Argued the other day about which country is producing the best quality of talent considering the size of the league and country. Ie a country with 80 million people is likely going to produce more players than Holland which is less than 20 million. Where would you go if you were a 15 year old footballer and wanted to develop into a star? My vote is Holland but I'm interested to hear other opinions.
Right now and/or historically? Hard to argue against the Netherlands as #1, Portugal (10 Million) and Uruguay (3 Million) are worth a mention too.
Assuming a similar population size as currently (or at least similarly sized in relation to other countries) then Hungary (10 million) during the 50's & maybe 60's plus to a lesser extent the 30's and 40's, and Scotland (5 million) during the 60's/70's/80's would be pretty high up I should think. Neither nation would currently be a contender though and nor on an historical average basis (they've had other fallow periods too in terms of producing many world-class players). I agree that Holland stands out as the obvious choice, but whether that is down mostly to training/popularity of football/talent of individuals is hard to say. They had a few world-class players before the 70's like Faas Wilkes, Coen Moulijn etc but it's probably since the 70's that they stand out in terms of the quality and success of the International side compared to the population size.
Was thinking more recently in terms of current or recently retired players. But I found pdg's post interesting to read none the less.
Thanks . I think Holland, Portugal, Uruguay as posted by schwuppe would look like a good estimate of the top 3 currently. Out of the top nations I suppose Argentina has been producing a lot of top players over the last decade or so (overall perhaps too as they're population is a bit less than the other main countries). Spain is another valid choice currently due to the number of top players they're producing and the success of the International team - more than ever before. Of course, schwuppe might've meant Portugal and Uruguay historically as well as currently and they'd be good choices on that basis too (Uruguay from the 20's to the 50's more than now even probably).
The obvious choices are Croatia, Portugal, Holland and Uruguay, but historically speaking, I am going with Uruguay. Holland has 5 times more people than Uruguay and Portugal 3 times more. Uruguay has won the World Cup twice and reached the Final four of rthe World Cup 5 times. They won more Copa America than any other South American countries. In recent years, Holland and Portugal could
Depends on the definition of "Best quality of talent". This could be interpreted as "the best of the best who win it all", or "all top division footballers", or something in between. Please clarify. The Netherlands has a population of "only" ~17 million, but according to FIFA's "Big Count" of 2006, they are the country with the 8th largest amount of registered players, 1.1 million. Uruguay,population ~3 million, barely made the top 100 at 41.8k registered players. http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/bigcount/registeredplayers.html
Not necessarily looking at the national team results, but simply an appraisal of how good the players they have produced are. For example many would argue that Holland have underachieved because their players can't get along. Similar arguments for Spain, while other nations have maybe done more with less (Greece for example). But one would not deny the elite level of players that have come out of the Dutch league like Sneijder, van Persie etc etc. My real question really is which league and football association is the best at developing talent.
What's the worst among football playing countries? Sure Russia/Soviet Union produced some great players, but if you look at their population, how popular football is and success in other sports their quality is kind of disappointing.
As painful as it is to say, the US has to be up there. WE have more registered players than Uruguay has people and yet we struggle. Of course part of that is the lack of professional infrastructure. Russia has produced many talented players but I think they just aren't as well known outside of Russia. They can compete with any of the mid tier European countries in terms of talent. They are a country with a 100 million plus but few of those people have access to football training.
Portugal is overrated, they had a great generation during the late nineties to mid-00's, but their level has since faded. Other than C Ronaldo and Nani, they have noone worth wasting some ink. Historically, Uruguay, Holland, Hungary, Sweden, Paraguay and the former unified Yugoslavia have produced many excellent players despite being small countries. Recently, Ghana, Honduras and Ecuador are a few small nations producing some interesting players.
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Argentina with a population of 40 million produces a far higher number of top players per head than Holland with 17 million.Uruguay with its 3,5 million is the only serious competitor.
I'd say the US has to be at the bottom. We are pretty terrible at developing players. I'd agree with India but how many people in that country really play soccer/football??
It's got to be Uruguay. If you want to talk depth/good players, they have some 15-20 players just in La Liga alone. There are obviously not 200 Argentines or 100 Dutch, so.... If you want to talk about top-notch players, recent international tournaments back-up Uruguay too. The argument is really, who is #2?
In a review of nations producing the most quantity of great players. Brazil & Argentina had no rivals since 50s. If we had into consideration, per capita ratio. Uruguay comes to mind (maybe over Brazil). Since Uruguay exports quality players since pre-war era.
So it looks like.per capita 1 Uruguay, 2 Argentina 3 Holland So the futbol of the Rio de la Plata remains as it has for a century now the best
Portugal is overrated but you are considering Ghana, Honduras and Ecuador? Really? In terms of population Portugal has ~11M, Ghana has ~24M, Honduras ~8M and Ecuador has ~15M.