He was born in Bologna, Italy and raised in Sydney, Australia. Umit Davala was born in Germany. Anthony Seric and Josip Siminic were born in Australia.
Best Tall Xl GK Cech -- 198 cm RB Zebina -- 187 CB Stam -- 191 CB Hyypia -- 191 LB Grosso -- 190 RM Pires -- 188 CM Ballack -- 189 DM Vieria -- 192 LM Zidane -- 185 FW Ibrahimovic -- 192 FW Koller -- 202(Adriano at 189, but cannot ignore two meters) Dida 195 Thuram 185 Panucci 180 Bonera 183 Terry 186 Huth 190 Campbell 188 Hyypia 191 Boumsong 190 king 188 Rio 188 Ismael 191 Lucio 188 Alex 188 Mertsacker 198 Maldini 187 Chiellini 186 Zambrotta 181 Jankulovski 184 O'Shea 191 Beckham 180 C.Ronaldo 184 zidane 185 Veron 186 Rivaldo 186 Hamann 188 Sissoko 189 Ballack 189 Lampard 183 Adriano 189 Toni 194 vieri 185 Henry 188 Couch 198 Makkaay 188 Kuranyi 190 Koller 202 Carew 195
Yes, and they both can play a left back. You can make a best XI for USSR and Yugoslavia (in 90's and now) if those countries hadn't fallen apart. I maybe post it later.
Here are Bobby Charlton's choices for his best team ever: (as of 2002, I believe): .....................Banks ....................Bobby Moore Djalma Santos...Beckenbauer...Marzolini Platini..........Di Stefano.....Roy Keane Pele...........Maradona.......Best http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_2008000/2008945.stm He made some very obvious choices (Pele, Maradona, Di Stefano) He also seemed to be partial to players he played with (Banks, Moore), or players he played against (Beckenbauer, Marzolini). Banks and Moore are legitimate choices, although perhaps I detect a slight English bias. (Think of Yashin, or Baresi as possible alternatives). Beckenbauer is also an obvious choice. It is nice to see that for left back he picked Silvio Marzolini, one of my boyhood heroes, who played against him at both the 62 and 66 World Cups. (A bit surprising though, considering Paolo Maldini is available.) It is probably not surprising that Charlton would pick Best, probably the best British player ever, even though players like Garrincha are available. Platini is also a good choice, but perhaps surprising ahead of Cryuff. And D.Santos is an excellent choice for right fulback. But to me his most interesting pick to me is Roy Keane. Which tells me England's WC winning captain was probably thinking strategically rather than just collecting the top talent. (Either that or they are good friends. I don't know. ) Anyway, nice team by Sir Bobby.
that raises an important question. are mental attributes like leadership, toughness, intimidation and courage talent? Many would say no, right off the bat but we consider players who have excellent vision to be talented no? I think that perhaps a player who has an amazing work-rate who fears no one and has a great footballing brain is a superb player, whether that's talent I don't know. Even something as simple as finishing. Ruud is obviously a natural as many of his goals are instinctive, but does that make him more or less talented than someone who's finishing skills are technical? Ala Del Pieiro or Solskjaer?
Best October XI (October being my birth-month). ---------------Yashin------------------ ----Perfumo-----Figueroa-----Cabrini--- ------Keane---------Falcao------------ ---------------Didi------------Charlton-- Garrincha-----Pele-----Maradona------- Don't be fooled by the lack of a CF. That was a choice. I've got people like VanBasten and Sivori on the bench. Plus subs of the caliber of Duncan Edwards, Kopa, Gento and Fritz Walter....... Yep, October is the month for craques. Beat that.......
The GK gotta be Jorge Campos! I don't know how tall he is but surely not even 1,80 Robinho is 1,70 And how could you forget Romario at 1,69?
All the players are active. Well, Romario is active. Anyway, I had a book at home that had the roster of all the teams in La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, EPL, the French, the Portugese, the Dutch and a few teams in the CL. Basically, I looked through all the big teams for short players and came up with this team.
My XI for the greatest players to have not played at a World Cup: GK ------------------Tacconi SW -------------------Blind DF Viv Anderson ------Di Stefano ---- Hulshoff MD Best ---------- Kubala --------- Giggs ST Litmanen ---- Rush ------Mancini I want to explain Di Stefano's place as a centre back. I couldn't think of a great centre back who didn't play at a World Cup and Di Stefano could play in many positions. Instead of playing like a centre back, he could play as a fourth midfielder, which is probably a much better position for Di Stefano.
Best Eredivisie: ----------------van Beveren --Suurbier---Hulshoff-Koeman---Krol ------------------Rijkaard -------Neeskens-----------Cruijff Bergkamp-------------------------Gullit -----------------van Basten Bench: van Breukelen, Keizer, Swart, Blind, Davids, van Hanegem, Jansen, Rijsbergen, Aerle, van Tiggelen, Kieft I might be missing out on some players, but this is the best I could think of right now. Note that I picked the players on their play in Holland. Ronaldo and Romario both were far from as good as van Basten as in Holland. Faas Wilkes and Abe Lenstra atleast deserve a mention but I haven't seen much of them, close to nothing so it is very hard to compare them with these players.
England pre-1970 -------------------Banks --Crompton---Wright---Moore---Hapgood --------Blanchflower---James Matthews--Greaves-----Lofthouse--Finney Subs: Trautmann, Flowers, Charlton, Mackay, Giles, Gallacher, Franklin England post-1970 -----------------Schmeichel --Neal------Hansen----Adams----Sansom ----------Souness------Keane ----------Bergkamp--------------Barnes ----------Shearer-----Dalglish Subs: Jennings, Ratcliffe, Henry, Rush, Robson, Hoddle, Giggs
Interesting choices there lanman, I thought Edwards would have a made pre-70 team or did he just die too young to be included? And John Charles is another surprising exclusion for me at least. Most post-70's English league teams would have Cantona in it.
Charles' best years were spent in Italy, but if I was doing an all-time British XI he would certainly be in consideration. I considered Edwards, but it's pretty impossible to leave Blanchflower out and I wanted a much more attacking partner for him. Even then if I did go for more steel in the middle I would have taken Dave Mackay based on longevity over him. As for Cantona, you could certainly make a claim for him over Bergkamp (I'm sure any Man Utd fan would) but not Dalglish - I've just always been a huge fan of Bergkamp.
What about Geels and van der Kuijlen? They played in the Ere Divisie all of their respective careers.
True, but I consider both Kieft and van Basten to be better. Though it would be very close between Geels and Kieft. Kieft also had that great physical presence which could be nice off the bench. Blind also played in eh Eredivisie his entire carier, but nobody will claim that he was better then Koeman(Ronald).