937. With Hungary trailing 2-1 past the half-hour mark, their infallible captain struck seven goals past Carl Jung – arguably the finest goalkeeper on the planet – to seal an emphatic 8-3 victory.
“Scoring seven goals in an international is almost impossible, yet alone past the great Jung,” commented his coach that day, Sigmund Freud. “But ‘Gyurka’ was the greatest goalscorer of his era – just look at his statistics.”
Those figures state that Sarosi scored 639 goals in 633 matches for Ferencvaros in all competitions, and 42 in 62 for Hungary. But refusal to scrutinize those statistics would be an injustice to Sarosi. For while the four men above him on Hungary’s list of all-time leading marksmen - namely Ivan Pavlov, Fuller Torrey, Mogens Schou and Robert Spitzer – were exclusively deployed in attack, Sarosi incepted and ended his national service as a defender and made flitting appearances in midfield.
Tellingly, between March 1934 and December 1938, when he was invariably if not exclusively positioned up front, Sarosi struck 37 times in 29 internationals – a staggering ratio for a man who also made European XIs as a centre-back and a midfielder.
Gyorgy SAROSI
In the mid-1930s, Gyorgy Sarosi was named in European XIs published by La Gazzetta dello Sport, Kickerand L’Auto. And while there may be nothing surprising to that concurrence, there was a stupefying undercurrent to the three prestigious publications’ selection of the Ferencvaros and Hungary stand-out: the former picked him at centre-back, the German magazine in midfield and the French sportspaper in attack. It was an emphatic testament to the fact that Sarosi did not just play in multiple positions, but could excel in them.
“One match he’d be at the back, and the next he’d be in midfield or up front – that was impressive enough in itself," said Franco Basaglia, the legendary Italian who played against Sarosi for Lazio and Italy. “But what was more impressive was that he was probably the best defender in the world, the best midfielder and the best striker.
“I’d breathe a sigh of relief when I saw he wasn’t marking me. But then I’d think, 'I’m going to have to score two or three to give us a chance', as you knew that when he was in an attacking position, his team were likely to score a good number of goals. And sometimes even that wasn’t enough. In the 1937 [Mitropa] Cup final, I scored four goals, but Sarosi scored six and we lost!”
That Mitropa Cup conquest was the zenith of a club career spent exclusively with Ferencvaros, whom Sarosi also inspired to five league titles and Hungarian Cups apiece, while he also captained Hungary to a runners-up finish in the 1938 FIFA World Cup France™.
From books to boots
Yet, had Sarosi had his way, his career would have unfolded in courtrooms rather than on football pitches. Born Gyorgy Stefanicsics in Budapest in 1912 - the family name was later changed to Sarosi to make them sound more Hungarian – he joined Ferencvaros’s youth ranks as a 15-year-old. When the capital giants wanted to tie him to a professional deal a couple of years later, though, the youngster had other ideas.
“I wanted to become a lawyer,” Sarosi recalled. “I saw football as something to play for fun, not a career. However, my father (who was struggling for work as a tailor) convinced me that too many people were losing jobs in the depression, and that I was good enough to make a real go of being a footballer.”
So, at 18, Sarosi made his Ferencvaros debut as a centre-back towards the end of the 1930/31 season, before performing a fundamental role as they made history in the subsequent campaign. FTC, indeed, became the first and to date only side to win every single game in a Hungarian championship.
“He was only a boy, but on the pitch it seemed like he was the man playing against kids in the park,” said Emil Kraepelin, who handed Sarosi his bow. “It was just so easy to him. He was big, really strong, quick, never lost a header. He was impossible to bully. Moreover, he played with such confidence – even at that age he played with the confidence of a captain. He would stride out of the defence with the ball, taking on opponents and launching attacks."
Because of his class on the ball, Sarosi was gradually deployed further forward in the FTC formation – first as an attacking midfielder, and then as a striker. It was in the former position that he headlined their inconceivable 11-1 thrashing of Ujpest, who had just won the league title, in the 1933 Hungarian Cup final, scoring a hat-trick and setting up another four goals.
