Ramón Villaverde and Hugo Sotil Both South Americans wanted by Barcelona. Both all-round inside forwards being played somewhat out of position on the flank @ Barcelona. Both scoring just under 0.3 goals per game @ Barcelona.
Wout Holverda and Wilhelm van Lent Both Dutch. Both referred to as striker and left winger. Both physical players. Both uncapped.
G. Batistuta and G. Riva Batistuta is a right-footed version of Riva but prefers to dive instead of dribble.
Not saying they were identical but similar in style Aguero/romario Messi/zico neymar/dejan savecivic Oleh Blokhin/thierry henry Enzo francescoli/matt li tissier Baggio/rivaldo Shevchenco/lewandowski Scholes/hoddle Zidane/prosinecki Rui costa/xavi Kroos/stefan effenberg Gerd muller/RVN Maradona/ariel ortega Baresi/VVD Arjen Robben/zoltan czibor Johan Cruyff/meazza To be continued
I see the similarities at least in terms of positional sense (with his fair share of big game goals too) Call it a coincidence but his son also a footballer is named Cristiano http://www.magliarossonera.it/protagonisti/Gioc-Prati.html
Bobby Murdoch and Xavi Hernández Both metronomes with equal levels of positioning, concentration, passing, shooting, feints and defending. Xavi is more focused on maintaining possession and Murdoch is more about moving forward.
Repped for the thought and effort. Just for fun, I've tried to get even closer to identical in style using my football knowledge/memory bank (hard in some of the cases I think anyway, and I wouldn't think you'd agree on every choice): So maybe... Vialli for Aguero, and G.Muller (see below) for Romario (I'm doubting these are closer to identical already on the first line haha!). Futre for Messi (in style: particularly being a left sided dribbler, not in ability), and Susic for Zico Rodney Marsh for Neymar, and Maradona (see below) for Savicevic Signori for Blokhin, and Ronaldo (R9) for Henry Del Piero for Francescoli, and Osgood for Le Tissier (I'm doubting these are closer too!) Florian Albert for Baggio (maybe I can think of a better one later - their stature is not similar and style just vaguely so I think), and Hagi for Rivaldo (not particularly similar either overall I think, but in effect with the skills and long shots there is some similarity at least) Weah for Shevchenko, and Ove Kindvall for Lewandowski Pedro Rocha for Scholes, and Antognoni for Hoddle Lars Bohinen for Zidane, and Netzer for Prosinecki (again, not sure these are closer and maybe I can think of better; Bohinen could arguably fit Hoddle better) Giannini for Rui Costa, and Deyna for Xavi Xabi Alonso for Kroos, and Roy Keane for Effenberg (doubtful it's more similar again for me) Romario for Muller (see above), and Crespo for RVN Savicevic (see above) for Maradona, and Sekularec for Ortega Kolo Toure for Baresi (this is probably not close but unless I am having a mind-blank very hard to pick someone!!), and Paul McGrath for VVD Bale for Robben (you might question and I'd understand that for sure!), and Skoglund for Czibor Michael Laudrup for Cruyff, and it's a pit of a punt but maybe one of the Baggio/Albert compo for Meazza (or a hybrid between them would work better?!) Ok, that's what came to mind at first attempt anyway! Maybe harder than I thought at first glance by the time I finished it!
After a bit more of a think maybe I'd change things to put Stan Collymore with Henry, Bohinen with Hoddle as suggested, Boban with Zidane (or maybe a Boban/Dragan Stojkovic hybrid?!), and I'll suggest Sandro Mazzola for Meazza instead!
Actually, since I paired Maradona-Savicevic, and Romario-Muller in my post, and neither of the pairings are 'perfect' matches in terms of style of play and attributes (but do have some similarities) then probably I could just do the same with Roberto Baggio and Zico (having still not come up with a better match for Baggio). Zico and Susic, who were a bit similar in some ways playing wise too, would also be more likely to be mistaken for each other though, being much more alike in terms of appearance and stature, and running style probably too.
Maybe I could have said Rivelino for Rivaldo now I think about it: not sure but maybe that is better. Like with Baggio, probably I thought it shouldn't be so hard to think of 'lesser' players that would have a similar style to Rivaldo, but then I didn't really think of anyone who really did or does!
Rivaldo is a unique player that is hard to compare. My best guess is Recoba. Both had flair, both left footers, both were forwards who lost their footspeed early on, both capable of dribbling the entire midfield, both scored longshots and freekicks, both had limited vision.
Yes, true, and probably they retain more similarity in play style than my proposed Baggio/Albert duo, despite the different body type (also applicable to Baggio/Albert of course). For Baggio/Albert I did feel they had these things in common: being able to and liking to glide past opponents with the ball on the approach to the penalty area, being fond of and being very good at rounding goalkeepers too, using team-mates runs well by finding them with accurate forward passes, preferring not to wait for the ball into the box but to receive it with enough time and/or space to do something special (maybe this is also a reason Carlito put Baggio and Rivaldo together initially; not to say Baggio wasn't good with first time volleys...and I've seen similar from Albert.... or Rivaldo with acrobatic finishes from crosses at times). But yeah, I do think overall Baggio and Zico is probably a closer comparison in style/attributes.
Dont know if its been said previously but Lionel Messi in 08/09 and 09/10 reminded me of a faster version of Baggio There is a clip of baggio watching messi play against arsenal 2010 and being completely blown away by what he saw Guardiola seemed to get a bit emotional when he introduced il divino to messi which is natural of course Especially when every real lover of the sport knows they were robbed of seeing one of the greatest talents ever reaching the heights that he definitely couldve of @annoyedbyneedoflogin Im not sure about rivelino having limited vision (maybe Rivaldo and baggio who weren't playmakers/true AMs even though being pretty grand at picking final balls) I never saw rivelino make the wrong option (as rivaldo routinely did) Even if he didn't attempt the outrageously difficult pass as Ronaldinho his decision making was better and passing more consistent(this is strictly based on select matches from WC 70 and few match comps on youtube Maybe youve seen more?)
Maybe yeah. I could see in some ways why presumably older Messi was paired with Zico by you, as like you said you weren't aiming for perfectly identical players. Probably a younger version of Messi is the most suitable for my Futre comparison. I think annoyed said that about Rivaldo and Recoba, not Rivelino actually mate. I don't know whether Rivelino might have been seen as over-elaborate at times, in terms of one reason to question his decision making. But his elaborate skills were what made him the player he was I suppose in a lot of ways.
Rivaldo and Recoba had limited vision. Baggio had great vision. Rivelino had a limited engine, if I'm to criticize him.
If He did mean that than I hope he doesn't get annoyed Rivaldo was an extremely effective player with as much substance as style His bad decision making was borne out of ball hogging and not spreading the ball when he shouldve. Overall yes I think his deficiencies were made up for by his WC end product
Id have to see evidence of this great vision being used consistently by baggio (relative to rivaldo of course) Ive been reviewing some matches of baggio in the 1992/93 uefa cup and he seemed to me at least to be a player who played one outstanding long ball and kept it "safe" with short passes for the rest of the game I never saw evidence of him demonstrating such great vision over any long enough period even though there are rare examples of him looking like the perfect 10 (parma 1994/1995) There are too examples of rivaldo looking like a perfect 10 but not enough These two were more forwards and even their managers did not trust them to be playmakers (saachi played robby as a forward in 94 to great effect and rivaldo despite the great assist vs Holland and game vs Denmark was otherwise not that good when he was an AM in WC 1998) Van gaal too did not trust rivaldo as a AM