ADP 97/98 had arguably the single best champions league performance of the 90s decade (5 KO goals+3 assists out of 11 team goals) "So there is Del Piero, imperious with his right foot free-kicks from any distance up to 35 meters, deadly from the penalty spot and a slender thief of the night in free-play goalscoring positions.... He is an extraordinary player, a young Italian whose 19 goals in three European seasons eclipses the records of Marco van Basten, of Michel Platini, indeed of every goalscorer bar one — Jose Altafini, a Brazilian who became an Italian national and who crowned some great European conquests for Milan and Juventus in the 1960s." https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/15/sports/ R9 was outscored in the UEFA cup by guivirach(14 caps for France) R9s opponents in the UEFA cup were neuchatel xamax (9th place in the Swiss league) 1 goal+0 assists out of 4 team goals Lyon(6th place in ligue 1) 0 goals+1 assist out of 3 team goals Stratsborg (13th place in ligue 1) 1 goal+0 assists out of 3 team goals Schalke(5th place bundesliga) 1 goal+0 assists out of 2 team goals Spartak Moscow (Russian champions) 2 goals out of 2 team goals Lazio(6th place serie A) Scored 3rd inconsequential goal in a 3-0 rout Total 6 goals+1 assist out of 17 team goals against vastly inferior opposition ADP was demonstrably superior at European level Actually also won a scudetto championship in 1998 Against the other top 3 sides in Serie A 97/98 ADP had: 2 goals+3 assists(inter,udinese and Roma) Scored the winner against title challengers inter in round 31 R9 had against( juventus,udinese and Roma) 4 goals+ 0 assists Didn't score against Juventus and in addition to that inter Milan beat 4th place napoli 3-0 without him even playing ADP was not even the furthest outfield player on his team That would in fact be fillipo inzaghi Overall id say ADP was much more impressive at European level Roughly equal to R9 in Serie A(against big teams surely) And R9 more impressive at World cup level Its not a 1 sided comparison Not at all ADP 97/98 was a super season How many 90s era forwards with the profile of ADP could score 30+ goals in all comps(with the playmaking and dribbling runs he offered) Here destroying probably the best CB in Brazilian football history Baggio,cantona,zola,stoichkov,weah,rivaldo etc Non of them scored 30+ in the 90s(even with tonnes of set piece and penalty opportunities) Only Jari Litmanen (ballon dor runner up also scored 19 European goals between 94-96) And Bergkamp (was he a CF or forward at Ajax?)
Correction ADP had 3 goals+1 assist(vs inter,udinese and Roma) Which is practically identical to R9s production against the other top 3 sides in 97/98 serie A(4 goals+0 assists) juventus faced 4th place Roma without alessandro del piero and drew 0-0 Inter Milan faced 4th place Roma without R9 and won 3-0 So not only did del piero have an identical output against top teams as R9 but his team also suffered more with his absence Inter without R9 lost against udinese 1-0 Goalscorer: Olivier Bierhoff With R9 they won 2-0 The Brazilian scored once(no assists) I guess the the tie breaker is the match against Juventus where ADP scored the penalty that swung the pendulum in juves favour after R9 had a wrongly discounted penalty R9 in a inter shirt never scored even 1 goal against juventus between 98-02 This is legit criticism of his claims as a unbeatable prime level player R9 97/98 is probably the only CF in history who gets away with being outscored at every single level World cup Serie A UEFA cup Coppa Italia And still considered a shoe in for MVP in the world The 150,000 dribbling runs for FC Internazionale in 97/98 resulted literally in 1 dribbling goal in the coppa Italia against piacenza(finished 12th in serie A) And 1 dribbling run (wide?)assist against sampdoria(9th serie A) The assist against Juventus where he held off 2 defenders and squared it off for Djorkaeff could also maybe loosely be defined as a dribbling run incorporated into an assist. Also the assist vs 17th place lecce(his hattrick performance) So with the creative licence he was afforded (to go and do whatever he wanted) came with low returns Again it boils down to raw production Tangible end product The main function of a CF is goals Everything else is a plus Not the other way round out of roughly 34 goals+6 wide assists for inter 97/98 R9 scored 1 dribbling run goal vs piacenza And 3 dribbling run assists(vs sampdoria,lecce and Juventus) This is impressive But not otherworldly