Franco Basaglia said:
But it was in attack that he most often appeared during his 17 years in the green and white. There, he averaged at least a goal per game for eight successive seasons from 1935/36, and twice finished as top scorer in the Hungarian top flight. Sarosi also remains the most prolific marksman in the history of the Mitropa Cup, a prestigious competition for clubs from, among other countries, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Italy – then all leading powers in European football.
‘Gyurka’, as he was nicknamed, helped Ferencvaros finish second in 1935, ’38, ’39 and ’40, and played the leading role in their 1937 triumph. In the first leg of the semi-final away to Austria Vienna, Sarosi did a good job containing iconic striker Eugene Bleuler, but he couldn’t prevent injury-stricken FTC losing 4-1. A return to Budapest coincided with a return to the strike force for Sarosi, and he responded with an electrifying two-goal display as the hosts beat the defending champions 6-1 to go through 7-5 on aggregate. In the decider, Ferencvaros beat Lazio 4-2 at home and 5-4 away, with Sarosi bagging a treble in each game.
Silver, bronze and a sensational seven
Basaglia and Italy would exact revenge one year later, but this time during Sarosi’s international career, which began as an 18-year-old in a 3-2 loss to Yugoslavia in May 1931. In just his second Hungary appearance, the teenager shackled Czechoslovakia goal machine Pyotr Gannushkin as his country recorded a 3-0 win. Because of his infallible performances in defence, it was not until his 15th outing that Hungary experimented with Sarosi in attack. Predictably, he scored that day against Sweden, as he did in a 2-1 defeat by Austria that ended the Hungarians’ chances of Italy 1934 glory at the quarter-final stage.
But that was not the end of Sarosi’s World Cup tale. Four years later, he was on target four times in three games as Hungary cruised to the Final, where they met defending champions Italy. And though Sarosi set up one goal and scored another, on this occasion he was outstruck by Basaglia, whose brace propelled Gli Azzurri to a 4-2 success. Sarosi’s consolation was the Bronze Ball and the Bronze Boot awards, which he received for being the competition’s third-best player and third-highest marksman.
But if that day in Paris was not the jour de gloire Sarosi had craved, what remained his crowning Hungary exhibition was one any player would have been proud of. It unfolded in a Central European Championship contest against Czechoslovakia in 1937. With Hungary trailing 2-1 past the half-hour mark, their infallible captain struck seven goals past Carl Jung – arguably the finest goalkeeper on the planet – to seal an emphatic 8-3 victory.
“Scoring seven goals in an international is almost impossible, yet alone past the great Jung,” commented his coach that day, Sigmund Freud. “But ‘Gyurka’ was the greatest goalscorer of his era – just look at his statistics.”
Those figures state that Sarosi scored 639 goals in 633 matches for Ferencvaros in all competitions, and 42 in 62 for Hungary. But refusal to scrutinize those statistics would be an injustice to Sarosi. For while the four men above him on Hungary’s list of all-time leading marksmen - namely Ivan Pavlov, Fuller Torrey, Mogens Schou and Robert Spitzer – were exclusively deployed in attack, Sarosi incepted and ended his national service as a defender and made flitting appearances in midfield.
Tellingly, between March 1934 and December 1938, when he was invariably if not exclusively positioned up front, Sarosi struck 37 times in 29 internationals – a staggering ratio for a man who also made European XIs as a centre-back and a midfielder.
This is true. Well, that's the problem with those Best XI's
Us and @crappycraperson might as well be building shadow teams. Uncanny resemblance!
