Sure, yeah understood. The footage and stats are obviously more scarce for a Ceulemans, but for example the passing quality is also evident here as a random example and maybe it's a side to his game that is a bit under-appreciated (I say, while knowing I didn't watch a huge amount from him or know his assist/chances created stats season by season - so it can work either way maybe - someone can think he was better or worse as a provider than he was) France 4-2 Belgium Third-place World cup 1986 | Full highlight | 1080p HD - YouTube 28/06/1986 Belgium v France - YouTube That is another game with a Scifo pass I seem to recall seeing before that isn't there I think in the most recently uploaded highlights and was I guess on a removed one before, though he does chip a potential pre-assist in from the right himself (but Ceulemans has a range of passes creating opportunities anyway - Sofascore only gives him one key pass which seems a bit questionable I'd have thought by the way wouldn't it...and zero accurate crosses - while he has at least one key cross/pass setting up a chance to shoot/score evidently actually....).
This has nothing to do with football, in which context my remark was made. However in the Netherlands most people with foreign roots feel offended if you would call them the way you do. They feel offended when you would ask them where they're from as they consider this as you not considering them Dutch. So people of color over here consider your way of addressing them as segregationist/racist behaviour.
I'm not 100% sure what you're meaning, but I think it is basically "every year since 2008 Modric has been arguably the best Croatian player"? If so, I tend to think the same yes. This is an interesting piece you might like, on Vukas Bernard ‘Bajdo’ Vukas, a legend in Croatia - World Soccer I don't know whether you'll already have seen it, or different footage of him in action, but this video gives some kind of impression about the way he played This game is available to see in full though too, and he was one of the stars of the game (while Cajkowski, Zebec and in the second half goalkeeper Beara are playing too for the Rest of the World, or in effect Rest of Europe...minus Hungary) It's also on Footballia, along with the line-ups and numbers England vs. Rest of the World 1953 | Footballia
To clarify though I was thinking potentially for 'top few players in the world level' (which is dependent on which other players exist at the time I suppose, as well as the players own level), if taking a minimalist view of 'few', maybe Modric has a couple or so years/seasons in that bracket, and seemingly it could be similar for Vukas (within the early to mid 50s period).
Mandzukic>modric 2012 & 2013 Rakitic when Barcelona last won the treble? His dominance was never like that 2008 is literally ages ago and Croatia is a footballing powerhouse Too much of a powerhouse for a player of modrics level/talent to be the best player every single year over 15~ years https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Footballer_of_the_Year He is the best Croatian of his generation though(overall) but not every single year
How conveniently you choose two players whose "peaks" coincide with treble seasons of their teams. And Olić 2 months in 2011, Pranjić a half season in 2009, Pjaca 90 minutes in july of 2016, Kramarić a half season in 2017,... I am not a huge fan of comaprisons of short timeframes. It could be that Modrić has had an injury and a little bit off time in terms of performances that perhaps someone else was performing better than him? Sure, but Modrić is simply better player than any of them and was generally better, especially internationally. His worst season in Spain apparently 2012/13. I can tell you how I have seen Croatian public treat Modrić all these years. Balkan mindset is a bit different than others. We adore criticizing anyone and everything and find problems in the squad, but Modrić is anonimously never a problem. He has been a golden standard for so long. Literally, for 6, 7 years the conversation is that in few years Modrić will be too old and we need to find replacement. As far as 2012, the conversation is that Kovačić will be the next Modrić, but he has kept not fulfilling his potential. I have never ever heard someone say that they would drop out Modrić from the first XI. Even amongst the older Croatian population, consesus is that Modrić is the greatest Croatian ever. They used to say Prosinečki, Šuker,..
