Mexico86 wrote:

And yeah Mezz I agree about Beckham, his freekicks from 97-04 were better than any others that I've seen including Koeman, Platini etc.  In my opinion he is the greatest free kick specialist of all time.

His freekicks better than  Platini? That is some sort of joke. Platini didnt have the the running Beckham has.. As a leader, dead ball specialist and passer Platini was superior. He also finished top scorer in Italy for three seasons running as a No 10 starting 26 years ago. He also won European Football of the Year award three years running. This list cannot be complete without him.

I am a huge fan of Beckham (except perhaps now he's playing for AC Puke) and think he has combined honesty with a glittering career on the pitch. Nonetheless Platini pips him.

They did play different roles though. Beckham was not a No10.


Edit: It's hard to overestimate Platini's importance to France and Juventus scoring winning goals in European Cup finals. That Juve team had Italian World Cup winning players and he still stood out. For France he led them to the European Championship. IF we discount dribbling skills he was better than Zidane.
No top 10 can be without him and Zidane.
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Myles wrote:

Mexico86, you're right about Totti though, he never turned up for a big game in his life, but you can't mention Totti and Baggio in the same sentence

You just did!


Cantona was fantastic. Remember that goal in the FA Cup final against Liverpool? Most dross final Ive ever watched. Sublime technique that made the difference.
In fact in the whole of the 97/98 season he dragged Man Utd through. In the league he would pop up for 10 minutes a game and provide an assist or score the goal that made the difference.

Fantastic player with a stroke of genius.

And its not true he never turned up in the big games. Against Dortmund in the CL he was amazing.
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Bobo32 wrote:

Cantona was fantastic. Remember that goal in the FA Cup final against Liverpool? Most dross final Ive ever watched. Sublime technique that made the difference. In fact in the whole of the 97/98 season he dragged Man Utd through. In the league he would pop up for 10 minutes a game and provide an assist or score the goal that made the difference. Fantastic player with a stroke of genius. And its not true he never turned up in the big games. Against Dortmund in the CL he was amazing.

English football wasn't on the same level as Italy, Spain or Germany back in the 90's so Cantona may have been a god in English football but he was nothing in Europe.

He retired after the 96/97 season, so how did you see him play in the 97/98 season.

Against Dortmund! When was that, the season they lost to Dortmund 1-0 in both games, the same season they lost to Juve 1-0 in both games?

Man Utd have done better in Europe since he retired so he may have been king in England but he was just a showboater in Europe and everyone outside of England laughed at him.

How he is considered to be in the top 50 players in the last 25 years is a joke, he'd be lucky to be in the top 50 within his own timespan never mind 25 years. Totally overrated.

Myles wrote:

English football wasn't on the same level as Italy, Spain or Germany back in the 90's so Cantona may have been a god in English football but he was nothing in Europe. He retired after the 96/97 season, so how did you see him play in the 97/98 season. Against Dortmund! When was that, the season they lost to Dortmund 1-0 in both games, the same season they lost to Juve 1-0 in both games? Man Utd have done better in Europe since he retired so he may have been king in England but he was just a showboater in Europe and everyone outside of England laughed at him. How he is considered to be in the top 50 players in the last 25 years is a joke, he'd be lucky to be in the top 50 within his own timespan never mind 25 years. Totally overrated.

My bad for the year. It was 96/97. His final year he dragged the side along at times.

If you remember that game against Dortmund (at Old Trafford) then you will surely admit that there are few games (at least not of that importance) where the result was so unjust. Man Utd pressed so hard and Dortmund were playing extreme catanaccio (sp?) and scored on the counter attack. Man Utd hit the bar, had efforts clearred off the line and were totally dominant. Cantona was a major force in that side.

Your last two paragraphs are surely there for a giggle. He was respected in France. If he didnt play for the national team it's because he insulted the manager. He was a principled guy. Good on him.
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Bobo, you've always been biased towards French players, which is fair enough because i'm biased towards Juve players, less so Irish players because they're all shite. But i feel you've tinted glasses on when it comes to Cantona. He didn't get into the French team because Djorkaeff and Zidane were better players, of course Cantona convinced himself it was because he was standing up for his principles because he convinced himself that it couldn't be because there were better players, after all he was king in England!

Djorkaeff was my idol as a kid. Zidane is the best player of the past 25 years.

Yet Cantona, until 1996, was good enough to play for the French national team. He called the French manager, at some stage, an incompetent bastard so was left out of the team for a while. The French team, like the English team, was in the doldrums. They failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup. After Platini there was a void. Zidane and Djorkaeff etc can only claim to have come to prominence from the 1996 Euro Championship in England.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on Cantona. I think he was class.
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Yeah we'll agree to disagree.

Cantona means nothing outside of England, and maybe Marseille.  Not in the top 50 for sure.   There were prob 25 players from Brazil and Argentina better than him the last 25 years.

You but you bumf**k Italian players. You rate Taibi more highly than Barthez. Grosso more highly than Lizarazu. Totti more highly than Zidane. Dario Hubner's ballsack over Henry.

Yay go italia!
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If it wasn't for ADP's knee injury could he not have been better than Baggio?

Tuten K wrote:

If it wasn't for ADP's knee injury could he not have been better than Baggio?

Perhaps, but even with his knee injury he's still been the best player in Serie A since  

You forget Dario Hubner.
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Yeah, but how many knee surgerys did The Great Baggio have?

Bobo32 wrote:

Cantona was fantastic. Remember that goal in the FA Cup final against Liverpool? Most dross final Ive ever watched. Sublime technique that made the difference. In fact in the whole of the 97/98 season he dragged Man Utd through. In the league he would pop up for 10 minutes a game and provide an assist or score the goal that made the difference. Fantastic player with a stroke of genius. And its not true he never turned up in the big games. Against Dortmund in the CL he was amazing.

I don't think  you can appreciate Cantona unless you support Manchester United. He'll always be a genius for me because we finally won the league in 1993 thanks to his efforts that season and for three and half seasons he was a different class.

I can't believe Bryan Robson or Liam Brady haven't been mentioned either or maybe `i'm showing my age.

Bryan Robson was nothing special imo but Cantona was definitely better than Totti.
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No way

Cantona better than Totti?  Quit smokin the ganja

If I had to pick either one to win one match for my life I'm taking Cantona every time.
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If I had to pick one to speak Italian I'd choose Cantona every time.

If I had to choose one to beat Jackie Chan in a fight, I'd choose Cantona every time.

When Cantona does a push up he stays still. The earth moves,
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Would that one match be a WC qualifier against Bulgaria in 1993?