What players do you admire and why? (non LFC)

Paolo Maldini-22 years at one club,40 years of age and still playing better than most of the defenders in the world.Nothing more needs to be said.

Most of my favorite players are those who stay at one club for a major part of their career and show loyalty towards the fans (Raul,Del Piero,Totti etc)

Amongst those who played in England-Zola,Shearer,Bergkamp.

RAUL!
He has been playing for Real Madrid at senior level since 1994, and is the team captain since 2003. He is also a member of the Spanish national team, and is its all-time leading goal scorer with 44 goals. He represented Spain in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup tournaments. With Real Madrid, he has won the UEFA Champions League three times, and is the all-time leading scorer of that competition with 61 goals.

Raúl is also currently 7th highest goalscorer in the history of Spain's top flight, with 203 goals in 478 games. All of these goals were for Real Madrid, making Raúl the club's 2nd highest goalscorer of all time. He is also called 'El siete', 'El Angel del Madrid' and 'El Capitán' by fans and pundits etc.

Zidane. As a kid the player that was most spoken about was Zidane, his reputation speaks for itself.

Also it must of taken alot of balls to do what he did in the world cup final! But it sent out a message - family comes first and to not take sh*t off other people.

i admire berbatov, love his style of play. ssooooooooooooooo calm and technically briliant.

Ive got to say....if we're talking in terms of legends and not current players....ive got to comiserate with both Cantona and George Best for playing for the wrong team. If they didnt play for the scum, they would truly gain all my respect !

In his prime Zidane was better than any player to ever kick a ball, absolute class france would not have had a chance of winning wc 98 or euro 2000. Pure genius

Mine is Beckham 'cos his set-piece is brialliant and his free-kick is unstoppable.

Marc Overmars, thought he was an amazing player, you hardly ever get players like him, gutted when he went to Barca.

He didn't turn out as good when he joined Barca. He was way better at Arsenal. He was the quickest player to be seen back then...

Gonna throw my opinion in on this.

David Beckham is someone I have huge admiration for. To have the media on his back since he was a kid and be made the scape goat for a single nation for so long AND STILL play with the level of professionalism and quality that he does shows not only a great footballer but also a very modest and great individual.

Mine is Beckham 'cos his set-piece is brialliant and his free-kick is unstoppable.

He may be brilliant but the rest of his team is playing like sh*t right now

i agree with michael owen!!
i saw him on an interveiw n i watched a liverpool match n ive loved the team ever since!!
some of the tw*ts in coventry (where i live) say ima  glory suporter because coventry city fc are sh*t!!
but i can say im NOT.
liverpool fc have changed the way i see football!!
n wen ive stayed in liverpool i feel at home
wenever i score a goal i get flashbacks of amazing players like gerrard or fowler scoring the winner and i swell with pride for my team!!

I LOVE LIVERPOOL FC MORE THAN I WILL LOVE ANYONE EVER IN MY LIFE!!
THIS IS HOW MUCH I LOVE THOSE LADS!!

Gattuso is a very good choice, his battling spirit, his never die attitude and passion for the shirt are a pure example what football is about. For me, Zidane has to be one of the greatest man ever to play football, at least during my life time. His vision of the game, his sublime touch of the ball and his impressive ability to handle pressure ( except once during the final of the World Cup I give you that) make him in my opinion one of the greatest player to play the game. Dalglish is an other player who shook the world of football, his ability was just out of this World.

George Best, even if he played for the wrong team, has to be there also, his ability to ridiculed defense and scoring so many goals so easily have to put him there. If Georges Best was playing for England, I'm convinced England would have been winning more trophies. Zidane, Best and Dalglish, simply three of the best ever playing the game.

I've gotta agree with Ra Ra on Gattuso. He is a player that gives his all and although may not be the most Technically gifted player he knows his role in the team and is very effective in his position. In my opinion he is one of the best in his position over the last few seasons.

One player I do admire that isn't playing anymore is Matt LeTissier. This is a player with all the ability in the world but didn't feel he had to leave his 'home' club to further his career. Some may have seen this as a lack of ambition but I thought at the time that this was a player who could have moved to a big club but wanted to stay loyal to Southampton.

Zidane was the perfect player he had everything.  I mean France had world class players to spare but without him they were like a Ferrari without an engine.

I remember Zidanes goal against Leverkusan in the CL final, was one of the best goals I have ever seen. Considering the ball was behind him and yet he still managed to get his foot wrapped around it and bang one in. Great talent, no doubt.

