@schwuppe I'd like to see your reasoning or ideas for your other 23 inclusions (not already explained). Also like to know your ideas on Eusebio for example (and why he's not XI material).
Once the voting of the fellow schwuppe and waiting for Tom confirms the accumulation of votes, here is my particular classification that I have obtained from all our contributions to the top 3, top 23 and XI. 1 Best 2 Charlton, Bobby 3 Dzajic -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- 4 Eusebio 5 Rivera 6 Beckenbauer & Carlos Alberto 8 Gerson 9 Lubanski & Pelé 11 Amancio & Mazzola 13 Tostao & Shesternev 15 Pirri & Facchetti 17 Figueroa 18 Cruyff, Prati & Zoff 21 Jairzinho 22 Verón 23 Domenghini -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- 24 Moore 25 Schnellinger 26 Bell, Byshovets, Netzer, Riva, Streltsov, Szucs, Van Himst & Fazlagic 34 Bosquier, McNeill & Osim 37 Albert, Ball, Dunai & Peters 41 Banks, Bercellino, Holcer, Schulz, Taborsky & Wolter 47 Adamec, Albrecht, Bremner, Claessen, Di Nallo, Korsos, Lorimer, Nené, Perfumo, Spencer, Tupazinho, Gemmell 59 Pantelic In my opinion missing important names in the honorable mentions. Is it possible that from 1968-69, instead of pointing 23 names, we do it with 30? (Afterwards they continue to order from highest to lowest score for the top 23). That way, there is less chance that some great players are "forgotten."
Alright, I will get back to you soon. Eusebio is XI material - I wasn't sure which of Rivera/Eusebio/Tostao to include. They all have some questionmarks: Talked about Eusebio in the previous thread - his goalscoring total looks better on paper than it actually was with so many penalties and there's talk of a decline - I don't have the article at hand right now, but I think Arriaga or someone else mentioned it in this thread and I've seen something about it in Buchan too. It definitely sets in for the next season - he had a meniscus surgery in summer of 68. Really liked the video material I've seen from him. Tostao was already discussed in this thread. Rivera from the newspaper material I've seen like rankings/game reports was the exceptional player for Milan who won the league and CWC - his problem is that he seems to struggle with the NT.
Final results and voting for top 3 and team of the season. Top 3 Best 27 Dzajic 9 Charlton 9 Eusebio 5 Pele 4 Rivera 1 Team of the season Forwards Eusebio 8 Rivera 6 Pele 4 Tostao 3 Left Wing Dzajic 10 Veron 1 Right Wing Best 11 Attacking Mid Charlton 11 Center Mid Gerson 6 Beckenbauer 5 Osim 1 Left Back Facchetti 6 Gemmell 2 Schnellinger 2 Taborsky 1 Right Back Carlos Alberto 9 Fazlagic 2 Center Back Figeuroa 5 Shesternyov 5 Moore 5 Beckenbauer 2 McNiell 1 Holcer 1 Bosquier 1 Bercellino 1 Schulz 1 Goalkeeper Zoff 8 Banks 1 Pantelic 1 Wolter 1
Final Results 1967-68 23 Man Shortlist Amancio (Real Madrid, Spain) Best, George (Manchester United, Northern Ireland) Beckenbauer, Franz (Bayern Munich, West Germany) Carlos Alberto Torres (Santos, Brazil) Charlton, Bobby (Manchester United, England) Cruyff, Johan (Ajax, Netherlands) Domenghini, Angelo (Internazionale, Italy) Dzajic, Dragan (Red Star Belgrade, Yugoslavia) Eusebio (Benfica, Portugal) Facchetti, Giacinto (Internazionale, Italy) Figeuroa, Elias (Penarol) Gerson (Botafogo, Brazil) Jairzinho (Botafogo, Brazil) Lubanski, Wlodzimierz (Gornik Zabrze, Poland) Mazzola, Sandro (Internazionale, Italy) Pele (Santos, Brazil) Pirri (Real Madrid, Spain) Prati, Pierino (AC Milan, Italy) Rivera, Gianni (AC Milan, Italy) Shesternyov, Albert (CSKA Moscow, Soviet Union) Tostao (Cruzeiro, Brazil) Veron, Juan Ramon (Estudiantes) Zoff, Dino (Napoli, Italy) Finalists Best, George (Manchester United, Northern Ireland) Charlton, Bobby (Manchester United, England) Dzajic, Dragan (Red Star Belgrade, Yugoslavia) Winner Best, George (Manchester United, Northern Ireland) Team of the Season Forward: Eusebio (Benfica, Portugal) Forward: Rivera, Gianni (AC Milan, Italy) Left Wing: Dzajic, Dragan (Red Star Belgrade, Yugoslavia) Right Wing: Best, George (Manchester United, Northern Ireland) Attacking Midfield: Charlton, Bobby (Manchester United, England) Center Midfield: Gerson (Botafogo, Brazil) Left Back: Facchetti, Giacinto (Internazionale, Italy) Right Back: Carlos Alberto Torres (Santos, Brazil) Center Back: Shesternyov, Albert (CSKA Moscow, Soviet Union) Center Back: Figeuroa, Elias (Penarol) Goalkeeper: Zoff, Dino (Napoli, Italy)
Alright. Not sure what to write about some of those if we are just arguing their Top 23 worthiness. I did go through the top Utd league games in 'Times' and watched what was available to compare Best and Charlton. It barely helped to decide which one was better, they are really close this season. Just like the BD voting would suggest. Best and Charlton: Best players for the EC winner, great in the league. Top in all votings, XIs, whatever you can think of. Cruijff: I'm using hindsight knowledge here - I think he just went under the radar because of his NT/league and was already on an extremly high level. Similar might apply to Platini in later years. Rivera: Looks like the exceptional Serie A player coupled with a CWC run. Dzajic: Similar to Best/Charlton a lock in yearly XI, votings... Voted best EE player in a landslide. Information on how he did with his club are limited, but they won their league and the Mitropa Cup (faced teams like Ujpest and Trnava). Mazzola & Domenghini: Crucial for their NT, good in the league. Amancio: Strong in the EC and for Spain. One of the best in La Liga too and popular choice in yearly XIs. Albert: Part of his BD season should still fall into it. Internationally recognized, mentioned in ICFC game reports as Ferencvaros' outstanding player. Domestic rating looks great in 67, still good enough in 68. Might have missed someone?
https://footballia.net/matches/yugoslavia-france-euro-qualification Very good performance by the Yugoslavian wing wizard(1 goal+1 assist in a euro qualification match vs France) Dzajic had mesmeric ball skills the way he danced with the ball Very Brazilian like @PuckVanHeel @Gregoriak How great was dzajic in the tournament proper I heard many times he was astounding and franz beckenbaur even thought he deserved the ballon for Do you have any reports/match ratings @PDG1978 @Edhardy This is a really great channel for classical players With performances(all touches) by Raymond kopa Stanley Matthews Karl Heinz rumminge Jean Tigana Alfredo di Stefano
Prati did amazingly well in the quarter finals pre-tournament against Bulgaria and was still very good against the Soviet Union. He was substituted in the replay against Jugoslavia for being tired and having been beaten in the individual duel by Fazlagic. Valcareggi changed a lot in the replay and put in Riva, who was fresh and indeed created many problems to Yugoslavia. No injuries that I can recall from the sources.