Personally Zidane, Bergkamp, Henry, Messi and fat Ronaldo were (are in the case of messi) incredible to watch But I've always been a defender or a DM, and my idols are Makelele, Viera, Maldini, Jaap Stam, Keane (as much as I hate Man U, I can only respect his style and skill) and a younger Kolo Toure. Those are the players I modeled my play after. Edit: I forgot Puyol. I hate Barcelona but Puyol always impressed me.
Well I'm left-footed, so most of my favs tend to be lefties as well; Denilson, Edgar Davids, Athirson (ex-Flamengo LB), Junior, Zico, Rivaldo, Robinho, Eder, Saviola, Socrates, Del Piero, Antonio Conte, Juan Pablo Sorín (ex-Argentina LB), Rivellino, Ronaldinho, DaMarcus Beasley.
Müller Beckenbauer Özil Götze Matthäus Kahn Hummels Sammer Netzer Schweinsteiger All Germans Figo, Maldini, Overmas, Sahin, Vidic, de Boer, Diego Ribas da Cunha, Micoud, Zidane, C. Ronaldo, Wiltshire
In no particular order: van Basten Kahn Schmeichel Stoichkov Hagi Cruyff Maradona Kempes Platini Boniek Lato Blokhin Sammer Kohler Brehme Voeller Klinsmann Gerd Müller Beckenbauer Roger Milla Socrates Michael Laudrup Bergkamp Messi Maldini Bergomi Gentile ... These players epitomize the "beautiful game". They did not only have talent, but also an indomitable spirit, a distinct, intriguing style and a certain charisma. They were team players. It is impossible to not like what they did on the pitch - something that could not be said of players like C. Ronaldo, Ronaldo or Zidane who are/were too self-centered, introverted and/or eccentric for my taste and difficult to root for.
Gentille = beautiful game? Not sure of Klinsman as well .. his nick was a "rat" Zidane was a great team player - he was never a self-center player like Ronaldo (at peak) and CR7 ... However all 3 could well represent "beautiful games" in their form
Keeper: Michel Preud'homme Defenders: Lilian Thuram, Franco Baresi, Gaetano Scirea and Elías Figueroa. Central midfielders: Lothar Matthaus and Paulo Roberto Falcao. Attacking midfielders: Diego Maradona, Zico, Zinedine Zidane and Michael Laudrup, but also Michel Platini, Didí, Gérson, Ricardo Bochini, Gheorghe Hagi... Wingers: George Best, René Houseman and Robert Pirés. Forwards: Mario Kempes, Enzo Francescoli, Gianfranco Zola, Roberto Baggio, Rivaldo, Luc Nilis and Lionel Messi. Strikers: Marco Van Basten, Romario, Ronaldo and Roy Makaay. I gues I am forgetting many...
Garrincha Maradona Pele Di Stefano Beckenbauer Bochini Cubillas Platini Baresi Maldini el Magico Gonzalez Van Basten Butragueno Michel Thomas Hassler Laudrup Hagi Zola Baggio Weah Romario Redondo Batistuta Okocha Zidane Zanetti Donovan (yes Donovan) Riquelme Messi and like other posters I'm probably forgetting some.
Peter Osgood is my all time favourite. A big guy with a lovely touch and loads of skill. An absolute disgrace that donkeys like Jeff Astle and Martin Chivers kept him out of the England team.
I was born in the 90s so i only got to see a bit of Brazil Ronaldo, but I always use to watch Ronaldinho play and I remember him in his barcelona days My Favorite Players 1.(Ronaldinho) - My Idol since i was young, and he is my favorite player 2.Brazil (Ronaldo) - Best striker of all time 3.(Neymar) - Next Legend and will take Brazil to the 2014 WC final 4.(Robinho) - good skills, but Ronaldinho is better 5.(Pele) - even though i never got to watch him play he is the best I support the brazil national team even though im australian, and i like the style brazilians play with their skills
I tried to follow this theme and name just ten, and in the end split my choices into 3 dozens but highlighting my chosen ten..... Nandor Hidegkuti Faas Wilkes Peter Davenport Robbie Dennison Michael Laudrup Dejan Savicevic Franz Carr Kingsley Black Lars Bohinen Andriy Shevchenko Tom Finney Johnny Metgod Bobby Moore Rob Rensenbrink Johnny Rep Zico Jean Tigana Tony Woodcock Gary McAllister Brian Laudrup Dennis Bergkamp Steve Stone Georgi Kinkladze Alessandro Del Piero Nils Liedholm Pele Archie Gemmill Johan Cruyff Johan Neeskens Osvaldo Ardiles John Robertson Michel Platini Jan Ceulemans Glenn Hoddle Stuart Ripley Fernando Redondo With a top 40 being made up with 4 from these half dozen: Neil Webb Paul Merson Matt Le Tissier Robert Pires Juninho Paulista Kaka (but I could take out Neeskens and Platini and include all 6 perhaps, and I could name others and some could be slipping my mind at the minute). I found some Robbie Dennison highlights as people might not know him and he's in my top 10 favourites (not necessarily clips I saw at the time, but I definately saw other highlights not available to show of course - for a while Wolves used to be appear quite regularly on my local TV station and in terms of enjoyment he was one I used to love to see - I vaguely remember some tricky wingplay and some other great goals including curlers into the top corner after cutting inside - I remember more goals with his right but he scores a couple of great ones with his left here): (including assist from 2:10 and goal from 2:40) I thought now was a good time to bump the thread and allow others to post their lists of favourites, as the thread was a bit buried.
