Great post. My thoughts exactly about international events. Due to the fact that players are less used to each other at the national team, and due to the system changing constantly, the truly great players can showcase their greatness. This is what makes a great player, the ability to adapt and play in any system, with any teammates, and WIN.
Yes, Platini is often overlooked in the GOAT list. What's even more sad to see is the fact that so many casuals think Zidane was the greater French player.
Of course not. One cannot overlook his constant failures with Argentina.
R9 is my favorite player of all time.
R9 literally made me fall in love with football. Me and my mates were infatuated with him. Every teenager wanted to be like him. We all wanted his silver R9 nike boots. We all tried to dribble like him and look like absolute muppets.R9 is my favorite player of all time.
Not truly all of them... if we look closely, Luis Ronaldo never had a full World Cup where he stood out on an all-time level, which was @Zehner's point, I believe. He could've had one in 1998 if not for whatever happened with him before the final (and it's clearly unfair to include his final performance in his overall evaluation, but still, he didn't have his shining moment — just like Messi or Cristiano). And when he won it in 2002, he wasn't that special — certainly not on the level of Pelé/Maradona/Cruyff/Beckenbauer etc.; Rivaldo was probably the best Brazilian player in that tournament and Kahn was, at least in my opinion, the best player overall, but Ronaldo got the headlines because he was at the finishing end of those goals & the whole world (including me) were desperate for Fenomeno's redemption ark. Was Ronaldo's 2002 World Cup individual performance better than Messi's in 2014? Maybe, but even then, not by that much.
Hard to argue with that. I'd really like to add Puskás to that, but the second half of the 50's (including a spell at the same club) should probably tilt the overall odds to Di Stéfano's favour anyway.
Inclined to agree when emphasising attack and comparable players.
Read post above
. Moving the goalposts screws ADS either side.Oh, yeah, perhaps I haven't highlighted it enough. With a decent performance in the final (well, not "decent", but at the level that we had every right to expect from him based on his previous tournament & career — he never had any issues playing in finals or facing the very best defenders), he would've ended up at least in top-10 of my individual WC performances list (Maradona, Pelé, Cruyff, Garrincha, Charlton...).
Once saw a guy doing best-of-decade XIs using overlapping 10-year periods. Which allows for including the inbetweeners every periodization produces.Read post above
That's an improvement on what I was getting at. Love it.
I'd probably take the easy way out and put in Ronaldo/Zidane for 1995-05.
Depends on the rest of the team
I think you meant 1985-95. Agree it's Maradona, it does pick his best half decade after all but the beauty of the overlaps is Maradona completely owns 1980-90 while his 90-95 is forgettable.
Maldini is a good shout. I did consider it but felt it was best to stick to forwards. The 90s was a decade stacked with great defenders, mind, so it would be appropriate.
That's the point, if you are going blind as a bat as to who the other ten are. Imagine it's your first draft pick and then Woody picks the other ten for youDepends on the rest of the team
But in isolation, Dinho and Ronaldo.
Michael Jordan won MVP 5 times during his career though. Ramos probably need to win 5 Ballon D’ors to match.
This is quite fun. If we break it down into ever 5 years though to give a more accurate picture:
Not a bad list, as for me:
(okay, Baggio/Romario?)I like this format and probably agree with the list, but man Baggio sticks out like a sore thumb in that company.
He really does, despite how much I love him. van Basten should've been there and all would've looked right
I agree with you on R9, he was scintillating in 1998, but he didn't win it (i will always think Brazil would have beaten France had he been fit for the final). In 2002 he wasn't as good, but he still finished top scorer, scored the semi final goal that got them to the final, and then scored both goals in the final. Not a bad day out, and it's a solid argument to say that alone is better than anything Messi has achieved.
Loved him back then, too, but tend to agree. Van Basten was great, but unfortunately he just had too many injuries. Maybe Matthäus needs to be mentioned here, too. He was ridiculously good in the World Cup 1990 and at Inter in these years, but tore his ACL in 1992 right before the Euros - could have been another major cup win - and before his transfer to Juve. He then went back to Bayern and was excellent there, too, after he came back from injury. It's still amazing how good he was even after an ACL and a ruptured achilles tendon in his 30s.
It's a tough one.
Both very unlucky with injuries, the two obvious contenders for 1985-95 once Maradona sniffed one too many.
Not at all, Baggio was a tremendous player. I wouldn’t say he was the dominant player in the 90s but he was right up there with the very best. He dragged Italy to the World Cup final in ‘94 with some exceptional performances and was unfortunate to lose on penalties
He was up there with the best in his own time.
He's my childhood hero and probably my favourite ever footballer so I'm hopelessly biased, but I view him as being in a similar class as Ronaldinho and Zidane in terms of talent despite his marred career trajectory. It's nice to see him getting a mention in this thread.
because some players had better team around so scoring or not in a WC doesn't count as a player's bread and butter: club football. It was easier to play for Brazil circa 1970 than Portugal in the Noughties. Did Peter schmeichel even play in WC finals? but was he the best keeper in the world for a long time and the best in PL history? yes, to me
Schmeichel did play in France '98, but it is his talismanic showing at Euro '92 - one of the finest keeper tournament performances of all time - that further elevates his standing worldwide.
I do tend to agree with this to an extent.
In nowadays rigid football, where tactics, positioning, fitness, etc are all integrated and playerrs have much more professional behavior than ever,, and grass roots are actually preparing the young players much better, players with high ability to exploit the space between the sectors will thrive on this era.
