Thursday, June 21, 2007

Gabriele Marcotti Picks the Top 50 Footballers

Today he gives us 50 - 26. And, not surprisingly, I've already got some issues. He obviously doesn't rate defenders. Nesta at 41? John Terry at 30? Hmmmm. -Sanford
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article1963015.ece

2 comments:

Bobbie BS said...

Well for starters Nesta is quite overrated. He's often hurt, he's overshadowed by his parter at CB (Maldini), he gives up goals (see Wayne Rooney, Champions League semifinal at Old Trafford). If he's as wonderful as the pundits say then why is his absence not noticed when he's replaced (Costacurata and Kaladze at Milan, Materazzi and Cannavaro for Italy)? Worse than Terry and Carragher? Perhaps, he's not quite the ball winner and he's a more causal player. He's the Italian Rio Ferdinand and Rio is not nearly the player that Terry or Carragher is. Still you can be assured that our man Marcotti will pick Rio in the top 15. But Ballack at 26 after the year he had? And I know that Paul Scholes has been a special player but 1999 is 8 years gone.

The Editor said...

Nesta may be overrated but he deserves to be higher in my book. And if I'm starting a team (see below) you can bet John Terry will be pretty close to the top of my list.

GB says, "So here they are: imagine you are the manager of a totally new team. You have a certain budget to spend, but first you get one freebie, one guy to build your team around. You get him only for one season, the 2007-08 campaign, so you want to go for who can do the best job for you here and now, without worrying how good he can be down the line. Who would you choose?

His justification for Ballack negates what he says above.