What is your Serie A all-time xi?

People will say you're just an old man shouting at clouds if you claim football isn't what it used to be, but look at some of the fecking names in this thread. And most of them were around at the same time!

You can't tell me it's just nostalgia.
There hasn't been an Italian CL winner for the last 15 years so its definitely the league becoming more shit as well.
 
-----------------------Buffon-----------------------
Cafu--------Nesta----Baresi-----Maldini
-------------------------Pirlo------------------------
---------------Zidane---Seedorf---------------
------Maradona--------------Platini----------
---------------------Ronaldo----------------------

Glad to see Seedorf get a mention.

Serie A in the 90s was just unreal. My favourite edition of champ manager was italia.

Think of all the players mentioned here and then think of the likes of Del Piero, Bergkamp, Batistuta, Zola, Vieri, Vialli, Tassotti, Bergomi, Zanetti, Ferrara, Desailly, davids, Mancini, Sammer, Costa, Gazza. List is practically endless.

@2 man midfield is right. It was a golden age. Premier league now is no comparison. No league is, not even prime Barcelona La Liga.
 
Glad to see Seedorf get a mention.

Serie A in the 90s was just unreal. My favourite edition of champ manager was italia.

Think of all the players mentioned here and then think of the likes of Del Piero, Bergkamp, Batistuta, Zola, Vieri, Vialli, Tassotti, Bergomi, Zanetti, Ferrara, Desailly, davids, Mancini, Sammer, Costa, Gazza. List is practically endless.

@2 man midfield is right. It was a golden age. Premier league now is no comparison. No league is, not even prime Barcelona La Liga.
Yeah it was genuinely insane. Grew up watching it on channel 4. The quality of player who doesn't make the squad is ridiculous. If I were to pick my fave Serie A team it'd probably be 11 totally different players. Del Piero and Rui Costa were my 2 fave players and neither would probably even make the bench for a best of squad.
 
Yeah it was genuinely insane. Grew up watching it on channel 4. The quality of player who doesn't make the squad is ridiculous. If I were to pick my fave Serie A team it'd probably be 11 totally different players. Del Piero and Rui Costa were my 2 fave players and neither would probably even make the bench for a best of squad.

Rui Costa was one I had on my mind and forgot. Loads of other midfielders too stood out, like Albertini, Boban, Veron, Lentini. Lothar Mathhaus even played there.

Then you have other icons that keep coming back to me like Hagi, Recoba, Crespo. List really is endless.

Sounds like we had the same 90s introduction to it all.
 
Glad to see Seedorf get a mention.
Really don't understand how or why :lol:

Feel like he's one of those guys people who didn't follow Serie A appreciate more because he was a big game player. Problem was, he was almost exclusively a big game player :p

League game against Lecce? Might as well line up with 10 men
 
Buffon
Zanetti Nesta Baresi Maldini
Zidane Pirlo Maradonna
Platini
Van Basten Baggio​
 
Maldini
Zanetti
Baresi
Nesta
Maldini
Pirlo
Kaka
DelPiero
Totti
Meazza
Sheva

Never rated Maradona bec of his off field stuff.
 
going 4-4-2


Ronaldo -------------
----------------------Maradona

Nedved -- Rijkaard --Matthaus -- Gullit

Maldini ------ Nesta ---- Baresi ---- Cafu

Buffon​
 
T
Will only go with players I saw regularly.

Buffon
Zanetti Nesta Cannavaro Maldini
Pirlo
Nedved Zidane
Kaka
Ronaldo Batistuta

This would be roughly mine for the same reason. I know how good Madonna, Platini, Gullit etc were but I never really watched them play. I might swap Kaka for Rui Costa or Totti though...
 
buffon
cafu nesta maldini zanetti
pirlo
nedved davids
kaka
sheva r9
from the ones i watched "live" but i probably forgot someone obvious as the pool is insane.

from the oldies mvb, gullit and suarez go straight in.
 
Really don't understand how or why :lol:

Feel like he's one of those guys people who didn't follow Serie A appreciate more because he was a big game player. Problem was, he was almost exclusively a big game player :p

League game against Lecce? Might as well line up with 10 men

Yeah for a period I genuinely thought he only turned up for games against English teams. He was mediocre in the league and sometimes so fecking lazy that there was no point of him playing
 
The lack of mentions of Matthaus worries me.

Do people just pick their team based on post-career hype?
 
So if we're going just with best players

Buffon, Scirea, Maldini, Baresi, Pirlo, Matthaus, Platini, Maradona, Van Basten, Ronaldo

Tempted to have Sivori over Van Basten but in the end going with Marco
 
To add a different dimension; what would have been the all time Italian manager, formation and then which players would have fit that?
 
The lack of mentions of Matthaus worries me.

Do people just pick their team based on post-career hype?
Age. The majority on this forum haven’t seen him play at all/only caught the late libero version at Bayern that was applauded off the pitch at Camp Nou before Teddy & Ole stole the show — not the all-mighty Ballon d’Or winning version.

It’s the Giggs conundrum — when you play for so long that an entire generation perceive your pre-retirement years as your genuine peak.
 
Bacigalupo, Ballarin, Maroso, Grezar, Rigamonti, Castigliano, Menti, Loik, Gabetto, Mazzola, Ossola
To add a different dimension; what would have been the all time Italian manager, formation and then which players would have fit that?
Ferruccio Novo in charge, Ferrero as coach, set up with the method
 
You really have Maicon above Zanetti and Cafu?
Yeah. Probably the best player on Inter's treble side. Didn't last as long at the highest level as the other two but his peak was insane
 
Yeah. Probably the best player on Inter's treble side. Didn't last as long at the highest level as the other two but his peak was insane
That his peak was so short lived was precisely the reason he would not make my team, even though it really was immense. Zanetti and Cafu managed to contribute to their teams for so long, that I would not be able to overlook it.
 
