I was going to mention Kanoute, but whenever I think of him in terms of greatness, I remember that stupid bloody pirhouette in the penalty area against Liverpool a couple of years ago which got us knocked out of the cup. If you didn't see it we were basically 1 nil up in extra time against Liverpools youth team. They got a corner and then for no discernible reason Kanoute decides to jump up with his hands stretched straight above his head. He handballed and from the subsequent penalty we got knocked out on penalties. And I wasn't even surprised because it was classic Freddie F-cking Liability Kanoute. He was a good player but always seemed to lack confidence and miss open goals from three metres out. There's a reason he chose Mali.
?? I seem to recall Ginola playing for France (and subsequently being blamed by Houllier for one of his mistakes being the reason they didn't qualify for a World Cup). And I know for a fact that Gascoigne played for England quite a few times.
Yes, but they didn't reach their potential internationally. Gascoigne became a wife beating alcoholic and Ginola was displaced.
Amen to that...that team is struggling for ANY coach who can assemble a talented side whatsoever. A plus would be a team that doesn't want to murder each other so they can take all the glory individually...they have been doing that as of late.
You need to turn on your sarcasm detector. The post you took seriously was a reply to someone who called Chilavert and Cubillas' nations "dead-end teams". Look closely, you'll see the sarcasm.
For this to make any sense at all the player has to be head and shoulders above the rest of his countrymen and the national team has to have little history in the World Cup. Being a standout player for a great team is also helpful. Best and Weah are obvious. Another who should have been obvious but wasn't mentioned is the recently deceased Ecuadorian striker Alberto Spencer. The best striker in Uruguay at a time when Peñarol and Nacional were elite world-class clubs and when South Americans played in South America. There's a Paraguayan who tore up the Argentinian league back in the 30's. Back when Paraguay was not a good team. Anyone remember his name?
Please, Northern Ireland are hardly hopeless, were less hopeless in the 70s when Belfast was one of the most fertile factories of football talent in the world, and certainly weren't during Best's period at almost anytime. They would have been even better had Best not regularly ducked from national team commitments. Northern Ireland won the Home Nations outright for the first time in 1980, so imagine what a team with George Best would have done? Best would have been pretty old in 1982 (36) but he could have played had he not been drinking himself to death. Billy Bingham, NI's manager, considered him but eventually left him off the team. To be Welsh is to rue failing to qualify for major tournaments by a gnat's pubic hair. We're hardly hopeless, and do quite well considering Wales has 3 million people and football is arguably not even the most popular game in the country. Wynton Rufer played in World Cup '82, so I don't think he would count.
Solskjaer and all three of the Irishmen have actually played in the knockout stages of the World Cup. Hardly dead-end national teams.
for these players i wish a second division world cup, played 2 weeks before the world cup and in other country.
That's actually an interesting idea. I just went and had a look at the qualification for the WC in 06, to see which teams would have made the "Second Division World Cup": Europe: Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia and Turkey Africa: Cameroon, DR Congo, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal South America: Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela Asia: Bahrain, Kuwait, North Korea and Uzbekistan CONCACAF: Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and St. Vincent OFC/CONMEBOL Playoff: Peru or Solomon Islands Who do we think might have won this tournement? Cameroon? Russia? Uruguay? Colombia? Turkey? Interesting.
the favorites to win that world cup i would have to say is Denmark, Romania, Turkey, and Cameroon. All good teams that have done well in International competitions.
Maybe not a great player, but Shalrie Joseph is certainly a player that is of much higher quality than anyone else on the Grenadan (Grenadanian?) national team. Antti Niemi is a quality keeper playing (played?) for not-so-good Finland. They also had an stellar but oft-injured midfielder whose name I forgot. Benni McCarthy of South Africa. Dwight Yorke of T&T. Wayne Rooney of England. Kakha Kaladze of Georgia or Armenia, I think. David Suazo of Honduras.