Top 20 Soccer Players

[cognito20]

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if he's at his peak right now and it's a stretch to have him in the top 20 how the [censored] do you expect him to improve to a top ten player?

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Because players rank based on the sum total of what they have accomplished, and obviously Henry is going to accomplish a lot more before he's through. I'm just ranking him around #20 based on what he's done -right now-. You're confusing the -talent- of a player with the -accomplishments- of a player. Maradona was the most -talented- player who ever lived, but he didn't DO quite what Pele did, hence Pele was the better player. It's not about what a player CAN do or what he SHOULD HAVE done, but what he DID done. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Kneel B4 Zod]

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if he's at his peak right now and it's a stretch to have him in the top 20 how the [censored] do you expect him to improve to a top ten player?

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Because players rank based on the sum total of what they have accomplished, and obviously Henry is going to accomplish a lot more before he's through. I'm just ranking him around #20 based on what he's done -right now-. You're confusing the -talent- of a player with the -accomplishments- of a player. Maradona was the most -talented- player who ever lived, but he didn't DO quite what Pele did, hence Pele was the better player. It's not about what a player CAN do or what he SHOULD HAVE done, but what he DID done. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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I'm still wondering why you rank him ahead of Ronaldo

[Fallen Hero]

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if he's at his peak right now and it's a stretch to have him in the top 20 how the [censored] do you expect him to improve to a top ten player?

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Because players rank based on the sum total of what they have accomplished, and obviously Henry is going to accomplish a lot more before he's through. I'm just ranking him around #20 based on what he's done -right now-. You're confusing the -talent- of a player with the -accomplishments- of a player. Maradona was the most -talented- player who ever lived, but he didn't DO quite what Pele did, hence Pele was the better player. It's not about what a player CAN do or what he SHOULD HAVE done, but what he DID done. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

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I know you're not the only one doing this, but this is really wrong. A player doesn't "accomplish" anything in terms of winning competitions, their team does. If I can clearly see player X is better than player Y than I don't care how many titles each of them won, player X is still better.

Paulo Sousa (yes, you probably never heard of him) won the Champions League in consecutive years in two different teams, people tried to sell the idea he was one of the best portuguese players ever because of his "accomplishments", I always thought it was ridiculous.

[RacersEdge]

So if Zidane is the only defininte Top 20 guy in the 2006 WC, how close is he too his peak right now? (He's about to retire, right?)

[challenger84]

I'd say he is at about 60% of the level he was at his peak. Keep in mind, a 60% Zidane is still better than 90% of everybody else.

[RacersEdge]

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Fair enough on Gerrard.

I may have taken the OP the wrong way, I kind of took it to mean which players in the tournament could be in the top 20 of all time, with all time being judged some time in the future.

Otherwise Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Zidane and thats it.

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Not having watched much soccer, I am just trying to calibrate what a Top 20 All-Time soccer player looks like on the field.

[RacersEdge]

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I'd say he is at about 60% of the level he was at his peak. Keep in mind, a 60% Zidane is still better than 90% of everybody else.

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That is a very strong statement.

[challenger84]

What, that he is at 60% or that he is better than 90% of everyone else?

[RacersEdge]

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What, that he is at 60% or that he is better than 90% of everyone else?

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Both of them together.

[challenger84]

Ummmm... Ok