In terms of former players due to me only being 19 and not having actually watched Maradona or Pele play, growing up no-one could compare to ....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=96DUcbtEvcU


For me he is the best player to ever play the game obviously partly due to me never having see the former (named) two play but still, the way he played the game still amazes me, to this day I havent seen another player who is so calm in his play and so skillful in the way he keeps the ball and brings others into the game.


For more recent times its got to be Ronaldinho and Messi. Two creative attacking players that can make something up on the spot and it iwill work, was sad to see all the bad press about ronaldinho when his form dipped and sad to see messi having so many injury problems but I think messi will become one of the best players ever. Barcelona seem to have a knack of finding players who are more creative than most and I think Bojan Krkic will become a great player too, At just 17 he is already playing some amazing stuff.

I think Ronaldinho was better than Zidane. I do think Zizou is absolutely amazing but I think he was overrated a little which was first triggered off by his price tag. Remember that Zizou in his prime cost over £40m, Ronaldinho in his prime would have cost well over £100m.

I think Ronaldinho was just intelligent, the things he done proved that and Ronaldinho had touch and control like no other. Zizou is my footballing idol but I know well enough to admit that Ronaldinho was way better!

I think Ronaldinho was better than Zidane. I do think Zizou is absolutely amazing but I think he was overrated a little which was first triggered off by his price tag. Remember that Zizou in his prime cost over £40m, Ronaldinho in his prime would have cost well over £100m.

I think Ronaldinho was just intelligent, the things he done proved that and Ronaldinho had touch and control like no other. Zizou is my footballing idol but I know well enough to admit that Ronaldinho was way better!

I can see why you think this but in my opinion zidane was just incredible. I can clearly see why people prefer ronaldinho and others but for me zidane was just the all time best. His guile and prowess on the ball was amazing, he just used to take a game by the scruff of the neck and it alwayssss seemed effortless. I think if Zidane was in his prime at the same time as Ronaldinho was in his and they were both playing in spain (i only mentioned spain because of it being classed as 'buyout clause' capital) i do think zizou would have had the higher buyout clause.

The thing i loved most about zidane was the way he just did what he wanted and it always seemed to work and he was as much of a team player you could find in an all time great. I cant imagine their ever being another player that approaches the game the way he did whereas i can see other versions of Ronaldinho, Ronaldo etc. coming along in the future, most likely not as good but along the same lines in terms of style. I dont think we'll see another player who is as spontaneuous and creative as ronaldinho (except messi) for a longgggg time but i think there will be players that are a little bit similar whereas i can never see a player in the zidane mould for some reason its strange.

I think in their primes Ronaldinho was the better player but overall without a doubt Zizou is the greater player. You know why? Because he maintained a high level of world class football for years. A good 10 years of fantastic football from the Algerian great!

Ronaldinho's problem was getting paid too much, having personal problems such as being away from his kid, he started to get obsessed with the night life and he was lonely. He put on a lot of weight aswell which has slowed his game down. He admitted to put on wait through drinking too much beer in depression. He use to skip training some days and Riijkard didn't do anything about it, this is how his career is coming to a dissapointing end as he could still be by far the best player in the world right now if he gave two shits. Nothing to do with his age, he's still young at 28

Zidane in my opinion didn't care too much about the money otherwise he would have retired later on in his career. He turned up for the bigger games and maybe dictated the pace of the game more. He was probably the most intelligent player around, with Ronaldinho a close 2nd.

I do think Zizou can be over hyped by certain fans but then again he did win France the World Cup and he won Madrid the Champions League.

True both great players. Thats mainly what i love about zizou his love for the game, and intellegence within it. Read the game amazingly.

In my opinion zizou shud go down in history as the one of the most skillful players ever (along with pele, maradona and king kenny of course). that video perfectly shows what zidane's talent was, his control over the ball. His control was so good he didnt even ave to touch the ball to be in control of it, he cud leave people for dead jst by touching the ball with his little toe.

For me though i usually prefer defensive players, thats why watching the likes of maldini and cafu is so enjoyable. i didnt kno 40 yeasr old men cud run as fast as cafu, surely he is superhuman. Once heard a commentator talkin bout maldini sayin that defenders who had been playin for as long as he had shud nt look that good. i think that shows jst how classy he is as a defender.

He may be brilliant but the rest of his team is playing like sh*t right now

I think that his brialliant days already passed.