https://www.transfermarkt.com/dennis-bergkamp/leistungsdaten/spieler/3187/saison/1997/wettbewerb/WM Dennis Bergkamp 97/98 season.👤 40 games ⚽️ 22 goals 🅰️ 20 assists 🏆 Premier League 🏆 FA Cup 🥇 x2 Player of the Month🥇 Goal of the season (vs Leicester)#AFC #COYG https://t.co/Q9edTowrRK— Fanzine Football (@Fanzine_com) November 14, 2018 https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-the-top-twenty-players-of-1998-1044412.html https://www.fourfourtwo.com/feature...rance-98-zidane-ronaldo-thuram-bergkamp-suker >>>>>>> Zidane 1997/98 At both league and international level Ballon dor should've been 1.)R9 2.)Dennis bergkamp 3.)alessandro del piero This reflects the reality of the most dominant performers across all levels Zidane could fight rivaldo for 4th or 5th who was equally if not marginally greater for deportivo https://www.planetfootball.com/nostalgia/rivaldo-deportivo/ One of the weakest cases IMO for a ballon dor was zidane 98 At this stage I dont even think he was definitely a better Serie A player as Rui Costa Or as Francesco Totti in his prime and later Kaka in his prime Zidane was at that elite level from EURO 2000 up until 2002/03 A inconsistent/flawed world class performer IMHO Is Zinedine Zidane the best soccer player in the world? Definitely. But is he a legend of the modern game? Not quite. The last 15 years have offered up two players who, in one way or another, superceded Zidane and are more deserving of a place in the history books. Unless Zidane addresses his weaknesses soon, his chance to sit alongside them will pass. Zidane's technique is faultless and his invention unbounded. Time and time again, he makes the impossible seem effortless, gliding past defenders who are faster and stronger and bamboozling opponents with precise passes to his strikers. The key to his supremacy is the variety of his arsenal. Since he is as good a short-passer, long-passer, dribbler, and finisher as more or less anyone in the modern game, there are just too many possibilities to guard against when facing him. Put a burly, battle-hardened defender such as Martin Keown on Ruud Van Nistelrooij, and most of his potency is dampened. Find a fast defender like Mikael Silvestre, and Thierry Henry's potency is cut in half. Such a line of defense is futile against Zidane, since he boasts the best technical and mental trappings of an ideal footballer. The pinnacle of his illustrious career was Euro 2000, where he scythed through Europe's finest defenses almost effortlessly, both creating and scoring crucial goals. And don't forget his majestic volley that delivered Real Madrid its ninth European crown. But for all his brilliance, Zidane falls short on two major counts. First, Zidane reserves his finest performances for the most important games, substituting them for atrocious performances during the bread-and-butter of each campaign. For several years in Juventus, he would play a rare superb game, typically in Europe or against the finest Italian opposition--but when it came to playing at Piacenza on a cold February afternoon, Zidane would always fall flat. Maybe he just didn't want to play, but that is irrelevant. It is not his place to pick and choose when to show up. Too often he would drift out of a game when his teammates needed him most. In France '98, most will remember his brace that landed France the title. But before the final he was a peripheral figure who was more likely to be remembered for maliciously stamping on a Saudi opponent. Second, Zidane has always lacked the ability to truly make a mediocre team a winning one. His rise to world-class status occurred at Juventus and Real Madrid, where he was surrounded by superb players. He was excellent at Bordeaux, but anyone who watched Euro '96 will know that he had nowhere near the influence he now possesses. It is in this regard that Roberto Baggio and Ronaldo, prior to his injury, truly surpass Zidane. Baggio almost single-handedly took Italy to the final of USA '94, but was denied victory in the most unfortunate of circumstances. Italy played her traditional ultra-defensive style. Ten players restricted themselves to winning the ball and giving it to Baggio, but, thanks to his genius, it actually worked. Ronaldo performed a similar role for Inter and Barcelona. In the '97-'98 season in Serie A, Inter's tactics for 34 games degenerated into just giving the ball to Ronaldo and expecting him to pull something out of the bag. For 89 minutes, this didn't work, but there would almost always be one moment where Ronaldo would set off on a meandering run, leaving defenders in his wake before calmly finishing. I say, "almost," because, like Baggio's Italy, Ronaldo's Inter finished runners-up. While it never ceased to amaze me how such a predictable strategy could still reap rewards, it always came down to the genius of these two men. And neither had the arrogance or inconsistency which leads Zidane to play so poorly against lesser sides. https://www.chicagomaroon.com/2003/...y-status-but-still-the-best-man-on-the-field/