I don’t say you are lying but it would be interesting to see some polls for this Fans of a certain age bracket seeing modric above those names For me Suker 1998 was the highest peak by a Croatian player at a WC tournament The highest peak by a Croatian at a EC/CL tournament was Prosinecki 1990/91 The most talented was also Prosinecki IMO who was better then modric in everything barring fitness and defensive aspects of the game He was a chain smoker and unlucky with injuries At his peak he almost had it all though Freekicks,dribbling,platini esque long passing,Messi esque through passing He was a real gifted player and with the right coaching and discipline he’d be seen as a top 10 player for most countries(in Europe and South America)
I dont like the term peak because it usually overrates any player especially talking about players whose time was so long ago whsoe shortcomings are forgotten. Obviously I didnt watch Prosinečki and Šuker at their peak on game to game basis so I dont have a proper basis to compare them in more depth. Also you are comparing two more offensively minded players with a central midfielder. And it is not as simple to say "excluding fitness and defensive capabilities" and end comparison right there since those are big aspect of what makes Modrić so special and unique. Also something that arguably hold him back from putting on greater stats. Talent and gift only gets you so far, especially in modern, fast-paced, tactically demanding football. Modrić is a near perfect player combining world class technical abilities and insane defensive work, professionalism, humbleness and a healthy dose of individual responsibility and urgency. Completely dynamic player that has mastered all fundamentals of football and can literally play everywhere in the midfield and make the difference and I am sure can play in any system in history of football. Absolutely universal player going forward and defending. He is not a great, crafty finisher in a penalty box (Lampard, Gundogan,..) and slightly lags behind top chance creators like Ozil and De Bruyne of the era, which is the only criticism I can think of for Modrić and sort of puts him out of conversation of the goats overall, but in terms of midfielders, Modrić at his peak is as good as it gets in modern football. For example, there are questions how well would Prosinečki cope with fast paced epl football, etc. There are no questions for Modrić. And then on top of that you put consistency, longevity and individual and team success. It is hard to imagine a central midfielder with a greater career. Talent, as well as "peak", is such a dubious topic that goes deepily into subjective perspective and preferences and beauty that is a difficult conversation to have. But we can all agree that Modrić doesnt lack talent and technical abilities. He has dribbled past 3+ players, having multiple nutmegs in a row, escaping 3 players in impossibly tight spaces, had sombreros, spectacular passes/first touches/goals on all stages of football.
Argentina: Messi Maradona Di Stéfano Moreno Sívori Brazil: Pelé Zico Ronaldo Garrincha Didi England Charlton Moore Matthews Gascoigne Finney France Platini Zidane Kopa Benzema Henry Netherlands Cruyff van Basten Gullit Rijkaard Bergkamp Germany Beckenbauer G. Müller Rummenigge Matthäus Breitner Spain Xavi Iniesta L. Suarez Raul D. Silva Italy Baresi Meazza Baggio Rivera Maldini Belgium De Bruyne van Himst Hazard Ceulemans van Moer Scotland Law Dalglish Baxter Johnstone Murdoch Wales Bale Giggs Charles Rush Meredith Portugal Ronaldo Eusebio Figo Futre Rui Costa Ukraine Shevchenko Blokhin Zavarov Belanov Zinchenko Russia Yashin Streltsov Voronin Arshavin Ivanov Hungary Puskas Bozsik Sarosi Kocsis Albert
I think it is also good to realize the make-up of Luxemburg their population. Of the 600000 inhabitants (was 350000 in the 1990s) about 60% are non-nationals. Including the ones with foreign parents, 75% of the people possess a different passport or can apply for another nationality. https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1997259.html De Belgische provincie Luxemburg is veel groter en minder dichtbevolkt dan het land Luxemburg. https://t.co/DPoVCde9tJ pic.twitter.com/kbX3cmFuBs— 📊 Ruben van Gaalen (@rubenivangaalen) May 16, 2023 What I didn't know is the secondary (official!) national anthem has the same title as our national anthem (both songs are related). The flag is close in appearance and color shades to the one of the United Provinces: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Republic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statenvlag In the past five years it has finally happened (since 2018 a few times) that a Luxemburg team reached the group stage of uefa competitions. Probably the doubled population has helped. Since 1996 (until april 2023) there have been 43 different Dutch players with an ESM appearance. It is possible to find areas of ~200000 people without any player, just as in Luxemburg... San Marino is even a lot smaller as Luxemburg, but has not anywhere near this percentage in non-nationals.