To complete four dozen favourite players I'll add these 6! Steve Sutton (goalkeeper) Raddy Majewski Gianni Rivera Dragan Dzajic Pierre Littbarski Mark Draper I also found Robbie Dennison doing a Zico free-kick impression, sort of:
robbie de wit tscheu la ling simon tahamata dennis bergkamp johan cruyff michel platini willem van hanegem socrates ossie ardiles those where players i really really liked and enjoyed watching. maybe not all of them the best but those where amongst my favorites
This is something I need to think about. Obviously some Feyenoord greats spring to mind like Van Hanegem, John de Wolf, Henke Larson, Pierre van Hooijdonk. Of all oldies I've seen at least 15 games of them, I think Rensenbrink is my favorite one. Such an ease on the ball, elegant and a clean strike. If he hit the ball you could hear that he hit it 'clean'. Fantastic player. Agile and a great first touch. He could deceive everyone with that first touch. A pity that he had not a bit more muscle and pace. He was great in the pressing art and wasn't bad in running but acceleration and top speed wasn't great and he also missed some strength (steroids might've helped). Purely in the technical department, he had no weaknesses I think. A better shooter as Cruijff, a better first touch as Cruijff, better free kick taker as Cruijff. Of the ones I saw with my own eyes: Laudrup, Van Basten and Litmanen (Dalglish is of a different generation, also a favorite). Each a favorite in their own way. There are some more but if I make a list with 40 names I'm afraid that I miss some and that would be unfair.
john de wolf ? puck what the hell. i have nothing agaisnt hard and tough players but john de wolf was a mean and nasty player
Very exaggerated, as confirmed in this old link (amount of yellow and red cards in Europe and at Feyenoord-PSV, which used to be the most carded tie of the league). The amount of cards he received was not very high or at the top end. http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/5009/Arch...Dreiging-vechtpartij-permanent-aanwezig.dhtml He wasn't nastier as a Neeskens for example. Shut down Romario, Pettersson, Bergkamp. He shut down Romario and a few weeks later (or was it one week later?) Romario troubled Maldini, Baresi, Costacurta. De Wolf commented: "Defenders receive bonus points if they can parade on the catwalk in Milan." Great guy. Liked him a lot. Cheating at a card game during the 1994WC in the USA wasn't very smart of him though.
hahaha good you said it becasue i was gonna bring it up. this was not real smart also teammates can be viewed at liek collegues for us working people. you do not cheat on you're collegues/teammates especially when its a game with money involved.
Retired players 1. Pele 2. Maradona 3. Ronaldinho 4. Ronaldo 5. Valderrama Players still playing 1. Neymar 2. Kaka 3. Luis Suarez 4. Ozil 5. Di Maria []__[]
Carlos Valderrama is one of my favorites, the main reason why can be seen on that video from 06:30 onwards. I also like Romario and Messi a lot.
Half of mine will be either players most of you have never heard of or players I've already gone on about for six-plus posts...
Favorite players when I was growing up: Ronaldo #9, Roberto Carlos, Batistuta, Baggio, Roberto Palacios, Solano, giovanni hernandez, Alan Shearer, Turco Mohamed, Riquelme, Patron Bermudez and (Maradona circa 96-97). Current favorite players: Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Pirlo, and Farfan.
that boca team from 99- '02 was pretty awesome. I remember staying up until 2 am or 3 am to watch the game against real madrid with all their galacticos on. Riquelme played his ass off in that match...everyone did..Chicho Serna was a great player also, one of those midfield dogs that could kill u..
camello had his moments.. Recoba was indeed a talent... people say he had a bad international career but against us he was always brutal with his runs and pinpoint passes, add to the fact that Uruguay at the time was an incosistent team... luis suares, forlan, and cavani don't possess half the skill he does.
Maradona, Messi, Zidane, Xavi Alonso, Van Basten, Beckenbauer, C. Ronaldo, Iniesta, Raul, Maldini, Xavi, Sergi, Casillas,