Iniesta's done one
- Thread starter originallambrettaman
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Interesting to compare his career medal tally with other greats of the modern era such as Maldini/Giggs/Matthaus etc. As of December 2015 this stood at:
-7 Spanish La Liga titles (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015)
-6 Spanish Super Cups (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013)
-3 Spanish Cup winners medals (2005, 2009, 2012)
-4 UEFA Champions League (2006, 2009, 2011, 2015)
-3 European Super Cups (2005, 2009, 2011)
-2 European Championships(2008, 2012)
-1 World Cup (2010)
-3 FIFA Club World Cups(2009, 2011, 2015)
-7 Spanish La Liga titles (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015)
-6 Spanish Super Cups (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013)
-3 Spanish Cup winners medals (2005, 2009, 2012)
-4 UEFA Champions League (2006, 2009, 2011, 2015)
-3 European Super Cups (2005, 2009, 2011)
-2 European Championships(2008, 2012)
-1 World Cup (2010)
-3 FIFA Club World Cups(2009, 2011, 2015)
Absolute star.
Remember reading Messi say Iniesta is the best player in the team.
Glad I saw him play last month, unfortunately he had to go off injured. But what I saw was superb. They say the game seems to slow down when great players get the ball, well it did. His speed of thought, close control, balance and awareness were superb.
An Atletico player came in to tackle him, most players would have got crunched, he looked up saw him coming and shifted the ball from foot to foot and was round him.
Remember reading Messi say Iniesta is the best player in the team.
Glad I saw him play last month, unfortunately he had to go off injured. But what I saw was superb. They say the game seems to slow down when great players get the ball, well it did. His speed of thought, close control, balance and awareness were superb.
An Atletico player came in to tackle him, most players would have got crunched, he looked up saw him coming and shifted the ball from foot to foot and was round him.
Andrés Iniesta is the only player in history to named Man of the Match in a EUROs final, World Cup final and Champions League final.
Following his final game for Barca, Iniesta didn't want to leave the pitch (photo taken at 1.00am)...
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I feel a bit for Iniesta.
Messi and Ronaldo are two of the finest five or so footballers of all time (I think they're the best two, but I would imagine that few would deny they're in the top handful). There's a grouping at the top - Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane, as well as the afore mentioned big two - who I'd put as the tier one all-time greats. However, I'd put Iniesta in a very strong position in the chasing pack, along with the likes of Maldini, Beckenbauer, Platini, van Basten, Puskas, Garrincha and the other Ronaldo. However, because he's played at the same time as (and in the same league/team as) two of the best of all time I think that his brilliance is overlooked. I remember him coming on in the 2006 CL final against Arsenal and just being transfixed by him. He transformed the game in a way that looked so simple and yet was mesmerising. I've followed his career closely since then and have never not enjoyed watching him play. I hope that history is kind to him.
On another note, if you ever get the chance to watch old footage of Di Stefano playing then do. Consider what the defenders were allowed to get away with, how heavy the ball was, how poor the pitches were. Just incredible.
Messi and Ronaldo are two of the finest five or so footballers of all time (I think they're the best two, but I would imagine that few would deny they're in the top handful). There's a grouping at the top - Di Stefano, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane, as well as the afore mentioned big two - who I'd put as the tier one all-time greats. However, I'd put Iniesta in a very strong position in the chasing pack, along with the likes of Maldini, Beckenbauer, Platini, van Basten, Puskas, Garrincha and the other Ronaldo. However, because he's played at the same time as (and in the same league/team as) two of the best of all time I think that his brilliance is overlooked. I remember him coming on in the 2006 CL final against Arsenal and just being transfixed by him. He transformed the game in a way that looked so simple and yet was mesmerising. I've followed his career closely since then and have never not enjoyed watching him play. I hope that history is kind to him.
On another note, if you ever get the chance to watch old footage of Di Stefano playing then do. Consider what the defenders were allowed to get away with, how heavy the ball was, how poor the pitches were. Just incredible.
No mention of Best? See how he played on mud heap pitches with defenders trying to cripple nim.
John Charles is up there with those as well.
Wonderful footballer, just seemed to have so much time on the ball. Up there with the best, only the fact that he didn't score a lot of goals he probably didn't get as much of the headlines that the likes of Messi and Ronaldo get.