@PDG1978 For what's worth, the Belgian part of Luxemburg (there is also a Belgian Brabant, a Belgian Limburg...) does have two players with ESM team of the month appearances. Who also grew up there, and weren't only born at that place. They are Thomas Meunier (2 selections) and Philippe Albert (3 selections). Not really the best all-round footballers, but still. https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouillon_(België) https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sainte-Ode The country Luxemburg is evidently very rich and prosperous (even though they work more hours than say Denmark or Germany). Belgian Luxemburg is also the richest province in Wallonia (of five), but the poorest Flemish province (Limburg - which has linguistically a special vocabulary by all accounts), is richer than Belgian Luxemburg... Maybe/possibly if they get integrated into the Belgian football league and pyramid (as a thought experiment), they can deliver footballers in due time as well.
Yeah, I see now that it's the largest, but also least populated Belgian province. I don't know anything about Albert's family history, but in theory if he could be considered de facto Luxembourgian, I would think there could be a decent argument he was a more significant and/or better player (but with both being arguable I guess, especially the first given Bonini's prominence for Juventus - both had peak of game wearing black and white stripes I suppose, although Albert has World Cup 1994 too) than Bonini and top 'Luxembourgian'. Obviously Albert is considered Belgian in reality though in any case. I think I might have assumed he was 'French Belgian' because of the name, and even colouring/appearance (even though Hercule Poirot is a fictional character and might be influencing that idea!), and he did start at Charleroi before going to Mechelen in the Flemish part of Belgium, and Anderlecht in Brussels. I'm not sure I ever realised he had any possible ties to Luxembourg though, and until your post I didn't realise about Belgian Luxembourg or how it came about. I stated to wonder if the racing circuit Spa Francochamps would in effect have been part of what was previously Luxembourg, but that is in Liege province I see, in the same region but never (I think) having been in Luxembourg....
Ignore the Bonini part - early morning brain fade, but if I thought about it of course I knew (as previously alluded to) he is from San Marino, not Luxembourg!
All Paul Gascoigne highlights for the England NT I think these are the best set of international highlights I’ve seen of any player to represent England Edit These are highlights from just 57 international caps which makes it all the more remarkable Gazza would probably be on the low end of greatest English players to play the game for his unprofessionalism but maybe there is a case he is the highest peak level English player at NT level I feel he was unlucky not to make the podium for the top 3 players at WC 1990 Surely he was a better performer than Maradona at that World Cup(as were many others IMO) In hindsight Maradona won a bronze medal at WC 90 on name alone He was a shadow of himself four years prior like not even remotely at the same level (bar one amazing scene vs Brazil)
Since the title of the thread says 'region', I will try to do this by province later (at least categorize all ESM inclusions by province). The classic Spa Francorchamps circuit (the joint-oldest on the world championship calendar) is basically where the industrialization (and coal) once was (and the Grand Prix is, bluntly put, a newspaper creation, by the owner of a Liege based newspaper). In those days also a number of 'official' World Fairs took place there. Belgium was for several decades (in the 19th century) the 5th economy in the world and the 2nd most industrialized country behind the UK. Motorized races had been held in Belgium since the late 19th century. It also influenced the geographical location of the later Philips corporation, or the various later spin-offs. "Today, ASML is Europe’s most valuable tech company, with a market capitalisation of about €275bn." (will the Brits, like they did with Shell, steal this one too?). This, as well as some other things like the car factory/development facility in Dutch Limburg is invariably related to the (earlier?) events south of the border and the location of (in particular) coal. Long way of saying Luxemburg wasn't the most logical choice or location for the circuit. Yes I agree, although Albert is an enjoyable player to watch on highlights! (certainly for a defender)
