Daily Mail Top 50 players ever

Thanks mate, for the contribution to the thread and the vote.

Yes, as you suggest, taking out of consideration players that played in times that mean we can't see any significant footage of them could be another way to make things more comparable.

To be honest we are past the stage of tallying up votes now, as I basically closed off voting and the tallying up of scores from the combination of all the votes quite a while ago, and a few other votes didn't get used to add to the tallies either (actually including the one of wm I referred to myself today I think).

The contribution is welcome though anyway

 

Haha, no actually for me it was Commodore 64 and Sega MegaDrive/Game Gear!

 

Thanks Puck.

 

Yeah, even if we combine our overall points allocated (on the basis of 125 points for 1st place etc etc, not just the top 50s of our lists as per the original scoring on the thread), they would be 7 places apart which is the same as in my list even though we both had Henry ahead. I suppose you had some players ahead of Shevchenko and I had some different ones so he can rise above some from both lists.

This is how it'd have been if doing that, and allowing inclusion of players only one of us listed in the 125 (it is not until around 60th that any of those get a mention, when a few of the defensive players I slotted in quite high would be having a high enough points total - I do definitely see the idea of attacking and creative midfield players being the most highly valued though even if occasionally a defender goes for a lot of money relative to others in the game in general - Van Dijk, Nesta, Rio Ferdinand and suchlike). Only when players would be on equal points have I split them according to whether they appear in both lists (and secondly according to the highest placing in a single list; after that if still equal then also considering a comparison of your extended list of names and my general idea of my own - somehow quite a lot of players would be equal on points actually and Van Basten/Puskas cannot really be split at all so are kind of equal 9th/10th really!).

1st to 50th
Pele
Cruyff
Maradona
Messi
Platini
Di Stefano
Beckenbauer
Zidane
Van Basten
Puskas
Ronaldo
Eusebio
C.Ronaldo
Zico
Ronaldinho
Gullit
M.Laudrup
Best
Garrincha
Charlton
Rummenigge
Rivera
Muller
Baggio
Romario
Kopa
Bergkamp
Meazza
Henry
Rivelino
Weah
Schiaffino
Didi
Rivaldo
Kaka
Shevchenko
Matthaus
Socrates
Dzajic
Jairzinho
Tostao
Kubala
Figo
Dalglish
Kempes
Totti
Finney
Hagi
Sarosi
Hidegkuti

51st to 125th
Sindelar
Neeskens
Zizinho
Moreno
Iniesta
Matthews
Savicevic
Raul
Baresi
Albert
Moore
Yashin
Gerson
Suarez Miramontes
Xavi
Nedved
Maldini
Sivori
S.Mazzola
Falcao
Cafu
Keegan
Klinsmann
Charles
Schuster
Schmeichel
Cubillas
Deyna
Leonidas
Rijkaard
Stojkovic
Friedenreich
V.Mazzola
Ben Barek
Scarone
Banks
Kocsis
Simonsen
Blokhin
Tigana
Cantona
Fontaine
Bozsik
Vieira
Del Piero
Redondo
Greaves
Streltsov
Lineker
Susic
Edwards
Pedernera
Pires
Krol
Rensenbrink
Pirlo
Scirea
Netzer
Beckham
Hoddle
Giggs
Gren
C.Alberto
B.Laudrup
Riquelme
Sammer
Neymar
Liedholm
Suarez
Andrade
Francescoli
Batistuta
Stoichkov
Law
Julinho

The rest of the players we included (including just a couple that are in both lists)
Careca
Buffon
Giresse
Breitner
Ceulemans
Rossi
Cerezo
Ademir
Piola
Walter
Piendebene
Robben
Ballack
Ibrahimovic
Bican
Seeler
Rui Costa
Scifo
Bobek
Gascoigne
Junior
Elkjaer
Ferrari
Suker
Littbarski
Jair Rosa Pinto
Masopust
Overath
Van Hanegem
Figueroa
Erico
Bebeto
Lubanski
Barnes
Orsi
Butragueno
Robertson
Seedorf
Wilkes
Hamrin
Gento
Nordahl
Ocwirk
Riva
Bettega
Shilton
Varallo


Top 5 MegaDrive games? I will go with....
Micro Machines 2
Sonic the Hedgehog (original version)
PGA European Tour Golf
Brian Lara Cricket
And in 5th I will say FIFA (96 maybe?) even though to be fair the later ones on the Playstation half a decade or so later were better really!

Maybe I forget some good ones though now. I played Outrun on the Game Gear not the MegaDrive if I remember correctly.

I won't reminisce about Commodore 64 games, even though probably you could play a few of the same ones on an Atari ST....

