With the advent of Messi and C.Ronaldo and their total demolition of La Liga, scoring chart's and the more favourable vote's for the last few Ballon' Dor's, is this due to a weak era? Many detractor's compare this period to any of the 80's and 90's to say the last 5-6 year's and claim there's abosolutely no comparison. This with the decline of English football in the last few year's and the mediocre state of football in Italy. How much truth is there to this if at all?
Well because it is ... 1- Starting with SerieA declined in quality since 2006 (controversial games fixing) 2- Following with LIga CRISIS in economy 2008 - especially the low 15clubs struggling with money to maintain/buy their good players 3- EPL did take the advantage well to become #1 from 06-10 4- Liga 2 best clubs (actually richest clubs in the world) ramping up to separate the level in liga: 2 horses race and the REST 08-12! 5- Some big clubs in EPL get re-organized and were subject to be bought out by foreigners created a new CRISIS : Arsenal + Liverpool were replaced with Chelsea, ManCity and Tottenham .. 6- LAST and NOT LEAST: apart from Messi, CR7 and few others ... this era remarked a WEAK ERA to have produced tjat many good talents ( just like late 70- early 80 era) All of the ABOVE making this era complicated ... and indeed WEAK in QUALITY
I dont see the current era as weak, if anything internationally is more competitive (taking conmebol as an example) its stronger overall than it was in the 80's and 90's
Agreed on all points. Also, the Bundesliga is now considered a very strong league despite being boring. Impossible that it's better than the 80s/90's. Here are the top 25 creative players for the 80s: Maradona, Platini, Zico, Giresse, Van Basten, Gullit, Socrates, Falcao, Rossi, Boniek, Matthews, Francescoli, Romero, Cabanas, Rummeniegge, Schuster, Careca, Paz, Butragueno, Lineker, Scifo, Bochini, Sanchez, Diaz, Madjer. Top 25 for the 90s: Ronaldo, Zidane, Stoichkov, Hagi, Caniggia, Romario, Bebeto, Baggio, Rivaldo, Rai, Klinsmann, Valderrama, Batistuta, Weah, Del Piero, Stojkovic, Savicevic, Laudrup, Gascoigne, Raul, Ortega, Suker, Boban, Bergkamp, Zamorano. The current era has not the same number of great players by any extent.
The spread of talent in the various eras is roughly the same but I see indeed some similarities with the late 70s and early 80s period. The most obvious one is the economic slump in Europe. Perhaps this has a great effect on football as well. The second big one is that the stars fail to leave their mark on the international stage. Rummenigge, Keegan, Simonsen, Krankl, Dalglish, Breitner all failed to shine on the international stage just like the current stars. Also Platini was so so in the 1978 and 1982 world cup (injuries). Example: euro80 saw Schuster and Hansi Müller emerging as stars but Rummenigge wasn't very good. Third: we see a kind of monopoly. This monopoly was in the late 70s and early 80s a one with boring British teams, now it is a boring duopoly. The late 70s and early 80s had some great defenders though, that is a big difference with the current era.
Why? Kinda flawed as those players you've listed weren't great at the same time and sometimes more than five years apart. A 00s list made that way would look similar.
Huntelaar scored 29 goals this season in the Bundesliga, the highest total since Rummenigge in 1980/1981. And the highest ever by a foreigner. Another proof that standards are deteriorating. It is not that only Messi and Ronaldo are breaking records.
Before there were so many greats now Its just messi and cr7 and fanboy Pissing contest and both always suck In international Tournaments
The earlier part of the 00s was good, it's since the middle of the decade or so that we've seen a dip in overall class.
