Discussion
Who is the best player you have seen play the game?
Thread created due to the conversation around the question on social media at the moment of ‘if Ronaldo wins the Champions League with Juve will he be the best ever’
Only players you have seen live on TV/ at the match. Not someone who played 20 years before you were born.
For me, Messi. He’s an alien.
Does things not many others can or have.
Consistently performed.
The best ever, and ever will be imo.
Thread created due to the conversation around the question on social media at the moment of ‘if Ronaldo wins the Champions League with Juve will he be the best ever’
Only players you have seen live on TV/ at the match. Not someone who played 20 years before you were born.
For me, Messi. He’s an alien.
Does things not many others can or have.
Consistently performed.
The best ever, and ever will be imo.
Edited by CharlieH89 on Thursday 11th April 13:38
OK, I'm no expert so I'll put it out there and am interested to hear other people's opinions.
I believe we only see the great bits of Messi and Ronaldo, the highlights and the half a dozen brilliants goals they score each season. What we don't see are their turgid performances, like Messi's last night.
Compare this to say a Giggs or Henry who's warts and all performances we see week-in, week-out.
I think this gives people a false perception of quite how good players in foreign leagues are.
I believe we only see the great bits of Messi and Ronaldo, the highlights and the half a dozen brilliants goals they score each season. What we don't see are their turgid performances, like Messi's last night.
Compare this to say a Giggs or Henry who's warts and all performances we see week-in, week-out.
I think this gives people a false perception of quite how good players in foreign leagues are.
As much as it pains me to say it - for me it has to be Ronaldo.
He's proved he can play consistently at the highest level, repeated that success at 3 different clubs in 3 different leagues, and won pretty much every major tournament except the world cup. Not wishing to diminish Messi, but his club success is "only" at Barcelona, could he repeat that at another side where he hasn't grown up and had a team built around him? Plus Messi has never really delivered on the international stage.
In fact, my closest contender to Ronaldo would have to be Zidane... just my opinion
He's proved he can play consistently at the highest level, repeated that success at 3 different clubs in 3 different leagues, and won pretty much every major tournament except the world cup. Not wishing to diminish Messi, but his club success is "only" at Barcelona, could he repeat that at another side where he hasn't grown up and had a team built around him? Plus Messi has never really delivered on the international stage.
In fact, my closest contender to Ronaldo would have to be Zidane... just my opinion
CzechItOut said:
OK, I'm no expert so I'll put it out there and am interested to hear other people's opinions.
I believe we only see the great bits of Messi and Ronaldo, the highlights and the half a dozen brilliants goals they score each season. What we don't see are their turgid performances, like Messi's last night.
Compare this to say a Giggs or Henry who's warts and all performances we see week-in, week-out.
I think this gives people a false perception of quite how good players in foreign leagues are.
Ronaldo spent 6 years at Man Utd - surely that's plenty of opportunity to assess him week in, week out? I personally can't stand the bloke, but he was a pretty special player for Utd and from what I've seen of him since he's only gotten better.I believe we only see the great bits of Messi and Ronaldo, the highlights and the half a dozen brilliants goals they score each season. What we don't see are their turgid performances, like Messi's last night.
Compare this to say a Giggs or Henry who's warts and all performances we see week-in, week-out.
I think this gives people a false perception of quite how good players in foreign leagues are.
I think seeing on TV, and seeing Live is the big difference here. Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldo, Messi - I saw all of them live on TV. Pele, Cruyff, Bekenbauer, Moore I saw them on TV too - but before my time.
Best player seen live in the flesh is the better question.
Being a Spurs fan I was fortunate to see (and train as a boy) with Hoddle, he was amazing. However I then got to see Zidane play with the Galaticos, and he made Figo, Carlos, Raul etc look like schoolboys. So much better than they were. He was unbelievable - and to this day my answer of the best player i've ever seen is Zidane.
I did see Ronaldo live too (but not Messi or Maradona) and in my opinion on the days I saw them Zidane was way above him on ability.
Best player seen live in the flesh is the better question.