So here I'm trying to order it by province. I don't think ESM is entirely watertight (of course) but that applies to many other countries (e.g. Makelele and Desailly never received an inclusion while a number of other French defenders like Ismael or Sidibe did). First population number is the one of 1995, the second population number of 2020. West Flanders (1.1 - 1.2 million) Origi East Flanders (1.3 - 1.5 million) De Bruyne Antwerp (1.6 - 1.9 million) Lukaku Vermaelen Alderweireld Nainggolan Flemish Brabant (1.0 - 1.1 million) Mertens Tielemans (might as well be assorted to Brussels) Limburg (0.77 - 0.88 million) Courtois Nilis ----------------------------------------------- Brussels (1.0 - 1.2 million - formally not a province) Kompany Fellaini Carrasco ----------------------------------------------- Hainaut (1.3 - 1.3 million) Eden Hazard Van Buyten Walloon Brabant (0.37 - 0.40 million) N/A - none Namur (0.43 - 0.50 million) N/A - none Liège (1.0 - 1.1 million) Witsel Luxemburg (0.24 - 0.29 million) Albert Meunier To my own surprise, Luxemburg shows proportionally far from a poor score (6.9 per million; yes, I know the sample is small). Even if you take one of the two players out. For context and perspective (note: in the meantime Netherlands has grown from 38 to 43 players as of April 2023, Belgium is at 18 players): https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/why-top-talents-ever-are-only-from-brazil-and-argentina.2124300/ edit: interestingly, the 'Soccernomics' book shows the country Luxemburg as an underperformer (I think you can argue their GDP and population number is overinflated, but still). The 2nd most underperformer after India, since 2009. While both Belgium and Netherlands are solidly in the top 10 of overperformers.
To round it off, here for the last Benelux part/country. As above, the first population number is the one of 1995 (start of ESM), second of 2020. Listing the provinces is harder here but like above it's basically done from west to east. North Holland (1.6 - 1.7 million) F. de Boer Reiziger Van der Vaart R. de Boer Kluivert Verlaat Davids Bergkamp Jonk Van der Wiel Malen Botman Frimpong South Holland (3.3 - 3.7 million) Van der Sar Van Persie Van Bronckhorst F. de Jong Boulahrouz Depay De Vrij Dumfries Doekhi Ake Zealand (0.37 - 0.38 million) Danny Blind North Brabant (2.3 - 2.6 million) Van Dijk Van Nistelrooij Cocu Van Hooijdonk Gakpo Utrecht (1.1 - 1.3 million) Sneijder De Ligt Hesp Flevoland (0.26 - 0.42 million) Seedorf Gelderland (1.9 - 2.1 million) Makaay Overmars Huntelaar Van de Beek Overijssel (1.1 - 1.2 million) Stam Westerveld Limburg (1.1 - 1.1 million) Van Bommel Waterreus Friesland (0.61 - 0.66 million) N/A - none Drenthe (0.45 - 0.49 million) Dost (when he played abroad!) Groningen (0.56 - 0.58 million) Robben ----------------------- There are also some who represent another country like Ziyech (Flevoland) or Amrabat (Utrecht/North Holland - like Tielemans a difficult one) but I don't include those here. There is maybe a correlation with the economic 'strength' of the region. Also noticeable is Hazard and Robben (two of the best European dribblers at the World Cup) standing outside the general pattern. Friesland is relatively good in other sports (there have been a few recent and less recent summer and winter Olympics where they'd finish top 10/20 on their own). Their own largest newspaper wrote in february 2022: "Friesland has traditionally few professional football players." Here an overview. One surprising conclusion is the province Luxemburg doesn't score poor (even if you'd delete one of the players), even though the country Luxemburg is apparently among the bigger underachievers.
