What top players today will be too old for the next WC?

rui costa, scholes....ummmmmm...

 

Too many.... Rivaldo perhaps.... Figo???

 

England:
Scholes
Beckham

Spain:
Hierro
Morientes
Alfonso

Italy:
Maldini
Costacurta
Del Piero

Brazil:
Rivaldo
Cafu
Juninho

Argentina:
Batistuta
Simeone
Redondo

Portugal:
Rui Costa
Figo
Bahia

France:
Zidane
Petit
Djorkaeff

Germany:
Khan

USA:
Who cares?

 

Scholes and Beckham are each 28 and will certainly play in the 2006 World Cup with the chance of still being able to play in the 2010 Cup. In fact, Beckham has said he wants to play in 4 World Cup finals (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010).

 

Figo may be old but hopefully he'll play

 

Maldini will most certainly not be around for the next world cup. He's had a great career though, and not too shabby finishing up your career with a Champions League trophy.

 

Maldini will go down as arguably the best defender that ever played the game. He has already eclipsed his father the legendary Cesare M...

 

None of our top players are our old players.
So for different reasons than you, who cares.

(Actually, maybe Reyna but there's plenty of youth to take his place.)

 

Paolo Maldini has already retired from international play as he announced his retirement after the 2002 World Cup. His career with Milan is still not over, he will probably play another two years or maybe even three. He has one 5 Champions League Trophies (not to shabby!!!).

 

Del Piero???
He will be there in 2006, probably off the bench though!

 

Holland:
Cocu
Davids (maybe, he'll be 34)
Bosvelt (not that he's so great, but he plays somtimes)
Van Hooijdonk

 

Oliver Kahn has stated that he wants to retire AFTER playing in the 2006 WC at home. I'm sure the Germans won't mind having him back.

 

These ones are already out of WC2006, their last chance for some will be Euro 2004:
-Batistuta is the first retired. We all knew Korea-Japan was his last WC and probably he will end this year.
-Figo will play Euro2004 as his last chance to be in an important competition, also Korea-Japan was his first and last WC.
-Oliver Kahn, for sure.
-Rui Costa
-Cafu
-Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos, maybe in the bench
-Maldini, for sure
-Fernando Hierro
-Diego Simeone
-Zinedine Zidane

 

I agree with most of what you said. However, Roberto Carlos is still young enough to play at the next WC. I'm going to take back what I said about Batistuta, although he will be older, I think he'll be sitting on the bench next WC, He's got at least 3 more years in him. Other than those two, I think you were right on.

 

Wannabe Eurosnob.......

 

Morientes will be 30, so he'll definitely at least be in the running. However, by WC '06, I wouldn't be surprised to see both him and Diego Tristan forced out of the starting eleven by Fernando Torres or Javier Portillo. Alfonso hasn't played for Spain in years.

Luis Enrique, Enrique Romero, Sergi Barjuan, Fernando Hierro, and Miguel Angel Nadal are gone for sure, with Francisco de Pedro a strong possibility (he'll be 33). Santiago Cañizares and Jose Molina will both be over 36, so they'll both be doubtful, although at that point I don't think either of them would be starting over Casillas anyway.

 

Germany:

Thomas Linke
Marko Rehmer
Marco Bode
Oliver Bierhoff
Christian Ziege
Jens Lehmann

Ireland:

Jason McAteer
Mark Kinsella
Steve Staunton
Alan Kelly

France:

Bixente Lizarazu
Marcel Desailly
Youri Djorkaeff
Alain Boghossian
Emmanuel Petit
Frank Leboeuf
Christophe Dugarry

Croatia:

Zvominir Soldo
Alen Boksic
Davor Suker
Robert Jarni
Robert Prosinecki

Italy:

Luigi di Biagio
Angelo di Livio

Turkey:

Hakan Sukur
Bulent Korkmaz
Arif Erdem
Tugay Kerimoglu
Abdullah Ercan

Argentina:

Gabriel Batistuta
Diego Simeone
Claudio Caniggia
Jose Antonio Chamot

Brazil:

Cafu
Edilson

Portugal:

Jorge Costa
Vitor Baia
Fernando Couto
Paulo Sousa
Pedro Barbosa
Paulo Bento

Denmark:

Stig Tofting
Rene Henriksen
Jan Heintze

England:

Martin Keown
Teddy Sheringham
Gareth Southgate
David Seaman
Nigel Martyn

Russia:

Yuri Nikiforov
Yuri Kovtun
Viktor Onopko
Valeriy Karpin
Aleksandr Mostovoi

Japan:

Yutaka Akita
Masashi Nakayama

Korea:

Yoo Sang-Chul
Choi Jin-Cheul
Kim Tae-Young
Hwang Sun-Hong
Hong Myung-Bo

USA:

David Regis
Earnie Stewart
Jeff Agoos
Cobi Jones
Carlos Llamosa

 

Hopefully Zidane will still be around in 2006 (should France qualify of course) - If everything goes well he will be 33 at the start of the tournament and 34 at the end 4 weeks later !!

Desailly, Lizarazu, Petit won't be here anymore.
Djorkaeff, Leboeuf and Dugarry have already retired.
Thuram will be 34 and Pires & Makelele will be 33 they may have retired as well.

 

C-towner's list is pretty comprehensive, and I mostly agree w/ it.

 

It's a shame to see Seaman go after that stupid loss to Argentina in 1998 and then seeing him cry that he let down his country against Brazil

I still think Seaman is the best goalie of all time.

 

Wow, thats a first. I would say Dino Zoff. Winning the WC at 40 says something about the abilities of this legend.

 

I was just thinking that Portugal and Mexico might care just a little bit.