Greatest Champions League player? Maldini?
Defenders will always be forgotten in arguments like this. It is obviously harder to shine as a defender. If you ask people to name 10 world class attackers they will rattle about 15 straight away, same with midfielders but then ask them about defenders and after about 5 players they will be struggling
Javier Zanetti another player with a very good CL pedigree.
Player of the year is usually designated to a player who is part of a successful team and that is my problem with the awarding of these individual awards - they should be done on an individual basis, not on the success of the team. You have Ribery favourite to win the Ballon dāOr this year for no other reason than Bayern won everything before them, had they won nothing and he had still performed in the same manner he would not have even got nominated. He had a good season but thereās no way he should win this award and you could say the same for Juve that season.
Zidane was lucky enough to join Europeās two most successful teams at that stage in his career. He joined Juventus in 96 when they were champions of Europe and Madrid in 2001 when they were champions of Spain and of Europe in the preceding 12 months.
As for Rui Costa, a superior footballer and someone could dominate games in a way Zidane never. No matter how good the individual, it is a team game and Rui Costa was every bit as good as Zidane and better.
Remember his goal at old trafford where he nodded the ball between evra and someone else? Glorious
Heinze.
He mugged them off that night, also grabbed that tramp Giggs by the scruff of the neck. My favourite Kaka goal was when he scored the injury time winner against Fenerbahce.
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Turns out it wasnāt the scruff of the neck, but anyway look at that vile cunt Giggs waving his imaginary card.
Didnāt that heinous orange cunt Ferguson blow a gasket a couple of years back about Ribery doing the same?
[quote=āRudi, post: 867364, member: 1052ā]Player of the year is usually designated to a player who is part of a successful team and that is my problem with the awarding of these individual awards - they should be done on an individual basis, not on the success of the team. You have Ribery favourite to win the Ballon dāOr this year for no other reason than Bayern won everything before them, had they won nothing and he had still performed in the same manner he would not have even got nominated. He had a good season but thereās no way he should win this award and you could say the same for Juve that season.
Zidane was lucky enough to join Europeās two most successful teams at that stage in his career. He joined Juventus in 96 when they were champions of Europe and Madrid in 2001 when they were champions of Spain and of Europe in the preceding 12 months.
As for Rui Costa, a superior footballer and someone could dominate games in a way Zidane never. No matter how good the individual, it is a team game and Rui Costa was every bit as good as Zidane and better.[/quote]
He was a major part of the team who were the biggest chokers ever in tournament football losing a home Euro final to the worst team to ever reach the final of a major tournament. In the same situation Zidane scored 2 in the final of a more prestigious tournament against Brazil and won the Ballon DāOr. I have to go to bed now.
Heās no Paul Scholes, thatās for sure.
He started most of the games on the bench in Euro 2004 and he started the final on the bench as well. This caused much consternation in Portugal as Scolari preferred Deco and believed the two couldnāt play together. Much like the situation Italy had many years ago between Rivera and Mazzola. Rui Costa did come off the bench to score a cracker against England in either the quarter or semi-final of Euro 2004.
There is no greater sight in football than Kaka knocking the ball about ten yards past a defender and just gliding past him.
Drogba was as good as Kaka actually.
Kaka was surrounded by footballers, Drogba had Lamps and Tel to carry.
by champions league are we only talking about european cup football from 1992-93 onwards which was when the term champions league was first used and 2 groups of 4 post the knockout phase (rangers /leeds was a feature) was introduced?
i personally dont like classifying football like this, its a bit like saying the game was only invented post the rebrading of the English first division to the premier league or clare people claiming hurling was started in 1995.
if we are to say just champions league id be thinking Maldini, Giggs or Raul for a start, Giggs has played in it every season except the 92-93 and 95-96 iterations i believe, @Sidney please confirm
on a wider european level and going back more Romario, Stoichkov, Hakan Sukur, Del Piero, Koeman (Ronald) and Darko Pancev stand out for me from what i can remember
[quote=āmickee321, post: 867389, member: 367ā]by champions league are we only talking about european cup football from 1992-93 onwards which was when the term champions league was first used and 2 groups of 4 post the knockout phase (rangers /leeds was a feature) was introduced?
i personally dont like classifying football like this, its a bit like saying the game was only invented post the rebrading of the English first division to the premier league or clare people claiming hurling was started in 1995.
if we are to say just champions league id be thinking Maldini, Giggs or Raul for a start, Giggs has played in it every season except the 92-93 and 95-96 iterations i believe, @Sidney please confirm
on a wider european level and going back more Romario, Stoichkov, Hakan Sukur, Del Piero, Koeman (Ronald) and Darko Pancev stand out for me from what i can remember[/quote]
If your going by longevity then surely seedorf has to be in there. Particularly considering what he achieved.
For me Ronaldinho was the greatest player to play in the modern era but his flame burned too quickly.
Redondo.
Yes, he was one of the best but career blighted by injury, from the earliest champions league games 93-98
Seedorf, Dejan Savicevic, Svonomir Boban, Frank Rikard, Mattias Sammer, Oliver Kahn, Marcel Desailly, Maldini-Baresi, Vanbasten, Del Piero, Romario and Bakero
Redondo is a good shout.
But the correct answer is yes, Kaka is the greatestest Champions League player ever.
Shevchenko is up there tooā¦His Chelsea days aside, his record with Kiev and Milan was outstanding.
[quote=āRudi, post: 867428, member: 1052ā]Redondo is a good shout.
But the correct answer is yes, Kaka is the greatestest Champions League player ever.[/quote]
5 goals over four seasons with Madrid puts a major cloud over him as the best ever, mate.