Interestingly enough, World Soccer have done a World's greatest strikers article in this months edition. It's based on the last four years. From World Soccer - Goals have been weighted to take into account greater importance for those scored in European and international competiton, and the lesser importance attached to goals in domestic cup competitions. As with the ESM Golden Shoe, league goals have also been given a weighting, with goals scored in Europe's leading five leagues receiving two points each. Here are our top 20 - 1) David Villa 2) Samuel Eto'o 3) Cristiano Ronaldo 4) Miroslav Klose 5) Luca Toni 6) Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 7) Didier Drogba 8) Thierry Henry 9) Fernando Torres 10) Freddie Kanoute 11) Dimitar Berbatov 12) Diego Forlan 13) Luis Fabiano 14) Mario Gomez =15) Wayne Rooney =15) Lionel Messi 17) Kaka 18) Ruud Van Nistelrooy 19) Robbie Keane 20) Zlatan Ibrahimovic Some that just missed out included - Adrian Mutu Sergio Aguero Diego Milito Raul Nicolas Anelka Interesting list. Although it's worth remembering before anyone goes apoplectic, that this list is based solely on goals scored by the player.
Lmao you honestly think that 90% of people that come on this forum only care about the top 3 European Leagues, "know nothing about anything else", and just get their little knowledge of the sport from media coverage? I don't think they would be on this forum if that were true.
Banfield's captain is usually the keeper, Lucchetti. I rank the Primera División Argentina (PDA) even with Ligue 1 in quality, and the Brazilian Serie A even with the Bundesliga. In that sense, the Eredivisie falls below Ligue 1 and PDA, IMO. That is my subjective evaluation, of course. Otherwise, Suárez, who is a good player, one that I hope to see in the WC. Silva has scored 17 goals this year in the PDA (14 + 3 penalties) in 26 games. Suárez has scored 32 goals this year so far (23 + 9 penalties) in 42 games. Taking total goals, Silva has a 0.65 ratio to Suárez 0.76. If we take only non-penalty goals, the ratio are 0.54 for Silva and 0.55 for Suárez. As for assists, I don't think there are stats, but in seven full games with Silva I've watched I've counted four (two of them very impressive) assists. Note that I'm using the current year so far as my period in consideration. Otherwise, the main difference for me is that I rank the PDA higher than the Eredivisie in difficulty.
They are too casually dismissive of anything that is not EPL, Liga and Serie A related. As a fan of Bayern, haven't you noticed that?
Agreed. I would only add that Suarez is generally the more versatile of the two. He actually lined up as our #9 a lot last season when Darío was injured. Yeah nothing against Silva or the Argentina league. I think it's great that a guy that has pretty much gone unnoticed to the greater world of soccer is beginning to make a name for himself so late in his career. If anything it is a testament to his work-ethic and desire to be a great player. Agreed. Agreed. It's hard to guage the true potential of the forwards in the dutch league. Look at KJH! He's floundering. I would never argue that playing for Ajax means anything significant on the world stage. The club is merely a shell of what it used to be. I agree with you on a basic level but I think leadership is a quality that can be considered when judging a player as a whole. I only brought it up because I was just trying to compare Silva to somebody I am familiar with (El Capitan Suarez!). Agreed it is impressive. Of course it exists but that was never even something I was considering when judging Silva. It was this other guy who brought it up. Who am I to judge a player based on the league they play in? Most people consider the Eredivisie to be a joke these days.
Considering the position they play in at this point, I have some issue considering Kakà, Messi and CR9 as forwards. Unless you ignore the distinction between attacking midfielder (Kakà) and centre forward, and that between winger (the other two) and wide forward. A better term would be "attacking players" instead of "forwards" no?
Perhaps World Soccer would have been better served giving it the title The Worlds Greatest Goalscorers. (over the past four seasons)
Just to clarify I am not indicating in any way shape or form that I consider Suarez to be one of the best forwards in the world. I was using him as a familiar example to explain how Santiago Silva isn't.
Fair enough. I know very little about the overall quality of the league in Argentina so I'm not even going to try and make a comparison. It's been an interesting discussion either way. I didn't even know who Santiago Silva was before today!
Or even better yet "Europes" greatest goalscorers Now with that said, the only South American mainstay I would put on that list in terms of goals scored and their importance is Martin Palermo......at least over Robbie Keane and Hunteelar. I can't speak for the others but I got the point you were making in regards to Suarez, Silva and Dario. I will say that of the three Suarez has the most potential to be at some point amongst the worlds best forwards.
