Football History: Best Ever Players

One debate which rages on is who is the all time best footballer. The answer of this will be different according to who you speak to. Unfortunately I am too young to have watched Maradona or Pele play so I will try to be fair when judging these players.

The Maradona v Pele debate:

Before I get into my views on the two players who are considered the greatest, I would like to mention players who probably were just a level below these two. Duncan Edwards, Bobby Moore and George Best all deserve a special mention. 

As for the Maradona v Pele debate, I will nail my colours to the mast. I believe Maradona is the better player and the greatest player of all time. What gives the Argentine the edge is that he has proved himself in many teams, where as Pele has only played his football in Brazil. 

The teams that Maradona has won with also show, the Argentina side that he won the world cup with was pretty average, he took them all the way almost single handily. He took an unfashionable Napoli side to their greatest achievements, Pele on the other hand has played all his football in just one league, the Brazilian league was not really known for having good defenders at the time Pele was plying his trade. Pele also had pretty good players playing along side him in the national Brazil team. 

For those reasons I would say that Pele can only the second best player in history after Maradona, who stands head and shoulders above the rest. Messi would challenge Pele closely and in my opinion is number 2. 

My Rankings:

• Maradona: number 1
• Pele: Number 3

The Last 15 years:

There are so many players to be considered in this category, the players up for  this would have to be Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo, Ronaldinhio and Ronaldo (Brazilian, Fat one). 

Messi:

Lionel Messi has achieved incredible things in his short career already, and at only twenty six years of age he will still win more trophies. I do not believe the argument against him being that he only looks as good as he is playing with other great players. The counter argument to this is that he stands out as the best player over the other great players Barcelona have. He seems to somehow improve every season, last year he broke the record for most goals in a calender year. I think that he will end his career as the greatest player ever, but for now I believe that Maradona is ahead of him and possibly Pele also. 

My Ranking: Number 2

Christiano Ronaldo:

If he was around ten years younger or ten years older he would have been the best player of his generation. As he is playing now he will probably always be considered in Messi's shadow. He is better than every other player who is currently playing. There are many people who believe he is just as good as Messi, Gary Neville for example. There are many areas where he is better than his foe from Barcelona. He is a better header-er of the ball, he is faster and probably better defensively. He has also developed his own style of free kick, this being his trademark. Having won trophies in Portugal, England and Spain all he is now waiting for is international honours with Portugal. In the rankings he would be up the top probably on a par with Zidane and Brazillian greats Ronaldo and Ronaldhino. 

My Ranking: Number 5

Zidane:

He is definitely the best ever French player and the best player of his era. He won every thing which was possible, playing for some of Europe's best teams. His turns on the ball were things which I would try to do at school. Many people will remember him for being sent off in the world cup final in his last game. Zidane not only inspired people on the pitch but was a symbol for race relations in his country. The only reason I would rank him above Christiano Ronaldo is that he was around in my youth, he was the player who I tried to emulate. 

My Ranking: Number 4

Figo:

The other player in Zidane's generation, he like many of the other greats has a long list of European giants listed on his CV. At Inter Milan he is regarded as their iconic player, often attending Uefa events on their behalf. Unbelievably he is one of the few players who made a direct move from Barcelona to Real Madrid. This lead to a pigs head to be thrown at him when the teams met. His biggest regrets must come on the international stage, where he got close to winning something with Portugal on a few occasions. He was also part of the galactico's of Real Madrid with Brazillian Ronaldo, Zidane and Beckham.  

My Ranking: Number 7

Ronaldo (Brazil):

Unfortunately for him, another player came after him with the same name. What is even more unfortunate is that because of this he is sometimes referred to a Fat Ronaldo. Quite easily the best out and out striker included in my list, he had everything. Pace, power, finishing, heading ability and a bit of skill. He could easily have been higher on the list of greats but had problems with injuries at the start of his career and fitness towards the end. He almost was famously omitted from the Brazil team in the world cup final loss to France in 1998, due to mental problems. He has played for both Milan clubs as well as Barcelona and Real Madrid.  

My Ranking: Number 6

Ronaldhino:

One of the most skilful players I have ever seen play. Unfortunately for me his champions league winners medal came at the expense of my club Arsenal. He was signed by Barcelona the same time when Real Madrid signed David Beckham. It could have easily been that Beckham went to Barcelona and Ronaldinho went to Real. His story would have been different if it was the other way around. He was the signing that took players such as Xavi, Inesta, Eto and Deco to another level. The success Barcelona are having now could be partially attributed to Ronaldinho who got the Barca band wagon back onto the right path. 

