I agree about Zinedine Zidane, it has gotten out of hand, he was a great player but not as great as the sport journos want to make him. In my opinion, the factor that contributes the most to such unrealistic opinions, is that a lot of Zidane games are available on DVD and that a lot of people have taken the time to post all these videos on YouTube; the YouTube video clips consist of countless of games at club level and at international level. On the other hand, we have great players who have shown their class at the World Cup but who remain rather invisible in terms of club level football. One of the best examples of that is Carlos Valderrama, showed a lot of class at the 1990WC but no footage of his club career exists today. If you want to see Carlos Valderrama in his prime, you will only find the four games that he played at the 1990WC because the 70+ games that he played for Montpellier HSC between 1988 and 1991 were not recorded; how can you judge a player basing your opinion on just four games? It would be like formulating an opinion about Riquelme but basing your opinion on the four or five games that he played at the 2006WC, since no footage exists of his club career with Villarreal and Boca Juniors. It's difficult to judge players without the assistance of 95% of their football career. This is the factor that footballers like Zinedine Zidane have in their favor. You can easily find over 100 games of Zidane at club level, his time with Bordeaux, Juventus, and Real Madrid. And out of the mentioned 100 games, you will have a lot of footage for a great YouTube video. You can only find 4 games of Carlos Valderrama in his prime but you can easily find over 100 games of Zinedine Zidane in his prime, this will reflect clearly on the YouTube videos and newer generations of fans will base their opinions on the mentioned YouTube videos. If all the Napoli games of Maradona were available on DVD, people would see that Zinedine Zidane is not as great as some say. Anyways.... The point is that nowadays, when it comes to comparing Football players, your word is no longer valuable because we now have YouTube to do the talking for us.... actions speak louder than words, and in that respect, players like Zinedine Zidane are bound to gain more and more fame due to the vast amount of footage that we can watch at the touch of a button. I think you are a massive fan of Zinedine Zidane and there is nothing you can say to change my opinion. Though having said that, I do respect your opinion. I have always have the same opinion about Zidane, I think he was overrated. And for all the tricks in the world, I have been far more impressed by Lio Messi and by Roman Riquelme than by anything that Ronaldinho ever did; it is a matter of opinion. And yes, I do believe that if Maradona really wanted to do party tricks he could have easily done it; again, a matter of opinion.
Who are 'great players" at Wc and invisible in clublevel? I would not call Klose a "great player"? Unless you mentioned a "onetime wonder man" Schilacci at WC90? He was not greta player either. Secondly, I agree many outhere did NOT (or limited to) watch Maradona in actions games in games out in his best but maybe only WC video and youtube to really ACKNOWLEDGE hhis "true greatness" in skills - I rated as "best ever" in skillset. In other hand, thanks to the technology evolution and broadcasting power of recent decade (2000 til now: cableTV, Satellite, WebTV and internet torrent...), people watched much more of Zidane, Roanldinho, Messi and CRonaldo to appreciate them more while lacking a real footage of older greats to compare "apple to apple" (fairly) Talking about tricks, all Ronaldinho (and others) did was to SIMULATE what Maradona did in the past i.e. juggling balls, hitting cross bar, 360turn, flipflap, Rabona bend the ball , and even use hand to score LOL ...
Iknow that and in fact, Ronaldinho has admitted that several times: Ronaldo was and will be his idol and he has always wanted to play LIKE Ronaldo Wnat I meant "TRICKS" (not during dribble run like Ronaldo did) like jugglings before the games *show off? , did some nice moevements on pitches (360, flipflap elasstico ....) but no end reults ... just to show the world: I could do what Maradona, and Ronaldo did
Great players that are "invisible" at club level, are the players whose club career does not exists in the sense that you cannot see any footage of their club career. Carlos Valderrama was great at Montpellier, no footage exists of his time with Montpellier. The same could be said about many other players. Newer generations of fans will base their opinion on YouTube video clips, and as a result players like Zinedine Zidane will gain more fame, whereas players like Diego Maradona might fade. It's sad, but true, your word is redundant if you do not have the footage to back it up.
