Your best national player ever

I remember Scholes scoring vital goals in big competitions and scoring hat-tricks from midfield in qualifying.

England haven't played attractive football since Scholes retired. He was the playmaker and the engine of the team.

Rooney came in to Euro 2004 and scored 4 goals at a young age, but ever since then he's done nothing apart from getting sent off and getting injured in vital games (not always his fault) He really has been a dissapointment for England so far.
 
Algeria: Rabah Madjer
Argentina: Diego Maradona
Australia: Frank Farina
Austria: Matthias Sindelar
Belgium: Paul van Himst
Bolivia: Marco Antonio Etcheverry
Brazil: Pelé
Bulgaria: Hristo Stoichkov
Cameroon: Roger Milla
Chile: Elías Figueroa
Colombia: Carlos Valderrama
Costa Rica: Alejandro Morera
Croatia: Davor Suker
Czechoslovakia: Josef Masopust
Denmark: Peter Schmeichel
Ecuador: Alberto Spencer
Egypt: Hossam Hassan
El Salvador: Jorge González
England: Bobby Charlton
Finland: Jari Litmanen
France: Zinedine Zidane
Georgia: David Kipiani
Germany: Franz Beckenbauer
Ghana: Abedi Pelé
Greece: Antonis Antoniadis
Holland: Johan Cruyff
Honduras: David Suazo
Hungary: Férenc Puskas
Iceland: Asgeir Sigurvinsson
Iran: Alí Daei
Ireland: Roy Keane
Israel: Haim Revivo
Italy: Paolo Maldini
Ivory Coast: Didier Drogba
Japan: Hidetoshi Nakata
Liberia: George Weah
Mali: Salif Keita
Mexico: Hugo Sánchez
Morocco: Larbi Ben Barek (nationalized French)
Nigeria: Augustine Okocha
Northern Ireland: George Best
Norway: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Panama: Julio César Dely Valdés
Paraguay: Arsenio Erico
Poland: Grzegorz Lato
Portugal: Eusebio
Peru: Teófilo Cubillas
Romania: Gheorghe Hagi
Saudi Arabia: Majed Abdullah
Scotland: Kenny Dalglish
South Africa: Theophilus Khumalo
South Korea: Cha Bum-Kun
Spain: Alfredo Di Stéfano (Argentine nationalized)
Sweden: Nils Liedholm
Switzerland: Charles Antenen
Trinidad & Tobago: Dwight Yorke
Tunisia: Zoubeir Baya
Turkey: Hakan Sükür
U.S.S.R.: Lev Yashin
Ukraine: Andriy Shevchenko
United States: Marcelo Balboa
Uruguay: Héctor Scarone
Venezuela: Luis Mendoza
Wales: Ryan Giggs
Yugoslavia: Predrag Mijatovic
 
Based on what I've saw.

Argentina: Maradonna (best player I've seen)
Austria: Can't say I saw many, but will go with Tony Polster.
Brazil: Zico
Belgium: Michel Preud Homme
Bulgaria: Hristo Stoichov
Croatia: Robert Prosinecki
Czechoslovakia: Pavel Nedved
Denmark: Michael Laudrup
England: Alan Shearer
Finland: Jari Litmanen
France: Zinedene Zidane
Greece: Georgi Donis (although admittedly I've not seen many Greeks).
Germany: Lothar Matthaus
Holland: Marco Van Basten
Hungary: Lajos Detari
Iceland: Eidur Gudjohnsson, although I liked Siggi Jonsson too.
Italy: Paolo Maldini or Franco Baresi..........too hard too split.
Ireland: Paul McGrath
Northern-Ireland: Neil Lennon :TU: ...........or Norman Whiteside.
Norway: Rekdal too.
Poland: Boniek
Portugal: Luis Figo
Romania: Hagi
Russia: Dassaev
Scotland: Danny McGrain
Spain: Emilio Butragueno
Sweden: Henrik Larsson
Switzerland: Sforza or Chapusiat
Ukrain: Oleg Blokhin
Wales: Neville Southall
Yougoslavia: Savicevic or Stojkovic


FD
 
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Southall and NOT Giggs? That baffles me FD; the guy has won it all for United and constantly performed on a high level for both club and country.
 
Well, Plan M, although Giggs i one my all time favourite players, i also hesitated between the both of them.
I used to ba a goal keeper and to me Neville Southall was an idol. I think he was the best goalkeeper i've ever seen. A guy who rarely made spectacular saves but whose positioning was nearly always perfect...
FD had "our" Jean-marie Pfaff on his list...well as a former goal keeper i never liked Pfaff who was rather spectacular. he was psectacular because he made posiotioning errors. I never ever considered Pfaff our best keeper.
 
pogoss said:
based on what ? I don't think anyone here ever watched him play .
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Based on the same I chose Sindelar from Austria, Scarone from Uruguay or Masopust from Czechoslovakia; the legends only. I've never seen these footballers playing on the field except by highlights, but it's the only form to choose "best players ever" to a person of my age, probably not too exactly, but a very diferent thing of making a list of "best players I've ever seen".

pogoss said:
not to mention he was playing for France NT (at that time Morocco was still a french colony) .
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That's the reason I consider him as Moroccan, maybe a confused matter for the differences of countries now, so I only followed my criterion in his case.

