Great players who didn't win much

[tentan]

Are there any greats of the game who surprisingly didn't actually win that much at club level?


Roberto Baggio
2 league titles
1 Coppa Italia
1 UEFA Cup

Totti
1 League title
2 Coppa Italias

Zidane
3 League titles
1 Champions League

Lilian Thuram
2 League titles
1 Coppa italia
1 UEFA cup

Maradona
2 League titles
2 Cups

Ronaldinho
2 League titles
1 Champions league

Ronaldo R9
2 League titles
1 UEFA Cup

 

[m1tch]

Shearer
1 league title

 

[Oranges038]

Slippy.

 

[Maluco]

Kane
Audi Cup

 

[Theonas]

Rivaldo

 

[Ted Lasso]

I don't think you can really appreciate this without including International honours. Back in the day, I'd say World Cup had much more prominence and interest. It's shifted more to club football now simply because of the internet and broader reaching TV.

 

[FrankFoot]

Maradona won 1 argentinian league with Boca Juniors, not sure why is omitted.

Also context should matter, I think all those players bar Totti won relatively ok, cause in those times winning league titles back then was not as easy as today cause there was more competition...for example, Platini won only 2 Serie A titles with Juventus, while Dybala won 5.

 

[Oscar Bonavena]

Slippy.

He said greats of the game.

 

[bringbackbebe]

He said greats of the game.

Gerrard is without a doubt a great of the game.

 

[Strelok]

RVP? Think he won his only title with us.

 

[HTG]

Bernd Schneider.

 

[norm87cro]

He said greats of the game.

I hate him too but he is a great of the game. He bsically did a 99 Keane in the CL final against Milan in 05. He then gave the title to Chelsea in 10 but then he slipped agsinst the same team in 14 when he didn't want to. Fair justice IMO but yeah he is the great of the game and a brilliant CM/DM

 

[Lay]

Griezemann

1 Europa League
1 Copa Del Rey

 

[Rhyme Animal]

Gerrard is without a doubt a great of the game.

If you mean Gerrard was great in some games - yes.

If you mean Gerrard is a great of World football - no.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Batistuta
1 Serie A
1 Coppa Italia
2 Supercoppa

 

[Physiocrat]

Let's make this more difficult. Who are the best players to never have won a league title in the top division in any country, nor a continent wide cup (like the Libertadores or European Cup), nor a continental international cup (like the Euros or Copa America) nor a World Cup?

 

[Remember the geese]

I hate him too but he is a great of the game. He bsically did a 99 Keane in the CL final against Milan in 05. He then gave the title to Chelsea in 10 but then he slipped agsinst the same team in 14 when he didn't want to. Fair justice IMO but yeah he is the great of the game and a brilliant CM/DM

Gerrard was not a DM.

 

[Cloud7]

Zidane won more as a club level manager than a club level player. Insane for a player who was as great as he was.

 

[ayushreddevil9]

Harry Kane

 

[Rooney in Paris]

Gerrard was not a DM.

He was barely a CM too

 

[Remember the geese]

He was barely a CM too

Agreed. He played his best football as a 10 behind Fernando Torres.

 

[ScholesyTheWise]

If you mean Gerrard was great in some games - yes.

If you mean Gerrard is a great of World football - no.

If Totti and Batigol are- then he certainly is.

I'll enter controversy territory here-
While being a different player to all so a direct comparison is moot- he's on the same level as Giggs, Scholes, Beckham... as being one of the very best the PL has seen in his respective position, being WC for a good couple of years.

our CO92 were both imperative to Fergie's success and also "lucky" to have come through the United ranks at this exact moment in time, playing for this manager and being surrounded by the players we had.
If he was one of them, Fergie would have made a Gerrard-clone into an even better player than he was for Pool, I'd wager.

It can't have everything to do with trophies, otherwise you'd only have a select couple of clubs to choose from when talking about the greats of the game.

 

[Isotope]

Gascoigne.

Most of his trophies are with Rangers.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

While he clearly wasn't in the same league as the likes of Batistuta or Baggio, Hasselbaink was in contention to win the Premier League or La Liga golden boot 5 seasons in a row from 1997/1998 to 2001/2002 with Leeds, Atletico and Chelsea, and he had a strong goal scoring record against the top teams in those leagues as well.

But his only major trophy win was the 1997 Portuguese Cup with Boavista, when he came on as a late sub in the final, after all the goals had been scored.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

Bryan Robson didn’t win anywhere near enough for how great he was. I know he won the two league titles but he was basically finished by then and playing a bit part role, it’s a shame he never got to lead us to a title at his peak.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Kane
Audi Cup

 

[FrankFoot]

While he clearly wasn't in the same league as the likes of Batistuta or Baggio, Hasselbaink was in contention to win the Premier League or La Liga golden boot 5 seasons in a row from 1997/1998 to 2001/2002 with Leeds, Atletico and Chelsea, and he had a strong goal scoring record against the top teams in those leagues as well.

