Greatest World Cup player ever

[tricky_colour]

I doubt Zidane would cleanly disposess Maradona to often either. I don't see what bearing that has on anything.

Maybe not but overall I would give Zidane my vote, he just makes things
look so easy, mentally he appears to be on a different level, he seems
to able to 'bamboozle' the opposition, something Duff used to do,
albeit in a different fashion, sort of effortlessly?
Anyway, my main memory of Maradona is as a cheat, and I don't vote for them!!

[nshoop]

Maybe not but overall I would give Zidane my vote, he just makes things
look so easy, mentally he appears to be on a different level, he seems
to able to 'bamboozle' the opposition, something Duff used to do,
albeit in a different fashion, sort of effortlessly?
Anyway, my main memory of Maradona is as a cheat, and I don't vote for them!!

Depends which Zidane you are talking about-the extremely gifted midfielder who can dance past players with ease or the brainless,lazy,arrogant **** that stands in the centre circle for 90mins!Two very different players!

[RogerMilla]

Diego for me , pele over-rated imo but still good enough to come in second best in world cup terms , Zidane performed hugely for Real as well and i would put him in second after diego on my all time list with pele third.
I think Diego is by far the best player ever though, a world cup and another final , went to napoli who had never won eff all and then won them a couple of leagues and a uefa cup , they never won eff all after he left either. can't be a coincidence that argentina lost the game that he left early against germany this year either!!

[DotTV]

Gerd Muller, Pele, Ronaldo, Gary Breen

[seand]

Maradona is the greatest player of all time (just ahead of Puskas), but arguably Pele had a greater influence in the World Cup.

diStefano, VanBasten did little or nothing in the World Cup. Puskas, Kocsis, Fontaine only starred in one World Cup.

If people could think beyond the British Isles there are a few other half decent players to challenge Best for best player never to play in World Cup...
George Weah springs to mind

[jdexter]

adi akinbiyi

[galwayhoop]

Maybe not but overall I would give Zidane my vote, ......................... my main memory of Maradona is as a cheat, and I don't vote for them!!

and a full force headbut is entirely within the rules of the game!

[Midgit]

Maradona!!!
It has to be bacause of the famous "Hand of God" everyone know what goal i am talking about because there isn't a more memorable goal!

[stevieontour]

Has to be Tommy Coyne.

[old git]

Pele easily


spot on jockser.. this should have been a short forum... nobody could touch pele ..:D :D

[old git]

Diego for me , pele over-rated imo but still good enough to come in second best in world cup terms , Zidane performed hugely for Real as well and i would put him in second after diego on my all time list with pele third.
I think Diego is by far the best player ever though, a world cup and another final , went to napoli who had never won eff all and then won them a couple of leagues and a uefa cup , they never won eff all after he left either. can't be a coincidence that argentina lost the game that he left early against germany this year either!!

what has napoli / league / uefa cup got to do with world cup ..

it that is the case then gary neville must be up there 8-9 league medals / european cup/ fa cups etc :confused: :confused:

[mr.brightside]

Jimmy Bullard

[nismo]

roy keane lol

[BohsPartisan]

what has napoli / league / uefa cup got to do with world cup ..

it that is the case then gary neville must be up there 8-9 league medals / european cup/ fa cups etc :confused: :confused:

Agreed. I'm more of a Maradona fan but you can't argue that Pele's world cup record was superior.
More games, more wins, more medals.

[SligoBrewer]

pele for me although i like maradona more.

[keenanboy]

Surprised to see that a player who has scored in 2 World Cup finals and carried his team to the second one fails to make this shortlist. Its amazing.

[bigmac]

I'm in the Maradona camp on this one. Pele was playing in a team frequently hailed as the best ever, Maradona basically won the thing on his own, so he shades it for me.

[Aldini98]

Surprised to see that a player who has scored in 2 World Cup finals and carried his team to the second one fails to make this shortlist. Its amazing.

He may have carried his team in the knock out stages, a whole three games against a sub standard Brazilian team, the under achieving Spanish and a tired Portugal side.

He was non existant in the group games.

[Shilts]

Has to be Maradona. Won a world cup on his own. Pele was surrounded by greats in his Brazil team. Also, dragging Napoli to 2 titles and a UEFA Cup while coked out his head is some achievement. The handball against England is my favourite moment as it still ****es them off over 20 years later!!!

