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Who is the Greatest Ever?

The argument about the greatest player to ever play the game has raged on for year after year now.  Having stumbled across my fare share of arguments in this matter myself I have become increasingly intrigued as to the overall view of who people genuinely think is the greatest ever player to grace the game. Unfortunately the more the game carries on the longer the list of candidates grows. Recent/current players that have been widely suggested include Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo just to name a handful. Some of the slightly older candidates include players such as Maradona, Romario and Johan Cruyff.

From my experience the world player of the year award is most often given to players who all fit a similar mould and style of player with the few exceptions obviously with the likes of Kaka, Zidane and Cannavaro. When you look through the list, at least 9 of these players who have won this award are generally known for their incredible dribbling talent, technique, ability to run at and take on the opposition back line and several of these players are also absolute goal machines to add onto an already highly polished cv of trickery and talent. Generally the player who takes home the award each year is the one who played the most beautiful football throughout that year and lets be honest there are not many players who have played more beautiful football than players such as Messi or Rivaldo or Maradona.

But whilst I would never deny that these indivdual players are some of the most talented to have ever graced the game and it is a joy to have watched them play why have they become more recognised than a whole host of other players who have been truly world class for the world of football but in maybe a less obvious way. Players such as Paolo Maldini who represented AC Milan for 25 solid years playing over 900 games, winning 7 Serie A titles, 5 Champions league titles and a world cup just to name some of the honours to his name. Or Alan Shearer who notched up an incredible goal tally of over 420 goals at all levels he played at including international level. Another is Ryan Giggs who has played in every single season since the premiership first began scoring in every single season being the only player to do so. Winning 12 Premier league winners medals, 4 FA cups and 2 champions league winners medals. Not your usual nominees but there are quite a number of players who like these 3 have had some of the finest careers and whole rooms full of trophies to show for it but never get a look when it comes to being considered the greatest ever player.

I could run off whole lists of players for that have whole hosts of achievements and have been true legends of the footballing world but have never even been considered as candidates for the title of greatest ever player. So my main argument for who is the greatest ever is not just who the actual player is but mainly whether only players who fit the mould of quick, technical and exciting should be considered, or whether some of the unsung legends of world football who have been truly world class in their own right should also start to be considered as genuine contenders.

I doubt there will ever be a definitive answer to this ongoing debate but I thought I’d throw this in there as I feel there are a number of world class players who have too often been ignored in this debate to make way for the stereotypical players who are most often considered

Thanks for reading. If you have any other names of players that you think consider to be the best in the world please feel free to share them. I am very interested in what views people have on the debate. I’ll be back for an update soon

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