Far as scoring goals Gerd Mueller remains w/o peers. yes, Ronaldo may be getting up there in total goals scored, but it is taking him twice the amount of games to do this. Mueller scored EVERY time he stepped on that field. And he did it without the chiselled abs.

Tom Brady or Emmitt Smith

Easy - John Charles. Not many others who were world class centre forwards AND world class defenders. Plus, he never got booked.

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jumpontopofmebaby
Tom Brady or Emmitt Smith

Do they play the ball with their foot?

Johnny Unitas

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Welsh Stone
Easy - John Charles. Not many others who were world class centre forwards AND world class defenders. Plus, he never got booked.

Great shout Welsh Stone.

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Welsh Stone
Easy - John Charles. Not many others who were world class centre forwards AND world class defenders. Plus, he never got booked.

Quite a feat for somebody who played for Leeds & Juventus

Pity his example wasn't followed by their players in later years

Daryl Lamonica

Jim Brown or Dick Butkus

Maradona, no doubt.

I saw that Bayern went and got Sandro Wagner. And now there is supposedly serious interest in Goretzka too. I love the Bayern team, but I have a problem with this.
Do the rest of teams get any of the good players?

In US Football there is great parity. Any year it can be anybody.

In football or soccer as Americans like to call it the most successful teams get the best players because the game is ruled by money and also because the best players want to play for successful teams.Bayern Munich are extremely dominant in German football.

Nate

club football has been ruined for years by greed. teams are allowed to buy players they cant afford, this is wrong.

also a player should never be allowed to play for 2 different clubs in a single league campaign, meaning he can play both for and against a particular club.

in no other sport can an individual also be its own opponent in the same season.

There is no correct answer;

Cruyff, Puskas, Di Stefano, Garrincha and Leonidas.

Since around the late 1980s, money and greed has progressively destroyed the game. Leagues around Europe might as well be played out on Balance Sheets, Profit & Loss Accounts, Stock Exchanges and the Sunday Times and Forbes Rich Lists.

Until then it was possible for well organised smaller clubs to do well in their national leagues and also European Competition. Nottingham Forest and Everton won the League in England and the former won 2 European Cups and the latter the Cup Winners Cup. In Scotland Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen won the Premier League 3 times and the Cup Winners Cup in 1983, beating Real Madrid in the final. I know Leicester won the English League in 2016, but that’s sadly likely to be a one-Off blip.

Another piece of nonsense is the Champions League, which is a total misnomer. You used to have to be Champions of your National League ro get into it yet Germany, England and Spain each send their top 4 teams into it. To be able to finish a distant 4th in your national league and gain entry to a competition called the Champions League is ludicrous.

Sky TV ensures thst the big teama have an unassailable financial advantage and stranglehold over everyone else and as they’re on TV ceaselessly and kids largely ignore their local team and follow the TV elite teams, from Cities they’ve never visited nor have any kind of connection with.

For me the game is messed. If it wasn’t for my support form my own club (Hearts, Edinburgh), I’d be done with football.

Buttons’ point about transferring between 2 direct rivals during a season is a good one. One thing I think could improve the game is a US style draft system where the less successful teams get 1st pick of the latest upcoming Academy graduates. An excellent innovation btw Americans. But it would never work in Europe - there’s too much vested interest by the big powerful clubs who would never accept it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-01-05 02:53 by grzegorz67.

Does Europe have Academy graduates?

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Koen
Does Europe have Academy graduates?

Most of the bigger clubs have youth academies and, of course, the biggest ones have the best ones and attract the best players, creaming off the best talent at an early age. Barcelona’s is huge. There’s nothing in Europe similar to the US College System which seems to work well. For it to work, Youth Acadamies would have to be set up that were independent of individual professional clubs but that would need investment either from the state or National Football Associations. The biggest clubs have too much power and control the game so the whole thing’s a closed shop.

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grzegorz67

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Koen
Does Europe have Academy graduates?

Most of the bigger clubs have youth academies and, of course, the biggest ones have the best ones and attract the best players, creaming off the best talent at an early age. Barcelona’s is huge. There’s nothing in Europe similar to the US College System which seems to work well. For it to work, Youth Acadamies would have to be set up that were independent of individual professional clubs but that would need investment either from the state or National Football Associations. The biggest clubs have too much power and control the game so the whole thing’s a closed shop.

I do think it would be possible to introduce a system in European Soccer that would be comparable to the College system in Pro US Football.
All teams have youth programs and leagues. You start promoting youth leagues, maybe international tournaments where new players can be seen and evaluated. Each season clubs choose only from their own country's programs. And - this is huge - the last placed team gets first pick.
No more lending of players. This is a ridiculous practice.If there is one practice that spells $$$ it is this one.
Place a limit on foreign players for each team. The club's identity is no longer the city where they are from, and where they play, but their owner.
And on a slightly different note, yes - get the Champions's Cup back to where it is a cup of champions. There used to be 3 European Cups: Champions, Cup Winners, and UEFA Cup. This made more sense IMO.

there should be a structure for financial fairplay, that is fair to all.

foreign limits on players, is not illegal despite many saying so. clubs would still be able to sign as many foreigners as they wished, but just not play them all.

champions league needs an overhall, its boring and should be called the money league.

there should be a limit on the amount of tv money a team can take. my opinion is that with sky, some weaker leagues teams fans are giving money to sky only to see the money go to the english premiership in particular, the figures are disproportionate to average attendances and actual viewers watching. bigger leagues are being subsidised by smaller leagues because sky takes the pot and gives the bulk of it to the bigger leagues. and the smaller leagues get peanuts in return.

Can anybody follow?

Johan Cruijff Explains "The "Diamond".


Cruijff's analysis of the Dutch team.

Marv Hubbard

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grzegorz67

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Koen
Does Europe have Academy graduates?

Most of the bigger clubs have youth academies and, of course, the biggest ones have the best ones and attract the best players, creaming off the best talent at an early age. Barcelona’s is huge. There’s nothing in Europe similar to the US College System which seems to work well. For it to work, Youth Acadamies would have to be set up that were independent of individual professional clubs but that would need investment either from the state or National Football Associations. The biggest clubs have too much power and control the game so the whole thing’s a closed shop.

This answer also goes to Palace Revolution 2000 in a way.

A few years ago there was a tv report on the youth academy of Bayern Munich. A few players were followed during the season. I think Hermann Gerland (sorry, the Germans will know) was in charge of them. At the end of the season Bayern ended about 5th in the A-Juniors Bundesliga and thus the season's aim wasn't realized. They just kept one goalkeeper and a defender of about 25 'students'. For sure they filled their academy easily...
Palace, this always comes to my mind when I read about which player was 'bought' this time.

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