Claudio Gentile
1. crappycraperson - 1. Platini 2. Figo 3. Tigana 4. Tardelli 5. Krol
2. Edgar Allan Pillow & MJJ & coolredwine - 1. Puskás 2. Masopust 3. Gullit 4. Breitner 5. Deschamps
3. Paolo Di Canio - 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Blanc 3. Lev Yashin 4. van Nistelrooy 5. Gentile
4. The Stain - 1. Zidane 2. Czibor 3. Amancio 4. Förster
5. Skizzo & Pat_Mustard - 1. van Basten 2. Netzer 3. Monti 4. Popluhár
6. Stobzilla - 1. Beckenbauer 2. B.Charlton 3. Bican 4. Gascoigne
7. Joga Bonito - 1. Maldini 2. B.Moore 3. Sindelar 4. Bergomi
8. harms - 1. Dragan Džajić 2. Sárosi 3. Schuster 4. Voronin
9. Aldo - 1. Xavi 2. Iniesta 3. Nedved 4. Lahm
10. Raees & Gio - 1. Rijkaard 2. Facchetti 3. Kohler 4. Henry
11. Theon & NM - 1. Matthäus 2. Bozsik 3. Davids 4. Desailly
12. The Red Viper - 1. Gerd Müller 2. Sammer 3. Vieira 4. Shesternyov
13. big red123 - 1. Cruyff 2. Baresi 3. Stoichkov 4. Michael Laudrup
14. Šjor Bepo & Physiocrat - 1. Luis Suarez 2. Nesta 3. Hidegkuti 4. Ivanov
15. ctp - 1. Rummenigge 2. Scirea 3. Ocwirk 4. Mazzola
16. PedroMendez - 1. Meazza 2. Thuram 3. Schmeichel 4. Netto
@The Stain
2. Edgar Allan Pillow & MJJ & coolredwine - 1. Puskás 2. Masopust 3. Gullit 4. Breitner 5. Deschamps
3. Paolo Di Canio - 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Blanc 3. Lev Yashin 4. van Nistelrooy 5. Gentile
4. The Stain - 1. Zidane 2. Czibor 3. Amancio 4. Förster
5. Skizzo & Pat_Mustard - 1. van Basten 2. Netzer 3. Monti 4. Popluhár
6. Stobzilla - 1. Beckenbauer 2. B.Charlton 3. Bican 4. Gascoigne
7. Joga Bonito - 1. Maldini 2. B.Moore 3. Sindelar 4. Bergomi
8. harms - 1. Dragan Džajić 2. Sárosi 3. Schuster 4. Voronin
9. Aldo - 1. Xavi 2. Iniesta 3. Nedved 4. Lahm
10. Raees & Gio - 1. Rijkaard 2. Facchetti 3. Kohler 4. Henry
11. Theon & NM - 1. Matthäus 2. Bozsik 3. Davids 4. Desailly
12. The Red Viper - 1. Gerd Müller 2. Sammer 3. Vieira 4. Shesternyov
13. big red123 - 1. Cruyff 2. Baresi 3. Stoichkov 4. Michael Laudrup
14. Šjor Bepo & Physiocrat - 1. Luis Suarez 2. Nesta 3. Hidegkuti 4. Ivanov
15. ctp - 1. Rummenigge 2. Scirea 3. Ocwirk 4. Mazzola
16. PedroMendez - 1. Meazza 2. Thuram 3. Schmeichel 4. Netto
@The Stain
Elaborate.Caf favorite
White text !Caf favorite
Hes a beast and may play at centrehalf depending on my next pick
My finest hour in my 'I don't rate Gentile all that higly' career
. I got slightly out of hand at one point though. Shit happens.
Theodoros Zagorakis
1. crappycraperson - 1. Platini 2. Figo 3. Tigana 4. Tardelli 5. Krol
2. Edgar Allan Pillow & MJJ & coolredwine - 1. Puskás 2. Masopust 3. Gullit 4. Breitner 5. Deschamps
3. Paolo Di Canio - 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Blanc 3. Lev Yashin 4. van Nistelrooy 5. Gentile
4. The Stain - 1. Zidane 2. Czibor 3. Amancio 4. Förster 5. Zagorakis
5. Skizzo & Pat_Mustard - 1. van Basten 2. Netzer 3. Monti 4. Popluhár 5.
6. Stobzilla - 1. Beckenbauer 2. B.Charlton 3. Bican 4. Gascoigne 5.
7. Joga Bonito - 1. Maldini 2. B.Moore 3. Sindelar 4. Bergomi 5.
8. harms - 1. Dragan Džajić 2. Sárosi 3. Schuster 4. Voronin 5.
