who was the best player during the era 1988-1995? I tkink it was a great era for soccer, after maradona,platini and zico peaks and before zidane and ronaldo peaks. I think the world had 3 all time greats during 88-95:romario, van basten and baggio and a lot of others great players.
1988-1991 has to be Maradona, the king at Napoli...Van Basten, Gullit and Baggio challenged him at Serie A but he rose above them during WC90. Romario was only a promise back then, it was only during the end of summer 93, in the last qualifier match against Uruguay, that he made his name in the world scene - following it with a great season at Barca and then the WC94. But also Stoichkov has to be included from 91 to 95, the best player in that Dream Team Barca, the second best European team of that period after AC Milan. A baker's dozen ranked from that whole seven-year period: Maradona Van Basten Stoichkov Baggio Romario Klinsmann Caniggia Laudrup Mattheus Gullit Francescoli Bebeto Stojkovic Valderrama
But before joined the barça dream team, romario already was a great striker. he played 5 seasons in PSV(88-93), scored 127 goals in 142 matches, 3 times top scorer in eredivisie(a good and underrated league in the early 90´s), 2 times top scorer in champions league(89/90 and 92/93). in the national team, he won copa america´89, defeating argentina(and maradona).
True, the Eredivise was a very good and underrated league during those times, giving three great strikers in succession: Van Basten, Romario and Ronaldo, as well as Makay, Kluivert and Van Nistelrooy. However, the feeling was that Romario was more a potential great during these times than really an established star. Parreira would not call him up to the qualifiers, even after Careca's retirement from the NT, preferring the likes of Renato and Muller. It wasn't until the possibility of tragedy set in, losing to Uruguay with Francescoli, Bengoechea and Fonseca, at the Maracana, that he relented and called in Romario to partner Bebeto. The two gave one of the greatest duo performances in history in that match, Romario scoring both goals assisted by Bebeto, and it cemented their place for the WC. Only then did Romario's name rose to the front-rank of players in the world. In the Copa America 89, Romario played well but again, began the tournament on the bench, and even after Brazil won its first senior title since Pele left the Selecao, he was still not acclaimed as the star player that year, as Bebeto won Player of the Tournament.
romario deserved to be called from the national team during 15 years(87-2002). unfortunately, his bad attitude made coaches called him only if wouldn´t had another way for the national team. even with his bad attitude, romario had 70 appearances for the national team and scored 55 goals. I mean, 0,8 goal per game,an outstanding record...if I remember well, only puskas and gerd muller had better records for theirs respective national teams(both had 1 goal per game in the national team).
Definitely a great record. Along with those goals, he also won all the important titles. For me he is definitely the best attacking player during that period. As for overall footballer, it is difficult to say because he didn't have any defensive duties. That's why I value players like Gullit and Matthäus a lot too because they player all over the pitch and therefore had a very wide range of skills.