Atlético Madrid centre-forwards...

Rozay

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For as long as I can remember, even before they were as good as they are now, Atleti have always had this ability to find back-to-back top centre forwards who score shit loads of goals and invariably move for massive money. One after another.

I can’t be bothered to research so I’m sure the sequence is a bit off, but my memory was:

Vieri - Hasselbaink - Forlan - Aguero - Falcao - Costa

With Aguero and Griezmann also overlapping as great second strikers at times too. I’m sure I’m missing someone out between Jimmy and Forlan, but they have been so consistent with strikers, disproportionately to their stature at times. Jackson Martinez was a disaster, and Ciro Immobile wasn’t great either, but they tend to sell a big striker and replace him with another who steps up massively every time.
 

2mufc0

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They had Torres too
 

Rozay

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How could I forget Torres ffs. Think he goes somewhere between Jimmy and Forlan then.
 

2cents

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Anyone remember any 90s Atletico CFs?
 

2cents

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Vieri was 90s I think.
You’re right. I had Hugo Sanchez in my head as well, but he was way back in the early 80s for Atletico.
 

JJ12

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Mandzukic, Villa and......

Torres
 

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Yep, they are historically very proficient at exploiting the South American pool of forwards and wheeling-and-dealing in the mercato to create a conveyor belt at the position (which is a necessity because the best don't stay at the club). Signed a fair few ok to meh players in Kežman, Mandzukić, Reyes, Gamiero, Martínez, Vietto, Jiménez — but moved them on quickly instead of delaying the inevitable, and hit a home run every so often (unfortunately for the club, they couldn't hold on to most of them because of financial reasons).

Kinda reminiscent of Milan (wrt. ideology) in the post Van Basten period where they signed Weah (didn't fully express himself as a Ballon D'Or winner), Bierhoff (underperformer after signing as Serie A top scorer with Udinese), Kluivert (sold after just one season), Baggio in quick succession, and while a couple did reasonably well, the organisation didn't suffer good-but-not-good-enough performers and showed the strength to move on from players that didn't hit the sweet spot...and finally landed a truly outstanding forward in Shevchenko in the late '90s — and subsequently Kaká after failing with Rivaldo and Mari in the early 2000s.

On a side note, Atlético had a bunch of really good (but somewhat underrated) strikers in the mid '80s and early '90s, too...Hugo Sánchez obviously, but even lesser names like Manolo Sánchez and Baltazar (all of whom won the Pichichi trophy).


 

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Juan Esnaider was there in mid 90s, part of their double winning team in 1996 although think he had better record at Zaragoza.

That 2000 team that got relegated had Molina in goal, Capdevilla at the back, likes of Valeron and Ruben Baraja in midfield and JFH upfront.

Depor who won the league signed the first three and Baraja was brilliant box to box midfielder at Valencia.
 

SCP

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Yep, they are historically very proficient at exploiting the South American pool of forwards and wheeling-and-dealing in the mercato to create a conveyor belt at the position (which is a necessity because the best don't stay at the club). Signed a fair few ok to meh players in Kežman, Mandzukić, Reyes, Gamiero, Martínez, Vietto, Jiménez — but moved them on quickly instead of delaying the inevitable, and hit a home run every so often (unfortunately for the club, they couldn't hold on to most of them because of financial reasons).

Kinda reminiscent of Milan (wrt. ideology) in the post Van Basten period where they signed Weah (didn't fully express himself as a Ballon D'Or winner), Bierhoff (underperformer after signing as Serie A top scorer with Udinese), Kluivert (sold after just one season), Baggio in quick succession, and while a couple did reasonably well, the organisation didn't suffer good-but-not-good-enough performers and showed the strength to move on from players that didn't hit the sweet spot...and finally landed a truly outstanding forward in Shevchenko in the late '90s — and subsequently Kaká after failing with Rivaldo and Mari in the early 2000s.

On a side note, Atlético had a bunch of really good (but somewhat underrated) strikers in the mid '80s and early '90s, too...Hugo Sánchez obviously, but even lesser names like Manolo Sánchez and Baltazar (all of whom won the Pichichi trophy).