From what I have seen personally:

Buffon

Zanetti
Cannavaro
Nesta
Maldini

Davids
Zidane
Seedorf

Ronaldo
Batistuta
Van Basten
 
Being Argie the ammount of great players that played at least a couple of games in Serie A since day one could make a team that can face anyone, with a couple of moot points in the keeper and left back role, I can't recall proper names in those, to mix with the other more illustrious names around.
Orsi, Angelillo, Sivori, Maschio, Maradona, Veron, Tevez, even a Dybala...in fact even misfires or more marginal carreers in Serie A in comparison to those mentioned first are some of my favorites ever: Redondo, Ayala, Passarella, Ramon Diaz, Cannigia... this without entering in less glamour roles with fellas like Monti, Cambiasso, Samuel, Zanetti.

Yet It's a League that also at times felt like a mixed bag because of having some names that in cases I'm far from fond, others merely respect or even in others had too much succees for my taste. Fellas like Piojo Lopez, Cruz, Crespo, Giulyemmmmppppietrroooxxxvvvghh, Simeone, etc...I used to hate a bit the 90's when everyone loved that period because many of those ended in the NT due to having good seasons there.

Anyway this thread deserves a full Italian 11, really hard to do it, the names that without thinking that much I need to be there are Baggio, Maldini, Buffon and Pirlo.
Some personal favorites are Scirea, Antognoni, Signori, that for many might not get teh cut and some oldies are severily underrated like Rivera, Tardelli, Riva.
 
Players like Boniek, Elkjaer, the Laudrups, Zico, Socrates, Junior, Falcao, Klinsmann, Rossi, Passarella, Brady, the list goes on and on.
 
Glad to see Seedorf get a mention.

Serie A in the 90s was just unreal. My favourite edition of champ manager was italia.

Think of all the players mentioned here and then think of the likes of Del Piero, Bergkamp, Batistuta, Zola, Vieri, Vialli, Tassotti, Bergomi, Zanetti, Ferrara, Desailly, davids, Mancini, Sammer, Costa, Gazza. List is practically endless.

@2 man midfield is right. It was a golden age. Premier league now is no comparison. No league is, not even prime Barcelona La Liga.

Started getting in to football in about 1995.

Some of my best memories are of watching matches on channel four and the Golazo show.
 
The lack of Roberto Baggio in all of these lineups is baffling. Probably the best Italian footballer of all time.

R9 was phenomenal but he has no Serie A league titles, he can't be in the greatest Serie A 11. It might be controversial but he is overrated as time goes on.

He only has 14 CL goals in 40 appearances and only has 1 league title in his career in the top 5 leagues, while playing for Barca, Inter and Real Madrid.
 
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I’m know Buffon is an all time great, but so many goalies in with a shout if he wasn’t there. Personally I loved Walter Zenga when I was a kid, but also loved Angelo Peruzzi, Francesco Toldo, Gianluca Pagliuca, Sebastian Rossi…..surely the early 90s to mid 2000s was best era of goalkeepers ever.
Rossi wasn't on the same level as the other names.
 
Del Piero has to be in a IX from the mid 90s onwards. What a player he was
He was fantastic, I think Totti was the better out of the two of them though, watching Totti in full flow was something else, I actually don't think anyone is better technically.

Something about Seria A, always liked the top teams, the kits were fantastic and the Era I grew up watching the players were top drawer
 
Wow tough one
Off top if my head off players i have seen


Buffon
Cafu
Cannavaro
Nesta
Maldini
Pirlo
Zidane
Boban
Baggio
Nedved
R9


What is surprising here 6/11 italians.

If you did the same for all other leagues how many would be national of the league
 
Buffon

Cafu
Nesta
Cannavaro
Maldini

Pirlo
Davids
Kaka
Zidane

Ronaldo Nazario
Del Piero

From about 1996 onwards.

Really wanted to get Zanetti, Maicon, Batistuta and Totti in there too.
 
Also a real lack of Inter players despite their treble success.
 
He was fantastic, I think Totti was the better out of the two of them though, watching Totti in full flow was something else, I actually don't think anyone is better technically.

Something about Seria A, always liked the top teams, the kits were fantastic and the Era I grew up watching the players were top drawer
I always thought of Del Piero as being the Italian Giggs. Top player for the guts of 2 decades but never the best player in the team eg Del Piero had Zidane for instance and Giggs had Cantona/Ronaldo.

Totti was a smashing player as well. I personally preferred Del Piero but it's just my preference, both players are brilliant.
 
I always thought of Del Piero as being the Italian Giggs. Top player for the guts of 2 decades but never the best player in the team eg Del Piero had Zidane for instance and Giggs had Cantona/Ronaldo.

Totti was a smashing player as well. I personally preferred Del Piero but it's just my preference, both players are brilliant.

Del Piero not only was the best player in the team before his injury, he was arguably matching R9.

Folks only remember the Del Piero post injury. His level before that was insane. At his very peak he was a better player than Totti. It's just that his peak was impacted so suddenly by injury.
 
Also a real lack of Inter players despite their treble success.

There is a lot of nostalgia for the 90's, not as much for the 80's and perhaps a lack of knowledge further going to the past and a tad disrtepected 00's due to Serie A not being considered top dog anymore as a whole. .

In reality you can make a Serie A from any period that can go toe to toe with any period, from Fachetti, to Laudrup, from Passarella, to Luiz Suarez or Rivera to Sivori, there are lots of felals not named that were from similar caliber.