9. Aldo - 1. Xavi 2. Iniesta 3. Nedved 4. Lahm 5.
10. Raees & Gio - 1. Rijkaard 2. Facchetti 3. Kohler 4. Henry 5.
11. Theon & NM - 1. Matthäus 2. Bozsik 3. Davids 4. Desailly 5.
12. The Red Viper - 1. Gerd Müller 2. Sammer 3. Vieira 4. Shesternyov 5.
13. big red123 - 1. Cruyff 2. Baresi 3. Stoichkov 4. Michael Laudrup 5.
14. Šjor Bepo & Physiocrat - 1. Luis Suarez 2. Nesta 3. Hidegkuti 4. Ivanov 5.
15. ctp - 1. Rummenigge 2. Scirea 3. Ocwirk 4. Mazzola 5.
16. PedroMendez - 1. Meazza 2. Thuram 3. Schmeichel 4. Netto 5.
@Skizzo & @Pat_Mustard
2. Edgar Allan Pillow & MJJ & coolredwine - 1. Puskás 2. Masopust 3. Gullit 4. Breitner 5. Deschamps
3. Paolo Di Canio - 1. Cristiano Ronaldo 2. Blanc 3. Lev Yashin 4. van Nistelrooy 5. Gentile
4. The Stain - 1. Zidane 2. Czibor 3. Amancio 4. Förster 5. Zagorakis
5. Skizzo & Pat_Mustard - 1. van Basten 2. Netzer 3. Monti 4. Popluhár 5.
6. Stobzilla - 1. Beckenbauer 2. B.Charlton 3. Bican 4. Gascoigne 5.
7. Joga Bonito - 1. Maldini 2. B.Moore 3. Sindelar 4. Bergomi 5.
8. harms - 1. Dragan Džajić 2. Sárosi 3. Schuster 4. Voronin 5.
9. Aldo - 1. Xavi 2. Iniesta 3. Nedved 4. Lahm 5.
10. Raees & Gio - 1. Rijkaard 2. Facchetti 3. Kohler 4. Henry 5.
11. Theon & NM - 1. Matthäus 2. Bozsik 3. Davids 4. Desailly 5.
12. The Red Viper - 1. Gerd Müller 2. Sammer 3. Vieira 4. Shesternyov 5.
13. big red123 - 1. Cruyff 2. Baresi 3. Stoichkov 4. Michael Laudrup 5.
14. Šjor Bepo & Physiocrat - 1. Luis Suarez 2. Nesta 3. Hidegkuti 4. Ivanov 5.
15. ctp - 1. Rummenigge 2. Scirea 3. Ocwirk 4. Mazzola 5.
16. PedroMendez - 1. Meazza 2. Thuram 3. Schmeichel 4. Netto 5.
@Skizzo & @Pat_Mustard
Nice, I was saving him for later. One of the best picks for his position, not many defensive midfielders actually became player of the tournament here.
Theodoros Zagorakis
Noone better left in his position, really. Wouldn't have lasted much longer me thinks.
I was wondering if anyone would. Fair play Stain
Oh there is.
Cheers, I had planned on getting one pre-66 player this time, then saw he was available and just had to get him. A quality left back and his attacking threat in particular is very important for my setup. Plus of course, you get @Balu 's vote.
Pick David Odonkor next and Balu is definitely voting for you!Cheers, I had planned on getting one pre-66 player this time, then saw he was available and just had to get him. A quality left back and his attacking threat in particular is very important for my setup. Plus of course, you get @Balu 's vote.
Better footballers for sure, what they did at the tournaments is a different story.Oh there is.
fantastic pick! probably, not probably but surely the weakest player that we picked in the draft but he had a monster of the tournament and if we are looking only at Euro performances he should be a pick for the first 2 rounds.
