Riquelme is a very difficult player to get a core handle on. His moods and performance seemed to go in and out like the tide; from being unplayable to someone who didn't seem to care about getting into a game if it wasn't going his way.
An anachronistic player whose era would've been the '80's if there was some means to make the perfect setting for a skilset and archetype. Any system where he could be a #10 who did what he wanted whilst the rest of the team orbited him, would see the best of him: 3-5-2's, 4-4-2 diamonds; anything that placed him smack, bang in the middle of the attacking midfield position and expected nothing of him but to playmake and hurt the opposition.
I don't think he was ill-suited for European football, actually, far from it. I don't care the league or the reputation, an accommodated, up for it Riquelme would have been no more containable. Riquelme's personality and idiosyncracies more govern not building a team around him than his skilset and ability pitch-side. Put frankly, placing all of your trust in someone like that, with so much at stake and the requirements needed to be in place for him to truly thrive is just too risky outside of tournament football for the NT. Riquelme and perceived slights are legion, so the disruption he could cause if hooked for poor performance or even being subbed out too many times for his liking in club football at a giant, was not worth the hassle given there were more dynamic players than him who were more agreeable and less prone to the seemingly infinite lunar ups and downs of Riquelme. If you could guarantee WC '06 Riquelme in every game at club level, we're talking about a player who has few who come close, but we're not. Even the Libertadores Riquelme could be considered an outlier given absolutely everything he gravitated toward was in place for him to shine back at Boca.
I don't actually think he and Zidance have much crossover, personally. Zidane could, and did play a number of positions there and about the #10, particularly working off the left side of midfield. Riquelme would never be interchangeable with what Zidane was prepared or able to do outside of dead-centre AM.
Putting absolutely everything you are as a team into, or through one man, was the thing of the 80's and a small part of the 90's; if you were prepared to do that with Riquelme, you'd see the best of him, but the stakes are far higher and riskier than most clubs would even think about entertaining. He's one of those players who was born at the wrong time - take him back 15-20 years, and he'd be seen in a very different light to what he was and is now.
I'm not sure how exactly he is rated: do you take his achievements; his peak level of performance; his moodiness; inflexibility; failures to adapt or conform as one big package and measure it against others, or do you assess him in accordance with his technique and ability outright? As a package, he was a flawed genius, as a sum of parts, there are few even in his league in his specialist subsets. Through balls, for example, you go up to the Valderrama, Laudrup, Zico, Platini, Maradona etc. level immediately with him i.e. the very best to do it. Control of a game, the same, but unlike others he could be associated with, his dips were absolutely enormous in relative terms. So what do you do with a player like him? He's more outlier than anything else, in my opinion.
