Greatest Soccer Player ever?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Jimmy Greaves was great. A fantastic scoring record for England and Spurs....

And moved into fine Saturday lunchtime television...

[Bushmeister]

Paolo Maldini. My personal icon as a defensive player.

[Guest Bad Blood]

The best player i have ever seen play is Steven Gerrard.

He has it all, Leadership, ability to handle extreme pressure, Good at defensive and offensive work.

[Liam]

Yeah, but he isn't really the best player ever, is he....

[therockbox]

Yeah, even as a Liverpool fan I'll admit there are better than him.

But, he could be one of the best, undoubtedly.

[botchedpiledriver]

Ferenk Puskas played 84 games for Hungary and scored 83 goals. It's a fucking shame that there isn't more footage of him somewhere in the archives, I bet he was fucking class.

[Malenko]

Ferenk Puskas played 84 games for Hungary and scored 83 goals.  It's a fucking shame that there isn't more footage of him somewhere in the archives, I bet he was fucking class.

←

[Monkey D. Lars]

I still think Cruijf is the best ever, he had a great thoughts about everything. He's just a soccer god.

[Liam]

I still think Cruijf is the best ever, he had a great thoughts about everything. He's just a soccer god. 

←

Much bias?

[Malenko]

I still think Cruijf is the best ever, he had a great thoughts about everything. He's just a soccer god. 

←

Much bias?

←

[The Kraig]

Zinedine Zidane.

Sorry old school lovers, but in this day and age, it's a whole lot harder to excel so far as to be a legend. Zidane IS a legend, and I haven't seen anyone play continuously well as he does. It was a whole lot easier for Pelé, Maradonna, etc because defenders were shit back then. The best they could hope for was hacking their legs away to get them subbed off, because they weren't good enough.

←

The fact that he sucked throughout the whole year for Madrid shows how continuously well he plays? He wasn't that great (Although good) for Juve either. The one place where Zidane really excelled was playing for the French National Team during the 95/2000 period. He wasn't playing a third of what he had shown to be able off doing, during his last 2 years playing for them either. Also, not all defenders relied on hacking legs in the past. Some did, some didn't.

I love Zidane (or have loved for the past years) so this isn't me bashing him, but he wasn't as good as a bunch of players who played in the same position before him. Zidane was at his peak in a similar level to fellow frenchmen Raymond Kopa and Michel Platini. I could even say that at his highest level he was slightly better than those two, but there were still much better players than them IMO. I think he would easily fit in a top 10 of 90's players, but i can't have it there when considering all times.

←

[Malenko]

Zinedine Zidane.

Sorry old school lovers, but in this day and age, it's a whole lot harder to excel so far as to be a legend. Zidane IS a legend, and I haven't seen anyone play continuously well as he does. It was a whole lot easier for Pelé, Maradonna, etc because defenders were shit back then. The best they could hope for was hacking their legs away to get them subbed off, because they weren't good enough.

←

The fact that he sucked throughout the whole year for Madrid shows how continuously well he plays? He wasn't that great (Although good) for Juve either. The one place where Zidane really excelled was playing for the French National Team during the 95/2000 period. He wasn't playing a third of what he had shown to be able off doing, during his last 2 years playing for them either. Also, not all defenders relied on hacking legs in the past. Some did, some didn't.

I love Zidane (or have loved for the past years) so this isn't me bashing him, but he wasn't as good as a bunch of players who played in the same position before him. Zidane was at his peak in a similar level to fellow frenchmen Raymond Kopa and Michel Platini. I could even say that at his highest level he was slightly better than those two, but there were still much better players than them IMO. I think he would easily fit in a top 10 of 90's players, but i can't have it there when considering all times.

←

[Guest ZizouFWF]

Zidane es una leyenda, un Dios, el más grande - he best, a god, and leyenda is I think english say legend? Im biased though due to being Los merengues fan, I think Thierry Henry and Shevchenko are also great players, i think that game has got better so if Cryuff and people played now they would not be as good. If you know what I mean

[botchedpiledriver]

I refuse to consider anybody still playing as the greatest player of all time. But I agree that times are different now and perhaps it's more difficult to play at a world class standard. But I still think that Pele and Maradona would have been great in today's game too. Especially Maradona.

[Guest ZizouFWF]

Yes diego maradona, what a gift he had but he ruined it, he was such a player, I remember a saw a goal he scored for Napoli, i think against Parma, where he chipped the goalkeeper from a different postion and he did it so quickly, he helped Napoli gain 2 scudettos and he was a fantastic player. Pele did not prove himself in good leagues in my view but what a goalscorer he was.

Edited June 29, 2005 by ZizouFWF