Footballers rated higher when active than after

[Schneckerl]

Online opinions about Casillas and Roberto Carlos are pretty negative these days. However, this is on English based forums that might be more of a regional thing and similar when they were active.

Agreed with Raul. The timing of his career is extremely unfortunate for his legacy. It looks really bad on paper that Spain started dominating as soon as he retired, but it's just bad luck.

Do people think CR7 will still be talked about in the same breath as Pele, Maradona and Messi in 50 years time?

There's a decent amount of people who'll consider him the greatest player ever.

 

[_00_deathscar]

For a fella who won a Ballon d'Or as a 5'9" centre half, you don't hear all that much about Fabio Cannavaro. Doesn't seem to be spoken of with the same regard as the likes of Maldini and Nesta, at least.

Cos he wasn't at their level. Great player, world class etc but not at that very top echelon of players. Epic tournament though.

 

[Fortitude]

Karl-Heinz Rumenigge. One of the best wide forwards the game has seen. It's like he never existed.

Ruud Gullit has already been mentioned in here, but the extent of his reduction since playing days to now is understated as the guy was the most hailed Dutch player in the world and player outright for the majority of his Milan career and internationally, the most celebrated player of all the Dutchies. In modern parlance, it's akin to someone like Zidane or Ronaldinho dropping off the face of the earth.

 

[FootballHQ]

I'd throw in Nicky Butt btw. Interested the Cafe views on this....

Was he really better than likes of O'Shea and Fletcher? After he left Man. United he was regular for Birmingham in 05/06 and then Newcastle a few years later, both teams relegated.

Was talking to a mate who follows Man. United and he was raving about what a great midfielder Butt was. Was going to say I saw him as a dependable squad player but he was a regular starter in a few of those seasons.

Anyway now he's seen as supporting case in Man. United's glory days in 90s and early 00s.

 

[Rozay]

Shevchenko for sure.

 

[Rozay]

Rivaldo was also better than Zidane for me, when they were both the two main #10s in the world. He won his Balloons the proper way too, not just by scoring memorable winning goals. Over the course of a season, he was far better at Barcelona than what Zidane was doing elsewhere for me.

 

[TheReligion]

David Trezeguet

 

[Hoof the ball]

Abel Balbo.
Daniel Fonseca.
Faustino Asprilla.
Stefan Effenberg.
Francesco Baiano.
Gabriel Batistuta.
Jurgen Kohler.
Alessandro Del Piero.
Alessio Tacchinardi.
Christian Panucci.
Demetrio Albertini.
Zvonimir Boban.
Jean-Pierre Papin.

Also, Giuseppe Signori! He never gets a mention these days, but come on!!!! Talk about a striker.

 

[VanKenny]

I'm absolutely certain Iniesta will go this way with people focussing on his lack of goals and assists.

Dont think so, he was along with Xavi the most important man on the best midfield in football history. Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta have cemented their names on the history of the greatest.

Xavi's main role was to control the game and his secondary objective was to try to break it with his key passes if he had the chance. Iniesta's role was kind of the same but the priorities inverted, his role was to break the game in favour of Barca of course and then as a secondary objective, control the game. Then upfront Messi was the absolute game breaker while at the back of the midfield Busquet was the absolute controller of the game.


Dont think a diamond like that will ever be seen in football again.

 

[Ramshock]

David Beckham

This. Beckham was a phenomenal player but this gets lost in all the trappings that went with him.
I think he should have stayed in Europe longer rather than listen to Posh Spice moaning about wanting to live in LA.

 

[thepolice123]

I'd throw in Nicky Butt btw. Interested the Cafe views on this....

Was he really better than likes of O'Shea and Fletcher? After he left Man. United he was regular for Birmingham in 05/06 and then Newcastle a few years later, both teams relegated.

Was talking to a mate who follows Man. United and he was raving about what a great midfielder Butt was. Was going to say I saw him as a dependable squad player but he was a regular starter in a few of those seasons.

Anyway now he's seen as supporting case in Man. United's glory days in 90s and early 00s.

I think he was better than Fletcher and O'shea but not world class. The class of 99 seems to rate him though.

I think it was Scholes who said he would be worth 60m(?) today.

 

[Gibb11]

Serginho.... Yeah he wasn't what you would describe world class (not saying he was) but when he did feature in games for Milan, your thinking when the game was live the likes of rui costa, rivaldo, seerdorf would make the significant difference in attacking in that game, they did but Serginho seemed to often contribute positively as some attacking outlet

 

[Righteous Steps]

This. Beckham was a phenomenal player but this gets lost in all the trappings that went with him.
I think he should have stayed in Europe longer rather than listen to Posh Spice moaning about wanting to live in LA.

It wouldn’t matter, he was way past his prime by the time he played in LA, and I don’t think this thread even applies to him, he was underrated by football fans even while playing, underrated by fans overrated by the media.

 

[roonster09]

Giggs and Beckham

 

[B20]

Some myth has developed that Torres used to terrorise even though it was just one game where he mistimed a header and Torres nipped in ahead of him.

There was the nutmeg as well.

But yeah, of Liverpool players, it was actually Bellamy who had Vidic' number and would run rings around him.

 

[Bobski]

First name that comes to mind is Rivaldo. He gets dumped on at every possible opportunity, which is absurd. He was a superpower during his playing days, but one incident of play-acting has sullied his entire body of work, apparently.

