Best player ever in 4 year intervals?

[Eddy_JukeZ]

A bit of a different question for the best player ever. Who was the best player ever at certain intervals in age? You can apply your typical criteria for defining the best player with this exercise.

Here's a template and fill it with your choices. You can in theory pick the same player for every interval. Started with age 16 as I think it's a common number for youngest player debuts.

16-20:

20-24:

24-28:

28-32:

32-36:

Bonus - 36+ onwards:

My picks would be:

16-20: Pele
20-24: Pele
24-28: Maradona
28-32: Messi
32-36: Messi

I was debating back and forth between Messi and Maradona for 24-28, but went with Messi.

Bonus - 36+ onwards: Zoff(forgot about him initially).

 

[Tarrou]

Messi for all of them
maybe Zlatan for 36+?

 

[Woodzy]

Messi
Messi
Messi
Messi
Zlatan or Giggs

Never saw Pele or Maradona play so an easy one for me. Rooney for the 16-20 came close though.

Was thinking a goalkeeper for 36+. Van Der Sar is a good shout.

 

[Kaos]

Zlatan or Zanetti for the 36+ range.

 

[SilentWitness]

Rooney 16-20 and Zlatan 36-40.

 

[Red Star One]

16-20 Rooney
20-24 Messi
24-28 Messi
28-32 Messi
32-36 Modrić (?)
36-40 Buffon maybe

 

[Andycoleno9]

Nothing happens in 28-32 interval?

Ronaldo (original)
Messi
Maradona
Messi
Modric
Maldini

 

[SydneyRoughDiamond]

16-20 Pele
20-24 Messi
24-28 Maradonna
28-32 Messi
32-36 Zidane
36-40 Dino Zoff
40+ Stanley Matthews

 

[11101]

16-20 Ronaldo
20-24 Messi
24-28 Maradona
28-32 Pele
32-36 Modric

 

[theballisround]

16-20 Ronaldo
20-24 Messi
24-28 Maradona
28-32 Pele
32-36 Modric
36+ Quagliarella/Zanetti/Van Der Saar

 

[Spaghetti]

A bit of a different question for the best player ever. Who was the best player ever at certain intervals in age? You can apply your typical criteria for defining the best player with this exercise.

Here's a template and fill it with your choices. You can in theory pick the same player for every interval. Started with age 16 as I think it's a common number for youngest player debuts.

16-20:

20-24:

24-28:

32-36:

Bonus - 36+ onwards:

My picks would be:

16-20: Pele
20-24: Pele
24-28: Messi
32-36: Messi

I was debating back and forth between Messi and Maradona for 24-28, but went with Messi.

Bonus - 36+ onwards: Giggs - There might be a better answer for this 1, but I'm drawing blanks.

Surely not? He’s spent most of that time wandering around getting booed in France before looking for an even easier league with even more money.

He could probably be the answer to all the other age ranges, though.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

16-20 Pelé/Brazilian Ronaldo
20-24 Messi
24-28 Maradona
28-32 Messi
32-36 Messi/Modric
36-40 Giggs

I'm not sure how much of the personal stuff that came out with Giggs has made people forget just how great he used to be at an advanced age, but at 37, he was inarguably our best player in the Champions League campaign. He ran the show in the title decider against Chelsea in the league as well, and was generally and consistently a difference maker in big games.

At 39, he was still our most creative player as we won a 13th league title. To me, he might be the greatest "old player" ever.

 

[massey]

Kazuyoshi Miura for the 52-56

 

[Man-United]

40+ Roger Milla

 

[CrockedRain]

One for each:
16-20 Pele
20-24 Messi
24-28 Cristiano/Cruyff
28-32 Di Stefano
32-36 Puskas

No limit:
16-20 Pele
20-24 Pele/Messi
24-28 Cristiano/Cruyff
28-32 Messi/Di Stefano
32-36 Messi

 

[Pintu]

--22: Pélé

22-26: Messi & Pélé

26-30: Maradona

30-34: CR7 & Messi

34-38: Zlatan/Zanetti/

 

[mshnsh]

16-20 Pele. Honourable mentions to R9 and Messi
20-24 Messi
24-28 Maradona
28-32 Messi
32-36 Messi

 

[Malkovich]

12-16 : Freddy Adu

 

[harms]

16-20: Pelé
20-24: L. Ronaldo/Pelé
24-28: Messi/Maradona
28-32: Messi
32-36: Di Stéfano
36-40: Matthews
40-44: Matthews

 

[HTG]

Didn’t see him play, so obviously can’t judge. But shouldn’t Puskas show up somewhere in the older categories?

 

[matherto]

Can only comment on what I saw

16-20 R9
20-24 Messi
24-28 Messi/Ronaldo (honourable mention to Ronaldinho at 23-26)
28-32 Ronaldo
36-40 Modric

 

[Bubz27]

12-16 has to be Freddy Adu. What a player. Think he's still only 18.

 

[Melbourne Red]

The answer to most of these is Matt Le Tissier

 

[Libero_of_Yore]

One for each:
16-20 Pele
20-24 Messi
24-28 Cristiano/Cruyff
28-32 Di Stefano
32-36 Puskas

No limit:
16-20 Pele
20-24 Pele/Messi
24-28 Cristiano/Cruyff
28-32 Messi/Di Stefano
32-36 Messi

Messi won 3 Balon Dors between 24 and 28, won the treble and had the highest individual peak year for a footballer, 2012. Cristiano 24 - 28 is not close to 2012/2015 Leo.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Nothing happens in 28-32 interval?

