Greatest French Footballer Ever ?

[steds]

Hahahaha

 

[Neil Pickup]

Alex Jeannin

 

[Tom Halsey]

You never saw Desailly?

Oops, didn't see him in the list. Ah well, wouldn't have gone for him anyway.

 

[aussie]

Even now as well.

Trezeguet - Argentina (grew up there and did say in World Soccer magazine last year he hopes to finish his career at River Plate since he is a fan)
Vieria - Senegal
Makelele - As above
Cisse - As above (IIRC Makelele and Cisse were born there)
And technically Freddy Kanoute.

Plus you have Saha, Gallas, Pires (according to FM he is half Portugese but don't quote me for fact), Dacourt, Thuram, Boumsong (was born in Cameroon), Malouda, Wiltord, Abidal, Anelka etc. were all born or have parents or grandparents from abroad.

France has to be one of the most multicultral countries out there (I know Germany has their fair share of Poles, Turks and those from Croatia and the Balkans after the war in the 90's).

Ha, well i wonder who is the greatest pure French player then if the majority of their great players have links to other nations.

 

[steds]

Ha, well i wonder who is the greatest pure French player then if the majority of their great players have links to other nations.

Keegan, duh!

 

[Matteh]

Le Tissier.

 

[Cloete]

Hmm, I've only seen three, and of those 3 I reckon Cantona and Henry are slightly ahead of Zidane. Then went for Cantona out of bias more than anything else.

Seriously Halsey, you're often rational but that's appalling.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hmm, I've only seen three, and of those 3 I reckon Cantona and Henry are slightly ahead of Zidane. Then went for Cantona out of bias more than anything else.

That post puts you below a certain Malcolm Glazer in terms of footballing knowledge as far as I'm concerned.

Chief poseur is a below par France international over the past decade, most of their defenders and midfielders have performed leagues ahead of him and that's what their triumphs have been based on. Cantona is worse than chief poseur, barely scored a decent goal in his life and didn't have a particularly good scoring record either. After he was crap for French clubs and Leeds he played at a team where chances were handed on a plate to him at such a frequency that he almost managed to get near a goal every two games.

Zidane is so far ahead of either of them that it's an insult even mentioning them on the same page as Zidane

 

[superkingdave]

would have gone for Keegan tbh, but he doesn't appear to have made the list

hmm, on second thoughts Seaman would have come close to Kev

 

[steds]

hmm, on second thoughts Seaman would have come close to Kev

Nah.

 

[TT Boy]

Platini...

 

[Tom Halsey]

Chief poseur is a below par France international over the past decade, most of their defenders and midfielders have performed leagues ahead of him and that's what their triumphs have been based on. Cantona is worse than chief poseur, barely scored a decent goal in his life and didn't have a particularly good scoring record either. After he was crap for French clubs and Leeds he played at a team where chances were handed on a plate to him at such a frequency that he almost managed to get near a goal every two games.

I can't be bothered to argue with statements like those.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Seriously Halsey, you're often rational but that's appalling.

Hmm, I don't see what puts Zidane so far ahead of Henry and Cantona. For a start he played in a different position and thus they're hard to compare, and obviously Zidane was a world-class player, but I don't see what makes him better.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Err Zidane was one of the best players in the world if not the best player in the world for a spell. Chief poseur and Cantona were/are average international players who were consistently outperformed by numerous players for France at the time they played, let alone across the world as well.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Err Zidane was one of the best players in the world if not the best player in the world for a spell. Chief poseur and Cantona were/are average international players who were consistently outperformed by numerous players for France at the time they played, let alone across the world as well.

You seem to be basing your whole argument on goal socring records (from post previous to this), yet, although I agree that Henry is over-rated as a goalscorer alone (as far as I'm concerned Cantona wasn't ever rated as one particularly) both were/are so much more than goalscorers.

 

[Scaly piscine]

You seem to be basing your whole argument on goal socring records (from post previous to this), yet, although I agree that Henry is over-rated as a goalscorer alone (as far as I'm concerned Cantona wasn't ever rated as one particularly) both were/are so much more than goalscorers.

No they aren't so much more at all. They're not great passers and they're not particularly creative. They're just like most other forwards who hit the odd ball when needed and invariably some will come off. Chief can obviously get in and around defenses and cut the ball back more than most, but neither have much more ability in creating goals than you average forward, it's just a perception based on hype - which is the whole problem when the easily swayed try to judge players like chief poseur and Cantona.

 

[Tom Halsey]

No they aren't so much more at all. They're not great passers and they're not particularly creative. They're just like most other forwards who hit the odd ball when needed and invariably some will come off. Chief can obviously get in and around defenses and cut the ball back more than most, but neither have much more ability in creating goals than you average forward, it's just a perception based on hype - which is the whole problem when the easily swayed try to judge players like chief poseur and Cantona.

Cantona and Henry have both made lots of brilliant goals, and scored their fair share of goals too (often at crucial times, Cantona 95/96 CIP). Just search for Cantona on youtube for examples, and one assumes the same for Henry too.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Cantona and Henry have both made lots of brilliant goals, and scored their fair share of goals too (often at crucial times, Cantona 95/96 CIP). Just search for Cantona on youtube for examples, and one assumes the same for Henry too.

They've made no more 'brilliant goals' than you'd expect anyone to make after playing so many times for good teams.

 

[Matteh]

Scaly just hates anybody that's French.

 

[Craig]

So does Zidane get by on the basis of his Algerian background?