Best national player I've ever seen:

Albania: Igli Tare
Algeria: Djamel Belmadi
Angola: Pedro Mantorras
Argentina: Javier Zanetti
Australia: Mark Viduka
Austria: Andreas Herzog
Belarus: Aliaksandr Hleb
Belgium: Michel Preud'homme
Bolivia: Marco Antonio Etcheverry
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Sergej Barbarez
Brazil: Romário
Bulgaria: Hristo Stoichkov
Cameroon: Samuel Eto'o
Canada: Craig Forrest
Chile: Iván Zamorano
Colombia: Carlos Valderrama
Costa Rica: Paulo César Wanchope
Croatia: Davor Suker
Czech Republic: Pavel Nedved
Denmark: Peter Schmeichel
Ecuador: Ulises De La Cruz
Egypt: Hossam Hassan
England: Steven Gerrard
Finland: Jari Litmanen
France: Zinedine Zidane
Georgia: Levan Kobiashvili
Germany: Oliver Kahn
Ghana: Michael Essien
Greece: Vassilios Tsiartas
Holland: Dennis Bergkamp
Honduras: David Suazo
Hungary: Gábor Király
Iceland: Eidur Gudjohnsen
Iran: Alí Daei
Ireland: Roy Keane
Israel: Haim Revivo
Italy: Paolo Maldini
Ivory Coast: Didier Drogba
Japan: Hidetoshi Nakata
Liberia: George Weah
Mali: Fréderic Kanouté
Mexico: Rafael Márquez
Montenegro: Predrag Mijatovic
Morocco: Mustapha Hadji
Nigeria: Augustine Okocha
Northern Ireland: Neil Lennon
Norway: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Panama: Julio César Dely Valdés
Paraguay: José Luis Chilavert
Peru: Nolberto Solano
Poland: Jacek Krzynowek
Portugal: Luis Figo
Romania: Gheorghe Hagi
Russia: Alexander Mostovoi
Saudi Arabia: Sami Al-Jaber
Scotland: Neil Sullivan
Senegal: El-Hadji Diouf
Serbia: Sinisa Mihajlovic
Slovakia: Marek Mintal
Slovenia: Zlatko Zahovic
South Africa: Theophilus Khumalo
South Korea: Hong Myung-Bo
Spain: Íker Casillas
Sweden: Fredrik Ljungberg
Switzerland: Stéphane Chapuisat
Togo: Emmanuel Adebayor
Trinidad & Tobago: Dwight Yorke
Tunisia: Zoubeir Baya
Turkey: Hakan Sükür
Ukraine: Andriy Shevchenko
United States: Landon Donovan
Uruguay: Diego Forlán
Venezuela: Rafael Dudamel
Wales: Ryan Giggs
Zimbabwe: Benjani Mwaruwari
 
That's a good distinction Glavisted...most people only consider players they have seen as the best. Ometimes one would wonder if there have been good players before 1990 or 1985.
Maradonna is obvious but opinions about other great players like Pele, Cruijff, Beckenbauer, Muller, Garrincha, Piet Keizer, Eusebio, Bobby Charlton and other are very mixed...strange...
 
gerd said:
That's a good distinction Glavisted...most people only consider players they have seen as the best. Ometimes one would wonder if there have been good players before 1990 or 1985.
Maradonna is obvious but opinions about other great players like Pele, Cruijff, Beckenbauer, Muller, Garrincha, Piet Keizer, Eusebio, Bobby Charlton and other are very mixed...strange...
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Problem is, I wouldn't really want to rate players who played before "my time", so to say, because no matter how often I watch repetitions of their greatest triumphs, I'll never experience them in a way I did and do experience current players, with all their ups and downs, weak and strong points during a whole season in different competitions.
Maradona, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Pele etc. had their bad days as well. They had periods where it seemed to go downhill for them, too, but in present you never hear anybody talk about that cursed 13th matchday of the 79' season, where xyz played like shite, getting booed by thousands of his own fans.

Those guys have the "privilege" of the legendary status, which even seems to lighten even the biggest shadows they've drawn in their lives. Some to greater, some to lesser extent. Maradona would be the prime example of a person whose gross and immature behavior caused major scandals nobody really seems to care about anymore, since he was so good on the pitch.
Eventually, that'll happen with players I watched in their prime, and I'll find myself forgiving some of them all their misbehaviors, no matter what ...