Being a Spurs fan I was fortunate to see (and train as a boy) with Hoddle, he was amazing. However I then got to see Zidane play with the Galaticos, and he made Figo, Carlos, Raul etc look like schoolboys. So much better than they were. He was unbelievable - and to this day my answer of the best player i've ever seen is Zidane.
I did see Ronaldo live too (but not Messi or Maradona) and in my opinion on the days I saw them Zidane was way above him on ability.
Diego, saw him in the early 90's, something else..
Here's his warm up in the UEFA cup semi final..
Timeless
https://youtu.be/4vashrNoXTE
Here's his warm up in the UEFA cup semi final..
Timeless
https://youtu.be/4vashrNoXTE
CzechItOut said:
OK, I'm no expert so I'll put it out there and am interested to hear other people's opinions.
I believe we only see the great bits of Messi and Ronaldo, the highlights and the half a dozen brilliants goals they score each season. What we don't see are their turgid performances, like Messi's last night.
Compare this to say a Giggs or Henry who's warts and all performances we see week-in, week-out.
I think this gives people a false perception of quite how good players in foreign leagues are.
A lot of people do watch La Liga though I believe we only see the great bits of Messi and Ronaldo, the highlights and the half a dozen brilliants goals they score each season. What we don't see are their turgid performances, like Messi's last night.
Compare this to say a Giggs or Henry who's warts and all performances we see week-in, week-out.
I think this gives people a false perception of quite how good players in foreign leagues are.
Even if it is a farmers league outside the top 4 or so, Messi and Ronaldo have performed against big teams in the Champions League for years and years...
Ronaldo.
I want to say Messi but Ronaldo seems to have this knack of delivering performances in the biggest games when it matters more often than not, whereas Messi goes absent.
Ironic because I've watched them both play at Wembley against Spurs in the last year or so and Messi had by far the better game.
I want to say Messi but Ronaldo seems to have this knack of delivering performances in the biggest games when it matters more often than not, whereas Messi goes absent.
Ironic because I've watched them both play at Wembley against Spurs in the last year or so and Messi had by far the better game.
The best I've seen actually play live? Le Tissier. Criminally underused by England. Virtually kept Southampton in the Premier League single-handedly more than once. 48/49 penalties scored. Over 200 goals from midfield in a poor team against some of the best teams we've seen in England.
The best ever? Has to be Messi. He's not human.
The best ever? Has to be Messi. He's not human.
Maradona at the 86 WC It was like Beckham v Greece, in every single game! He carried a pretty average Argentina side to WC glory. The rest of that team must look at their WC medals with complete embarrassment. Like the Jamaican 100m relay team, who were always 3rd or 4th until the final leg when Bolt won it for them.
Messi would be up there too.
Messi would be up there too.
Difficult to compare across eras as the game - and things like the quality of the pitches - has changed so much. However, if pushed it would be Johan Cruyff for me; Maradona was without doubt a great natural talent but I'm afraid I couldn't bring myself to give the "Best Ever" accolade to such an obvious and blatant cheat....
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Maradona at the 86 WC It was like Beckham v Greece, in every single game! He carried a pretty average Argentina side to WC glory. The rest of that team must look at their WC medals with complete embarrassment. Like the Jamaican 100m relay team, who were always 3rd or 4th until the final leg when Bolt won it for them.
Messi would be up there too.
It was Argentina ,not the Faroe Islands .Messi would be up there too.
There were some very good players in that team and they were very strong defensively .
Denmark ,Greece and Portugal winning the European championship was a far greater feat than Argentina winning the World Cup.
franki68 said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Maradona at the 86 WC It was like Beckham v Greece, in every single game! He carried a pretty average Argentina side to WC glory. The rest of that team must look at their WC medals with complete embarrassment. Like the Jamaican 100m relay team, who were always 3rd or 4th until the final leg when Bolt won it for them.
Messi would be up there too.
It was Argentina ,not the Faroe Islands .Messi would be up there too.
There were some very good players in that team and they were very strong defensively .
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