Who is the most underrated footballer in modern history?

[GueRed]

Underrated players at United for me:

Antonio Valencia: very good as a winger, excellent as a right back, but some seem to be upset that he wasn't as good as Ronaldo and couldn't cross like Beckham.

Yep definitely underrated.


Top pro. Top Player at his peak. Versatile and a consistent performer.

No fuss.

 

[Spoony]

Careca? Loads of goals in the SerieA during a time when strikers didn't score loads in Italy.

 

[Spoony]

Socrates? The coolest footballer ever.

 

[GueRed]

Nobby Solano.

Key player for Newcastle in the late 90's and early noughties.

Traditional wide player. Set Shearer up loads.

Doesnt get enough mention when it comes to top Premier League foreigners

 

[Spoony]

Socrates probably not underrated, to be fair. Great player.

 

[Cascarino]

Mousa Dembélé would be my first pick.

outstanding footballer could of slotted into any of the top teams and improved them ever since hes left spurs they are still trying to fill that gap.

Great shout.

 

[Champagne Football]

That's crazy talk

Henry was average at Barcelona. 3 seasons there in a great team, but he didn't perform well enough in his 3 seasons there to be considered a Barca legend by fans.

Benzema has the record for most goals for 1 club outside France for French strikers. Doing that at the pressure cooker that is Madrid is an infinitely tougher environment than at Arsenal, not to mention achieving that record at a club where he played second fiddle to Cristiano for so long.

Ex France footballer Sidney Govou says Benzema is a more complete footballer than Henry.

 

[Gehrman]

Socrates? The coolest footballer ever.

To be honest I think there is probably something about his name that makes us forget what an awesome footballer he was.

 

[Lassitude42]

Fernando Redondo doesn't get enough love I feel

 

[GifLord]

Henry was average at Barcelona. 3 seasons there in a great team, but he didn't perform well enough in his 3 seasons there to be considered a Barca legend by fans.

Benzema has the record for most goals for 1 club outside France for French strikers. Doing that at the pressure cooker that is Madrid is an infinitely tougher environment than at Arsenal, not to mention achieving that record at a club where he played second fiddle to Cristiano for so long.

Ex France footballer Sidney Govou says Benzema is a more complete footballer than Henry.

That's cause he was already in decline. Also this love for Benzema is hillarious considering he was a proper donkey at times for Madrid missing the easiest of chances...

 

[Carl]

This. Absolute Rolls Royce of a player. With a more extrovert personality he might have stood up and been noticed a bit more but I think that would have made him a different player and likely worse.

It never helped that he was always a bit shit for England.

 

[Carl]

I just googled their top scorers. Mbappe is 3rd, despite being 22 years old! Crazy.

PSG themselves are only about 50 years old though, so it's not like most top clubs that have over a hundred years of history.

 

[Donaldo]

Mousa Dembélé would be my first pick.

outstanding footballer could of slotted into any of the top teams and improved them ever since hes left spurs they are still trying to fill that gap.

This is a joke...right?

 

[Bobski]

Historically I am thinking Ruud Gullit, a phenomenal all round footballer who could play any position and dominate, fantastic athlete, great technique, could finish, pick a pass, aerial threat, and was just fun to watch.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Mousa Dembélé would be my first pick.

outstanding footballer could of slotted into any of the top teams and improved them ever since hes left spurs they are still trying to fill that gap.

Very underrated.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Historically I am thinking Ruud Gullit, a phenomenal all round footballer who could play any position and dominate, fantastic athlete, great technique, could finish, pick a pass, aerial threat, and was just fun to watch.

He was highly regarded and recognized during his playing days, but strangely forgotten after.

 

[Bobski]

He was highly regarded and recognized during his playing days, but strangely forgotten after.

Yes, almost as if his management and punditry career have taken focus away from his playing achievements, which were exceptional. I am trying to think of a good modern comparison for him but struggling, very few who have the range of Gullit.

 

[Icemav]

Makélélé
Albertini
Deschamps
Redondo
Navas
K. Schmeichel
Marquinhos
Giroud
Benzema

Maybe Benzema in a sense that he has played second fiddle to others and exclusion from the national team. The rest seem to be appreciated fairly.

I've seen David Villa mentioned and that seems a fairly decent call.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

This is a joke...right?

