I was born in the 80's so I've only seen the all time legends in film. This is especially for the old timers. What are your personal favorite players of all time? I'll give my favorites and it's very biased on what I've seen: Maradona Batistuta Zanetti Scholes Nedved Rivaldo Riquelme Van Basten Beckenbauer (in film but he was incredible) Messi Give your opinion.
Some of my favourite top players from my lifetime: Zico (mainly in retrospect though) Andriy Shevchenko Dejan Savicevic Michael Laudrup Brian Laudrup Some of my favourites from before I was born: Tom Finney Bobby Moore Nandor Hidegkuti Faas Wilkes Some of my personal favourites to play for Forest: Franz Carr Peter Davenport Johnny Metgod Kingsley Black Steve Stone Lars Bohinen Forest players from when I was too young to remember but have seen on video: Tony Woodcock Archie Gemmill John Robertson Other favourite players: Georgi Kinkladze Gary McAllister Robbie Dennison Legends I especially enjoy to watch: Johan Cruyff Johan Neeskens Pele Michel Platini Jean Tigana Glenn Hoddle There's probably others I could mention.
Michael? Yep, I'd like to have seen more of La Liga live now. I used to get Serie A games on Sundays but no Spanish Football (I think there might have been some coverage in the 80's when the likes of Butragueno/Sanchez/Michel/Martin Vazquez were playing for Real Madrid). I knew Laudrup was a great player but didn't witness what I now have via Youtube from his Barcelona days - I saw a bit and more of him playing for Denmark etc. I actually feel Brian may be more under-rated but that's because outside of Scotland he's not really rated very high among the greatest ever. He seemed as good in Scotland as Figo was for Barcleona probably, but taking the different leagues into account he wasn't as good in reality I'm sure. My list was a mixture in terms of the players off the top of my head I'd count among my favourites and was quite varying in quality. I thought of Stuart Ripley after my post but quality-wise he's a far way off Laudrup for example. Going retro Rob Rensenbrink and Johnny Rep are other players I like to watch. Like most people in terms of enjoying to watch players on top form I'd obviously include other greats like Zidane, Maradona, Best, van Basten but my list wasn't just about quality. For example Franz Carr was my favourite player when I was at Primary School.
Del Piero was my favorite when I started watching the game in mid 90's. Ronaldinho was the player I enjoyed watching the most. Buffon is/was my favorite goalie.
Oh yeah, Del Piero was definately one of my favourite world-class players for a time when he was emerging with Juventus. I really liked some of his goals such as one against Dortmund in the Champions League when he cut in and curled it right into the far corner. He scored a few like that and other stand-out goals too, including one taken on the volley which stood out on a goals collection I saw recently.
I'll make this my last post but I'll sign-off with mentioning a couple of Argentine midfielders I've enjoyed to watch (live or in retrospect) Ardiles and Redondo. Bergkamp has also been a favourite of mine and was classic at times (World Cup goal vs Argentina for example).
Paulo Futre Heitor Machado Everton Ian Rush Kenny Dalglish Zico Maradona i have not gone with player still playing
Some of my favorite players were: Del Piero Stoitchkov Hagi Romario Gullit Overmars Buffon Davids Veron Waddle Francescoli Weah Bruno Conti Antognoni Cabrini Littbarski Brehme Scifo Caniggia Giannini Socrates Eder Mihajlovic Savicevic Maradona Zidane
I need to watch more of Brian. But Michael was always to me a hybrid between Xavi and Iniesta. He had the dribbling ability while also passing incredibly. Ardiles el capitan was a master. Smart when it came to footy as well. Redondo was another master at his position. Many have tried but they can't match what Redondo did. He defined that position. I can't believe I forgot him. Maybe it's because a Mandril player.
