FIFPro World XI

[eirebhoy]

FIFA announced the 55 players shortlisted for World XI. 38,000 footballer from around the world voted four defenders, four midfielders, two forwards and one goalkeeper. Joe Cole gets in the top 50 yet Duff is nowhere. :rolleyes:

http://www.fifpro.org/index.php?mod=one&id=14259

http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2005361149,00.jpg

It wasn't long ago Duffer was voted the best left winger in the world and he has only improved since.

[Dodge]

Its FIFPro (the Association of Players' Unions) not FIFA who announced that so blame the players themselves...

[eirebhoy]

Its FIFPro (the Association of Players' Unions) not FIFA who announced that so blame the players themselves...
Aye I am. :)

[Stuttgart88]

It's always the same. Roy Keane used to never even get in the top 50 in the European Player of the Year "shortlist". Ask Mourinho who's better - Cole or Duff!

All things English attract publicity and exaggerated reaction. It's always been the way.

[NeilMcD]

Does anyone know Jose's mobile number as I was going to give him a call.

[Donal81]

It's always the same. Roy Keane used to never even get in the top 50 in the European Player of the Year "shortlist". Ask Mourinho who's better - Cole or Duff!

All things English attract publicity and exaggerated reaction. It's always been the way.

I don't know if anyone remembers that poll from the Observer a few years back about the best players in the Premiership. This was in (I think) 2001, when Keano was having his last great season as a box-to-box maniac. He didn't even get short-listed while David Beckham won. That was voted for by soccer journalists.

Duff is obviously one of the best players in the Premiership. By extension, this makes him one of the best players in the world. Ridiculous, like you say, Eirebhoy.

[jbyrne]

the less top 50 lists, awards, accolades etc our players get onto / get awarded the better. it adds to our underdog title when we come up against the better teams and thats when we are at our best!

these lists are a load of nonsense anyway..... didnt Pele name Boltons Diouf in his top 150 living players??!!!

[Stuttgart88]

didnt Pele name Boltons Diouf in his top 150 living players??!!!And Nicky Butt was his player of the first phase of WC02. FFS. What did I tell you about anglocentricity? It's unreal.

[thejollyrodger]

all these polls are meaningless, everyone just votes for their own national players. we are guilty of the same. at the end of the day ireland would beat england in a game of futty

[del fuego]

The list is all about status in the game. Van nistelrooy is included and he was injured for most of season and off form when he came back towards end!

[eirebhoy]

The list is all about status in the game. Van nistelrooy is included and he was injured for most of season and off form when he came back towards end!
Its not about form. Its what players would make up the best team in the world. I agree though, its certainly a lot down to reputation.


the less top 50 lists, awards, accolades etc our players get onto / get awarded the better.
I support Ireland as a team but I also support and follow the players as individuals.

[jbyrne]

I support Ireland as a team but I also support and follow the players as individuals.

me also, but what counts more than anything is how the team does and i'd say the players would agree that 3 pts against france is far more important than ten personal awards

[youngirish]

As an Irishman living in England the amount their media hype up their players has to be experienced to be believed. Due to the far reaching nature of the English media its no surprise that their players are so overrated.

Most footballers are morons anyway and if the Sun tells them a player is brilliant they'll believe it.

[gustavo]

do we not hype up our players too? sorry just trying to bring a balanced view here

[Stuttgart88]

do we not hype up our players too? sorry just trying to bring a balanced view here

Of course we do, but I still think youngirish is spot on. Players like Kieron Dyer, who admittedly would get into our squad & probably even team, think they're total superstars. It's also reflected in their global perception. I referred to Nicky Butt as a good example, and Joe Cole's selection in that FIFA team. Jermaine Jenas' transfer value is another example, and so is Rio Ferdinand's wages.

It's not just the English. Tom Humphreys wrote recently about Christiano Ronaldo being picked in another selection ahead of Duff. Great feet but a shocking final ball. But he gets picked because of his perma-tanned good looks whereas Duffer, "the palest man ever to play football" got ignored. There's a global "galactico" culture that no Irishman will ever be part of I reckon.

I'd have Nedved in my team ahead of Gerrard or Scholes any day but there's no sign of him in the selection.