Don’t forget Manolo and Baltazar had Futre and later Schuster supplying them, but true. Of course they were sandwiched between Quinta del Buitre and the Dream Team while having a President who fired managers with the same frequency as we change our clothes.
 

Snow

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They've also bought a lot of strikers that haven't been anything special or outright poor, Simeone has bought one each year. They are usually good players but didn't work out for them.

Kalinic, Costa again, Gameiro, Jackson Martinez, Vietto, Raul Jimenez. That's ~150m on strikers that didn't work out as promised in the past 5 years.
 

Lay

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Totally forgot Villa won the league there.
 

Rozay

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I do concur that Falcao is the best centre forward of all of them though.

He had a poor agent I think. His post-Atleti career has been massively underwhelming, whereas the right move from Atletico would have really cemented him as one of the top strikers of his generation.
 

Grylte

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They've been pretty good with GKs aswell, remember before DDG, Asenjo was supposed to be the next great gk, and now Oblak.
Can't really remember who they had before that, but i always used to think they were the place to go shopping for GKs and strikers.
 

SCP

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I do concur that Falcao is the best centre forward of all of them though.

He had a poor agent I think. His post-Atleti career has been massively underwhelming, whereas the right move from Atletico would have really cemented him as one of the top strikers of his generation.
His agent is Jorge Mendes. The same one as Ronaldo. His post Atlético career was affected by the serious injury he had. And they had plenty of good players over the decades on that role. Don’t see why is he better than Hugo Sanchez or Vieri for example.
 

Rozay

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His agent is Jorge Mendes. The same one as Ronaldo. His post Atlético career was affected by the serious injury he had. And they had plenty of good players over the decades on that role. Don’t see why is he better than Hugo Sanchez or Vieri for example.
I know it was amended. I just mentioned the agent as to me, it was clear that his move was heavily influenced by his agent. He was at a stage in his career where he should have gone to a super club, yet Mendes engineered him a move to his Monaco project. It was a poor choice.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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Sorry, was mixing him up with someone else. Kevin Gameiro. He wasn’t even that bad.
Gameiro was poor for Atletico I felt.
Morata hasn't been great for them, albeit only on loan of course.

Edit: 6 in 15 isn't bad actually, thought it was less.
Morata has been very good IMO. But for VAR wrongly chalking off some goals he'd have more than that.
 

SCP

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I know it was amended. I just mentioned the agent as to me, it was clear that his move was heavily influenced by his agent. He was at a stage in his career where he should have gone to a super club, yet Mendes engineered him a move to his Monaco project. It was a poor choice.
Ok I agree.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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Lubislov Penev was very good for them the season they won the double in 1995/1996. He scored a lot of important goals. Salva too. He scored a lot of goals to get them promoted.

Manolo was good as well. He left the season before Penev arrived and won Copa Del Rey a couple of times and was part of the team which beat United in 1991. He scored in the 3-0 game I believe.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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Juan Esnaider was there in mid 90s, part of their double winning team in 1996 although think he had better record at Zaragoza.

That 2000 team that got relegated had Molina in goal, Capdevilla at the back, likes of Valeron and Ruben Baraja in midfield and JFH upfront.

Depor who won the league signed the first three and Baraja was brilliant box to box midfielder at Valencia.
That 1999/2000 on paper is so good. It's madness they went down. Molina IMO was the best Spanish keeper of that time (even better than Canizares) and one of the best in the world, Valeron was a magician and Baraja was a brilliant player too.

Atletico are a fascinating club for me.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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I do concur that Falcao is the best centre forward of all of them though.

He had a poor agent I think. His post-Atleti career has been massively underwhelming, whereas the right move from Atletico would have really cemented him as one of the top strikers of his generation.
Falcao didn't have many seasons in the champions league over his career. I think in his prime years he probably had no more than one season in the champions league.
 

FootballHQ

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Sorry, was mixing him up with someone else. Kevin Gameiro. He wasn’t even that bad.
Actually you might've been thinking of Alessio Cerci. Had a hot six months at Torino so signed for Atletico (more left winger than striker) but barely played and career fizzled out.

Weren't Atletico about to sign Lacazette before they got a transfer ban, wonder if they'll look at him again to replace Griezmann.