Good but less known players from the 90s / early 2000s?

[FootballHQ]

What was the name of the left-winger in that Valencia team? Quick as lightning and had an excellent cross.

It was iconic team...will have a go at naming it now....Canizares, Angloma, Ayala, Pellegrino, Carboni, Gerard Lopez, Farinos, Mendieta, Baraja, Aimar, Claudio Lopez. That was generally their team from 98-2001 anyway, fantastic mix of youth in midfield and hard as nails defence, a little similar to how Atletico Madrid lined up in last five years.

Edit: Aimar only joined in Feb 2011 so should put Kily in given someone named him above!

Gustavo Lopez at Celta Vigo around that time was also a good winger and Argentine but he never quite made step up at club level Kily did. Celta Vigo was also a factory for fantastic creative players around that time with Mostovoi and Karpin, golden age for La Liga.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Adrian Ilie, Savio, Munitis, Etxeberria, Julen Guerrero, Mostovoi, Karpin, Fran

Yeah, I followed La Liga religiously in that period.

 

[Bokito]

Does anybody remeber Glenn Helder? Played at Arsenal, rather entertainingly, at the time when it still was “boring Arsenal”. After his career he went completely downhill, with gambling, crime, bankrupcy and whatnot.

 

[Denis79]

It was iconic team...will have a go at naming it now....Canizares, Angloma, Ayala, Pellegrino, Carboni, Gerard Lopez, Farinos, Mendieta, Baraja, Aimar, Claudio Lopez. That was generally their team from 98-2001 anyway, fantastic mix of youth in midfield and hard as nails defence, a little similar to how Atletico Madrid lined up in last five years.

Remember I really wanted them to beat Bayern in a CL final. Excellent team.

 

[Invictus]

Igor Protti and Dario Hübner. Not many seem to remember either of them but they still remain the only players to finish as the Top Scorers in Serie C, Serie B and Serie A.

Spoiler: Youtube Videos

'90s and early to mid 2000s Serie A is full of underrated strikers like them, Lucarelli, Chevantón, Delvecchio...

Nihat, Vicente, Penev for La Liga in the same-ish period.

 

[Fıstıkçı Şahap]

Darren Huckerby
Mark Viduka
Ian Harte
Michael Bridges
David Batty
Olivier Dacourt
Paulo Wanchope
Shaun Goater
Jesper Gronkjær
Boudewijn Zenden
Celestine Babayaro
Mario Melchiot
Marian Pahars
Claus Lundekvam

Basically half of Leeds. Also 90s & 2000s football was far more enjoyable than the current one.

 

[Tomuś]

Marek Citko, the best Polish talent I've ever seen (including Lewandowski). His career was cut short because of nasty injury he suffered and off-field shenanigans of his employers. Blackburn offered mega money (relatively) for him when they were champions of England.

Here's his goal against Atletico in UCL:


Was man of the match in England vs Poland at Wembley, too.

 

[Champagne Football]

None of them were lesser known stars to anyonr who liked 90s football.

The question asks 'Who were the Son's, Zaha's, Vardy's, Maguire's from those days?'

I dunno but those are pretty big names if you ask me, even if they are a level below Pogba, Salah, Hazard, De Bruyne etc in recognition. I guess we interpreted the question differently.

 

[Tomuś]

Preki was one to watch out for too, I think someone mentioned Darren Anderson - scored some belters! Villa were quite a decent team too, we had some fab games. Robert Warzycha is a (probably missspelt) name that seems to jump out of the mind too...

It's perfectly correct, and nice to see him recognized.

 

[FootballHQ]

Igor Protti and Dario Hübner. Not many seem to remember either of them but they still remain the only players to finish as the Top Scorers in Serie C, Serie B and Serie A.

Spoiler: Youtube Videos

'90s and early to mid 2000s Serie A is full of underrated strikers like them, Lucarelli, Chevantón, Delvecchio...

Nihat, Vicente, Penev for La Liga in the same-ish period.

Hubner played and was still scoring in Serie A at pretty much 40 IIRC, he was the go to striker for many clubs threatened by relegation in later part of his career.

Great shout on Nihat! Had a fantastic partnership with Darko Kovacevic when La Real nearly won the league in 2003, proper little and large combination. He was also scoring loads at Villareal but then got bad injury and not the same afterwards.

Love threads like this, could talk about late 90s/early 00s La Liga for rest of the evening, I agree the major leagues today are far more boring with lack of variety.

 

[freeurmind]

Igor Protti and Dario Hübner. Not many seem to remember either of them but they still remain the only players to finish as the Top Scorers in Serie C, Serie B and Serie A.

Spoiler: Youtube Videos

'90s and early to mid 2000s Serie A is full of underrated strikers like them, Lucarelli, Chevantón, Delvecchio...

Nihat, Vicente, Penev for La Liga in the same-ish period.

Hubner was fantastic

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Good names so far, so nostalgic.

Gareth Southgate
Noberto Solano
Mark Viduka
Kanu
JJ Okocha
LuaLua
Danny Mills?
Akwe- something forgot the name. Maybe I remember wrongly.
Wanchope?
Huckerby?
Vicente?
Steven Taylor? That Newcastle english CB.

Kevin Nolan
Stewart Downing
(maybe these two are more mid 2000s than early)

 Great thread mate, kudos to OP.

 

[Big Andy]

Sonny Pike

 

[FootballHQ]

@Tomus

Would put in Emmanuel Olisadebe. Half Polish so paid attention to this when in 2000 he became first black player to play for Poland and all the fuss it caused. He had a really good scoring run in 2002 qualifiers but then flopped a bit at 2002 world cup and then faded out of contention.

