He was the top scorer in the English first division of the 1981-82 season. He never scored that many goals as he did in that season (26). He was certainly not way past it. He could have had a great World Cup in 1982 but he was plagued by chronic back injury and thus couldn't perform well in that tournament.
First of all, no matter how you try to draw the line, I would suggest that any player who has actually appeared in a World Cup knockout stage match, or even any player who has won any World Cup finals match at all, is not on a dead-end team. Hence... Owairan, Salas and Zamorano, Keller and Friedel, N'Kono, and Nakata, having all played in the knockout stages, are not on dead-end teams. (Besides which, haven't Japan won the last two Asian Cups without Nakata?!) Drogba defeated Serbia, Daei defeated the US, and Hadji defeated Scotland on the World Cup stage. I thought my nominating Cha Bum-Kun was a stretch, but possibly acceptable since South Korea was probably incapable of qualifying in any other confederation throughout his career. But when you start listing guys who have played in World Cup quarterfinals, it gets ridiculous. On the other hand, that guy from Singapore is the kind of player that this thread is looking for: someone who may have had a stellar club career, but never had a chance at international glory because of his nationality.
Mali were semifinalists in the African Cups of 2002 and 2004!! How are they "dead end"?? Also anyone listing any team from South America other than Venezuela is nuts. Just because some of them didn't qualify this time doesn't mean they aren't ever going to get there... and they have all been there before (except Venezuela). Same with Cameroon and Nigeria... god forbid they miss one world cup. Did you guys happen to not watch any World Cups in the 90s?
Everyone seems to have thier own criteria for judging here, but bottom line excellent players(like Matthews, Keegen and Sanchez) missed out on the cup during their prime, when they could have made an enormous impact, just because of the teams they were on. And has anyone actually seen Israeli Revivo play?
I agree. Salas and Zamorano were not in dead end teams. By 98 Chile had a good squad, they reached 6th position in the FIFA ranking (I know) and past the group stage to be eliminated by the eventual runner-up of France 98. So I don't think that Chilean generation counted as dead end...Chilean generations of 2000-2005 were certainly poor, the poorest in our long history, specialy the 2000-2002! Now for 2006 we certainly have decent players in Valdivia and Matias Fernandez.
Did no one mention Strasser before? Long and distinguished Bundesliga career, absolute no-hope national team. I'm also surprised that I overlooked Frick myself - a guy from a nation of just 30,000 playing, and scoring goals, in Serie A.
i dont know if anyone has mentioned him because i cant be bothered reading back, but george weah is probably the best player to fit this category. he won world, european and african player of the year in 1995. played for monaco, PSG, AC milan, chelsea among others. did everything from playing to coaching to funding the liberian national team and missed out on the 2002 world cup by 1 point in qualifying. THE greatest african player of all time. can people stop mentioning didier drogba, because it is clear that cote d'ivoire are not a dead end team, if they had have been a little bit luckier and drawn a better group for the world cup they could have done some damage. drogba, kone, eboue, toure, zokora, zoro.... all quality players in some of the worlds big leagues and top clubs. plus there looks to be many more ivorians coming out over the next few years. another player that comes to mind is craig johnston of australia. played for liverpool and won pretty much everything there was to win club wise. one of the key players for liverpool during the early to mid 80s when they were on top the world. chose to not play for his national side because they were that bad, but now admits that he regrets not doing so. first australian to make it big overseas.
Abédi Pelé. Great, great, great player. Phenominal skills on the ball. African Footballer of the Year in 1991, 1992 and 1993. He was also forever immortalized when the original Pelé named him as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. "Man of the match" in Marseille's European Champions League final win over AC Milan in 1993. Like Weah, never qualified for a WC. Tony Yeboah Another great player and teammate of Abedi Pele. He was the top scorer in Bundesliga twice with Frankfurt, in 1993 and 1994, and paved the way for black African players like Jay Jay Okocha, Samuel Kuffour or Souleymane Sané in the German league during a time when most German clubs consisted of all German players. Also played in the EPL and scored a total of 33 goals for Leeds United in 62 appearances. Like Weah and Pele, never qualifed for a WC
Going back in history: Dutch footballer Faas Wilkes. Became a star at Inter Milan, Torino and Valencia in the 1950s long before Holland had a professional footbal league and long before the Dutch national team made any kind of impact on the world stage. Scored 35 goals for Holland and remained our topscorer until 1998 when he was overtaken by Dennis Bergkamp. People would still be talking about him if he'd been English or Italian.
