Fair enough. I remember that he scored one cool free kick goal, it might have been this against Wigan but the quality of all videos I found is just terrible
Players considered World Class who you don't think are World Class
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Carried by Rio most of his career,, and wasnt the same player without him.
Complete nonsense.
Team of the Euro 2000, MOTF in the final, his WC 2006: Team of the tournament, top assists
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Virgil, I get it he had one and a half seasons when he was unstoppable maybe the best level for a defender we've seen ever but his peak lasted very little. I'm not saying he's a bad or even average defender obviously he's really good but when he gets comparisons with the greats of history I think he falls really short.
Marcos Ederson
It all depends on your definition of world class. For me there are dozens of players, probably hundreds who you can say played at a world class level for a particular season but defining a player as 'world class' is more something to consider once they've stopped playing and is in context of the level of football at that given time.
Truly world class players for me are players that did it consistently for season after season at the top level. I always thought Argentine strikers were overrated (pre Messi). Crespo and Batistuta come to mind.
Truly world class players for me are players that did it consistently for season after season at the top level. I always thought Argentine strikers were overrated (pre Messi). Crespo and Batistuta come to mind.
I think he's world class but I remember talking with someone on here who said he lacked Keane's playmaking abilities from deep and I had to agree. I haven't got his passing stats from his Madrid days where maybe they were different but i think he could use the ball a bit better at times. It is a flaw if you're often getting less than 80% passing accuracy per game, especially when you're not a creative player. Keane for example average 88% every season. Carrick and Scholes similar.
Where he is world class is tackling and anticipation though, especially in his Madrid days. There wasn't a better DM around.
Sterling. Not sure if he was ever quite thought of as world class but people seemed to rate him very highly, I never saw what was so special about him.
Yeah, it’s stupid. Aleays two they are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice. So two.I wonder how you got to the conclusion there can be only one world class player at a certain time after reading my post in which I named five world class strikers that played at the same time
I think you’d struggle to get his mum to call him world class.
Broke every record going for club and country. Hat trick on his champions league debut at 18…
What you smoking
Rooney was one of those players as an Oppo watching him live who scared the sh*t out of you and was clearly a step above every player on the pitch. Its rare that you get that feeling but with the very best players you do.
The only slight on his career is that his very best football didn't last as long as it should've, but then again he started very early.
The only slight on his career is that his very best football didn't last as long as it should've, but then again he started very early.
All of this stuff depends on whether you consider "world class" to mean literally the best in the position in the world, would get in a world 11 (so you could have 2 cm 2 striker, 2 defender etc), or you're using it as a much looser "top level" distinction.
Devastating player when he was young, him and Rooney have got so many “I remember where I was when” type moments compared to Kane’s none
That sounds better because pretty much every player mentioned in this thread is a top level player without question.
Drogba.
I define "world class" as that if you were naming a best XI in the world, they'd be part of the conversation but may not make the team.
So for example you might name 3 or 4 GKs but can only name one. Often there's very little difference between the top 3 or 4 best players, other times there's a clear stand out player.
Paul Gascoigne. To be world class you have to be able to consistently perform at the top level. While Gazza could produce moments of magic and wizards, for the next 4 games he was then just as capable of fading into the background and not producing much.
He just lacked the discipline, teamwork, ambition, workrate and tactical nous to be a world class player. Maybe had he not done his cruciate in 91 things may have worked out differently for him and he'd have had more longtivity to his career. But I think he's vastly overrated and wouldn't consider him world class.
Aside from an FA cup at Spurs the only other trophies he won were at Rangers which is testament to how average his career was. Massively overhyped. I don't deny that he had natural raw talent and ability. But he's not world class.
He just lacked the discipline, teamwork, ambition, workrate and tactical nous to be a world class player. Maybe had he not done his cruciate in 91 things may have worked out differently for him and he'd have had more longtivity to his career. But I think he's vastly overrated and wouldn't consider him world class.
Aside from an FA cup at Spurs the only other trophies he won were at Rangers which is testament to how average his career was. Massively overhyped. I don't deny that he had natural raw talent and ability. But he's not world class.
Rooney. Mainly because I believe his world class career was directly linked and contingent on Sir Alex being his manager. And only Sir Alex.
I only consider Pele to be world class. Any more than that and it dilutes the term, though i did consider expanding it to fit two players after Messi won the world cup, but came to the conclusion he had taken too long to do so and scored too many penalties while doing so.