[Donal81]

One of the least attractive things about the English football team - and why I unashamedly love seeing them lose - is the pure hype and arrogance of the team and those surrounding it. After decades of winning nothing in international football, there is a genuine belief that they are, on their day, the best team on the planet and really should be winning everything in sight. This filters down to the hype surrounding their players. Beckham/Ferdinand/Dyer/Gerrard are the most obvious examples of this for me.

What they need is a good dose of Irish cynicism...Summed up for me by some guy at Lansdowne when playing China, Robbie Keane has the ball: "Go on Robbie, go on ya boy ya, excellent stuff Keano, go on, go on......Would ya bring the f*ckin' ball with ya next time, ya bleedin' dope." We know Robbie's class but we also know he's not a footballing god.

Our hype comes in a different version - once a player plays one game for a Premiership team or gets near the Man U first team, there is a clamour for his immediate inclusion in the first team. That's our hype.

[eirebhoy]

I don't think we hype up our players. I'd say if there was a vote in this country between Duff and say Robben on, Robben would win. I spend a lot of weekends trying to argue that Duff is better overrall. :) I may be biased but your average football fan would say Robben is better. That would not happen in England if Duff was English.

I can't think of one player the Irish fans or the papers hype up tbh.

[Stuttgart88]

The funny thing is that this time I genuinely think England is closer to doing something than ever before. I guess this is down to Rooney being undoubtedly a tournament goalscorer and Lampard being able to cut it at a high level. Although I'm always aware and cynical of their hype, because it's always in my face some of it actually seeps through.

I still think the balance of their team is off, and ball retention under pressure will always be a problem for them. I also think there's a standard of football being played by other teams that they'll struggle to match. The way (I hear) that Villareal toyed with Everton on Tuesday exemplifies this. The Dutch are starting to really click, the Czech Republic* seem to play better than the individuals in the team seem capable of, Germany look like they're improving and Brazil, Argentina & Mexico even looked good recently. But if Liverpool can win the CL who knows?

I live in perpetual fear of England success!

* I was thinking of starting a separate thread on this - why are the Czechs so good? How many quality players do they have and how much is it that it's a mix of quality with good players, but good balance, good coaching etc.

[eirebhoy]

England won't win anything with Sven in charge. They can do so much better than a midfield of Cole-Lampard-Gerrard-Beckham who all love to attack.

I agree about the Czech's. They have a few household names in Cech, Jankulovski, Rosicky, Baros and Koller. Has Nedved retired? A few other names familiar to most are Bolf, Grygera, Galasek, Smicer and Poborsky. Nothing world class really but they work well as a team.

[tetsujin1979]

England won't win anything with Sven in charge. They can do so much better than a midfield of Cole-Lampard-Gerrard-Beckham who all love to attack.

Agreed, having a midfield of four players (and SWP on the bench) who all love to bomb forward, but leave the defensive work to someone else (well at club level anyway) leaves a massive gap in front of the back 4, any decent counter attacking side will take advantage of this.

At the world cup, one man up on Brazil, no shots on target in the second half?? The mind boggles

[youngirish]

Jermaine Jenas' transfer value is another example,



Jermaine Jenas is a perfect example of how much hype a player can get because he has a few English caps.

Apparently according to the papers here every club under the sun has been after him and offering large amounts of cash but Souness is holding out for more. If this is true Souness is more of a fool than I thought. I'd offload him for a few mill. I'd say its all rubbish though.

Is it just me or is Jenas pretty s**t? What did he do last season in a quite poor Newcastle team? He doesn't score many goals, he's crap at passing, he's weak and easily pushed off the ball, he's a poor tackler. He's crap as far as I can see.

Admitedly England have some excellent World Class players - Rooney, Lampard, Terry and Ferdinand for example but most of their players are just hyped up. This is and has always been the case.

[jbyrne]

I don't think we hype up our players. I'd say if there was a vote in this country between Duff and say Robben on, Robben would win. I spend a lot of weekends trying to argue that Duff is better overrall. :) I may be biased but your average football fan would say Robben is better. That would not happen in England if Duff was English

this would happen in Ireland as most football "fans" in Ireland care more and think more about "their" premiership teams and players than they do about their own country team.

i remember having a discussion just after WC 2002 with a football "fan" who said he'd rather the premiership team he "supported" won than Ireland did! what a joke but sadly probably not an isolated case