[limerickblue]

leon best

[frog-gufc]

94 world cup, georgi hagi& hristo stoichkov, great players
anyone remeber yordan letchkov a baldy fella for bulgaria, a one hit wonder but wasnt he great for that one hit

[The-Beer-Baron]

McGrath....he would appreciate the accolade the most. maradona and pele have plent of titles to their name already. giants stadium 94, baggio and signori didnt get a kick and he was playing with an infection in his arm. rome 90, he bossed the midfield. with a better tactician at the helm we would have beaten italy.

he is the greatest irish soccer plyer of all time

[CollegeTillIDie]

McGrath....he would appreciate the accolade the most. maradona and pele have plent of titles to their name already. giants stadium 94, baggio and signori didnt get a kick and he was playing with an infection in his arm. rome 90, he bossed the midfield. with a better tactician at the helm we would have beaten italy.

he is the greatest irish soccer plyer of all time

Amen to that. He's probably also the best loved Irish soccer player of all time by fans too into the bargain.:ball:

[highlight100]

Roberto Carlos

[OwlsFan]

Has to be Maradona. Won a world cup on his own. Pele was surrounded by greats in his Brazil team. Also, dragging Napoli to 2 titles and a UEFA Cup while coked out his head is some achievement. The handball against England is my favourite moment as it still ****es them off over 20 years later!!!

Your highlight of all World Cups is a moment of cheating. :rolleyes: Pathetic.

No doubt though Maradona was the best player I have ever seen, the moment above aside.

[jebus]

All in all it has to be between Pele/Maradona/Ronaldo and Zidane

Pele - Well do I really need to go into what this guy has done at the World Cup? (He'd be my pick incidentally)

Maradona (Won the '86 World Cup, did about as good as most in the poorest World Cup ever (90), and, well, lets forget about his moment of madness at USA 94. I think what counts against him is that he's a cheating ***** to b honest

Ronaldo - All time top goalscorer, was part of the 94 winning squad, played some great stuff at then 98 World Cup before his breakdown, came back after terrible injuries to lead Brazil to the 2002 World Cup. What counts against him is the '98 Final when he shouldn't have been played (not his fault I know, but still), and Brazil's poor showing at the 2006 World Cup

Zidane - Inspired at the '98 World Cup Final, caught the whole of Frances imagination during that tournament, didn't do anything in a poor French side at the '02 Cup, played some great stuff in the knockout stages at the 2006 World Cup, scored one of the most memorable goals of World Cup Final history at the same tournament. What counts against him is his sendings off at both the 98 and 06 World Cup, and the disaster that was France at the 02 World Cup

[bigmac]

McGrath....he would appreciate the accolade the most. maradona and pele have plent of titles to their name already.

Sure why not name me as greatest player then - I've never won anything and I'd really appreciate it!

[Rambler1]

Haw,Haw Haw,at the end of the day like...it has to be Roy.....

[papa-j]

What about Platini...was France's best player in 3 world cups and was robbed
for a place in the final by West Germany...twice. Probably the classiest player of his generation. Hes a bit of a ***** now but was top,top player in his day!

[OwlsFan]

Haw,Haw Haw,at the end of the day like...it has to be Roy.....

..of the Rovers ?

[mackannovic]

Gerd Muller. His record speaks for itself. Probably the greatest international player ever.

[Scruttox]

Agreed. Eder (Brazil close 2nd)

[seanog2001]

Gerd muller has a serious goalscoring record plus he won everthing there is to win in football

Senior clubs Years Club App (Gls)*
1963-1964 TSV 1861 Nördlingen 32 (51) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSV_1861_N%C3%B6rdlingen)
1964-1979 FC Bayern Munich 453 (398) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FC_Bayern_Munich)

National team apps goals
1966-1974 [/URL]62 (68)


Titles with Bayern Munich



[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesliga_%28football%29"]Bundesliga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_national_under-21_football_team): 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974
German Cup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Cup): 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971
European Champions’ Cup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League): 1974, 1975, 1976
Intercontinental Cup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European/South_American_Cup): 1976
Cup Winners’ Cup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_Winners%E2%80%99_Cup): 1967


Titles with the national team



European Championship (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Football_Championship): 1972 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_European_Football_Championship)
World Cup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup): 1974 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_World_Cup_1974)


Personal honours



German top scorer: 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978
European top scorer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulier_d%27Or): 1970, 1972
World Cup top scorer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cup_Golden_Boot): 1970
European Championship top scorer: 1972
Eurochampionscup Topscorer 1973 ,1974 ,1975 ,1977
German Footballer of the Year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Footballer_of_the_Year): 1967, 1969
Voted best Player 40 Years Bundesliga 1963-2003
European Footballer of the Year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Footballer_of_the_Year): 1970
World Football's Greatest Goalscorer of All Time (awarded in 2000)

[Oink]

How this thread has gone 5 pages without mentioning Lothar Matthaus is beyond me..... the man played 5 world cups be to jaysus!

