After have all the lists here, I had to check out the title of the topic to make sure this thread is related to
1980-2019.
Alright... let's advance
GK - Buffon
RB - Leandro
CB - Baresi
CB - Scirea
LB - Maldini
(c)
MF - Redondo
MF - Rijkaard
MF - Maradona
MF - Zico
FW - Messi
FW - Ronaldo
✩ Before someone bashes my choice for Leandro as the right-back, I inform you that Leandro was one of the best and most complete right-backs ever. Definitely he owned all the atributes that is required of a full-back: his long passes was highly accurate
(more than every player nowadays for sure), he had excellent positioning by attacking and defending with the same category, great sensory of colectiveness, surprisingly technical for a defender and very clever to make right decisions in the field. Due to his vision and gifted skills, he could play in other positions fairly well what makes him a quite versatile player - the only position he'd never played before was like a keeper.
Maybe the fact he was neither a WC champion nor a player who played in Europe may blind it, but, as someone who followed Brazilian and European championships for a long time, I can assure you he was pure class at that time.
✩ It was very hard not to put Nesta in this list but after having seen Baresi and Scirea there, probably it's easier to understand why. Anyway, if I couldn't count on one of them for injury or something else, Nesta can replace it with top quality. By the way, I wonder why Scirea didn't receive too much love here. I always thought he was considered a legend among defenders, especially for Europeans. I think I was wrong.
✩ It was also hard not to put Junior or Roberto Carlos in this list. I believe these two are more skillful than Paolo Maldini when it comes to offensive moves and they both could be chosen as a great left back, but I really admire Maldini's ability to read the whole game to such extent he can intercept the ball naturally without needing to resort too much to tackles, something that he's very reliable to do if it were necessary. Although he's widely regarded as one of the best defenders/full-backs ever, it seems his sensory of attacking is underrated since he was always well aware when he had to go forward and assist his teammates and when he had to hold position like a guard dog.
✩ I had to check out the title of the topic to make sure this thread is related to
1980-2019, and I got flabbergasted how Zico was mentioned just once in this list before my commentary. OK, I understand Maradona is a tough contender for him but c'mon... mentioned just once?
![Wenger :wenger: :wenger:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
It's not bias or anything else but I easily put prime Zico above Platini, who was also an excellent player during his time. It's reasonable for me, though, that most people around the world would choose Platini over Zico, because of Platini's outstanding performance at Euro'84 and nice performance for Juventus regularly, whereas Zico spent most of his career in Brazil, off the worldwide's radar screen. But I always thought Zico superior as a player overall. His speed, passing, shooting, dribbling skills, vision are all top tier. Not for nothing was he known as
"white Pelé".