Greatest Player of all time in your opinion...

[artetas_biggest_fan]

Ok...im a bit of a football anorak. Yep...sad. I have almost 50 Video tapes of football from post War onwards (1945) when the games development really took off and improved vastly from the substandard pre War...the game exploded and became global...the quality improved hugely. I have Lots of books also. A wardrobe full.

Ok...ive seen lots of Clips of the likes of Pele, Garrincha, Di Stefano, Cruyff, Eusebio, Maradona, Muller, Puskas, Beckenbauer, Moore, Zidane....AND LOADS MORE. Heard analysts from all over the world.

For me..Pele and Maradona are in a tie.....for 2nd.


However...i have seen a player who in my opinion...is better. He was the best player in the world in 1968 (winning the biggest prize at the time the European Player of the Year award)...scored in a winning European Cup Final. Was top scorer for his club for 8 years on the trot inspite of playing as an out and out winger. Was blessed with sheer Genius...and i dont use that word lightly...this guy was so good it actually scares me that a human being can be this talented.

Yep...his name... George Best.

When he played in the old NASL ...Pele was so astounded at just how good Best was he stated that he was the best player he'd witnessed..ever! ..even better than his idol Garrincha.

Just one clip of Best...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEl76xsfRlg

Now Best unfortunately played for N-Ireland (no disrespect to them) and would never grace a World Cup...however, a very young Alex Ferguson witnessed George Best beat Scotland by himself in the mid 60's...in what Ferguson still describes as the single greatest individual performance hes ever seen. I have seen that match myself...and i aint seen anything like it. Georges father who died recently said he knew his son was good...but that day against Scotland left him stunned at just how good.

Now im mid 20's...now my dad grew up watching Best and would harp on endlessly about how extraordinary he was...i stubbornly refused to believe him..right up until i was about 16. Then i watched some clips...and some more...then a volume full. I was genuinely shocked. He had the lot..speed, skill, touch, finesse, finishing, dribbling, cheek, the brain...as everyone says he quite simply was a genius.

Now...drink...run ins with the law...womanising...this tarnished his character...but seriousluy..i dont give a [Poor language removed] about all that, what he was like as a person..couldnt care less. As a footballer, he was awesome. I just wish i could have seen him live.

IMO George Best is not only the single most talented footballer to ever play the game, he is among the greatest sportsmen of all time.


Your own opinions....

 

[DENNIS STEVENS]

i agree with best, followed by pele & cruyff - that's my top 3.

 

[Welton Toffee]

Good post

Judging solely on my lifetime it would have to be Zizou

Of all time then who knows

 

[Neiler]

1. Pele
2. Maradona
3. Di Steffino
4. Puskas
5. Zidane
6. Cryuff
7. Best

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

not saying he was the best ever but he was very good....platini.
as far as keepers are concerned i dont reckon anyone has come close to our own "wales,wales no.1" .none of that punching the ball with big nev a'twixt the stix.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It's traditional in these polls to pick an attacker, but I'm going to break convention and go with Paolo Maldini. The guy has won everything going, played at the top for nearly two decades and as a defender could do it all. Rewrote the handbook of what a left back should be able to do.

 

[Sharpys top lip]

Thats easy...........MARADONA!!

No one comes close. Theirs been great players and amazing players.

But he was out of this world.

Horrible hand-balling **** !! Fat coke-head...............best ever player thou.

 

[monty]

William Ralph Dean, unequaled

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Thats easy...........MARADONA!!

No one comes close. Theirs been great players and amazing players.

But he was out of this world.

Horrible hand-balling **** !! Fat coke-head...............best ever player thou.

one footed, bloated ,cheating, shitbag, i should've scythed him down before the 1/2 way line.
and i reckon he'd dyed his hair too, what sort of bloke does that, he should harden the fack ap.

 

[Great Dane]

Thats easy...........MARADONA!!

No one comes close. Theirs been great players and amazing players.

But he was out of this world.

Horrible hand-balling **** !! Fat coke-head...............best ever player thou.

quite agree, the way he carried the Argentine and Napoli team in the 80s was incredible.

 

[Neiler]

I wonder would Maradonna have been around much in this day and age with sophisticated doping tests, he openly admits to being on drugs from leaving Barcelona to the end of his career.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

No one has mentioned Duncan Ferguson? :huh:

 

[Nebbiolo]

Best was a bit before my time but from what the generation before me says, and from the footage that I have seen, the man was a genius.

In my time, Maradonna by far played the most exciting football. The way the fat little git took person after person on, with the ball inches in front of him was breathtaking.

Mazza, you were brilliant, you cheating sod!

 

[Jamo Martinez]

Maradona was the best I've seen in my lifetime. But from what I've seen (clips), heard and read, Alfredo Di Stefano was more complete. Faster, a better finisher and helped out in defence when necessary.
When the f..k are they gonna make a time machine?
Still won't settle the arguments.

 

[DENNIS STEVENS]

Maradona was the best I've seen in my lifetime. But from what I've seen (clips), heard and read, Alfredo Di Stefano was more complete. Faster, a better finisher and helped out in defence when necessary.
When the f..k are they gonna make a time machine?
Still won't settle the arguments.

unfortunately we can only really speak of what we know, even then a lot of the information we base our opinions on is filtered through the telescope of the tv camera. how many of us can say we've seen truly great player(s) in the flesh?