Another is Shevchenko. Shevchenko was a god tier, dead cert elite striker for the annuls of time... then he went to Chelsea, and the rest is history.

Romario also fits this category. The guy was a true phenomenon as a player; truly and utterly revered whilst active. For whatever reason, his legend is not carrying across generations, which is bizarre. It might be a case of Ronaldo overshadowing him, but the reality is, Romario was a monster well before Ronaldo even made a name for himself.

Will be back with more - history has 100's of these players.

2 good shouts.

I think one of the issues is that football, especially when compared to a sport like basketball, has more depth of great players then any other elite sport.

Top 10 lists might work on the NBA but there are scores of players in history who deserve consideration.

 

[Gio]

Another is Shevchenko. Shevchenko was a god tier, dead cert elite striker for the annuls of time... then he went to Chelsea, and the rest is history.

Apart from a handful of insular fans in the UK, did Chelsea really affect his legacy?

 

[André Dominguez]

Hagi and Stoichkov: lazy bastards without the ball, magicians when the ball went to their feet.

 

[Fortitude]

2 good shouts.

I think one of the issues is that football, especially when compared to a sport like basketball, has more depth of great players then any other elite sport.

Top 10 lists might work on the NBA but there are scores of players in history who deserve consideration.

Think a hall of fame, or some such, would do wonders in this regard for footy. Feels like footballers are disregarded and forgotten about outside of their own supporters a lot quicker than those of other sports. Perhaps the team element plays a hand in that, but I find really good player so of bygone eras are pushed to the side seamlessly.

Apart from a handful of insular fans in the UK, did Chelsea really affect his legacy?

I think his profile took a big hit for the Chelsea stint. Before he got to the UK, the talk of Chelsea doing the unprecedented and breaking the PL by adding perhaps the premier striker of the time was prevalent. When everything went to the dogs, Shevchenko's standing, from universally regarded to something a lot less, seemed to be cemented, and that was even before he'd retired, let alone some years down the line.

I'm guessing he's still a huge deal in Italy, Ukraine and for those who consider the Chelsea collapse an outlier, but his stock just isn't what it should be, especially so when contrasted to when he was active.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

Apart from a handful of insular fans in the UK, did Chelsea really affect his legacy?

He at least seems to still be considered a great player by most that mention him nowadays, it probably affected him more in the short-term. His old strike partner Rebrov is the Ukrainian player from that time who lost the most in reputation imo. Understandable as he didn't adapt outside Dynamo and seemed to lose all motivation for the game during his struggle at Tottenham, but i'd imagine a lot of younger fans now don't know that plenty weren't sure who was the better player of the two when they played together, or even know who he was. He scored about 28 CL goals in three campaigns and really stepped up in the last one when Shevchenko had left, with Kyiv only going out on goal difference to Real Madrid in very tough second group stage that also had Bayern.

 

[FootballHQ]

Aye Rebrov is a good shout thinking about it. Just didn't work out for him at Spurs and then he turned up at West Ham for a year or two with little impact.

 

[André Dominguez]

Túlio Maravilha: amazing goal scorrer who's only adventures outside Brazil was a little more than half-season loan at Sion when he was starting his professional career and another half-season loan to an hungarian team when he was already 33 y.o.
The guy scored 13 goals in 15 caps for Brazil NT.

Strange that no club in Europe gave him a shot.

 

[André Dominguez]

Another mistery: why Marcelo Delgado never played outside S.A.? He was a very good striker, and probably one of the most prolific during his career.

 

[Ibi Dreams]

George Weah?

I don't remember much about his career but I know that he won the Ballon d'Or. Hardly gets a mention these days, or if he does it's usually about how he is somehow now the president of Liberia

Weirdly looking at this stats now they look pretty unimpressive, but I guess he played for Milan in the era of catenaccio so maybe that's why

 

[strongwalker]

Luis Figo and Rivaldo were both considered Zidane’s equals in the late 90s and early 2000s.

/agree. When reading those names, a few others come to mind - Hagi, Stoichkov, Letchkov, Sükür, Suker, Micoud..

what abour Eto'o? Weah? Yeboah? Jorginho? Ze Roberto? Cole? Yorke? Dahlin? Ebbe Sand? Laudrup? Elkjaer-Larsen?

 

[Gio]

He at least seems to still be considered a great player by most that mention him nowadays, it probably affected him more in the short-term. His old strike partner Rebrov is the Ukrainian player from that time who lost the most in reputation imo. Understandable as he didn't adapt outside Dynamo and seemed to lose all motivation for the game during his struggle at Tottenham, but i'd imagine a lot of younger fans now don't know that plenty weren't sure who was the better player of the two when they played together, or even know who he was. He scored about 28 CL goals in three campaigns and really stepped up in the last one when Shevchenko had left, with Kyiv only going out on goal difference to Real Madrid in very tough second group stage that also had Bayern.

Rebrov's a great shout for this thread. Widely forgotten despite how scintillating he was for Kyiv.

 

[Grylte]

George Weah?

I don't remember much about his career but I know that he won the Ballon d'Or. Hardly gets a mention these days, or if he does it's usually about how he is somehow now the president of Liberia

Weirdly looking at this stats now they look pretty unimpressive, but I guess he played for Milan in the era of catenaccio so maybe that's why

First player i thought of when i saw this thread.
Was about to make a post, but you beat med to it.
Amazing player!