I wonder how this appears for other countries. Thing is the in the press known "talent hotbeds" of Europe are usually areas/cities of 5 or 10 million people. If you say Paris then it's immediately an area of 12-13 million people. Munich is 6 million andsoforth. Certainly there must be something outside the supposed core (with 'pars pro toto' usage as well) of countries (that one is an unusually negative book, I don't think such one in English exists for any other football country). This article is a start (the broader 'Ruhr area' is mentioned, but that's immediately 12 million people!): https://www.espn.co.uk/football/sto...ers-produced-countries-europe-biggest-leagues
Yep, I had this on hand. FRANCE BY "REGIONS" There would be other possibilities to divide the territory. I use the former administrative regions' names (before the territorial reform of December the 31st 2015). It's possible I forgot to take some pre-60's or recent/active players in account in the process. The base for this is my primary work on blog (2015) : https://footballyesterdayandtoday.blogspot.com/2015/05/all-time-french-regional-teams-onze.html with, once again, some players that may have been overlooked. Into brackets over here are some famous "finalists", in order to give an example. The blog article has extended lists. Regions Map : https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://referentiel.nouvelobs.com/file/15299518.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.nouvelobs.com/nouvelles-regions/20160629.OBS3620/avant-apres-decouvrez-les-13-noms-des-nouvelles-regions-de-france.html&h=1024&w=939&tbnid=StchpBTqFGdq_M&q=régions+france+avant+2016&tbnh=150&tbnw=138&usg=AI4_-kT_N0_IYbQpqG-XAjSeSZS8dddaSQ&vet=1&docid=it6TG3W36YeE9M&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDr5CK56L-AhW1U6QEHS7GA8UQ9QF6BAgJEAQ NORTH Nord-Pas-De-Calais (Lille), Picardie (Amiens) and Normandie (Rouen) and Basse-Normandie (Caen). 1. Raymond KOPA (Nœux-Les-Mines) 2. Jean-Pierre PAPIN (Boulogne-Sur-Mer) 3. Jean VINCENT (Labeuvrière) 4. Maryan WISNIESKI (Calonne-Ricouart) 5. Hervé REVELLI (Verdun) (Aston from Chantilly near the "Parisian region", Lech, D. Six, D. Leclercq, Budzynski, Herbet, Dropsy, Heutte, Gameiro, Varane... and from Normandie, mostly E. Petit and Trezeguet who moreover was born in Rouen where his father was playing then lived in Argentina before coming back at Monaco... Dhorasoo... well, Normandie should be a thing on itself, see my blog for that, and that's partly why I did not favor Petit here, who I'd prefer over Six and perhaps over Revelli but it is less sure. There is also Tchouaméni.) NORTH-EAST QUARTER Champagne-Ardennes (Reims), Lorraine (Metz, Nancy), Alsace (Strasbourg), Franche-Comté (Besançon, Sochaux) 1. Michel PLATINI (Jœuf) 2. Roger PIANTONI (Etain) 3. Robert PIRES (Reims) 4. Oscar HEISSERER (Schirrhein) 5. Bernard GENGHINI (Soultz-Haut-Rhin) (Marche, Mattler, Gress, Huck, Hausser, Battiston, Jacky Fatton, Lucien Laurent... José Touré...) North is a bit more about the Polish and East is a bit more about the Italians, Spaniards and Portugueses. ILE-DE-FRANCE (real name) Paris and its surrounding area composed of 8 departments. 