Walcott was definitely the big mistake and there are probably at least 50-60 players right now with excellent cases over him.

A lot of players that wasn't on the list originally has since moved their way in and even more almost did. Not really Donovan though. He must be top 300. 250? But there are soooo many good players not on the list (dropping out of the list) that it's unreal.
And most in that range are really hard to pick between. Hopefully I'm not fooling myself when I believe it's much easier and my mind is much more set when I get to the top placings.

Well I sort of think of the best players in the world at any sport as a curve that extends upward exponentially. If you agree with that, then it makes sense that you should have an easier time of it the farther (closer to #1) you get, because the gaps in skill will be larger.

So the difference between player #2 and player #9 should be much bigger in terms of skill than the difference between player #255 and #262, ldo.

This is true in basically all sports, not just soccer.

I frankly haven't watched enough of Ligue 1, the Bundesliga, or Serie A to come close to having a valid opinion on who is or isn't in the best 200 players in the world, so I guess I'll have to defer to you. I just want one American in the top 200! Oh well.

I guess I can wait 'till Jozy Altidore gets older.

ESPN says Landy is #50! So there!

btw Bjorn keep it up, I really enjoy these write ups, especially the pictures lol.

Just noticed this thread. Taking too long imo Bjorn. You should have just done top 50 imo. The list will have changed by the time you finish even. Enjoying the write ups though very good.

Agree with both of them.

It was just a little ambitious imo. Appreciate the effort though and have enjoyed reading what has been done up to this point.

Bjorn - I love the Bellamy pic. FWIW I think he is an easy player to overlook and a good choice to have in there. I was gutted when he left us.

Darijo Srna wayyy too low.

you and few hundred thousand Celtic fans .

fwiw i seen you have Ronaldinho at somewhere like 160-180 on this list , thats way to low imo , obv yes he is not what he was before he left barca but if you seen him V man utd few weeks ago im sure hed be a lot higher (not many can do what he can with a football).

Yeah but Bjorn hadn't seen that when he made the list, obviously.

players like ronaldhino just do not become bad overnight (shevchenko excluded) , he will always have some class about him . just he turned into a lazy bastard but never lost his skills .

why i call him a lazy bastard is because to have all the talent he has but not try to show it always sickens me .

I think I cover most of my feelings about Ronaldinho in the write up.

He is a unique talent. Of the players I've seen maybe only behind Maradona and Zidane.
In some ways now I guess what he has become can be compared to the old Maradona when he had also declined in physical ability.

His amazing technical gifts are still there but thinking about it, I'm not sure there is any player who hurts his team on the whole list the way Ronaldinho does Milan and did late career Barcelona. That team had Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, Eto'o but Ronaldinho compared to what it became after they got rid of him, often made it a bad one (despite all the goals and assists). That's some serious achievement in team killing.

With that said looking at those placings now I would have liked to have moved 171,170, 169, 168 (Progrebnyak, Srna, Ronaldinho and Bojan/Pedro somewhere to the 150s instead. In the same order though.

To be fair it wasn't anything he hadn't done all season or his first season in Milan for that matter. But a special occasion of course against an excellent opponent.

But he is also a big part of why eventually United had a free pass to the Milan penalty area=getting a horrible result at home.

The one interesting argument you can make for him I think is that if you consider that it isn't really his fault that Leonardo insist on playing him with two more forwards really failing to protect him so to speak, but then again it might just be the only option (other than not playing him at all) cause I'm not sure how effective he would really be if only having one more or less isolated forward to service.

His amazing technical gifts are still there but thinking about it, I'm not sure there is any player who hurts his team on the whole list the way Ronaldinho does Milan and did late career Barcelona. That team had Xavi, Messi, Iniesta, Eto'o but Ronaldinho compared to what it became after they got rid of him, often made it a bad one (despite all the goals and assists). That's some serious achievement in team killing.

i agree with all the above.

i also agree with all the below .


To be fair it wasn't anything he hadn't done all season or his first season in Milan for that matter. But a special occasion of course against an excellent opponent.

But he is also a big part of why eventually United had a free pass(i'd add Pato in here too) to the Milan penalty area=getting a horrible result at home.

The one interesting argument you can make for him I think is that if you consider that it isn't really his fault that Leonardo insist on playing him with two more forwards really failing to protect him so to speak, but then again it might just be the only option (other than not playing him at all) cause I'm not sure how effective he would really be if only having one more or less isolated forward to service.

where are the chileans ?

fyp

Mexicans and Chileans still to come!

Ronaldinho 2004/2005 still eclipses probably any player's one season performance in the modern era imo. Even moreso and ahead for me than C.Ronaldo 2007/2008, or Ronaldo 1996/1997, Zidane 1997/1998 which are the other contenders imo.

Bjorn, I'm curious as to how you rated Samuel's performances for Real Madrid. From recollection, he was very often beaten for pace in a team not really built for defence. Or is it a case where you see quality defending at RM as a mostly impossible task?

Oh and just one minor nitpick - you have Bruno Alves listed as Bruno Silva in your latest update.

RM was desperately bad tactically and left tons of space, Samuel did not play well in a system where his faults (lack of speed, agility) were maximised and his strengths (positioning, dirty close marking, strength) negated.

Nesta is wtf, he's somewhere around #30 in my eyes. So much better than the feted pretenders to his throne, and his peak was considerably better than Maldini's peak, definitely Baresi's true heir in everything - being super good and super dirty and all. He's still better than Chiellini for example.

Thanks. All corrections are very welcome! Had copy pasted that error quite a few times from list to list without noticing!

Will comment on Nesta and Samuel (and hopefully have another update) later.

edit: good description:

Nesta was never quite as good as Cannavaro imo. Also I don't know why you think Nesta's peak was better than Maldini's. Nesta's best season probably wouldn't be in Maldini's top 5.

This sounds like I am really criticizing Nesta but I am not. These are some quality footballers I am rating him below.

There are no real scientific arguments, but you're just plain wrong. Like, what you believe is not correct. Nesta at his ridiculous peak (last years at Lazio) is as good as Baresi's best, only he had way suckier teammates than van Basten, Ryjkaard, Gullit, Maldini, Albertini, Desailly playing in a tactical system that revolutionised modern football

Come on, whilst clearly not as good that Lazio team was very talented.

We are arguing about 2 of the top 10 defenders of our lifetimes so it does seem a bit silly, however you underrate Maldini and overrate Nesta imo.

Lol @ me being just plain wrong. The sheer magnitude of the arrogance involved in making that statement automatically renders any opinion you may hold suspect.

This is Bjorn's thread so let him chime in.

You're still plain wrong. There are unfortunately no scientific metric for defenders, so I'll just say that anyone that appreciates defending and all its dark arts knows Nesta > Maldini and that Baresi is the best that's ever been seen in colour TV.