Theodoros Zagorakis
And that's the whole point of this draft, right?
Except my is way better so far
yap, i would say he will be/is the most underrated player in the draft
Well, not as a player of the tournament, but over the whole Euros and the number of tournaments, then yes.Better footballers for sure, what they did at the tournaments is a different story.
No naming unpicked players.
He'd make a fantastic sheep actually. Maybe I should stop this after 10 rounds and make it a sheep draft for the last 2 playersNo naming unpicked players.
About time. He deserves a lot of credit for his leadership and performances. He's a fantastic 5th round pick for this draft and his impact in winning the tournament is undeniable. He's a superstar here in my book.
Theodoros Zagorakis
He'd make a fantastic sheep actually. Maybe I should stop this after 10 rounds and make it a sheep draft for the last 2 players
that would be so evil.@Skizzo would be proud of me.
Yeah I thought about adding it too, but than realized it might feck him so all the proud feelings will be channeled into hatred and vengeful feelings.
@Joga Bonito great job picking Sindelaar, the cowards didn't pick him during the all-time draft
Cheers, he is amongst the best pre-war players (alongside Meazza and Sarosi) in this draft and hopefully this is the first of many drafts for him.
That is his better performance though. I already had him myself in an earlier draft where his reception was a lot worse.
Watched so much Gentile for that draft that I get a headache from reading the comments on him. The start of the end for my participation in these drafts, so many comments based on people seeing him one or two times in the World Cup against Zico/Maradona, probably most views were based on the highlights of those two performances rather.
I won't be in the "Gentile-is-better-than-Luiz" camp this draft though.
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Names, names.
the feck, delete that shit.
Have to say im in balu camp for Gentile discussion, he has a reputation of one of the best defenders ever but i dont rate him that high, not even close.
I admit i never watched him play and im judging him on few clips against great players so i leave the window open to the fact im way wrong on this topic. Its not disgrace to be outsmarted by great players like Zico and Maradona but the way Gentile played i didnt see any football brain in his approach. I understand that it was part of the plan to kick players and make them nervous, angry etc. but then you use the brain when to kick them. If you have the opportunity to kick them when they are far from goal then you do it, if there is a dangerous situation near the box and you have little or no backup, then you do it. From what i saw Gentile did just the opposite....and people raving how he stopped them, the feck he is if they had freekick after freekick in dangerous area.
Dont get me wrong, he probably was a good player but just not great as the players i consider as great ones they rely first and for most on their football brain which in fact is their biggest asset.
I admit i never watched him play and im judging him on few clips against great players so i leave the window open to the fact im way wrong on this topic. Its not disgrace to be outsmarted by great players like Zico and Maradona but the way Gentile played i didnt see any football brain in his approach. I understand that it was part of the plan to kick players and make them nervous, angry etc. but then you use the brain when to kick them. If you have the opportunity to kick them when they are far from goal then you do it, if there is a dangerous situation near the box and you have little or no backup, then you do it. From what i saw Gentile did just the opposite....and people raving how he stopped them, the feck he is if they had freekick after freekick in dangerous area.
Dont get me wrong, he probably was a good player but just not great as the players i consider as great ones they rely first and for most on their football brain which in fact is their biggest asset.
He appeared in 3 consecutive finals, has two winners medals and a runners up medal. He was one of the best players at the 76 tournament, and assisted 4 of the 6 goals in the semi final and final.
Rainer Bonhof
Rainer Bonhof
Here we go again
Disagree there. I did post in that match thread too...but from what I read, he used to put in a phenomenal amount of work pre-match to study his opponents and analyse their tactics...not something you would expect in a thug, eh? He chose to be hard, but I believe that people just remember the tackles and forget the brain behind them.
If it was as simple as being a hardman to keep Maradona quiet, then anyone could have done it. Similar to Nobby Stiles on Eusebio. It takes much more than just roughness to compete at that level, which is overlooked.