 

Haha, I remember on Microprose Soccer (which I also had, on the C64) it was possible to do amazing 'banana shots' often! A lot of those early football games had those kind of characteristics, and in FIFA 96 I think it was that goals could be scored often from nearly on the touchline, on the wing. On International Soccer, on the C64, it was that you could do 'keepy uppies' with a players head from one penalty area to the other ('seal dribbles' you might say Puck!).

Was NHL 95 a version of EA Ice Hockey (or EA Hockey as it'd be called originally in the USA I think)? The original EA Hockey would replace the Brian Lara game on my list now I think about it I think.

I played Outrun (and Outrun Europa later) more on the Commodore 64 (C64) overall I think to be honest. Also Chase HQ - I played an 'arcade' game version of that in France too though I remember, on holiday in Brittany I think!

Yes, in reality a number of players would be in both our extended lists I think (to briefly return to the subject of football players!): as well as several in mine that made your main list of 125, and vice versa (I remember I counted up and you named more than 300 players in total - I'd previously gone close to 250 at least I think anyway).

 

I seem to think I did play Buggy Boy on the Commodore 64 too now, and enjoyed it, but I can't be sure! I had a Lotus Esprit game I think, but not sure about Lotus 2000.

 

Coincidentally I realise now that while my 125 was Pele to Susic, our combined top 100 would in theory also be Pele to Susic when calculated like that!

 

Yeah, you just made me remember that!

 

Actually thinking about it 'seal dribbles' are more moving while balancing the ball on the head (unless it should really be the nose lol!) I suppose. Puck cited some Neeskens examples I remember, but I've also noticed it from Pele in some clips, inside the penalty area trying to get the ball into a position to shoot. On International Soccer it was a case of bouncing the ball repeatedly on the player's head, while running forwards at the same time.

Anyway, yeah, EA Ice Hockey, the original, was based on International teams. I did win a little bit of money years later betting on teams based on how good they used to be in that game lol! I guess things change less in Ice Hockey than in football between generations! Wiggling the joypad around before shooting seemed to help on that game, but the strange thing was if an opponent starting hitting one of my players I could choose to just press a button to block him or even just stand there and be knocked over, but my player would still be sin-binned with the opponent! I guess apparently they agreed to start fighting (normally it was based on a foul by one player I think, or a barge).

 

I think at this stage maybe these are the names that would take me up to 200, but obviously it's really hard to be definitive about choosing 200 players (even according to our own criteria/opinions), because it is surely a close call between many players and also because various old legends seem to have a compelling case but it's hard to really verify it visually.

Amoros
J.Andrade
Antognoni
Ardiles
Asparuhov
Bene
Blanc
Blokhin
Boniek
Breitner
Butragueno
Caniggia
Cannavaro
Careca
Cerezo
Clodoaldo
Coluna
Czibor
Dasaev
Desailly
Del Piero
Eto'o
Facchetti
Gento
Giannini
Giresse
Grosics
Hamrin
A.Hansen
Hassler
Hierro
J.Johnstone
Jorginho
Julinho
Keegan
H.Larsson
Lato
Lawton
Leonidas
Lerby
Litmanen
Lizarazu
Milla
Nasazzi
Nesta
Netzer
Neymar
Owen
Papin
Pedernera
Preud'homme
Robben
H.Sanchez
D.Santos
N.Santos
Scarone
Schuster
Seedorf
Shearer
Simonsen
Sivori
Skoblar
Sneijder
Suarez Miramontes
Tardelli
Van Hanegem
Van Nistelrooy
Varela
Vierchowod
Vukas
R.Zamora
Zebec
Zito
Zoff
Zola

So for example I'm not really sure if I'd put Belanov in purely on peak anyway, but I guess when factoring in some sort of longevity factor that doesn't help him, while an opposite kind of case might be Thuram with good enough longevity but maybe I don't personally quite think of his absolute peak level/class highly enough to make a 200 with not a huge amount defenders considering it's still the main factor for me even if his versatility in defence (considered world class at right back and centre back) would help his case too. Maybe just adjusting my criteria a bit does make Thuram the more likely of those though, while I'd still consider it could be Belanov potentially if virtually 100% looking at peak as a player.

 

Actually, that's probably not a definitive final list anyway, as it was just a dump of other names I'd written down when finalising the 125 before, but now I'm remembering I'd previously have had Francescoli in there for example and I don't see why I still wouldn't now (his longevity is ok too ultimately, even if his form seems to have been variable at different stages)!

On the other hand Bohinen is another one who'd finally be taken more out of consideration with the extra emphasis added for longevity (even if still not a lot), while at one point I'd had him in contention at least based on my memories of his peak level.

So in summary Francescoli especially, but also Thuram are examples of players I might switch in there easily, while Belanov and Bohinen might originally at least have been borderline but would not be among those I'd feel I could consider having in a list of 200 all in all (but on their best days or best spells of form then maybe).