The bar has to be set high.
The bar has to be set high.
I mean like - fair enough this is clearly going to be a controversial thread for a lot of reasons but Wayne Rooney was England and Manchester Uniteds all time top scorer, if that's not world class striker material I don't know what is.
For me possibly Steven Gerrard? In as much as he was an extremely good player, he got absolutely wrecked by Pirlo when he came up against a -real- world class midfielder. People go on about him never winning the title and maybe it's overstated but I can't help thinking, well, Ngolo Kante won more than one and he was absolutely indisputably world class, carrying two different teams to do it. Gerrard didn't.
Carrick wasn't overrated but I don't think many would have called him world class
IMO Beckham was and so was Giggs
Good definition
I can get on board with the argument Rio at his best was better than Vidic, but the idea Vidic wasn't world class is bizarre, unless you're limiting world class to Ronaldo/Messi level players.
I never really saw it in Kante. Ran around a lot and won the ball back pretty well but he wasn’t a great footballer and for him to come 5th in the Ballon d’Or was a joke.
Thank you.
I think it makes the most sense.
I know it's going to be highly controversial, but Haaland. Also Harry Kane.
Both of them are still considered world class by many and have all kinds of goalscoring records, but I don't think Haaland will have long-term performance to live up to a high bar of world class, and as for Kane... He has won jack shit and at least against us I was never worried about him playing for Spurs in our clashes with them. Very different from if United played against Messi in Barca, or Ronaldo in Real Madrid, or Mbappe in PSG, where you would be really worried about those three, so - Kane not world class , for me
Both of them are still considered world class by many and have all kinds of goalscoring records, but I don't think Haaland will have long-term performance to live up to a high bar of world class, and as for Kane... He has won jack shit and at least against us I was never worried about him playing for Spurs in our clashes with them. Very different from if United played against Messi in Barca, or Ronaldo in Real Madrid, or Mbappe in PSG, where you would be really worried about those three, so - Kane not world class , for me
Any world class players list that doesn't include Scholes or Cantona is not worth the paper it is written on.
Almost none of those were remotely comparable to Giggs, Keane or Beckham. Figo is one, but didn't work better than Giggs on the left and was a rather different player than Beckham on the right.
There's three issues here:
1) Position on the pitch. There could be 12 absolutely brilliant AMs far more glitzy than, say, Ashley Cole in his time. You would massively struggle to find three LBs that were consistently better than Ashley Cole.
2) Player characteristics and how you go about the role. Take Giggs and Beckham and let's ignore L/R but just think "wide midfielders". Those two are completely different ones though. I'd take your Nedved and Figo, along with Beckham and Giggs and a few others and wouldn't at all mind saying there were 5-8 world class wide midfielders because homing in on 2-3 is ultimately about personal preference and tactics.
3) Tactical fit/individuality vs the collective. I loved Figo, but I doubt I would have played him in that midfield ahead of Giggs/Becks. It was a world class midfield whereby the unit was greater than the sum of (awesome) parts. Another good example of this is Costacurta. Top defender, was he "top top world class"? Dunno really, but he was certainly an integral part of a world class defence and thus world class in my book. Busquets as well, can't see many in his time I would have preferred in THAT midfield. As a standalone he would look far more ordinary.
Schweinsteiger
That's absolutely ridiculous. His lifestyle had caught up with him by the time Fergie retired and Fergie was planning on getting rid but Moyes kept him on.
Were you around back then?
Julian Alvarez got me good, not gonna lie.
You know the two times Vidic won POTY Rio was past it or a bit part player?
Rio was injured
Yeah and Vida carried the defense in his absence and won POTY twice. Vida was amazing. I would go as far as saying he was better than Rio, who for me was only truly a world class player in 07-08 and flitted around that level the year before and in 2012, before he terminally declined. But Vida's objective best years came in the absence or loss of form of Rio. It absolutely wasn't the case that Rio ever held his hand.
Hard to say. It think Rooney is world class, but just. Magnificent player, but he consistently failed to perform well at major international tournaments.
Also, I expected him to be our main leading man. Instead he played second fiddle to Ruud (understandable, he just signed and was young) to Ronaldo (understandable because he is one of the greatest players ever), to Berbatov and to Van Persie.
Rooney was such a selfless player, always willing to play on different positions and taking up different roles for the greater good and that actually harmed his legacy in my view. He could have achieved much more individually. Yes, even a ballon d'or.