I can't recall if you've posted on this thread mate, so don't know without checking if you've read it but if you were wondering about Maradona, Platini and Cruyff etc, in terms of Kopa's view then his vote in France Football's Player of the Century poll might help out: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/france-football-player-of-the-century-who-voted-for-who.1597402/ Kopa-Pele, Puskas, di Stefano, Cruyff, Beckenbauer Basically, the votes posted on page 1 (not my guesses) proved to be correct. and I scanned in and posted the section from the magazine which confirms it later in the thread. If you were wondering about Messi and other more recent players (Zidane perhaps, considering he could have been upgraded since 1999 by Kopa) then it doesn't help of course. babourum can maybe confirm the date of the comment but it seems it matches Kopa's view from 1999 anyway.
2005. It's also worth to read the whole interview : http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/association=fra/news/newsid=1590586.html
I think he means that is why he does not mention Messi, not sure. Have you ever heard Kopa talk about Maradona, whom he seems to not like much?
Yes I found this interview that was made in 2011 : http://www.blogmorlino.com/index.php/2011/02/07/trente_minutes_avec_raymond_kopa - Interviewer : "Here's my list of the top ten players ever : Pele, Di Stefano, Puskas, Cruyff, Maradona, Beckenbauer ... - Kopa (He cuts me) : Remove the doped guy. I agree on the other players but remove quickly the cheater from your list ... (...) -Maradona ? You do not like Maradona! - The man is pathetic. All he has done is shameful. To be a great player, you need to have a good attitude, some human qualities. - His talent leaves you indifferent? -Look at his famous goal in 1986 -the one when he dribbles everyone- : at the start of the action, he had two opportunities to pass the ball. Instead of passing the ball, he prefered to make a solo run. - You can not separate the player from the man and vice versa? - No, that's why my favorite player is Ferenc Puskas. - He's my favorite player too. -When he signed for Real Madrid the Spanish press called him "the portly major" rather than the "Galloping Major." I warned journalists that a class player never loses his class. In his first two years Real, he twice finished top scorer of the league ! You know, Ferenc frightened defenses when he had the ball 35 meters from the goal. And outside the field, he hosted political refugees home. His apartment was always full of refugees! When he died, I could not go to his funeral because I suddenly fell sick. When I recovered, I went to his grave. Puskas was my idol". - Kopa then asks : "For you what's a great player? - First he must win. Participating, as Coubertin said, is not enough for me. - At that moment Kopa holds out his hand to shake my hand and he says : you think like me. To be a great player you not only need football skills but also you have to win, and you need to have human qualities. - So who who should have won the 2010 Ballon d'Or ? - Certainly not Messi. - Indeed, he didn't win anything significant. - I would have given the award to either Iniesta or Xavi". etc.
I have to say I'm surprised with what Kopa said about Maradona because he's usually a clever man with well-balanced points of view. That is not the case here.
Well He did not impress with the way Maradona won over England with his handof Gosh... However to be honest he could win without it
Interesting. In general terms I guess most people would agree that Puskas was a better scorer than Di Stefano (who was great nonetheless). For what I have understood (correct me if I'm wrong), in Real Madrid: [1] Di Stefano was playing number #9 in the classic 2-3-5 formation, at the centre of the attack, BUT he exploited his unique characteristics by often dropping back (in a way somewhat similar to the false 9?) and helping in midfield and even in defence. Still, he remained a great scorer. [2] Puskas played number #10 in Real Madrid's 2-3-5, so inside left, and thus started in a slightly withdrawn role than Di Stefano, BUT (similarly to what he did for Hungary?) during the match he advanced and cut to the centre (sort of the opposite of what Di Stefano was doing). In fact, Puskas scored slightly more than Di Stefano during his permanence at Real. Or at least this is my impression. Am I right?
Yes, you're right. WM started to been usen in Spain in the post war years, 40s. And a variation of the WM was used by Real Madrid (The D-L-CF tactic). http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...d-stint-in-spain.2009693/page-3#post-30912955 Some confusion comes because the media of those days, still used to wrote the line-ups in a nominal 2-3-5, a shirt number ordering in the formation (this happened in many countries). But if you read the reports and know the history and roles of main players, its clear that they're refereing to a WM or 4-2-4 (used in the 50s and 60s) while the Pyramid was practically dead in the 40s.
Don't get me wrong. Many people aren't interested about football played so long ago. Other used Wikipedia and other modern debatable sources. Less people can use contemporary sources to back up their thoughts. And other can cross reference information and being critical with the sources (even contemporaries)
Once has been doing a great work, posting the matches by matches reports in each Real Madrid seasons. About the system. I see that those newspapers cited the lineups in WM ordering, using "," and ";" to diferentiate between the lines.