Ronaldo (original)
Messi
Maradona
Messi
Modric
Maldini

Totally forgot that 1

My bad

 

[Oranges038]

All between 2002 and 2006

16-20: Obafemi Martins
20-24: Obafemi Martins
24-28: Obafemi Martins
28-32: Obafemi Martins
32-36: Obafemi Martins
36+ : Obafemi Martins

Still only "38".

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Surely not? He’s spent most of that time wandering around getting booed in France before looking for an even easier league with even more money.

He could probably be the answer to all the other age ranges, though.

It has some of his Barcelona seasons which were still great and I rate his last season at PSG extremely well. He was up there with anyone in Europe in most key metrics + He was the best player at a WC at 35.

 

[Andersonson]

All between 2002 and 2006

16-20: Obafemi Martins
20-24: Obafemi Martins
24-28: Obafemi Martins
28-32: Obafemi Martins
32-36: Obafemi Martins
36+ : Obafemi Martins

Still only "38".

What does this even mean? He started his career professionally at 16 in 2000. In 2020 he retired age 36. Pretty normal and he scored a lot of goals after he became 30. I know you're trying to say age fixing, but you got zero facts to back him up.

You wouldnt say this about Tim Cahill for instance, started at Millwall in 1998 and stopped playing in India 2019...

 

[Josh 76]

16-20 Ronaldo
20-24 Messi
24-28 Maradona
28-32 Pele
32-36 Modric
36+ Quagliarella/Zanetti/Van Der Saar

Pele was poorest at 28-32. The 1970 World Cup papered over the cracks big time. His peak was 1960-1964. Age must have been 19-23

Maradona won everything from 1986-1989, but his peak was 1983-1986. Age must have been around 22-25.

The best player is I saw at 17 was Nicolas Anelka. He was on an another planet. He moved to Real Madrid too soon.

Modric definitely the best player I’ve seen in his mid 30s .

 

[Oranges038]

What does this even mean? He started his career professionally at 16 in 2000. In 2020 he retired age 36. Pretty normal and he scored a lot of goals after he became 30. I know you're trying to say age fixing, but you got zero facts to back him up.

You wouldnt say this about Tim Cahill for instance, started at Millwall in 1998 and stopped playing in India 2019...

Settle down Sheila, it was just a joke.

 

[Andersonson]

Settle down Sheila, it was just a joke.

A good racist one..

 

[CrockedRain]

Messi won 3 Balon Dors between 24 and 28, won the treble and had the highest individual peak year for a footballer, 2012. Cristiano 24 - 28 is not close to 2012/2015 Leo.

24-28 Messi is 11/12 to 15-16
24-28 Cristiano is 09/10 to 13/14

I made the mistake of thinking Messi played the majority of the time being 24 at 12/13 season. But even then, I believe their 4 years run is about equal, And Messi won 2 Ballon D'ors, As much as Cristiano.

Generally speaking, Messi probably had the strongest 4 seasons run in football history, 09/10 to 12/13, But this wasn't OP question.

 

[Oranges038]

A good racist one..

How exactly is it racist?

I never mentioned race, it was a joke based on suspicions around his age which followed him throughout his career. Nothing more nothing less.

If you find it racist, then that's on you.

 

[PSV]

How exactly is it racist?

Obviously because you're implying black don't crack. As a non-black I take high offense.

 

[pacifictheme]

Van Der sar was much better than zlatan between 36 and 40.

Van Der sar won 3 league titles, the champions league and got to another final. Also went on that mad clean sheet run. He was at his peak and arguably the best keeper in what was the strongest league in the world at the time.

 

[Gavinb33]

From my own eyes

16-20 Rooney
20-32 Messi
32-36 Modric
36-40 Zlatan/VdS

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Van Der sar was much better than zlatan between 36 and 40.

Van Der sar won 3 league titles, the champions league and got to another final. Also went on that mad clean sheet run. He was at his peak and arguably the best keeper in what was the strongest league in the world at the time.

I would agree. I think Giggs has a strong argument over Zlatan too in a similar time frame for age. Matthews(someone I also forgot), Zanetti, etc. are good shouts too.

I ended up picking Zoff, because I completely forgot about him, but VDS is a good shout. I thought he declined a fair bit in his last season for us, but he was still a good GK.

 

[KeanoMagicHat]

Thiago Silva is another one for 36-40, probably Chelsea's best defender when they won the CL, captain of Brazil at a World Cup and guaranteed starter, still performing at a decent level on the verge of 39.

 

[Andersonson]

How exactly is it racist?

I never mentioned race, it was a joke based on suspicions around his age which followed him throughout his career. Nothing more nothing less.

If you find it racist, then that's on you.

The suspicion about his age is based on what? Its certainly not based on facts

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

The suspicion about his age is based on what? Its certainly not based on facts

I don't see it as a race-related thing.
The lack of accurate documentation regarding dates of birth is something that's apparently more common in ""3rd world countries"", including African ones. If it's not the case, and it's another construct of the white-western world that's not based on facts, that's probably the racist element of it.

But as far as I know, these incidents were documented more in Africa than in other places (look at the Wikipedia page for 'age fraud in association football'. are the writers of the page necessarily racist, or is it just something that tends to happen more in that area of the globe, where people mostly have a certain skin color?)

As an example-
if Russian athletes have to face more suspicions of doping than other athletes, because of their country's history with it,
could it be thought of as racist toward whites?