Underrated Skillful Players

Always thought Louis Saha was a very underrated technician (and player).
 
Glorio said:
He soooo was
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SadlerMUFC said:
Completely disagree. There is definitely almost a cult following when it comes to Jay Jay, but how can you say that a guy as good as him wasn't underrated when his biggest moves were to PSG (15 years too early) and Bolton?
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Just because he played for sht clubs doesnt mean he was underrated. Speak to anyone who knows football including managers, players etc and they will tell you Okotcha had mad skills. Type it into google...most skillful players and I bet at least half the lists has Jay-Jay in there. He was named a Bundesliga legend. He is remembered as a great by most if not all the clubs he played for. He was BBC player of the year 3 years in a row. That should tell you that everyone rates him.
 
Bebestation said:
A player that no one seems to talk about is Roberto Baggio. Arguably Serie A was the tough spot aswell and he was quite a devastating and skillful player.

I also saw Rivaldo get mentioned on YouTube and how he has been a bit forgotten under the likes of Brazilian Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Romario.

Another player that is maybe not underrated but I feel that people dont talk much about anymore in conversations is Pavel Nedved - I could watch the guy play non stop because I felt he was elegant.
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I really struggle to see how any of them are significantly underrated. Everyone remembers them as one of the greatest footballers of their era (all of them are Ballon d’Or winners), and generally are considered to be among the best ever players in their position. Baggio especially has a well-deserved cult following.
 
Just some Euro ones arranged by country, though some maybe not underrated in their own country like Dobrin who is recognised as arguably the greatest Romanian player.

Heinz Flohe
Uwe Bein
Olaf Thon
Mario Basler
Mehmet Scholl
Thomas Doll
Bernard Genghini
Frank Sauzee
Philippe Vercruysse
Eric Carriere
Johan Micoud
Franky Vercauteren
Enzo Scifo
Nicolae Dobrin
Ilie Balaci
Marcel Raducanu
Adrian Ilie
Andrej Kvasnak
Antonin Panenka
Lubomir Moravcik
Peter Dubovsky
Jurica Jerkovic
Jovan Acimovic
Vladimir Petrovic
Safet Susic
Blaz Sliskovic
Aljosa Asanovic
Dragan Stojkovic
Milinko Pantic
Hristo Bonev
Krasimir Balakov
Lajos Detari
Andras Torocsik
 
Enzo Scifo got a bit unlucky with competition in his time. Spurs had a bunch of fantastically gifted players in Hoddle, Waddle & Ardiles. People don’t seem to fully comprehend how otherworldly great was Omar Sívori (although I go against my own argument with Ballon d’Or winners, I don’t care).
 
Rossa said:
Aaron Lennon. Terrible end product, but his close control and technique were brilliant. His acceleration is probably the best I’ve ever seen, and he could move so well between players.
However, I heard someone say it was better to let him dribble past and have a free shot on goal than blocking and risking a corner. Someone else might score from the corner.
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He used to turn evra inside out.
 
::sonny:: said:
J.Redknapp
Beckham
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Skilful?

Funnily enough, I remember a few journalists mentioning Redknapp when everyone was rewatching old matches during the break and being shocked by how bad he was. Like how basically all you had to do to be considered a “cultured” midfielder in England was spray a lot of cross field passes. It was good to finally feel justified as I spent most of the mid-late 90s feeling like I was the only person in England who considered him a nothing player.
 
paraguayo said:
Keisuike Honda
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He made two bad moves, Moscow and then a Milan side that were just throwing players together. He was so good at VVV, he should have gone to a better European destination like Germany.

Quality player when on form
 
Vassilis Hatzipanagis, the Greek Maradona. A case could be made for him being one of the greatest dribblers ever to play the game, but he never left the Greek league and didn't feature for Greece in international football because he'd played for USSR before that and was ineligible, so the average football fan probably hasn't even heard of him. He's regarded as the best Greek player ever by quite some distance, and there's enough footage of him taking the absolute piss out of people on Youtube to confirm that he's not just a myth.

Other than that, I always considered Peter Crouch to have amazing technique considering his lanky frame. He couldn't help but look like the most ungainly player of all time given how tall and scrawny he is, but what he actually did with the ball was quite impressive. Definitely not a world beater in terms of skill, but that aspect of his game was pretty underrated, I feel.
 
Always thought Wes Hoolahan would have been a good signing for a better side than Norwich.
 
Red Stone said:
Other than that, I always considered Peter Crouch to have amazing technique considering his lanky frame. He couldn't help but look like the most ungainly player of all time given how tall and scrawny he is, but what he actually did with the ball was quite impressive. Definitely not a world beater in terms of skill, but that aspect of his game was pretty underrated, I feel.
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I almost feel like it was the opposite. Because he was better on the ball than you’d expect his technique tended to be referenced a lot and commentators would often mention how he was better on the deck than in the air. In reality he ended up more headed goals than any Premier League player in history. Mangers tended to use him for his ability as a target man so unsurprisingly by far the longest spell of his career came at Stoke.

The ultimate “good touch for a big man” player was Nwankwo Kanu. Slow and useless in the air despite being almost two metres tall but he had an amazing touch and brilliant skill. I doubt Crouch would have had the career he did if he were average height but Kanu still would’ve played at the top level if he were as short as Shaun Wright-Phillips.
 
Manoucha09 said:
Lee Trundle.
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Brilliant!
He was playing non-league against my local town a couple of years ago and scored a 3 minute hat-trick. My mate was one of the coaches of Abergavenny, said they couldn’t get near him. Here’s the link if anyone is interested, Abergavenny actually look like they’re trying to play some football while Llanelli just lump it to the big man who does his stuff :lol:
The video is at the bottom of the article. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ba...-trundle-hat-trick-in-welsh-non-league-346933
 
Hard to say Trundle was underrated really. One of the most well known and celebrated lower league players ever! Pretty much everyone of my generation in the UK knows who he is and has seen his skills compilations.
 
Sergio Torres of Wycombe Wanderers. Was called the Buckinghamshire Maradona
 
Tsiartas
Marcos Llorente
Saul
Ruben Baraja
Balakov
Harvey Barnes
J.Brandt
Arda Turan
 
harms said:
I really struggle to see how any of them are significantly underrated. Everyone remembers them as one of the greatest footballers of their era (all of them are Ballon d’Or winners), and generally are considered to be among the best ever players in their position. Baggio especially has a well-deserved cult following.
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Yeah I guess I tried to pick world class players that dont get talked about much anymore as a way of showing their underrated aspect in the current age. It's a bit similar to Ribery I thought like in the original post - when he was playing everyone was scared of him but once he retired it's like he didnt exist.

I should lower the aspect of what I called underrated though, i agree.
 
Nightclubs, Booze and Wasted Talent late '80s - early '90s ussr edition:

Oleksandr Zavarov
Oleksiy Mykhaylychenko
The four Igor's..Dobrovolsky, Shalimov, Korneev, Lediakhov
Vasili Kulkov
Viktor Leonenko
Aleksandr Mostovoi
 
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