Was he already gone to Italy when Ajax won the Champions League?
Ah here thatās harsh. De Bruyne is in the conversation for best midfielder in the EPL ever. Heād have fit in with the Galaticos quite snugly.
He isnāt a patch on Zidane and heās rated fairly i think de bruyne is
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He was yeah. I think he might have won a UEFA Cup with Ajax before that. Patrick Kluivert and Kanu led the line for them in 95ā. In fairness I can only remember the early 00ās onwards so I only caught the last few years of Bergkamps career. Most of the romance around him seems to centre around that hat-trick at Filbert Street and the goal against Shay Given and Newcastle in the spring of 2002.
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Zidaneās Real Madrid also had Ronaldo, Figo., Beckham, Raul, Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Makelele, Casillas, Morientes, McManaman, Guti, Helguera.
Thereās a reason they were called the Galacticos. Iād say they were plenty more stacked then than they are now.
Juventus were stacked too. Italian clubs had access to much better Italian talent than they do now.
Zidaneās time with Madrid wasnāt all that, in truth it was a considerable disappointment on the whole. One league title and one European Cup in five seasons. He failed to win the league in his last three seasons with Juventus and never won a European Cup with them. The team he came into was a powerhouse which had just won the European Cup.
Zidane could turn it on when he needed to but you wouldnāt have wanted to be relying on him day in day out. He was a moments player. Roy Keane beat him up a stick in Turin too and thatās hard to forget.
There are probably five or six key games which make the legend of Zidane.
The 1998 World Cup final - fair play but his two goals were headers from corners against a Brazil team who were pretty much as bad all through as France were for the first 70 minutes of the 2022 final.
Euro 2000 semi-final v Portugal - he was very good in this.
2002 Champions League final - lovely goal and all but so was Darren Barnardās volley for Barnsley against Huddersfield in 1998.
2004 v England - he was beaten up a stick for most of this game. Two dead ball goals. Lovely free kick, Iāll give him that.
2006 v Spain and Brazil - these were great performances. I wonder how Zidane would be remembered if France had gone out to Spain. These two games I think are the key games in his whole career in terms of building the legend.
Bergkamp was shit
Heās not better than Zidane for sure, but heās not far off him at all.
De bruyne walks all over Dennis
Youāre looking foolish now
He was grand
Zidane was basically Eden Hazard except not as consistent in club football as Hazard but produced more with better teams in major international tournaments.
Keep going
Interesting points. I think the Cristiano Ronaldo era Madrid team was far more stacked but there ya go. I just think the general standard of team Zidane was facing week to week wouldāve been higher back then. Think the Galactico thing hindered them a bit in terms of balance too. Youāve the likes of West Ham taking the best fellas off of Valencia or whoever now. Those lads stayed in Spain and Italy then.
On the 6 games, winners write history I suppose.
What? He scored 2 goals in a world cup final in '98 against Brazil
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a-side from that
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This was in a champions league final
And that. Name me one other
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Winning goals in champions league and world cup finals arenāt enough, no? He hasnāt done anything lately right enough
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