Hi guys Im looking for players which resigned to play in national team in their best years. Because they wanted to focus on club playing or due to injuries or a row with manager... etc... Players missed by their national team fans. like Nemanja Vidic is going to be... Any ideas?
Off the top of my head, Pele in '66 - Injury, Laudrup in 92' - Row with manager, Zidane in 2002 - Injury and Redondo in 98' - Row with Passarella. These are player's who not neccessarily retired but missed significant game's/tournament's due to injury or beef with manager's.
Agree with you. IF Pele retired after WC66 as he had sworn (after 2 miserable WC with bad tackles on him) he shall be the most "missed" or best retired player in NT shirt. Or to some extent, IF Ronaldo "retired" in 2001 (after his 2nd blow knee injuries) he shall be another big miss. In reality Cruijff in 77 would be the BIGGEST RETIRED PLAYER ! Laudrup, Redondo and Zidane all deserve a mention as well. Van Basten in 1994 may be another case. (Pele, Ronaldo Zidane ... all came back with great successful redemption at WC level)
Schuster..... he retired when he was still a young, young player. he retired at 21(I believed) and made a brief comeback when he was 23 or 24, but retired again.
mmm Gullit was 31, passed his best and near his retirement at anytime in 94-95. It was a loss for Holland WC94 w/o Gullit and Basten, but it was like Brazil 10 left out Ronaldinho and Ronaldo ...
Not necessary one of the best, but his reasons are quite interesting: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/84/a...evin-prince-boateng-quits-ghana-national-team
Van Basten played his last Holland match at the end of 92. His goalscoring was impressive by then, including four goals in an EC match against IFK Goteborg (with that overhead-kick, I think you know it). The first few months were perhaps even the best of his entire career. Van Basten was on the verge to lose his appeal for football (as stated in an interview of that period), hence there were talks about dropping him into midfield in order to give a new challenge. I think he ranks ahead of Cruyff in 1977, honestly (although Cruyff played very good in the qualifiers of course).
Yeah Juste Fontaine of France was like a Leonidas of Brazil - a myth of a great striker who could not reach their full potential and we lacked of their footage at best
Redondo only got about 20 caps. Most of them came before his prime. He had a row with Passarella. in 1998.
Romario was on the bench in 1990 due to his achilles heel injury earlier in that same year. If he was fully fit he probably would have started. He also missed the 98 World Cup due to an injury just before the competition. As great as he was, we are only left with him playing one WC.
He also missed the 2002 WC after he helped Brazil to qualify. According to the book I read, he had issues with Big Phil and Ronaldo's return from injury.
Yes he did. Although I would say in 2002 Romario well past his prime. Two stories came up for Scolari excluding him from the team: 1 - In a WCQ game against Uruguay (away), Romario partied late with some stewardess by sneaking her into the hotel. The next day he said he felt hurt and asked not to play (although I think he ended up playing that game). I think Scolari had made him captain too. This story has been called false by Romario himself although he has admitted there was a stewardess that was really hot in that trip. 2 - Copa America 2001 Scolari calls Romario. Colombia was a mess (drug wars) and Argentina even pulled out of the competition. Romario tells Scolari he can't go because he needs to have eye surgery. A few days later (during first days of Copa America), Romario is playing in few friendlies for Vasco in Mexico. Scolari has stated this was a break of his trust and opened opportunities for other players to gain space. He also believes Romario wanted to help Vasco because if he played, Vasco would earn double the money for the friendlies. I don't believe this was ever explained by Romario. Romario has also very recently (past 2 months) made the following story public. In 2002, on the day Scolari made the final list public for WC 2002, Romario had a private conversation with Ricardo Teixeira (CBF president) in which he was assured he was part of Scolari's final list. Teixeira told Romario that he, and not Scolari, made the decisions on who would go. A few hours later, to Romario's surprise, his name was not on the list. Romario says the reason was that after their private conversation, Teixeira had heard that Romario had planned to break the news to Globo (main TV in Brazil) about him being included in the list. Teixeira didn't like what he heard and told Scolari he was free to call whoever he wanted. Scolari himself, on a very recent interview (after Romario's) stated that Teixeira did tell him it was up to him who would be on the list. He said the 2001 Copa America incident was a major reason for Romario's exclusion. He said he was tempted to call him when he saw Romario's mother begging for his inclusion on National TV but was turned off at the end when he saw Eurico Miranda's (Vasco President) presence with her, who many consider corrupt, and perceived it all as a sinister setup. He also said to avoid pressure from the press and CBF itself, he flew from the Porto Alegre to Rio the day before in secrecy and turned off his phone. When they went to pick him up at the airport the next day, he was already in the hotel in Rio.
This is the news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/team_pages/brazil/newsid_1978000/1978189.stm Friday, 10 May, 2002, 07:58 GMT 08:58 UK Scolari on Romario snub Luiz Felipe Scolari "Luiz Felipe Scolari has given his reasons for excluding striker Romario from Brazil's 23-man World Cup squad. And the coach's reasoning dates back to Brazil's Copa America campaign in Colombia last year when Romario's was called into the squad but refused to attend. "People forget the details, but I do not", Scolari told Bandeirantes radio station in southern Porto Alegre. "I almost got fired from the national team after Colombia." After being selected for the tournament, Romario told Scolari that he was preparing to undergo an eye operation. However, he instead went to Mexico to play some friendlies for his club side Vasco Da Gama before taking a holiday on the return journey to Brazil. Romario apologised for his actions in a recent press conference in Rio de Janeiro, but Scolari remained unmoved. " it confirmed Celito's 2 major reasons: (underlined) - Copa2001: missing w/o reason - last few friendlies before WC02: missing again w/o reason
David Pizarro quit the Chilean NT in 2005 at the age of 26. He's doing pretty well at Man City, but prior to some injuries over the past year and a half he was among the best midfielders in the world. Even now, when healthy, he's a 'conductor' in a class that only Pirlo and Xavi are in. why did he quit? lack of professionalism among other chilean team members and coaching and federation. tired of wasting his time going to the NT when everyone else didn't take it seriously. Borghi tried last year to get him to come back and he refused.....he'd be a starter in a midfield with Vidal, Isla, Medel, Fernandez, etc... could be a huge help