That said, my top German player I can claim to have watched over a long period of time would be:

Lothar Matthäus, closely followed by the likes of: Mehmet Scholl, Matthias Sammer, Andreas Möller, Oliver Kahn, Stefan Effenberg

My all time favorite German eleven would probably look like this, starting from the early nineties onwards to recent times:

GK: Oliver Kahn
RB: Philip Lahm
CB: Matthias Sammer
CB: Jürgen Kohler
LB: Christian Ziege
DM: Lothar Matthäus
CM: Stefan Effenberg
RM: Andreas Möller
LM: Mehmet Scholl
FW: Jurgen Klinsmann
FW: Miroslav Klose

Though I doubt it'd be a good idea to play Sammer alongside Matthäus, since they were both pretty much sweepers. Klose would have a hard time with Klinsmann as well, since he never was the most gifted player technically. :P
Though I'm a die hard Kahn fan, one could easily replace him by Andy Kopke or Bodo Ilgner without much of a loss of quality. (in their prime, of course! Nowadays ... ;))
 
Glavisted said:
Scotland: Neil Sullivan
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LOL........................... :lmao: I appreciate Scotland might be hard for non-brits to vote, but LOL.............

As for Giggs vs Southall, for me as Gerd mentioned Southall was the best goalkeeper I have ever saw.

Oh and I would like to retract Pfaff as the best Belgian, I think it was actually Michel Preud Homme, what a goalie he was, although Pfaff ran him close, also Enzo Scifo was a special player for Belgium.

Gerd, Danny McGrain is the only Scottish player that would make the world's greatest XI for me. He was a right-back and played for Celtic. The guy was unbelievable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_McGrain




FD
 
Thanks for the link FD...i had never heard of the guy...although i know quite a few of the 1974 Scottish team (for some reason my absolute favouriters were Dalglish and Sandy Jardine).

Yes Preudhomme is much better than Pfaff. But to me our best player ever was Wilfired Van Moer who at old age still led our national team to the 1980 EURO final against Western Germany. When he played for Standard he was awesome... Another great Begian player was Jan Ceulemans.
 
Glavisted said:
Based on the same I chose Sindelar from Austria, Scarone from Uruguay or Masopust from Czechoslovakia; the legends only. I've never seen these footballers playing on the field except by highlights, but it's the only form to choose "best players ever" to a person of my age, probably not too exactly, but a very diferent thing of making a list of "best players I've ever seen".


That's the reason I consider him as Moroccan, maybe a confused matter for the differences of countries now, so I only followed my criterion in his case.
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I understand , I reacted because the title is "Your best national player ever" and I take it as "the best player who ever played for your national team" .
but Larbi was really a legend , he is the first black player to ever become a star .
 
fd1972uk said:
LOL........................... :lmao: I appreciate Scotland might be hard for non-brits to vote, but LOL.............
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Actually yes, it's really difficult, I can't remember anyone better than Sullivan in my opinion, with good performances in Wimbledon, Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United.

Maybe Jackie McNamara or John Collins... and I'd think Sullivan is over them.
 
Glavisted said:
Actually yes, it's really difficult, I can't remember anyone better than Sullivan in my opinion, with good performances in Wimbledon, Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United.

Maybe Jackie McNamara or John Collins... and I'd think Sullivan is over them.
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Thought Sullivan was a fairly ordinary keeper.

Gary McAllister?
 
hubneo said:
I really hope you are under 10 year...
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I'm at age 23..Born at 1985.
Metin Oktay first goal scorer of Turkish National team first win against Romania.2-0
Turgay Seren played well when we beat Germany.Then he called as Berlin Panter.
Volkan Demirel plays cute for National team.I'm not on personalty.
Mehmet Ozdilek played so well for National team very years.

But you have no possibilty as watching Turgay Seren,Metin Oktay,Mehmet Ozdilek because maybe you are under age 10. :COOL:
 
Best players I'VE SEEN play:

Portugal: Figo (sooner or later CR)
Spain: Raul
Italy: Maldini
France: Zidane
Germany: Ballack
Brazil: Rivaldo
Argentina: Batistuta
 
Talking about Spain's best national player ever, it's got to be Raúl.

Di Stefano was probably the best that ever played for Spain, but did not do half as much for our team as Raúl has done.

Hierro is another solid option, perhaps a close second, great midfielder first and defender after, scoring decisive goals and playing many games.

Casillas is probably the best keeper Spain has had since Zamora... but still has the best to come.

Raúl: all-time top scorer, only field player with more than 100 caps, never been booked in more than 30 months, never been sent off ever in his professional career, scored in three different World Cups (98-02-06), plus superstar in his club.

He's got it all... but a major international win.
 
Argentina: Maradona
Australia: Viduka
Brazil: Pele
Croatia: Prso
Czech Republic: Nedved
Denmark: Laudrup
England: Charlton
France: Zidane
Germany: Becanbauer
Holland: Krujff (spelling?)
Iceland: Eidur Gudjohnsson
Iran: Ali Karmi
Italy: Maldini
Portugal: Figo
Romania: Hagi
Spain: Rauk (Though I never liked him I have to admit he was a very talented player)
Sweden: Larsson
Ukraine: Shevchenko
Wales: Giggs
 
Algeria : Madjer
Argentina : Maradona
Brazil : Ronaldo and Pelé
Czech Rep : Nedved
England : Beckham
Nederlands : Cruiyff
France : Cantona
Italy : Maldini
 
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