But his only major trophy win was the 1997 Portuguese Cup with Boavista, when he came on as a late sub in the final, after all the goals had been scored.

Great player.

I remember always picking Hasselbaink for my Master team in Winning Eleven 2002, very powerful shoot, i always was trying to score from outside with him just shooting randomly ,like 70% success rate haha

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Gary Lineker:
0 League titles
FA Cup with Tottenham
Copa del Rey with Barcelona
Cup Winners' Cup with Barcelona

Did Giuseppe Signori, who had a stellar goal scoring record in Serie A when it was the best league in the world by a huge margin, win any major silverware? Lazio won the Coppa Italia during his final season there (to qualify for the Cup Winners' Cup which they won in its final edition the following season), but I think he hardly played at all then.

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Great player.

I remember always picking Hasselbaink for my Master team in Winning Eleven 2002, very powerful shoot, i always was trying to score from outside with him just shooting randomly ,like 70% success rate haha

His perfect hat-trick vs. Tottenham in 2002 was brilliant:


In the space of 8 days Tottenham had the following results:
Man Utd 4-0 Tottenham in the Premier League (with Taricco getting sent off)
Tottenham 0-4 Chelsea in the FA Cup
Chelsea 4-0 Tottenham in the Premier League (with Taricco getting sent off)

I remember an interview with Hasselbaink, in which he said that as he didn't come through the youth academy at any of Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord, he felt that he was treated as an outsider in the Netherlands / in the Dutch football system.

 

[11101]

Bryan Robson didn’t win anywhere near enough for how great he was. I know he won the two league titles but he was basically finished by then and playing a bit part role, it’s a shame he never got to lead us to a title at his peak.

Robson and Gerrard are very similar players here. Both were a bit Roy of the Rovers, capable of brilliant individual performances to win games but neither were great team players. Robson kept us afloat for years just as Gerrard did Liverpool, but both teams got better after they left. I think both achieved roughly what they were capable of.

 

[SilentWitness]

Van Persie.

 

[Gentleman Jim]

Trevor Brooking. 2 FA Cups
Ask your Grandad how good he was.

 

[SilentWitness]

Tony Hibbert.

FA Cup runner-up 08/09.

 

[The Corinthian]

I hate him too but he is a great of the game. He bsically did a 99 Keane in the CL final against Milan in 05. He then gave the title to Chelsea in 10 but then he slipped agsinst the same team in 14 when he didn't want to. Fair justice IMO but yeah he is the great of the game and a brilliant CM/DM

Alonso and Smicer were better than him on the day.

 

[The Corinthian]

Tony Hibbert.

FA Cup runner-up 08/09.

Great shout - belongs in the OP list.

 

[UnitedSofa]

I don't think you can really appreciate this without including International honours. Back in the day, I'd say World Cup had much more prominence and interest. It's shifted more to club football now simply because of the internet and broader reaching TV.

Respectfully disagree, World Cup and Euros still hold more prominence than club honours for me.

World Cup above Euros of course but they’re still the GOATs of trophies.

 

[1950]

Let's make this more difficult. Who are the best players to never have won a league title in the top division in any country, nor a continent wide cup (like the Libertadores or European Cup), nor a continental international cup (like the Euros or Copa America) nor a World Cup?

Sócrates, unless you count state championships.

 

[Oranges038]

He said greats of the game.

And Lilian Thuram is a great or the game? Frank Lebouef won as much as him at international level and had a similar club career. Is he a great of the game? What about Laurent Blanc? Trezeguet? Petit?

Gerrard was a great player. No doubt about it.

 

[Physiocrat]

Sócrates, unless you count state championships.

I don't remember how the Brazilian league was structured then. Was there a Brazilian wide league or was there regional leagues followed by an all-Brazilian cup competition with the winners of the regions?

 

[Hammondo]

If Totti and Batigol are- then he certainly is.

I'll enter controversy territory here-
While being a different player to all so a direct comparison is moot- he's on the same level as Giggs, Scholes, Beckham... as being one of the very best the PL has seen in his respective position, being WC for a good couple of years.

our CO92 were both imperative to Fergie's success and also "lucky" to have come through the United ranks at this exact moment in time, playing for this manager and being surrounded by the players we had.
If he was one of them, Fergie would have made a Gerrard-clone into an even better player than he was for Pool, I'd wager.

It can't have everything to do with trophies, otherwise you'd only have a select couple of clubs to choose from when talking about the greats of the game.

I would pick Totti over him.