From that list my personal favourites are Rivaldo and Batistuta. Both of them are from a time that sends shivers down my spine. You know when there's a certain period that you consider to be a "favourite"? The time when Rivaldo and Batistuta were at their peak is that time for me. When Nedved was also coming to the fore along with the likes of Gaizka Mendieta, Raul, Steffan Effenberg, Shevchenko, Edgar Davids, Juan Veron, Mihaillovic etc. Batistuta was a massive personal favourite of mine. I thought he was simply awsome at times. So strong, so ruthless. He could punish you from any angle. His goals against Arsenal at Wembley and Man Utd at Old Trafford summed him up perfectly. Give him an inch of space and he'd pull your pants down. He'd take you to the cleaners so quickly and wthout warning, regardless of distance or angle he was shooting from.
I loved to watch Batigol. A poacher, in essence, who could punish you from distance, and had the hold up play of a world class target man. Too bad he hit the post against Holland as he was having a half decent world cup 98, in his prime, to that point. Other honorable mentions; bergkamp nesta davids pires
Too many to mention all of them, but: Lineker Ginola Maldini Baresi Gullit Gascoigne Van Basten Rijkaard Stoijkovic Scifo Hagi Rui Costa Southall Valderamma
Romario Rivaldo Gabriel Batistuta Fernando Redondo Pep Guardiola Ivan De La Pena Alvaro Recoba Phillip Cocu Luis Enrique Juan Roman Riquelme Michael Laudrup Lilliam Thuram Edgar Davids Gennaro Gattuso some peruvians Roberto Palacios Nolberto Solano Jorge Soto
Bati was my childhood hero. I wish Argentina had him right now. He did everything you wanted in a CF. I played right back but I tried to imitate him as much as I could. When I scored, which was seldom since I was RB, I did the machine gun thing Bati did. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww5LpGsy4ac"]YouTube - Batistuta 100 goals ((remixed))‏[/ame] Look at this and reminisce.
Pelé Socrates Zico Romario Bebeto Rivaldo Ronaldo Ronaldhino Zidane Henry Xavi Iniesta Gerrard Suarez Messi
My favourite player to watch is Diego Maradona, 2nd is Il Fenomeno My favourite player I cheer for the most to succeed right now is Lionel Messi My favourite player based on what he did in his career is Ryan Giggs My favourite historic players are most of the Mighty Magyars
Had Bati been playing now and lets say La Liga, he would be smashing in 40+ goals a year. He was getting like 25+ in the Serie A in the 90's. The man was a monster. Him and Edmundo, good ol times.
Too many for me to list out ... at least 40,50 ranging from GK, DF, MF FW to pure striker .... This thread should limit to "your TOP10 favorites" or so //
- BATISTUTA, Gabriel - CUETO, César - DAVIDS, Edgar - DE BOER, Frank - DIDÍ - ROMÁRIO - SCHMEICHEL, Peter - SINDELAR, Matthias - THURAM, Lilian - ZIDANE, Zinedine
Some of the players I enjoyed watching the most, and not necessarily the best players of their time: Juergen Klinsmann Andreas Brehme N Kanu David Ginola Ronaldo ( Brazilian) Denilson (the one from the 98 WC Brazil squad, who played at Deportivo La Coruna) Paul Gascoigne Alan Shearer Oliver Kahn Miroslav Klose Jari Litmannen Roberto Baggio Karl Heinz Rummennigge Maldini Stoichkov Thomas Haessler Thierry Henry Lothar Matthaeus Mehmet Scholl Ryan Giggs ( in the mid to late 90s)
Just a few of my favourite players (in no particular order). Way too many to list all of them: Paolo Maldini Pippo Inzaghi Ronaldo Kaká David Beckham Claudio Reyna Andriy Shevchenko Roberto Baggio Lionel Messi Xavi Javier Saviola Gabriel Batistuta Ruud van Nistelrooy Dennis Bergkamp Raúl Martin Laursen Luc Nilis David Ginola Yossi Benayoun Rune Bratseth Yasuhiko Okudera Lazslo Kubala Mordechai Spiegler