Nah, he was the real deal

 

[Theo Cherry]

Clarence Seedorf...unequivocally

Marcel Desailly
Lilian Thuram
Edgar David
Samuel Eto
George Wear

A hell of all lot of black players unfortunately.

 

[Demyanenko_square_jaw]

I don't know who it is, but i am very sure it isn't a Real Madrid great.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Yes, almost as if his management and punditry career have taken focus away from his playing achievements, which were exceptional. I am trying to think of a good modern comparison for him but struggling, very few who have the range of Gullit.

Very unique indeed. I don't think there are comparable players. Maybe Yaya Toure if he played as a forward.

 

[ThierryFabregas]

Henry was average at Barcelona. 3 seasons there in a great team, but he didn't perform well enough in his 3 seasons there to be considered a Barca legend by fans.

Benzema has the record for most goals for 1 club outside France for French strikers. Doing that at the pressure cooker that is Madrid is an infinitely tougher environment than at Arsenal, not to mention achieving that record at a club where he played second fiddle to Cristiano for so long.

Ex France footballer Sidney Govou says Benzema is a more complete footballer than Henry.

Henry was past prime at Barce. At his best he was the best player in the world getting 30 goal and 20 assist seasons while constantly beating half of the opposition players constantly. Sidney Govou saying his teamate Benzema is more complete is meaningless and wrong.

 

[Drygon]

Henry was past prime at Barce. At his best he was the best player in the world getting 30 goal and 20 assist seasons while constantly beating half of the opposition players constantly. Sidney Govou saying his teamate Benzema is more complete is meaningless and wrong.

Henry only had 1 season where he made 30 goals + 20 assists. And Henry wouldn't be the best player in the world if he was up against Messi & Cristiano.

An aging Benzema (after CR7 left) scores around 30 goals + 10 assists without taking free-kicks and rarely penalties to inflate his goal-tally. What's also important to remember is that Benzema's supporting cast overall is miles behind "The Invincibles". Benzema don't have a forward teammate who can regulary provide 10+ goals in all comps. Meanwhile, Henry had Ljungberg/Wiltord/Bergkamp/Pires deliver 10+ goals every year.

It makes you wonder how good Benzema truely could've been in his 20s if he wasn't a side-kick to CR7...

Benzema is just as good as Prime Henry, if not better.

 

[BrilliantOrange]

Clarence Seedorf...unequivocally

Marcel Desailly
Lilian Thuram
Edgar David
Samuel Eto
George Wear

A hell of all lot of black players unfortunately.

By whom are they underrated?

 

[RedRob]

Ricardo Carvalho? Objectively Cech and Terry get most of the credit for the defensive strength of that mid-late 2000s Chelsea side, but he was a massive part of it too.

 

[Idxomer]

For me underrated players are the glue that holds the team together, not necessarily the stars but very very important pieces in the jigsaw to make it all fit.

Dzeko
Klose
Redondo
Serginho

Never left their country to play in europe but by all accounts were astonishingly good players;

Rabah Madjer

Mohamed Aboutrika

He was more talented than Salah, could've played in La Liga easily but he preferred being worshipped by 70 million+ fans.

 

[jesperjaap]

Suarez was probably the 3rd best player in the world for a few good seasons. He also had the best ever season for a premier league player. Great for country, Ajax, Pool and Barca. He bites people and used racist language so many hate him. Just like Giggs he should be rated higher than he is.

Giggs is one of the best British players of all time and one of the best performing players in Europe in the Champions League Era. Seeing him be the best player on the pitch v Madrid at 38 with Ronaldo, Rooney, RVP, Modric was a sight to behold.

Fletcher actually had good passing and technical ability, not just a workhorse. He wasn't even a squad player. He was robbed of the prime of his career due to illness.

That wasnt my point apart from regarding Fletcher. My point was more a case of why do people think these players are under rated? Giggs has been revered and respected throughout Europe, the clapping off the field in the champions league away is testament to that, so I dont see how he is under rated? And as for Suarez, is a big difference between disliking a player and under rating them. Maradona was hugely disliked by a lot of fans, but only a fool wouldnt mention him in a conversation for the bet player of all time.

 

[Dave Smith]

Azpilicueta is pretty underrated. Got to have been one of the most consistent defenders in the PL for the past decade yet never gets mentioned, let alone selected for his National team.