European Footballer of the Year, World Soccer Player of the Year and the first ever FIFA World Player of the Year. Captained West Germany to victory in the 1990 World Cup, most world cup appearances...

Lothar Matthaus

[Pike B]

Zinedine Zidane..

[POTN]

Pele played in 4 World Cups and won 3 of them - 58, 62 and 70. Not even Maradona can match that!

Pele had 10 other exceptional guys playing in his team which was a significant difference to Argentina where Maradona virtually won them the world cup single handedly and almost again in 1990.

[old git]

Pele had 10 other exceptional guys playing in his team which was a significant difference to Argentina where Maradona virtually won them the world cup single handedly and almost again in 1990.

so because you have 10 other good players on your team sorry you lose out on your ability .. don't think so did pele have 10 other exceptional players with him for his 3 world cup wins !! maradona had a few exceptional players on that argentina team also..

but pele's world cup record is streets ahead of him .. 1958 youngest player ever to play in a world cup final at 17 and he scored 2 goals.
only footballer ever to be part of 3 world cup winning squads. 1958 / 1962 / 1970..
"Brazil played Italy in the final 1970,with Pelé scoring the opener on a header over defender Tarcisio Burgnich. He then made assists on Jairzinho's and Carlos Alberto's goals, the latter one after an impressive collective play. Brazil won the match 4–1, keeping the Jules Rimet Trophy indefinitely. Burgnich, who marked Pelé during the match, was quoted saying "I told myself before the game, he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong".................................................. ..................................... compare this to maradona who i will admit was brilliant during argentina cup win even with his infamous handball against england .. on later world cup record he also got sent off for a terrible tackle against brazil , and was sent home in disgrace in 1994 for failing a drug test ..:ball:

[POTN]

so because you have 10 other good players on your team sorry you lose out on your ability .. don't think so did pele have 10 other exceptional players with him for his 3 world cup wins !! maradona had a few exceptional players on that argentina team also..

but pele's world cup record is streets ahead of him .. 1958 youngest player ever to play in a world cup final at 17 and he scored 2 goals.
only footballer ever to be part of 3 world cup winning squads. 1958 / 1962 / 1970..
"Brazil played Italy in the final 1970,with Pelé scoring the opener on a header over defender Tarcisio Burgnich. He then made assists on Jairzinho's and Carlos Alberto's goals, the latter one after an impressive collective play. Brazil won the match 4–1, keeping the Jules Rimet Trophy indefinitely. Burgnich, who marked Pelé during the match, was quoted saying "I told myself before the game, he's made of skin and bones just like everyone else — but I was wrong".................................................. ..................................... compare this to maradona who i will admit was brilliant during argentina cup win even with his infamous handball against england .. on later world cup record he also got sent off for a terrible tackle against brazil , and was sent home in disgrace in 1994 for failing a drug test ..:ball:

My previous comment was not questioning Pele's ability. I was responding to the comment that just because Pele had won 3 world cups his performances/record were so much better than Maradonas. I debated that because Pele played in such great teams that of course he was more likely to win more World Cups, whereas Maradona bascially single handedly won the World Cup in 86 for Argentina and very nearly again in 1990.

[Shilts]

:ball: Diego Armando Maradona - The best there ever was!

[Pike B]

Just to settle that Pele Maradona thing lads, Pele's record is streets ahead and he is the greater World Cup player. And for me, the better overall of the two. He is the greatest ever to be frank and few can have any arguement about it..

[old git]

Just to settle that Pele Maradona thing lads, Pele's record is streets ahead and he is the greater World Cup player. And for me, the better overall of the two. He is the greatest ever to be frank and few can have any arguement about it..

ah sure we can argue about it :D but will agree with pele being the greatest ever... but maradona was some player as well has to be in top 5 players of all time ::ball:

[Pike B]

ah sure we can argue about it :D but will agree with pele being the greatest ever... but maradona was some player as well has to be in top 5 players of all time ::ball:
Oh no doubt. My top 5 World Cup players ever:

5: Franz Beckenbauer
4: Lothar Mattheus
3: Zinedine Zidane
2: Diego Maradona
1: Pele..

Top 5 ever regardless of achievments...

5: Di Stefano
4: Cruyff
3: Zidane
2: Maradona
1: Pele..

[Scruttox]

Lothar Matthaeus (West Germany)

5 World Cups, Won 1 in 1990 as captain and at same time Euro and World Player of the year.

Maradona (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maradona) said about Matthäus "he is the best rival I've ever had. I guess that's enough to define him"

[Shilts]

Just to settle that Pele Maradona thing lads, Pele's record is streets ahead and he is the greater World Cup player. And for me, the better overall of the two. He is the greatest ever to be frank and few can have any arguement about it..