Here are two videos of Valderrama with some footage about him in Montpellier [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwlwVEhS3DY&feature=related"]YouTube - Los Pases De Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama - Valderrama Assists‏[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEKp0VYwfgM"]YouTube - Carlos Valderrama Pases, Jugadas y Goles‏[/ame]
For my current knowledge, I would set the list of best passers ever (No Order) First Group (Top Five) Platini Rivera Liedholm Luis Suarez Miramontes Didi Second Group (6th - 10th) Maradona Gerson M.Laudrup Zidane Haynes
Maradona is without a top 5 candidate at least in passing his through balls were the best the game has ever seen, they always were put perfectly for the teammate that he didn't need to break a stride. And how come Beckenbauer, Charlton and Zico don't make the top 10. And as usual Zidane has a way in sneaking into various lists and this one is no exception.
From what I saw of Charlton, he seldom showed to be an intricate/tight passer of the ball. A fine passer he was but not at the versatile level of the previous mentioned player's IMO. Agree with Zico and especially Maradona though. As for the bolded part it's much deserved really.
For me the Top 5 best passers of all-time are (in no particular order): Platini, Zico, Maradona, Beckenbauer and Didi
No Zidane had a GREAT vision but I won't put him in the top 10 nonetheless top 5. For instance I wouldn't put Xavi, Valderrama, Riquelme and Pele who are better passers in my top 5. My top level of passers would include in no order: Maradona, Zico, Bochini, Platini, Didi, Pele, Haynes, Beckenbauer, Xavi, Cueto, Rivera, Gerson, Valderrama, Zidane, Laudrup and Riquelme.
Yes but my point is, that out of 70+ games with Montpellier, only a total of 7 games are available. I have never seen highlight videos to this day. I did not knew this until after I started working on a Carlos Valderrama video clip. There are no games of Valderrama with Real Valladolid, only highlights. With Montpellier only 7 games out of 70+, no highlights. With Deportivo Cali, nothing. With Atletico Junior, nothing. With Tampa Bay Mutiny, nothing. Had I decided to do a video clip of Roman Riquelme or Xavi Hernandez, I would easily have over 100+ games of their club careers. On the other hand, with Valderrama, you have to work with 7 club level games, and some 20 games at international level. The quality is certainly there, but as a "producer", you would like to have more quantity.
Laudrup, Platini, Valderrama, Luis Suarez Miramontes, Maradona,Didi,Liedholm,Johnny Haynes,Netzer,Riquelme.(in no particular order).
Sweetest thread of all. James, I'm sure you've seen two-footed players before... How can you mention these two as "two-footed"? They are not even close I'm not sure about the whole Top Ten, but regarding the first spot, Laudrup has to take it, personally. Concerning personal predilection, I'd mention Valderrama, Totti (have you guys seen his first-touch on-the-turn passes?), Pirlo and Rui Costa. Not near the top 10, but Shinji Ono's versatility in passing the ball was/is special.
I was a bit sarcastic there. Rooney and Gerrard could use their left well enough at least in shooting though - in the context of "purely 1 footer" in Maradona" - but GOD his leftfoot was great gift
Great list but Valderrama and Riquelme should be replaced by Gianni Rivera and Socrates. If consider two-feet passing to be more advantage than one foot, Maradona might not be among top five.
There is no such thing as an indicator for passing. Sucessful rate and accuracy are the actual key indicators for passing performance. Two-footedness is merely an excuse and I rarely see a player ever choose to use his weaker foot when it matters.
I can remember Maradona assisted by his left-foot in the right side of the field the 1994 World CUp play-off match against Austria. Surely, he could do so after turn his body back and it could be a lot better if he could cross by his right-foot when he switch to be right-winger in some situation.
you mean rebona? He might aim at entertaining the crowd I guess. Maradona had many successful crosses leading to goals using his right foot. You have separaed crossing from passing in the other thread, so, what does passing mean in this thread?
Definitely one of the greatest central setup guys to ever grace a field. He may have set up more goals for the Colombian NT than any other Colombian player in the history! It’s ironic that a player that was known for being primarily one-footed was able to create several goals with his weaker foot (South Korea and Brazil matches) on the WC stage – something that neither Pele, Cruyff, Platini, Zico, Laudrup and Zidane were able to accomplish. In fact, with the exception of one pass from Cruyff vs Argentina in ‘74 and Zico vs Argentina in ‘82, and Laudrup vs Nigeria in ‘98 none of the others were able to set up any goals with their weaker foot. Also, according to my sources, I don’t think Platini ever created any goal for the French NT with his left, and Zico only once for Brazil. Perhaps I could be wrong, but in any case, I will upload these assists on video when I get the chance. Where some of these players were truly great in using either foot, was in their ability to strike and resolve situations on goal, but their passing was pretty much utilized with their stronger foot. He did, although I wouldn't say many. However, moreso than some others that are considered two-footed.