Off Topic Favourite Foreign Player

As per thread for teams except for players. Split this in two.

Favourite European player of all time.

Favourite World (not European) player of all time.

For me

1. Cryuff.

2. Pele.

 

Tino

 

Or nobby

 

Non NUFC, Zidane and Ronaldinho

 

Jonas

 

Messi - world
Ibrahimovic - european

 

Also used to love Gheorghe Hagi, he was quality

 

Carl Cort

 

Ariel Ortega
Batistuta
Rui Costa
Maldini
Haidara
Baresi

 

So which one? Favourite player not players.

Is it any surprise he lists Haidara as one of his favourites? I mean, it's not a hard question. It's not complicated. it's not a trick question. So why does he then list 6, not 1, but 6 players in his answer?

 

Shevchenko, he was simply brilliant at Milan. Loved everything about his play, was absolutely gutted we only saw a few glimpses at Chelsea.

 

Haidara

 

European - Franco Baresi - every day of the week and twice on a Sunday. Absolute genius.
Non european - Maradona

The second one was tough because there were some great international players in the 80's and 90's. I was very close to picking Daniel Passarella. I liked Zico, Socrates, Careca, Caniggia, Batistuta, Sanchez, Francescoli etc from that era .

The first one is tough because the likes of Cruyff, Zidane, Mattheus, Beckenbauer, Hagi, Stoichkov, Sammer, Laudrup come into it but Baresi was the single most clever player and organiser I ever watched. Maldini was of course the golden boy but he'd be the first to admit Baresi ran the show. One of the most underrated players of all time was Gaetano Scirea. He took Baresi's place in 82 as they won the world cup. Classy sweeper.

 

So many to chose from - for me though Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Zidane were the three everyone wanted to be in the playground.

Past the classics. I picked up Fredy Guarin on FM2005 for penny's from Envigado and have followed his career though St Ettienne, Porto, Inter Milan and now he's out in China. Always guaranteed to score a banger. More hammer in his Right foot than Laurent Robert and Shearer combined!

 

Had a rethink

Rene higuita ...

 

Carlos Valderrama

 

His hair was outstanding

 

Liam Brady

Messi

 

Boumsong

 

Jose Luis Chilavert, any goalkeeper that can score almost 60 career goals and was one of the first keepers to play from the back.

For outfield players, I'd have to say I'm torn between Zola and Bergkamp. Baggio at his pomp was great, Figo, Zidane, Roberto Carlos all fantastic, Maldini superb, but Zola and Bergkamp were different and a joy to watch and probably more relevant as they were playing against opposition I was used to seeing in the Premier league.