My Ranking: Number 8

England's future is good in football

The so called Golden Generation is almost dismantled, with Gerrad, Lampard and Cole the only real survivors. What Roy Hodgson has done well is mix these three more experienced players and Wayne Rooney with a group of younger, hungry players. 

Players such as Barry and Parker have made way for Cleverly and Wilshere, Crouch and Bent are out and instead Welbeck and Sturridge are in. This is a good sign for England as they are all young players who have no fear of loosing, like the players of the last ten years have faced. Although I do not believe England will win the world cup next year, I feel as if the team will show more than the flops of the last few tournaments. 

England seem to have a had a problem in goal since David Seaman had retired, but with Joe Hart, Fraser Forster and Jack Butland they have three keepers who could be exceptional. As a fourth choice John Ruddy of Norwich is pretty good as well. 

The full back positions are very well stocked with Johnson, Walker, Richards, Jeninkson all competing at right back and Cole, Baines, Gibbs and Bertrand at left back. Roy Hodgson has a bit of a headache at centre back, he has many players that he has tried out, but is yet to find a partnership. In my opinion it should be between Smalling and Jones to see who partners Gary Cahill. 

The stars of the English team are defiantly the midfielders, the brightest star has to be that of Jack Wilshere. I hope people do not expect too much from the boy but he really is an exceptional player. I have heard many things such as him being the best player since Gazza, or that he will be the next captian. I hope the media do not go over board and just let him play. To back up Wilshere he also has Cleverly, Gerrad, Lampard and Milner all good players. 

Two of the forward positions are pretty much cemented, these being Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott. The latter having two great seasons in a row now, finally showing his true quality. The only issue to decide is if Rooney plays down the middle or left. If he is pushed out to the left then Jermaine Defoe would benefit being the main striker. If he were to play down the middle then we have Sturridge, Welbeck or Oxlade Chamberlin on the left. 

As I have stated earlier England will not be expected to win the world cup, but this new group of players could trouble some of the top teams. For the first time in many years I am excited about international football. 

The transfer window, QPR, Newcastle and Odemwingie

It is now February and the transfer window is shut, for one man however it has been a nightmare of a month. This man is Peter Odemwingie of West Brom who is still a West Brom player despite spending most of the night camped outside QPR hoping for a move. 

We can only imagine the reception that he will get from his manager, fellow players and supporters now. It seems he will have to bare a few more months of this as he cant move on now. In a way it seems that it is a victory for club power, as Odemwingie used all the tricks in the book to force West Brom into submission. 

It was a quite transfer window in comparison to the past few windows. The Odemwingie story made the day and added a bit of humour. The biggest movers of the day had to be QPR who signed Samba, Jenas and took on Townsend on loan. This has to be a very big risk taken by QPR, the money they have spent this January could cost them heavily if they do not stay up. Harry Redknapp may say that the spending is down to the chairman/owner but he has form on this issue. He may be a good coach but he has a bad record of his clubs overspending and going into financial trouble. This has happened at West Ham, Portsmouth and Southampton. Chris Samba signed for around £12.5 million and for very high wages he could be either the man to save QPR in the Premiership or cost them financially in the future. A big gamble by QPR.

Staying with QPR it is a little dodgy how Samba and Redknapp share an agent, also how Jenas and Odemwingie just turned up outside the stadium and were not let in. Another club who have brought in alot of new faces is Newcastle, the French revolution continues in the north east. This is all the more odd because Alan Pardew a few years before had criticised Arsene Wenger for buying too many French players. Arsenal now have a young British core coming through while most of Pardew's players are from the French league. 

Other good signings in this window have to be Holtby to Spurs, Zaha to Manchester United, Sturridge to Liverpool, Butland to Stoke and Monreal into Arsenal. Talking of Man Utd they once again showed there class and buying power by identifying the player they wanted and getting him signed up early. 

The window also highlighted teams which did not buy the players they needed, for example Manchester City got rid of Balotlli but did not replace him, Spurs needed another striker, Arsenal needed a defender and a midfielder. Only time will tell if these teams made a mistake by not getting in the needed players.