Spurious topic I know, but watching the Liverpool v Chelsea game the other day it occured to me that Djimi Traore is surely the worst player to have won a champions league medal in recent years.
And Steve McLaren too, if Assistant Managers actually get medals. Bryan Kidd was responsible for training and preparing that Man United team over a long period of time, but unfortunately wasn't around long enough to reap his reward.
McLaren waltzes in, doesn't contribute much or change anything from Kiddo's tenure, but picks up 3 medals in his first full season so everyone thinks he's the business.
jerzy dudek and the worst player to play in the uefa up must be drogba shoking he has less chance of scoring a goal were he ment to shoot as san marino hav of wining the world cup
Liverpool were very very lucky throughout the tournament and have several v. poor players. But this has always been the way. The great Liverpool side of the 1980s regularly featured guys like Gary Gillespie (although I don't think he ever won an ECC winners medal).
Phil Neville, along with Greening and May from Manchester United. Martin Kree 'stands out' amid a team of average players in Dortmund's 1997 win. Was Porrini in the squad for Juventus' win over Ajax in 1996?
All-in-all, very few truly terrible players have won European Cup winners medals. By contrast, in the last decade UEFA Cup winners medals have been handed out to Nuno Capucho, Sander Westerveld, Emile Heskey, and Taribo West.
Was Jonathan Greening on the bench for the EC final? Sheesh...lucky so and so...
Vladimir Smicer and Djimi Traore are perhaps the worst - Harry Kewell gets an award for the smallest contribution to a winning side
Phil Neville and Nuno Valente are two EC winners playing for Everton; thats more than are playing for Arsenal and only one less than play for Man Utd [i think - depends if you include Solksjaer...i dont since he hasnt played for so long]. Perhaps an EC medal is now not the litmus test of a top footballer
"Why do you take my statements with a papal seriousness?" "I don't want the virgin olive oil..."
Originally posted by mikey1892: Perhaps an EC medal is now not the litmus test of a top footballer
Well, you could be right. Would it help to look at the very top footballers that have never won a European Cup winners medal? I don't believe there are all that many truly world class players over the age of 25 without that medal. Michael Ballack, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry are the only ones that spring to mind. I will, of course, stand corrected.
I'm not sure about that, Markieboy. Aside from the ones you and Bracey mentioned, how about Frank Lampard, Gigi Buffon, Pavel Nedved, Emerson or Fabio Cannavaro? Of course, 4/5 of those would be solved if Juve won it this year.
Since '98/'99 Real Madrid have won it twice, Bayern, Milan, Porto and Liverpool have all won it once. Among those sides, that are some quite ordinary players. Well...perhaps not ordinary but not necessarily exceptional.
Of the 'great' stakes Madrid had Figo, Zidane, Raul and perhaps Ronaldo [did he sign before 2001]; Bayern had...errm...well, no-one that springs immediately to mind apart from Kahn; Milan had/have Shevchenko, Maldini, Nesta and Rui Costa; Porto have Deco, Carvalho [sp?] and that midfielder whos name ive forgotten [now plays in Russia/Ukraine...signed for a lot of money...]; and Liverpool have Gerrard. Since each side has comparatively few really really good players, then there must have been quite a few good/ordinary players that won a medal.
This is only a very narrow assessment, but i'd say that EC medals are about as indicative of a players ability as international caps [anyone can get one if theyre in the right place at the right time].
"Why do you take my statements with a papal seriousness?" "I don't want the virgin olive oil..."
Actually...maybe an M...Mancihe? Something like that perhaps...