1. Kylian MBAPPE (Paris) 2. Thierry HENRY (Les Ulis) 3. Robert JONQUET (Paris) 4. Robert HERBIN (Paris) 5. Nicolas ANELKA (Chesnay) (Etienne Delfour... Guy and Didier Sénac, F. Silvestre... Wiltord, Gallas, Kanté, Pogba, Coman, Digne... but also Devaquez now that I'm thinking of it...) NORTH-WEST QUARTER Bretagne (Rennes), Loire-Atlantique (Nantes), Poitou-Charentes (Poitiers), Centre (Orléans). Poitou-Charentes is now attached to Aquitaine which feature in the "South' section in this post. 1. Dominique ROCHETEAU (Saintes) 2. Maxime BOSSIS (Saint-André-Treize-Voies) 3. Jean-Marc GUILLOU (Bouaye) 4. Philippe VERCRUYSSE (Saumur) 5. Philippe GONDET (Blois) (Loïc Amisse first, Rampillon, Blanchet, Berdoll, Charbonnier, Ramé, Cauet, S. Ziani, Violeau... Pécout and Pedros from Centre and from Bretagne, Penverne, Le Guen, Martins, Ouédec, Guivarc'h...) What I'll call the "MIDLANDS" for the purpose of this post Bourgogne (Dijon, Auxerre), Rhône-Alpes (Lyon, Saint-Etienne), Auvergne (Clermont-Ferrand), Limousin (Limoges) 1. Antoine GRIEZMANN (Mâcon) 2. Youri DJORKAEFF (Lyon) 3. Fleury Di NALLO (Lyon) 4. Bernard BOSQUIER (Thonon-Les-Bains) 5. Bernard LACOMBE (Villefranche-Sur-Saône) (J. Djorkaeff, Bereta, Bathenay, Sauzée, Cuissard, Ferreri, Martini, A. Roche, N'Gotty, Sagna, Sagnol from St.-Etienne) SOUTH Aquitaine (Bordeaux, Pau), Midi-Pyrénées (Toulouse), Languedoc-Roussillon (Montpellier), Provence-Alpes-Côte-D'Azur (Marseille) and Corsica (Bastia, Ajaccio) 1. Zinédine ZIDANE (Marseille) 2. Alain GiRESSE (Langoiran) 3. Henri MICHEL (Aix-en-Provence) 4. Laurent BLANC (Alès) 5. Eric CANTONA (Marseille) (Bonnel, Marcel, Jouve, Loubet, Bats, Barthez, Deschamps, Lizarazu, Amoros, Bravo, Bellone, Dalger, Mézy, Lebœuf, Micoud, Candela... Ginola... and from Corsica, Papi. Also René Petit from ancient times who is from Dax) OVERSEAS 1. Lilian THURAM (Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe) 2. Marius TRESOR (Sainte-Anne, Guadeloupe) 3. Jocelyn ANGLOMA (Les Abymes, Guadeloupe) 4. Gérard JANVION (Fort-De-France, Martinique) 5. -make your pick here- (Xercès Louis, Kanyan, Ihily, Zimako, Karembeu, Kombouaré, Kabile, Chillan, P. Vahirua, M. Vahirua, L. Robert, Malouda, Payet, Edwige, Raoul Diagne...) ABROAD (former protectorates/ colonies, or not) 1. Larbi BEN BAREK (Casablanca, Morocco) 2. Just FONTAINE (Marrakech, Morocco) 3. Jean TIGANA (Bamako, Mali) 4. Marcel DESAILLY (Accra, Ghana) 5. Patrick VIEIRA (Dakar, Senegal) (Adams, Christian Lopez, Luis Fernandez, Boli, Ayache, Makélélé, Roger Courtois...) (Lama was born in Indre-Et-Loire, Centre, but was raised in Guyana before coming back in the Hexagon at 18 years old, the legal age of majority) A last note : as to know which players are more attached to their region as they played or not in a local club, how long, and how they can be representative of their territory, that would have made too long of a post (and I'd have to do further researches, although I have already an idea about it). Oh, and I skipped Benzema (Lyon). Lloris is from the south of France like Bats and Barthez. South-West for B&B and South-East for Lloris (Nice). I skipped many players. Especially over here with no extensive lists but also on blog. Not exhaustive. It should not affect much the top-5's though (although Devaquez or even R. Petit were great players in their time).