I'd place Best in a notch down from those named. I appreciate it's not a particularly popular opinion with many in the UK, but I tend to think that his looks/attitude and the team he played for sees his talent a little over-exaggerated at times. With the players I mentioned, they pretty much all consistently won major trophies or inspired traditionally unsuccessful teams to bigger things (or both). They spent a long time at the top of their sport, and tended to do it in numerous leagues or at numerous levels (or both). Best was brilliant at the top level of British football but for varying reasons - some of which weren't his fault - he never left left the UK to play until he was way past his best, and he only flickered at international level (and at European level, beyond the 68 final). As I said, some of that wasn't his fault as playing in Europe was harder at that time and Northern Ireland were never going to be a footballing world power. But the players from round that era I listed tended to find a way around that, and Northern Ireland qualified for a World Cup in 1958 (before Best started playing for them ) and in 1982 and 1986 (the WCs after he stopped playing international football). There are players on that list who managed to inspire largely unremarkable international sides to great things through their brilliance, but Best never really did that.
That's not to say that I don't consider Best and all-time great and an incredible player - I do - I just put him a tier down from those that I've named, alongside the likes of Eusebio, Charles, Charlton, Baresi, Zico, Yashin and, from what I've read rather than seen, Meazza, along with a few others that I'll have forgotten about. If he'd had exactly the same career but he'd looked like Ralph Coates and played for Everton instead of Manchester United I don't think you'd get people claiming he was the greatest player of all time, as many Manchester United fans and people in Northern Ireland do. So yes, I consider Best to be one of the all-time great footballers, I just think there have been a number of players that were/are better than him.
It's an odd thing about all time greats, its a purely personal thing, your player A is better to someone elses player A, but the thing that puzzles me is the lack of any goalkeepers being amongst those players. Yes The Black Cat Lev Yahsin gets a mention but I never hear of a Banks, Shiltion, Zoff, Kahn, Maier, Jennings, and not forgetting Bert Trautmann there was one who was as comical as spectacular during a World Cup, I think he was knicknamed 'El Loco', maybe not a great but certainly entertaining. This last line of defence could win or lose games as much as the more often praised strikers.
Talking of him looking like Ralph Coates, Paddy Crerand said if he had looked like him he would have played until he was forty as he wouldn't have had the women chasing him and all the late nights.
Most footballers could achieve that in Spain, Scotland, Germany, or France if they play for the right club.
Great player
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Clearly made up, as iniesta plays on the left.
Pele said was Best was the best player he had seen . But what does he know?
Pele has said lots of things that are questionable when it comes to football. He's often being diplomatic - the best player in the world or at a tournament often changes depending on the country he's in or the TV company interviewing him. I'm not sure how much of Best Pele can have seen either. Pele seemed to think that he himself was the greatest of all time when really pressed. There's an interesting article here that looks at who the greats ranked as the greatest ever. Best doesn't get a look in.
For me that's right. While medals alone don't signify greatness, the true greats did tend to win the big things. Pele has his three World Cups, Maradona has a World Cup, Serie A title and UEFA Cup (when it was probably harder to win the the European Cup) all won nigh on single-handedly. Beckenbauer, Zidane, Iniesta and Cruyff excelled on the World Cup stage, won European Cups galore and have numerous national titles. Di Stefano has five European Cup winners medals. So does Maldini. Best doesn't come close to those sort of stats. None of which matters in the grand scheme of things. It's all subjective. If you think Best belongs in such company then who am I to argue, other than some nob head on an internet football forum?
You can't compare really. A lot of those titles were won in leagues that were a one horse race. Maradona deserves his place at the top as Napoli had done nothing before he arrived and done little since he left. Not to mention single handedly winning a World Cup. Pele was surtounded by good pkayers and theybwon tbe World Cup in 1962 without him. Cruyff is up there for transforming Barcelona both as a player and later as a manager. Real Madrid in their Di Stefano days (and he, Puskas and Gento were real greats) were virtually state sponsored. Di Stefano was signed up for Barcelona until Franco brought in a rule about exporting currency which favoured Real Madrid.
International success is dependent on who else is available at that time. For all their great players as well as himself Cruyff never won World Cups. Neither has Messi.
Of course it is all subjective. Maybe best is the wrong word as the criteria are different according to positions played.
My dad always said tbe two most skillful players be saw live were Raich Carter and John Charles. Mine is .George Best. Though my boyhood idol was Denis .law.