I think some of the players wee trying to be PC. When Ronaldinho saw Maradona, he probably would say his hero were Maradona. When so and so joined AC Milan, they would say Van Basten. True, They care less about Serie A growing up.
This is the right thread: Cruijff: Di Stefano, Florian Albert, Faas Wilkes. Van Basten: Had no idol, but was as young professional player influenced by Cruijff. Van Hanegem: Tonny van der Linden, a star player from his city Utrecht. Once controversially voted as best Utrecht based player ever, ahead of Van Basten. Unknown name abroad. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonny_van_der_Linden For if some want to know more. Ceulemans: Had no idol as far as I know. Said in 1978, as 21 year old, that Eddy Merckx was his inspiration. Repeated this five years later in a television broadcast.
Interesting that Florian Albert was one of Cruyff's favourites (I knew about the other two). There are some similarities between Albert and Cruyff I think. I did read somewhere (on the internet I think but not sure where) that Ceulemans had a favourite Belgian player from his youth - I think it ended in 'ens' but could be Mermens, could be Coppens.... (a name like that so not Van Himst for example).
Also Emilio Butragueno, and Cruyff was a "a favourite if not the favourite" or something along those lines of Michael Laudrup (see Laudrup's Footballs Greatest episode) Laudrup himself is the idol of Luis Garcia (ex Liverpool) as well as Iniesta and Christian Eriksen. Also: Glenn Hoddle - Matt Le Tissier Matt Le Tissier - Xavi Alan Shearer - Dimitar Berbatov Paul Gascoigne - Peter Crouch
I wonder how it was possible in the era before every game was televised internationally for young boys to idolize a player from a different country? Usually that is reserved for players that you see regularly, most likely a player from your local club which you can see every fortnight live in the stadium. But idolizing a player from a club of a far away country back in the 40s and 50s? Difficult I would have thought.
Correct, that is what he wanted to copy. He liked the 'overall' motor-skills of Albert ('naturalistic') and the dribbling-style of Wilkes. Albert was also from Hungary, another small nation, which served as inspiration for him. When he was older, in the 68-70 period, he also admired Eusebio. Interesting. Can you dig this up? Ceulemans had as far as I know not an idol but he cited Wilfried van Moer and Van Hanegem too as the players he respected.
The father of Coen Moulijn was a communist with contacts in France (surprising ). The idol of Moulijn was Raymond Kopa - although there was only 7 years difference in age. Reims was of course also not very far away - in terms of kilometers.
Laudrup called Cruijff 'God', because Cruijff could still outsmart other player in the so called 'rondos', if you know what that is. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFPqD-N6GOk"]FC Barcelona's Best Rondos - YouTube[/ame] As addition to your list: Maradona - Van Persie Romario - Van der Vaart
Van Hanegem was the idol of many mid-fielders after him. Apparently, also Ceulemans knew his name, I read now. In his biography there is a nice summary by a famous documentary-filmer. I will look it up.
I typed in 'Ceulemans Coppens' and 'Ceulemans Mermens' in Google but couldn't find anything. From what I recall it was some form of interview with Ceulemans that I'd seen, and he might've mentioned the dribbling of the player concerned. Sorry it's only a hazy memory. It's possibly Mermens as I might've noted that he had votes in the IFFHS player of the century voting, but it could easily have been Coppens probably (I know comme included him in his greatest X of all-time countdowns so maybe that makes his name familiar to me, but maybe's it's because Ceulemans had named him too). Having read Gregoriak's post I had this Kopa-Moulijn connection in mind as I remembered you'd told me about it in a PM about Moulijn. Another interesting one I've heard of would be Kalman Konrad the Hungarian being an idol/inspriration of Matthias Sindelar. I understand what Gregoriak means in terms of it being more likely for players heroes/favourites to be those they could watch from week to week, especially going back in history - a fairly modern example of this would be Andriy Shevchenko's favourites being Igor Belanov and Alexander Zavarov, though I've read that Ian Rush was also his idol.
Two others: Enzo Francescoli - Zidane Cruijff - Platini (now I think about it; maybe Cruijff served more as inspiration rather than being an idol)
"Cruijff, later Van Basten, Litmanen and maybe Kluivert and Sneijder too, the so called Ajax school; it had a recalcitrant flavor. It attracts young people and they remain attached to it, even if they grow older. But that provocativeness was in my opinion always 'perfumed resistance'. It was just within limits and easy to sell to the masses. With Van Hanegem, the Feyenoord-school so to speak, it was a bit different. It was pure, raw and closer to the original source. It was merciless, and it served the greater good. With Cruijff it was eventually in the end the big Ajax and Cruijff show. Van Hanegem cared about the greater game, his team-mates, the absolute will to win. It came from deep within himself, he did not think about it, but it was so without compromises solely focused on football, that people were immediately convinced." The guy who said this contributed to the documentary and biography of him. Anyway, it is a nice summary of his popularity. He was during his active career immensely popular. The quote is also a line with the interview of Kessler posted before: Cruijff did a lot for his team but indeed, one can argue that "it was eventually all directed to the big Cruijff-show." (in the words of Kessler: he was an individualist, lone-wolf)
Ronaldo's idol is Zico Ronaldo is idol of many present players (Ibra, Rooney, Torres, Eduardo, Robinho, Neymar, Benzama, Balotelli, Pato, Dentinho, Kerrinson, Lucas ...) most Brazil kids now aday tend to become like Ronaldo rather than Pele and ... strang thing is Ronaldo was also Idol of many greats from his own generation (Zidane, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Crespo, ...)
I might be going a bit obscure here for some people: England's LEGENDARY centre-forward Tommy Lawton's idol was Bill "Dixie" Dean; whose position and shirt number Lawton would later take over w/Everton AND England.
I understand however a bit what you mean. The people abroad tend to rank Neeskens above Van Hanegem. Neeskens features in many top 100 all-time lists and also features in the 'wall of fame' link I posted elsewhere. But in Holland Van Hanegem is generally more popular and also higher appreciated, even by Ajax fans. He is imo criminally underrated in the Ballon d'Or lists, although he played conditioned in the 1970EC final. This is a Maradona-esque free kick by him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Zkcn6_zHFwo#t=121s