Z has summed up well ... Messi + CR7 and .. fanboy ... I like it and let's compare with ... last decade 96-06: Romario, Baggio, Batistuta, Ronaldo, Cantona, Weah, Zidane, Henry, Sheva, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Figo, Nisteruud, Kaka, Redondo, Gaurdiola, Viera, Deschamps, Stam, Thuram, Desailly, Blanc, Carlos, Cafu , Maldini, Nesta, Canavaro, to gk like Buffon, Barthez, Kahn, Van Der Saar,
its all relative to what you consider great, to me it is clear that there is more talent worldwide, Concacaf is stronger, Asia is stronger, Africa is definetly much stronger, South American is much more competitive maybe the players you mentioned were much better than their contemporaries, and the gap in talent isn't as wide, therefore there isn't the standouts of the past going back to the weaker confeds, they have improved dramatically, so overall to me at at least world football hasnt declined if anything its gotten stronger
So, one above average season by Huntelaar is enough for you to conclude that this era is weak? It's also the first time in 2 seasons he's scored more than 10 despite playing 49 league games int hat period. Anomalies happen.
Yeah Asia, Concacaf stronger .. but are they represent the "good portion" of world foot ball? NO Along with Africa they only made the average level up but a bit ... and here we talk of the "QUALITY of FOOTBALL" (high level)- not the average level South America were NOT really stronger per se ... its just because both "usual leaders" in Brazil and Argentina DECLINED in quality so to drive the look of "competitive" . Imagine if Brazil are still as strong as in previous decade, no way Uruguay, Chile or else could have chance to SURGE up in ranking ... (thanks to the last copa12 )
Just for the sake of "illustration" so let's take some number (!) to elaborate the point - In SA: 94-04 Brazil : 8.5 -9, Argentina 8 and Uruguay, Paraguay 6.5 to 7 the rest 5.5 -6 06-now: Brazil 7.5, Argentina 7-7.5, and Uruguay 7.5 and others 5.5-6.5
umm yeah world football is just that WORLD football so if 4 confederations have improved and have undoubtledly cut the distance betewn themselves and the big 2 then there has been an improvement, One could make the claim that if anything world football was weaker in past decades making the big two look better than what they actually were
Again, my point was at HIGH LEVEL QUALITY of football. Like it or not the Worldcups were well shared between SA and (West) European teams are there to see. The closest call for the rest was seen at WC02 with SKorea at #4! and some extent to USSR and Czech in Euro60,76 ... The high level dropped from 9-10 to 8 or 8.5 had nothing to do with the "average level" (other confeds) from 5 to 6 ...
the world cup itself shows the gap has closed, making it more competitive, therefore again the higher quality you perceive could have something to do with what we all believe at some point or other that everything in the past was better ie music, movies, sports might not be the case, I wouldnt just dismiss this current era as weak
Accept or perceive it or not ... the fact is CLEAR to see ... * Quality of players: - A Klose, Pudolski and Sweintegger are too much inferior to the likes Muller, Overath/Seeler and Becenbauer of 66-74's - Yet they are "more than good enough" to be a starting XI of the Germany team which are still FAVORITE of winning last WC10 and next Euro12!!! - England desperately looked in to service of "Heskey Defoe and Crouch " (LOL) to be their striking force with Rooney! Lately they gave up on veteran Owen, and put hope on overhyped Caroll - who happens to have the same "physical style" of Alan Shearer with less half of his efficiency! - Brazil NT were breaking thei new record: out of #1 and even outside TOP3 for the last 4years! Quality were new level" from Ronaldo/Rivaldo/Romario to young Neymar /Pato/Robinho/ whose goals combined could not make 1/4 of those legends ... (note that with Ronaldo/Romario Brazil were ALWAYS #1 in the world)
huh? Germany weren't favored in the last World Cup. Not even close, in fact. They were like 12/1 outsiders entering the tournament or something like that. I think it's well accepted that Brazil's attack is at a low-point right now. But that's just one part of one team, so it doesn't say much in the grand scheme of things. Brazil and Italy are a bit weaker than usual now, but Spain and Uruguay are stronger than usual. It evens out.
plus isnt Thiago Silva like the best brazilian CB that has come along in a while? Julio Cesar for a while there has also been the best brazilian gk in a while aswell
well actually it isnt clear to see at all Neymar is a rare talent even for brazlian standards, probably better than what Rivaldo and Dinho were at his age, and tearing the shit out of the brazilian league, could that be compared to what Ronaldo did at PSV?
True. That's why I wrote "one part of one team". Alves (of Valencia CF) is also a solid goalkeeper. The foundation is there for Brazil, they are just lacking 1 or 2 exceptional players in attack that they normally have.