by Jack Atchinson on
As we all know, the spine-tingling hatred we feel towards other team’s players is part of what gives football its passion. But some players can cross the divide and feel the love whether they play at Old Trafford, Anfield or the Bernabeu.
COS takes a look, in no particular order, at some of the players loved by all fans.
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Although this living legend was not as consistently great as previous entrants like Alfredo di Stefano, Sir Bobby Charlton or Paolo Maldini, it was his ability to resurrect his career after several setbacks, like Ronaldo, that warrants his inclusion.
This man basically won the 1982 World Cup on his own. He inspired Italy to victory. And all that after being banned from world football for two years beforehand… Read more…
England’s record all-time goalscorer, is a player and man to be admired. He suffered great tragedy and scaled great heights during his career. Read more…
While not as modern or famous as previous entrants Scholes, Maldini and Ronaldo, the fourth living legend is more important and remarkable than them all. After all, not many players are capped for three different countries… Read more…
505 appearances, 350 goals. That record speaks for itself. Add in the fact that this is from a man who has only just turned 31 and you realise how good he must have been.
Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima, the original Ronaldo, is often looked down upon as a man who never truly made the most of what he had, often through media pressures and bad injuries. However, examine his career in statistics, not headlines, and it tells a different story:
When you finish that list, you begin to understand why I consider Ronaldo alongside players like Paolo Maldini for this series. Although he was caught up in a ridiculous scandal in recent months, nothing takes away from what this man has achieved.
As would happen with many South American players in the future, Ronaldo was plucked from Cruzeiro at the age of 17 to play in Europe for PSV Eindhoven. He had scored 12 goals in 13 games, and this was enough for PSV and the Brazil national team to sit up, take note and give him his chance. The $6 million PSV paid Cruzeiro would seem like a bargain as, over two seasons, Ronaldo terrorised Dutch defences with an incredible 55 goals in 57 games. He won the World Player of the Year award for 1996, the youngest ever winner at just 19.
Barcelona, led by English manager Sir Bobby Robson, swooped for Ronaldo. He repaid them by firing 47 goals in 49 appearances, keeping up his phenomenal scoring rate of just under one every game. After winning the Spanish Super Cup and the UEFA Cup Winners Cup with Barca in 1996/97, he was once again named the best player in the world. Ronaldo moved on again, this time for a world record fee, to Serie A.
Inter Milan paid Barcelona £18 million for Ronaldo’s services in 1997, beating the £15 million Newcastle United paid for Alan Shearer in 1995. He continued his scoring feats, with 34 goals in 47 appearances in the 1997/98 season, culminating in winning the UEFA Cup.
Staying with Inter, he travelled to France ’98 with World champions Brazil. The world was watching. They wanted to see this talented 22-year-old tear the world apart and fire Brazil to a second-successive World Cup trophy. It all went to plan. All of it, except the final. Ronaldo suffered a convulsive fit the night before and the media went into a frenzy as to why he had suffered a fit and if he would play. He was to be excluded by coach Mario Zagallo, before pleading to play. He did. But not well. He was a shadow of his former self and, not helped by a collision with France keeper Fabian Barthez, was lethargic, off-pace and nowhere near peak condition. Brazil lost 3-0 and Ronaldo began a dark period in his career.
He returned to Inter, continuing his goalscoring with 14 in 20 league appearances, but suffered a ruptured tendon in his right knee and would require surgery. He was ruled out for the 1998/99 season. On his comeback in April 2000, he suffered the same injury again. Once again he was out for the season. After two operations and 20 months of rehabilitation, Ronaldo returned to the Inter Milan first team. His aim was to regain his fitness in time for the 2002 World Cup. He returned and showed his class once again, scoring 7 goals in 10 league games.
Brazil went to the 2002 World Cup having only just qualifed, but Ronaldo led the team once more and scored in every round, bar the quarter-finals against England, as Brazil reached the final. Ronaldo then laid to rest the ghosts of his injuries and the 1998 Final with a solo performance to beat Germany 2-0, scoring both goals. He was named 2002 World Player of the Year. Ronaldo was back.
He joined European Champions Real Madrid’s ‘galacticos’ for £25m after the World Cup, scoring twice on his debut. He stayed at Madrid for four-and-a-half years, scoring 102 goals and endearing himself to Real’s fans. He moved on, perhaps for the final time of his career, to AC Milan in January 2007 for around £5 million, although injuries have overshadowed his return to the San Siro.
He was cup-tied for their run to the 2007 Champions League trophy, the closest he ever got in his phenomenal career. He will go down as one of the greatest players to have never won Europe’s greatest prize, although he can console himself with his three World Player of the Year trophies and his World Cup winner’s medal.
If he is not respected for the sheer amount of trophies he was won and goals he has scored, then surely it should be for his determination to return from such a crippling injury, twice, to reach the heights he had before, World Player of the Year. Thus, he must be considered a living legend.
After over 1,000 senior appearances, five European Cups, 126 caps for the Azzurri and nearly a quarter of a century at AC Milan, Paolo Maldini considered retiring. The world was ready to pay tribute to one of the world’s greatest defenders and a beacon of the word “loyalty”. Maldini had other plans. As AC Milan were knocked out of the Champions League by Arsenal in March this year, Maldini decided to play on for one more season. World football was glad of another 12 months from the legend.
The son of another Italian legend, Cesare Maldini, Paolo was destined to play for one team only. Born in Milan, he was snapped up by the AC youth set-up aged only 10. He stayed there until he made his senior debut, aged just 16, against Udinese. He worked his way into the starting eleven and, coinciding with the club’s first Scudetto in nearly 10 years, became first-choice at left-back.
AC Milan grew from strength-to-strength with the young Maldini, and the influence of Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard helped to win back-to-back European Cups, a feat that has not been repeated since. The team would go on to win the trophy three more times in Maldini’s career, two as captain, with two different generations of squad, showing his influence, adaptability and determination.
He has played on the biggest stages and won the biggest accolades. He was the first defender to ever win the World Soccer Player of the Year award, previously held for attackers. If ever a modern player was worthy of being listed amongst such greats as Beckenbauer, Pele, Maradona or Puskas, it is Maldini.
He has maintained a great value to AC Milan, even as he approached his 40th birthday. He has given so much to the club that they plan to retire his number 3 jersey when he finally calls it a day. It will only come out of the shadows for another Maldini.
That goes to show the level of respect the club has for its favourite son. And it is fair reward for something that is all too absent in todays game: loyalty.
In the first of my new Living Legends series, I take a look at the softly-spoken, mistimed tackling Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes.
Read more…