Pele's record is only marginally better than Maradona's. 2 wins versus a win and a runner-up. Remember Pele played very little part (due to injury) in the 1962 tournament where Garrincha and Amarildo(?) were the stars in Brazil's win. Also, Pele played with better teams than DAM. I must admit I'm not old enough to remember seeing Pele play but DAM is my top man due to his ability perform magic and pull games out of the fire at will. His pass to Cannigia (v Brazil 1990) was something else, at a time when his pace was going. He had the skills but also an edge that refused to be beaten. He wasn't a show pony like some playing today!!!

[Pike B]

Pele's record is only marginally better than Maradona's. 2 wins versus a win and a runner-up. Remember Pele played very little part (due to injury) in the 1962 tournament where Garrincha and Amarildo(?) were the stars in Brazil's win. Also, Pele played with better teams than DAM. I must admit I'm not old enough to remember seeing Pele play but DAM is my top man due to his ability perform magic and pull games out of the fire at will. His pass to Cannigia (v Brazil 1990) was something else, at a time when his pace was going. He had the skills but also an edge that refused to be beaten. He wasn't a show pony like some playing today!!!
All fair points. But for me Pele at 17, to do what he did, it's just unheard of in this sport. Wayne Rooney scoring against Arsenal at 16 was made to be like the second coming of Jesus the way people carried on. Imagine if a 17 year old in todays media crazy world came along, scored a hat trick in a semi then two brilliant goals in a World Cup final!!!
It's an achievment without equal. Ever. By anyone. Then to come back, at 29, after being kicked out of the last competition, and to do what he did in Mexico... It's just incredible. As much as I love Diego, it's always gotta be Pele no 1.. Always..

[Denis The Red]

Pele is/was the greatest player ever, no equal. Maradona close but not enough. And the best player NEVER to play in the world cup is, as the title suggests, George.
By the way, no one mention Gerd Muller. Kinda sad that someone like Ronaldo would break his record of goals in the World Cup. The guy dosen't deserve it. Maybe someone with more integrity will come along soon.
I also like the post about Paul Mc Grath.

[Pike B]

Pele is/was the greatest player ever, no equal. Maradona close but not enough. And the best player NEVER to play in the world cup is, as the title suggests, George.
By the way, no one mention Gerd Muller. Kinda sad that someone like Ronaldo would break his record of goals in the World Cup. The guy dosen't deserve it. Maybe someone with more integrity will come along soon.
I also like the post about Paul Mc Grath.
Sad??? Not at all man. Ronaldo may have curtailed off into lard land at present but he was for at least 5 years a Phenom. Look at his records, goals, and finishing stats. He's one of the all time greats.

[Oink]

Sad??? Not at all man. Ronaldo may have curtailed off into lard land at present but he was for at least 5 years a Phenom. Look at his records, goals, and finishing stats. He's one of the all time greats.

Completely agree.

I constantly find myself reminding people how good the original Ronaldo was. His goalscoring record really speaks for itself.... but he is the greatest footballer I have ever seen (between him and Zidane really), though he has sadly fallen to some terrible injuries and also lost the plot.

From around 1996 to 2003 (aside from injury) he was unquestionably the greatest striker on the planet, he had everything, skill, pace, balance, power, finishing.... to see him play football was beautiful, an incredible talent... the reason I watch football.

[Closed Account 2]

Maradona and Zidane are the stand out players for me, Oliver Kahn too was immense in 2002. If I was to include a Brazilian it would be Garinncha ahead of Pele.

This will always be one of the iconic images of the World Cup for me...

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Park/8885/MaravBel.jpg

Maradona taking out over half the Belgian team, and then the other moments like the goal against England and the lay off for Caniggia against Brazil in 1990.

Zidane scored those 2 headed goals which gave France their first WC, and you have the game vs Brazil in 2006. He totally ran the show, the Brazilians were beaten at their own game.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/internationals/brazil-0-france-1-zidane-regains-mastery-to-tame-brazil-406473.html

[DeLorean]

It has to be the one match wonder Oleg Salenko. Scored 6 goals in 8 matches for Russia and they all came in 94 in the States!!

Best WC player is probably Pele but in my generation (say from 1990-) the best have been the following:

90: Lothar Matthaeus. honourable mention (Roger Milla)
94: Roberto Baggio/Romario. honourable mention (Paul McGrath)
98: Zinedine Zidane. honourable mention (Michael Owen)
02: Ronaldo. honourable mention (Oliver Kahn mistake in Final though!!)
06: Fabio Cannavaro. honourable mention (Zinedine Zidane)
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10: Glen Whelan. honourable mention (Darron Gibson)????????!!!!!!!!
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