Ghana with Pele and Yeboah on their side was not deadend natiuonal team. They were underachievers. Perhaps, the disagreement between the two caused some of their bad results.
Do keep up darling. We've pretty much ruled out every team apart from the dregs of Oceania now. You mention the likes of Mali or Chile and you'll get covered in vitriolic saliva, nevermind the Netherlands. And no, for the more excitable posters, I don't think Botswana is in Oceania, it was a figure of speech...
I beg to differ. On paper they had a great line-up. But believe me, Ghana's FA was in shambles back then, poorly organized with very poor facilities. The program was underfunded and morale was very low on the team as the players themselves publicy complained and often times had to be persuaded to join the national side for matches. Much has improved since, which was reflected in their WC performance. So yes, back then, it was a dead end team.
The point is that when Faas Wilkes was playing, the Netherlands was on a par with the likes of Mali now.
the way our football has been run since the mid to late 80's Nolberto Solano, Claudio Pizarro and Jefferson Farfan are players that will most likely never play a world cup Solano is almost a given since he has come out and said he will not play the Copa America due to the lack of planning we have at the moment Pizarro is suspended for a year so will miss la cop america anyway, plus its hard to see us making 2010 due to the shambles we are in maybe Farfan will lead us back to a wc
I doubt Farfan alone will take you to a world cup, specially in a qualy as competitive as S.America. You need Pizarro and at least two more great players...
meant Farfans generation..theres a few in there that could turn out ok also this is probably Pizarro's last qualifiers anyway he would be 32 in 2010
Yeah he was a good player but no world beater. Israel on the other hand is damn near doomed having to play in Europe as opposed to their own area.
If you want to mention Israeli players, how about Roni Rosenthall. Again not world class but a scorer of important goals t/o his career.
Northern Ireland aren't a dead end team, we were for a while 3 or 4 years ago but not now and not while Geordie Best was playing, in the late 70s and 80s we were force to be reckoned with, we had the likes of big Pat Jennings, Sammy Mac, Gerry Armstrong, Billy and Bryan Hamilton, Martin O'Neill etc etc, we won the Home Nations tournament a number of times, qualifed for two successive World Cups in '82 and '86. If Geordie had looked after himself and kept fit he could have played in Spain 82 and i've no doubt we would've beat France in the quarter final with him, he may even have been able to play in '86 although he was 39/40 at that stage, but big Pat did it. We were great without him, with him(fit) we would've been pure class.
Ildefons Lima (Andorra) - defender, played for Deportivo Alavés 2004-2005. Mart Poom (Estonia) - more than 105 caps, excellent goalkeeper, Sunderland, Derby County, was once loaned to Arsenal, unlikely that his team could qualify for a major championship. Edgaras Jankauskas (Lithuania) - very good striker, played for CSKA Moscow and Real Sociedad, same situation as Poom. Temuri Ketsbaia, Levan Kobiashvili (Georgia) - Ketsbaia was a key player for Newcastle United, also represented Wolverhampton Wanderers; Kobiashvili is a regular for Schalke 04. Georgia has a very slim chance of making the World Cup. Arguably: Commins Menapi (Solomon Islands) - not a world class player, but extremely important for the success of his national team.
- Aliaksandr Hleb (Belarus) - Benjani (Zimbabwe) - Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) - Cha Bum-Kun (South Korea) - David Suazo (Honduras) - Dwight Yorke (Trinidad y Tobago) - Eidur Gudjohnsen (Iceland) - Fréderic Kanouté (Mali) - George Best (Northern Ireland) - George Weah (Liberia) - Gilberto Angelucci (Venezuela) - Goran Pandev (Macedonia) - Hasan Salihamidzic (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - Ian Rush (Wales) - Jari Litmanen (Finland) - Jorge González (El Salvador) - Juan Arango (Venezuela) - Juan Manuel Peña (Bolivia) - Julio César Dely Valdés (Panama) - Jussi Jääskeläinen (Finland) - Kakha Kaladze (Georgia) - Levan Kobiashvili (Georgia) - Mahamadou Diarra (Mali) - Marco Antonio Etcheverry (Bolivia) - Mark Hughes (Wales) - Mart Poom (Estonia) - Mohamed Sissoko (Mali) - Mohammed Kallon (Sierra Leone) - Pascal Feindouno (Guinea) - Rafael Dudamel (Venezuela) - Razundara Tjikuzu (Namibia) - Ryan Giggs (Wales) - Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) - Sergej Barbarez (Bosnia-Herzegovina) - Shota Arveladze (Georgia)