^ So, even more clearly, here it's by packs of regions and on blog it's each region. Still, each region of the South, is rich enough in good players, btw (but especially Provence-Alpes-Côte-d' Azur : Cantona, Zidane, Ginola in attack, Michel...and the others too). About Paris, @PuckVanHeel, it's more about pre-WW2 (Paris, the Parisian region and the "north hemisphere") and since the 2000's and I think/ estimate not that much in between these two periods of time. The proportion of players from Paris and Île-de-France has increased remarkably quite recently as well as the number of international players from there. These players or first their parents, often comes from overseas or Africa. Btw, a correction/ precision, while I see it : the remark about Lama should feature under the "overseas" section (not "abroad" where it's mistakenly placed in the post as I surely thought about him only once the two sections were reviewed, so I did not go back and just typed it after the two paragraphs). He well could be in the top-5 although he's born in "la métropole" as we say. Also, Tigana arrived in Marseille, the city of his mother, at the age of 3 years old. He lived in Cassis precisely. His father was from Mali (which was the Haut-Sénégal et Niger colony from 1904 to 1921, his father was born in 1916). Tigana about his mother : "my mother is a pure marseillaise". https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/football...st-une-pure-marseillaise_AN-201008280058.html ... "so I'm half Marseillais". Prior to a Bordeaux-OM as the coach of Bordeaux. Jean Tigana has the accent from Marseille. Another example, for his part, Evra, born in Dakar, arrived at Bruxelles then quickly moved to Les Ulis (Île-de-France) at the age of 3 years old too. However, his parents are both of African origins. But he was only 3 years old. All of that to say the abroad paragraph is really about the birthplace. Then, the arrival in the (metropolitan) France can be very early in their life, or a bit later (Fernandez was 9 years old, Vieira was 8 years old)... they can have one French parent (Tigana, Desailly too).. there are different stories of course. Ben Barek was around his 20 years (and never officially had the French nationality if I'm not mistaken), Fontaine (French father and Spanish mother), 20 as well... many different stories. There's the story of Mavuba too, who was born on a canoe in the Atlantic Ocean (stateless until 2004 at 20 years old).
Well, that's what I thought about too. After a certain age it becomes harder but say when someone arrives at the age of 1 or 2 and then lives there during their entire teenager years it isn't hard for me. Luckily there are only a couple unclear cases. I will try to make one geographical representation encompassing all the eras (so not only post-1995), include some excellent players without an ESM selection and drop out the ones I am not convinced of.
It'd convenient to quickly use my own attempt at a top 50 for English players (a few changes in selected players could easily be changing the balance between regions somewhat though I'd expect) By birthplace (presumably in most cases also region they grew up in): North West Tom Finney (Preston, 1922), Tommy Lawton (Farnworth, 1919), Michael Owen (Chester, 1979), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, 1980), Alan Ball (Farnworth, 1945), David Jack (Bolton, 1898), Steve McManaman (Bootle, 1972), Wayne Rooney (Liverpool, 1985), Paul Scholes (Salford, 1974) North East Bobby Charlton (Ashington, 1937), Paul Gascoigne (Gateshead, 1967), Alan Shearer (Newcastle, 1970), Bryan Robson (Chester-le-Street, 1957), Stan Mortensen (South Shields, 1921), Colin Bell (Helesden, 1946), Jackie Milburn (Ashington, 1934), Wilf Mannion (South Bank*part of Yorkshire strictly speaking, 1918), Chris Waddle (Gateshead, 1960), Peter Beardsley (Hexham, 1961) Yorkshire Gordon Banks (Sheffield, 1937), Kevin Keegan (Armthorpe, 1951), Len Shackleton (Bradford, 1922), David Seaman (Rotherham, 1963) West Midlands Stanley Matthews (Hanley - now part of Stoke-on-Trent, 1915), Duncan Edwards (Dudley, 1936), Billy Wright (Ironbridge, 1924) East Midlands Gary Lineker (Leicester, 1960), Peter Shilton (Leicester, 1949), Tony Woodcock (Eastwood, 1955) East Anglia Home Counties North of London Rodney Marsh (Hatfield, 1944) London Jimmy Greaves (1940), David Beckham (1975), Glenn Hoddle (1957), Johnny Haynes (1934), Frank Lampard (1978), Des Walker (1965), Sol Campbell (1974), Harry Kane (1993), Rio Ferdinand (1978), Ray Wilkins (1956), Teddy Sheringham (1966), Paul Merson (1968) West Country Trevor Francis (Plymouth, 1954), Cliff Bastin (Exeter, 1912) South/South East Bobby Moore (Barking, 1941), Trevor Brooking (Barking, 1948) *Barking considered outer London, at least in the modern day, Peter Osgood (Clewer, 1947), Mike Channon (Orcheston, 1948) Abroad/'Overseas' John Barnes (Jamaica, 1963), Matt Le Tissier (Guernsey, 1968)