Your top 5 footballers in your lifetime

[Kumquat]

1. Robin Friday. A meteoric career, left none unmoved.
2. Stan Bowles
3. Vinnie Jones
4. Jerry Murphy
5. Charlie George

Good call on Robin Friday. You read the book about him? Forget who wrote it.

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Maradona in my eyes was the best hacked down all the time and still beat everyone around him.todays footballers messi ect.. Would nt have lasted 5mins with that type of treatment.

Watching him keep his balance amongst flying legs, in that cartwheeling-flailing way is pretty magnificent.

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Waddle and Hoddle (if only because their names made us giggle at school), Le Tissier, Dalglish, STEVE PENNEY.

 

[BangaloreGull]

Basing it on players I have seen on the flesh and on there performance when I saw them (for no other reason than otherwise I can't remember)

Tony Currie
Frank Worthington
Anthony Knockheart
Gary Macalister (I know he was never that good but I remembered him for years on back of a game at the Goldstone)
John Crumplin - well he was a football genius wasn't he

 

[Hendrax]

How Messi isn't in everyone's list I don't know.

Messi
Christiano Ronaldo
Zidane
Pirlo
Ronaldinho

 

[Robinjakarta]

British: Haynes, Wright (Billy) Mackay Charlton Greaves (could also include Baxter and Charles J)

World: Pele Eusebio Puskas Di Stefano Cruyff

Don't like more modern ones - the balls are too light, pitches too good and they are paid too much !

Agree with all of that.

 

[BensGrandad]

George Best
Johan Cruyff
Franz Beckenbaur
Danny Blanchflower
Jimmy Greaves

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Thierry Henry. At times he was just making it look too easy.

Ronaldinho - for that 2 or 3 years at Barca where he was simply stunning. I'd never seen a player like that.

Roberto Carlos - Never thought a defender could be exciting to watch until I saw him play

Alvaro Recoba - What a talent

Batistuta - Used to tune in to Football Italia as a 12/13 year old purely for him.


Coincidentally all these were in their prime when I was 13 to 20, probably the age where you understand the game more but are still in that non-cynical stage where you are simply wowed by talent.

 

[theboybilly]

George Best
Rivelino
Rosario
Pele
Denis Law

 

[jasetheace]

How Messi isn't in everyone's list I don't know.

Messi
Christiano Ronaldo
Zidane
Pirlo
Ronaldinho

Depends how you are approaching the question. For many people favourite and best are entirely different kettles of fish.

Messi of course is a Titan but in my opinion lacks any character. The reason why Frank Worthington appears so often here is that people identify with flawed genius. If he had bothered to train and avoided cigarettes and alcohol (and a plethora of ladies), he would have been top 10 regardless of how you approach the question.

 

[Pevenseagull]

In no particular order

Brady
Beardsley
Bergkamp
Zidane
Hagi

if any of the above were playing in a televised match I would try to watch it

 

[Perfidious Albion]

Not necessarily in order

Bobby Moore
George Best
Peter Ward
David Ginola
Michael Owen

 

[Weststander]

I could watch Litmanen all day long.

I loved the Ajax side of 1995. Built on a shoestring, mainly from the academy.

The destroyed the usual Bayern team, built at great expense by buying everyone else's best players.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Best
Cruyff
Socrates
Waddle
Ginola

Nearly made it: Lawrenson, Beardsley, Shearer, Gascoigne, Stan Bowles, Hoddle

 

[Stinky Pete]

10 posts before Maradona even got mentioned [emoji47]

 

[pearl]

Disgracefully sexist perspective on this especially after the magnificent performance of the England women's team last night...........Sorry slipped into 'R5 presenter mode' for a few seconds.

Eniola Aluko
George Best
Cantona
Terry Connor
Bobby Zamora

(and Bob Marley)

 

[The_Viper]

Thierry Henry
Ronaldinho
Messi
Shearer
Buffon

Brighton

Zamora
Vicente
Knocky
The duo of Carpenter and Oatway
Kuipers

 

[Shatner's Bassoon]

Vicente
Diego Maradona
John Barnes
Matthew Le Tissier
Abdul Razak in that game against Ipswich

 

[Deleted member 2719]

In no particular order.

Bobby Moore: Made the art of defending look so simple.
Vicente Rodríguez: The control and weighted ball through were just sublime.
Paolo Maldini: The all round consistently brilliant full back.
Stuart Pearce: The man everyone wants in their team, fierce.
Andrea Pirlo: The player that could read the game with a match winning pass.

Special mention goes to:

Eric Cantona: a man the knows how to launch a gobby pikey.

 

[BigGully]

Best: Maradonna
Growing up: George Best
Brighton: Peter Ward
Seen at the Goldstone: Alan Devonshire
Wild Card: Riquelme