Alessandro Nesta belongs in a top ten over Toni easily. Its not even up for discussion. I know you have a man crush on that falling/flopping tree, but top ten Italian players in the last 25 years….GTFO.
I was thinking about including Nesta as he was one of the greatest but he was always injured especially come tournament time. Also, not to take anything away from Nesta as he played a great game but but both he and Cannavaro were directly at fault in the loss to France in the Euro 2000 final which forced Dino Zoff to resign. Anyway, to each his own but as much as I loved most top defenders (Vierchowod being my favorite) , style notwithstanding, I'll take Luca Toni's 300+ goals over any old defender on my club any day of the week. "La miglior difesa è l'attacco"! Vero @Calcio Pauly ??
[QUOTE="falvo, post: 33100606, member: 58386"As far as Italian players go, Pirlo has to be one of Italy's top 10 talents of the last 20-25 years. Buffon, Maldini, Baresi, Mancini, Totti, Zola, Delpiero ,Baggio , Pirlo and Toni. I'm sure there are arguments for different players but don't know how you can't include these guys in the top 10.[/QUOTE] Where is VIERI???
Vieri was a great forward but his time was short from 1996-2005, playing one year in Spain. He kept on playing until 2009 but he was pretty much done after 05. Vieri won one goal scoring title and Toni won two, the last won, just a few months ago.Toni also has 70 more career goals and is still scoring at 38 years , an age where most forwards are working for TV shows. It was more of an excuse but the real reason he resigned was because Italy lost the final. A few months later Cragnotti hired Zoff back at Lazio after Sven-Goran Eriksson left for England to take over Kevin Keegan's place.
Anyway, no sense in going back. I wish we had a Baggio, Vieri and a Super Pippo in today's Serie A. I can't think of anyone currently or on the horizon who can even come close to those guys.
What happened to the great Italian defenders? Gentile, Collovati, Vierchowod, Bergomi ,Baresi, Scirea, Di Bartolomei, Nela, Cabrini, Maldini, Tassotti, Costacurta, Galli (as a reserve) , Ferrara, Cannavaro and Nesta. Heck I'd even take Di Chiara , Mussi and Benarrivo over today's lot. Sad that there are mostly foreign defenders on most clubs.
If I was playing devil's advocate, I'd say rule-changes. You can't get away with much and they pull out cards every chance they get. That's why there aren't great defenders in general these days.
Maldini almost never had to foul players to disposess them of the ball. He could dribble and was adept an attack as well. He may very well be an anomaly however, so if another one shows up it will be by the grace of God alone. To add to Krado's comment, I'd say the negative stereotypes associated with defending in general has led to a decrease focus in developing the type of hard man defenders that ruled the 60-90's.
Maldini was the greatest. The weird thing was he was initially playing left back while he was a right footed player. He played equally great as a central defender. Panucci was a more offensive and he deserves to be in the list of great defenders of the 90's and 00's as well..In retrospect, solid defenders like Masimo Carrera , Alessandro Calori and (my friend) Fabio Petruzzi were even a lot better than most of today club players.
Panooch and Lippi never really learned to love each other after their falling out at Inter, did they? Ironically his omission from the 06 world cup team eventually led to Zambrotta being switched to right back and Grosso coming in to play on the left. Imagine if Panucci made that team, we may have never seen one of the most memorable moments in World Cup history at the previously unbeatable Westfalenstadion. Destiny
Or if Maldini didn't retire when he did. Not sure if Lippi would have selected Paolo in 06 at 38 years of age but I know he met with him once but he never called him. Trap wanted Maldini for 2004 but supposedly the defender refused.
Best Italy in history: -Vieri- -Del Piero-Totti-R. Baggio- -Pirlo-Gattuso- -Maldini-Nesta-Cannavaro-Zambrotta- -Buffon- Subs: Pagliuca, Costacurta, Materazzi, Grosso, Darmian, De Rossi, Verratti, Marchisio, Berardi, Camoranesi, Perrotta, Toni.
Are you too young to remember Baresi or Scirea? They were the best "liberi" Italy has had in the last 40-50 years!
haha Italia didnt have any good footballers born before the late 60s???????/ Mad********er hahahahahahahaha Perotta
Baresi, Scirea, Rivera, Riva, Mazzola, etc. Roby Baggio, though, to me was the greatest Italian player ever.
I am not that old. They were in like the time I was a kid. I have heard of them, but really have no idea how good they are.
They did in the 1930's. Luisto Monti, Gigi Allemandi,Virginio Rosetta , Fulvio Bernardini ,Umberto Caligaris and Eraldo Monzeglio. Then you had the war which screwed up everything and the Grande Torino Superga tragedy of 1949. They came back in 1962 with Maldini's dad Cesare in Chile but were still eliminated in group play. Therefore, from the 1949 until the 1968, 19 years had passed and it was a tough time for Italy on the international stage. Italy 1934 Champions France 1938 Champions Brazil 1950 Group Stage Switzerland 1954 Group Stage Sweden 1958 Did Not Qualify Chile 1962 Group Stage England 1966 Group Stage Mexico 1970 Runners-up Euro Cup France 1960 Did Not Enter Spain 1964 Did Not Qualify 1964 Did Not Qualify 1968 Champions
That's what im laughing at, his list of best players in Italy's history have all played in the last 15 years, we have had 100s of better players than Simone ********ing Perotta and the shithead Matrix in our history
Perrotta was English though At least the English liked to constantly remind us "Simon Perrotta born in Ashton under lyne. The same place as hero Geoff Hurst. But I guess he felt more Italian than English?" I wonder if he makes it into their list if best players in the last 15 years?