 

[freeurmind]

 

[golden_blunder]

Nii lamptey
Peter Ndlovu
Roy Wegerly
Gary Mabbutt
Brian Kilkline
Ian Walker

 

[thepolice123]

The newcastle team of the early 00s that went into the CL had some pretty good players.

Laurent Robert
Solano
Bellamy
Dyer

 

[SalfordRed18]

This thread is so nostalgic

 

[Big Andy]

Nii lamptey
Peter Ndlovu
Roy Wegerly
Gary Mabbutt
Brian Kilkline
Ian Walker

They were all, to a man, legitimately shit

 

[0161_UNITED]

The newcastle team of the early 00s that went into the CL had some pretty good players.

Laurent Robert
Solano
Bellamy
Dyer

Cheers!!!

 

[golden_blunder]

They were all, to a man, legitimately shit

Nah man they were good players but not great players. Mabbutt was very underrated and fergie wanted to buy him

Peter ndlovu brother Adam was in trial at united

Nii lamptey had much potential

 

[Jezpeza]

Nadir belhadj at Portsmouth. Looked a quality left back and had skills. Seemed he vanished

 

[VorZakone]

Lots of names being mentioned that I didn't know about. Cheers!

 

[pacifictheme]

The question asks 'Who were the Son's, Zaha's, Vardy's, Maguire's from those days?'

I dunno but those are pretty big names if you ask me, even if they are a level below Pogba, Salah, Hazard, De Bruyne etc in recognition. I guess we interpreted the question differently.

Yeah true. I was much more into football then than now so i co sider those plauers huge but you're probably right. All great players as well. Ginola did win player of the season in 1999 so hes probably more akin to the names you mentioned than the others.

 

[Sir Scott McToMinay]

Jose Caminero
Gianluca Pessotto
Vincent Candela
Luigi Di Biagio
Sunday Oliseh
Vladimir Jugovic

 

[Tomuś]

@Tomus

Would put in Emmanuel Olisadebe. Half Polish so paid attention to this when in 2000 he became first black player to play for Poland and all the fuss it caused. He had a really good scoring run in 2002 qualifiers but then flopped a bit at 2002 world cup and then faded out of contention.

Was fantastic in the qualifiers, yes. Everybody I know here have fantastic memories of him. I won't blame him for 2002 WC as there were reports of our other players going on the booze and being barely able to play the games. It's still a big talking point here in Poland as we did have a great momentum going to the tournament.

 

[heinze58]

It's perfectly correct, and nice to see him recognized.

Haha cheers mate! I can’t even remember who he played for tbh!

 

[Tomuś]

Haha cheers mate! I can’t even remember who he played for tbh!

You know him from Everton most likely. Thinking about this, I don't know if you're not mistaking him with Krzysztof Warzycha, who was a very good player and definitely more widely recognized.

 

[Ramos]

Diego Fuser

Mainstay at the Italian top during the entire nineties (mainly Lazio and Parma). Won almost everything at club level (EC1 and 3, Coppa, Serie A, Club WC, Super cup).

Don't think a lot of fans from the current gen have heard of him.

 

[RooneyLegend]

SA's own Ravel...

Not comparable as Ravels career hasn't taken off at all while there was a time when Jabu was arguably the best player in SA.

 

[P-Ro]

Dean Holdsworth, a tricky number 10 and Robbie Earle a great box to box midfielder. Both were enormous for us in the 90s. Clip of them both destroying title challengers Blackburn 4-1 in 1994:

 

[FootballHQ]

Chris Perry was an underrated CB aswell, think he was close to England cap on a few occasions but never got one.

Such was his form, he was tipped by Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and Crazy Gang boss Joe Kinnear to play for England

Jason Euell did well at Wimbledon and then at Charlton for a few seasons.

 

[Abe144]

Johan Micoud
Marcio Amoroso
Edmilson
Carlos Gamarra
Walter Pandiani
Matias Almeyda
Cristian Panucci
Ariel Ibagaza
Serginho
Emerson

 

[P-Ro]

Chris Perry was an underrated CB aswell, think he was close to England cap on a few occasions but never got one.



Jason Euell did well at Wimbledon and then at Charlton for a few seasons.

Euell had one good season followed by 2 poor ones as the main striker. Can't really comment on his season in the Championship because I spent more time protesting than going to games, but he scored 19 so not too shabby. Didn't really rate him and was a downgrade on our previous strikers Ekoku, Gayle and Fashanu.

Chris Perry is a good shout though.

 

[Gio]

Carboni perhaps from that god Valencia team of late 90s early 00s. Was a very good defender for him but can't remember him getting any Italy caps at that point although he might've been well over 30.

Well him and Angloma were well into their mid-30s by the time they got their greatest recognition at Valencia. Carboni was rock solid though and, had he not been the same age, position and nationality as Maldini, could have had many, many more caps. To be fair Italy had a number of solid and relatively unheralded full-backs around that time, most of them pretty adept on both flanks - Benarrivo, Pessotto, Torricelli, Mussi.

 

[K13]

Jay-Jay Okocha, Overmars, Kinkladze

Great choices. Marvelous players and to think Okocha was a Big Sam player as well.

 

[Hoboman]

Ivan de la Peña

 

[K13]

Rob Jones at Liverpool was probably one of the best right backs around in the 90's - injuries curtailed alot of his promise

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

Jamie O’Hara scored some bangers

 

[youmeletsfly]

laurent robert. best left foot ive ever seen apart from roberto carlos

The guy with the scorpion kick, he was really good.