 

[lysglimt]

Deschamps was madly underrated when he played - Zidane got all the credit, but Deschamps was the player who made it possible for him

 

[GatoLoco]

Clarence Seedorf...unequivocally

Marcel Desailly
Lilian Thuram
Edgar David
Samuel Eto
George Wear

A hell of all lot of black players unfortunately.

Why are they underrated? All of them were considered among the best players in their positions wen they played and George Weah won the World Player of the Year in 1995.

 

[appleman]

Gabi, I think. Him being underrated is even a bit understandable as he was a late-bloomer who did a lot of thankless work for a team that wasn't the most glamorous or aesthetically pleasing; almost like he fell out of the ugly-duckling tree and hit every branch on the way down. Particularly in recent years, a lot of casual football watchers associate Atlético with Simeone, Griezmann, Koke, Godín, Luís, Saúl — and oftentimes, Gabi's name gets lost in the mix, even though his influence within the team (as a leader and a combative lynch-pin type in midfield) was second to none. Finished his career with zero international appearances as well...an unfortunate byproduct of being born in the wrong era for Spain from a functional/stylistic standpoint, and being a bit long in the tooth by the time he hit peak performance levels. What a player, though — a tireless release valve for the harshest defense of the decade, while also dictating the team's overall play.

This goal at Camp Nou was quite symbolic...Gabi with the delivery and Godín with the finish; the two pillars of the team combining to finally disrupt the Barcelona—Real Madrid duopoly, and clinching the first league title for Atlético in close to 2 decades!

Spoiler: Godín (1-1) FC Barcelona - Atlético de Madrid 2014

Crazy how that season was already seven years ago now. Before that season I always felt like Gabi was holding us back a little. He took one touch more than Koke or Tiago to give a great pass, and he relied more on (sometimes dirty) tricks gathered through experience, the way I saw it at the time.

But man, 13-14 began and while Koke and Costa were the stars in the first 10 games or so – with many of the goals being prepared by the former and finished by the latter – at the end of the season it was so clear who the actual reason for all the success that year was. Gabi, the one and only. The smart man, the tireless and experienced captain, the one who made sure the bare minimum of the team was so much higher than it would have been without him. While I do have to admit it's been a long time ago by now, I remember his as a perfect season. Even his 'dirty tricks' had an elegance about them that season. Because while they might not have been completely fair play, even those actions had an elegance about them (might even make it worse, but it showed so much dominance, that it made me view such actions differently altogether).

Gabi is the reason I started to see the actual value that experience and honing of your craft over a long time can bring you and the team you are leading. Such a great captain, and while Koke is clearly more technically gifted, we can only hope he turns his experience into craft as much as Gabi did.

The year/2 years afterwards I found Tiago to be better until injuries quickly ended that sudden late career greatness, but 13-14 was the Gabi masterclass season. I wonder if those two will become successful first team coaches in the near future.

 

[Spaghetti]

Definitely not Benzema. He was a bit of a donkey in front of goal for a fe years but great at bringing others into the game and was rated exactly like this.

He’s always scored a few and the last couple of years he’s scored a few more as he has more responsibility to score now, and certain social media accounts are manipulating people into thinking he’s always been some kind of R9 type striker.

As often happens, he’s currently overrated.

 

[stefan92]

For me underrated players are the glue that holds the team together, not necessarily the stars but very very important pieces in the jigsaw to make it all fit.

Dzeko
Klose
Redondo
Serginho

At least in Germany Klose is not underrated - we are still waiting for the "next Klose" to finally establish himself as the new permanent forward of the national team.

 

[duffer]

Heskey.

 

[paraguayo]

Can people please stop saying “Rolls Royce of a player”

 

[Simbo]

Jimmy Phillips

 

[Zen]

Clarence Seedorf...unequivocally

Marcel Desailly
Lilian Thuram
Edgar David
Samuel Eto
George Wear

A hell of all lot of black players unfortunately.

So under the radar you didn't even spell 3 of their names right. Minor stuff I'll admit, but to do it 3 times in a row!

 

[redmeister]

Tugay Kerimoglu was vaslyy underrated. He'd have been at home in any of the top Prem teams during his time here. But he didn't come to the Prem until he was over 30, so was never really an option for a top team.

 

[Theo Cherry]

By whom are they underrated?

By whom?
By many metrics

By whom are they underrated?

Sadly football fans, pundits and certain sections of the media.