Maradona's underrating is more of a reaction to Maradona's overrating. In the end he still comes out as a genius.
1978 Bettega, Krankl 1982 B.Conti, Oriali 1986 Careca, Valdano, Burruchaga, 1990 Baggio, Klinsmann, outside of WC Rajikaard (best def. midfielder of the last 20 years) more recents in next post, tired ... 1994
[As a life-long Toon fan, I heartily second your nomination of Tony Green! I was lucky enough to see Green both pick & pull the opposition apart for both Blackpool & Newcastle back in the '60s & the early '70s. Here's a blog profile on both Green & Alan Suddick since they both played for Blackpool & the Toon. Scroll down a bit & you'll see some responses from fans who also saw one or the both of them in action: http://www.nufcblog.org/2009/09/bla...ed-the-genius-of-two-outstanding-footballers/ I'd also like to add the name of Bristol City & England cult hero John Atyeo to the list of all-time under-rated English/British players. Atyeo was even under-appreciated in his own era: he scored the goal that secured England's qualification for the '58 WC. Then he & Nat Lofthouse were left out of the England squad that travelled to the Finals. This was after we had tragically lost Man. Utd. star Tommy Taylor & the selection comm. only filled 20 spots out of a possible 22 on the full roster! Here's an Atyeo obit & profile from The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-john-atyeo-1490652.html Here's a YouTube vid w/footage of Atyeo playing for Eng. alongside Lofthouse up front: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T15HArHjlkA"]YouTube- john atyeo footage bristol city‎[/ame] Here's more coverage fr. the same Eng. match fr. YouTube & britishpathe.com: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYHp5Lssrcg&feature=related"]YouTube- England v Spain 1955.‎[/ame] Here's The Mirror profile of Atyeo w/some nice photos of him in action: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/archive/John-Atyeo-article2847.html Here's a fansite w/several excellent tributes to "Rosie" from the likes of Roy Bentley, Sir Stan, Billy Wright, etc.: http://www.johnatyeo.co.uk/ ]
Arthur Friedenreich, since he was said to have scored 1329 goals in 1229 games or 1229 goals in 1329 games. The fact that (most likely) no one in this thread has ever heard of him and is going to rush to Wikipedia to look him up. Proves he is the winner of this thread. So I decided to cut out the middle page and give you all the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Friedenreich
[You'd actually be surprised by how many people know about "AF"; mostly due to the controversy surrounding his actual career goal tallies IMO.]
Oh my mistake then. [mad at myself] j/k But still people rarely even consider him in any top forwards lists.