Yes. It looks like they've focused completely on European based players which is unlike World Soccer but it's not any sort of definitive list by any means. I could post the points totals to show how they arrived at their final top 20. I did a quickie version as I get lazy after midnight.
I don't need midnight to get lazy I like World Soccer as a publication since it does a pretty good job of eliminating bias but then again based on a somewhat comparison of scoring in like competitions, Palermo would be about the only South American playing in South American to make the list.
BTW... one of the things I find most impressive with Silva is the quality of the goals he scores. Some of them are things of beauty, where he folds himself for a highly difficult lateral scissor kick that I don't see other top scorers even try. Otherwise, in the Primera División Argentina, I'm not even a fan of Banfield. I follow Boca more.
He looked average for a few games...who cares? The kid was top scorer in France by age 20, and at age 21 he's playing for RM, and has 3 goals to his credit playing in a side whose problems I've already noted. I think he's doing quite fine and will improve as he settles. Even if he has a bad season I don't think it changes anything, he's still very young.
No he isn't in the running for best in the world, I was just pointing out using his season in Madrid against him is just bad logic.
I don't see how his time in France has anything to do with how he's performing RIGHT NOW which is what is being discussed. Right now he's looked average, yesterday yet again he looked average and missed a clear header. If you think he's doing quite well then you aren't watching him play. Maybe in the coming weeks he's going to start killing for them and I'll gladly say that he is. But as of now he's isn't. In contrast to Zlatan for example who seems to be getting better and better with each passing game.
I don't like how they put greater importance on European and international competition. I think they should've separated European KO games from group-stage games. And international games really need to be split b/w final tournaments and qualifiers/friendlies. For many of the big clubs, during the first-half of the season their CL group-stage games actually carry less importance than their league matches.
Seriously though Huntelaar scored a shedload of goals in Holland, which is probably a similar standard league to Argentina (not meant offensively). He also scored goals in Europe and at international level. Also Robbie Keane has consistently scored goals at club level (at least ten in the league in the last 4 seasons), plus he has been a big scorer at international level. I mean remember Palermo was not great in Europe, and has not played at international level (until last month) for years. Given that each international goal got 3 points, Keane has 15 in the last 4 years so that alone is 45 points.
That's the problem of using a formula though. For instance they counted international matches at 3 points, regardless of the confederation. So a goal against Italy for Keane is worth the same as one against Burkina Faso for Eto'o. At the same time Berbatov's hat-trick against Georgia gets him 9 points. That is equivalent to 9 goals in the FA Cup! They basically tried to apply a simple formula throughout.
I watched a fair amount of the Eredevisie for a stretch and I can comfortably say that the defenses in Argentina are much tougher than what you find in Holland. I'd be curious to see if the numbers would back up my claim. Keane certainly has scored well in Europe but then again Palermo has scored a better clip when factoring his Libertadores matches. Of course when looking at Eur/Lib scoring records, if I'm not mistaken Keanes tally includes both Champions League and UEFA Cup while Palermo's only includes the Libertadores. In regards to International matches, no argument exists as to Keane being the top dawg. Something that does need to be factored is that Keane playing for Ireland had very little competition for a roster spot let alone a starting spot. Palermo for the most part in his traditional role had to sit behind Batistuta and Crespo. With that said, aside from the pk debacle Palermo has still contributed six in ten matches which is a fantastic ratio considering he hasn't received many caps. That is a very commendable average considering the league he plays in. Of course when you look at Palermo he too has done well when you consider that we play shorter torneos in South American than the leagues in Europe. I've already touched on why Palermo hasn't received many caps in his career. As far as his tenure in Spain, one must remember that Palermo broke his leg in two places which certainly had a detrimental effect on his getting back in to form. I think Robbie Keane and Martin Palermo could make for a good discussion for many reasons. In fact I find both to play the game with a certain zest that comes from the heart unlike a lot of players in this day and age. Cheers!
Torres is the best. Berbatov, Keane, Huntelaar dont deserve to be on a list of the top 20, and luca toni? that's just laughable
It's not that laughable that Luca Toni was on the list. That list was based purely on goal scoring over the past 4 years. 08/09 Toni had 18 goals in all competitions for Bayern. 07/08 Toni had 34 goals in all competitions for Bayern. 06/07 Toni had 16 goals in just Serie A for Fiorentina. 05/06 Toni had 31 goals in just Serie A for Fiorentina.
I'm not denying the facts of the list. I'm saying on a list of the top 10 or 20 forwards or strikers, Toni deserves no place.