At halfway 1983 Brian Glanville had a list of 25 greatest players ever, in his personal opinion. It was at no particular order: - Johan Neeskens - Gianni Rivera - Ferenc Puskas - Gerson - Didi - Bobby Moore - Paolo Rossi - Pelé - George Best - Bobby Charlton - Johan Cruyff - Gerd Müller - Franz Beckenbauer - John Charles - Oleg Blokhin - Diego Maradona - Gordon Banks - Alfredo di Stefano - Denis Law - Eusebio - Garrincha - Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - Roberto Rivelino - Raymond Kopa - Lev Yachin [ did not type down the argumentation/description ofc ]
Not to pick on any inconsistencies of Glanville (everyone changes their mind in hindsight as well as due to new players I think and he maybe wouldn't have kept records of all his selections - we did see his all-time XI's from 1981 and this year were similar-ish) but I thought I'd post comme's posts from the 'Is Platini Top Ten All Time?' thread concerning Glanville's All-Time top 100 from about 1997. It can be compared then easily with what Puck found - the first thing I notice is Platini's last few years must indeed have been a big factor for Glanville indeed....
It seems a much more International/conventional selection in 1983 generally speaking. Maybe his top 100 had a personal/nostalgic slant in the 90's?
All those 25 were in his top 100 I think, but not all of them at the top end. And he doesn't have Matthews (but does have Bobby Charlton). Matthews was his favourite as a boy.
I think that must have happened when the system switched over to this version of Big Soccer. I don't remember them on the original posts I don't think. Glanville didn't put them in anyway I'm pretty sure!
I'll copy what he writes about then active players. I found Rossi a very strange inclusion. He did not rate Platini as high as others I think. In his later top 100 he is lower as most others will do it and, curiously, Glanville has also written several times that Platini did not play well at euro84, esp. the knockout games. Consequently, Platini isn't in his all-time european championship team. http://www.worldsoccer.com/columnists/brian-glanville’s-all-time-european-championship-xi Personally, I do not rate his opinion and sometimes revisionist description about players very high but I posted it nevertheless.
Interesting. I know he was in Motson's choice (I think it was a Euros edition of Four Four Two, but it's not online as far as I can see - not on the Perfect XI section of Four Four Two's site anyway). I had the magazine anyway and maybe I'll be able to find it some time but I think his team inlcuded Gascoigne. Van Basten and also Nedved of Euro 96 filling in at left back (though he didn't actually play there) too.
I did also find this though: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17984239 (not sure if you can watch the video Puck - you couldn't watch the Euro 88/Dutch highlights on a different BBC page before but that page had a specific message that viewers had to be in the UK). I think there is a typo as it should say Cruyff 1974 not 1976 I assume - in 1976 he was better in the qualifying stages I believe wasn't he including his great goal in Belgium and other moments but the 1974 WC is his stand-out tournament. There are some new additions on the Perfect XI page btw, including Blanc and Teddy Sheringham both choosing Cafu at right back I noticed .
Looking back through the votes, I remember now that he was number 51 on Zeze's list. So he is an honourable mention (as close to getting a point as possible too). I'm not sure if anyone else gave him an honourable mention but the majority people have just posted a maximum of 50 players (all getting points). comme did list him in the top section of one of his positional lists for his greatest of all time project (I think the strikers thread, not the forwards one, but it'll be on his profile anyway).
Yes, I can watch it. What a great technique all those players had. The game against Portugal was maybe indeed not his best game but he did score an important goal ofc and assisted another one. We talked about it on PM ofc and you sent your list with all-time greatest passers. While as you said it is often very close in many ways, we both felt that Platini is probably number one as passer (short, long, groundballs, airballs, with a curve etc.).
I finished calculating the points on the basis of top ten votes (like a lot of polls use). Here are the standings after 35 votes from Big Soccer members (including Gregoire's top ten which didn't get added using another method). I'll calculate the tallies seperately for the 4 other top tens (including the Championship Manager boffins, as well as the Daily Mail's own list and also the top ten's from the two Youtube videos with 30 players which were used for the alternative voting top 30's system). Standings based on only top tens of Big Soccer members: 1-) Pele 325 2-) Diego Maradona 288 3-) Johan Cruyff 254 4-) Alfredo Di Stefano 210 5-) Franz Beckanbauer 177 6-) Ferenc Puskas 120 7-) Michel Platini 97 Garrincha 91 9-) Ronaldo 62 10-) Zinedine Zidane 51 11-) Eusebio 42 12-) Zico 32 13-) George Best 25 14=) Lionel Messi 21 14=) Gerd Muller 21 16=) Paolo Maldini 12 16=) Giussepe Meazza 12 18=) Alberto Ohaco 10 18=) Marco van Basten 10 20-) Lev Yashin 9 21=) Daniel Passarella 8 21=) Romario 8 23=) Jose Manuel Moreno 7 23=) Imre Schlosser 7 25-) Didi 6 26=) Bobby Charlton 4 26=) Ronaldinho 4 28=) Bobby Moore 3 28=) Gyorgy Sarosi 3 30=) Michael Laudrup 2 30=) Dino Zoff 2 32=) Dennis Bergkamp 1 32=) Andres Iniesta 1 So some players near the top using the other methods are missing, and Bobby Charlton who normally still gets a lot of points with other top ten votes elsewhere scores only 4 (the sample is low comparitively though apart from compared to the survey of international football magazines in 1999 when he scored more points from less votes and was joint 9th IIRC from Puck's Placar thread). Alberto Ohaco's first place vote becomes more noticeable too of course.
Yes, I like Fernandez's description of the playing style on that BBC page btw. And I know those estimated top ten's are on our longest PM somewhere - I said I'd not publish them as I'd commented on dribbling and passing threads along similar lines and I didn't want to start arguments about such close calls etc, but if you know where they are you can quote them if you like. I don't think you picked your own top tens at that stage IIRC but commented (largely agreeing like about Platini, but also offering a few more options I think). Anyway, you were right that Wilkes was in my top ten dribbling list and Platini top of the passers - I think I put only Cruyff and Michael Laudrup in both lists but now realise many will call for Maradona's inclusion in the top ten passers immediately and the arguments might start (I do think he was a great assister clearly btw, as was Pele too). I'd have to find the lists myself to remember exactly which order I went with and I think I had a few more than ten and cut some out by the time I PM'd you (I can't remember for sure if I put Zico in the passers list for example).
Oh my apologies for mentioning it PDG. Yes, I did not reply an own list because I think it is very close; I sent some more names indeed who are good candidates for a top 10 (in my opinion). Basically that's also what you said I think, how close dribblers and passers are. The source for the Glanville list is btw the 25th edition of the international football book. Saw a couple of enormous errors by the way. For example, in the Beckenbauer write up he said that the 1972euro final was his 100th game for Germany. That was of course the 1976 one but this looks very weird: "Yet perhaps his finest football for West Germany was played when he captained them majestically to the European Nations Cup in Belgium in 1972. The Final was his 100th game for West Germany." Followed by an equally stupid error by saying that he played for 'Hanover' after his return to the Bundesliga. There are some more profiles with glaring mistakes like these.