Left Wing: Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich and France): Ribery hasn’t had a great year in all honesty. First he was embroiled (allegedly) in a lurid off-field incident. Then he missed the Champions League final through suspension. He plodded off to the World Cup where he, along with his entire national squad, was awful. And to top it all off, he’s featured in this list. In all seriousness, Ribery is a player who I first saw live at the 2006 World Cup, at a time when he was being billed as the heir to Zinedine Zidane. Let’s just say those sentiments were slightly wide of the mark. You have to feel that he’s missed the boat for a big money move to another of Europe’s elite clubs and he now finds himself unloved by Louis van Gaal, whose limited affections are directed towards the likes of Arjen Robben and Thomas Muller.
Centre Forward: Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid and Argentina): Before someone comes and batters me with his goals-to-games ratio, let me set my stall out. I’m not denying that the boy knows how to stick the ball in the net. But surrounded by the stellar talents of Ronaldo, Di Maria and Ozil, there’s something of the ugly duckling about Higuain – and I’m not talking about looks. Harsh perhaps, but his involvement in the build up play tends to be rather minimal and it’s worth pondering what his impact in a less attack minded side would be. With Karim Benzema finally starting to get his act together, it is Higuain’s position that is most under threat. Although it’s another discussion entirely, Benzema, in terms of playing style, is the present-day embodiment of the original Ronaldo. If he can sort his attitude out, there’s no doubting he’d bring more to the party than the workmanlike Higuain.
Centre Forward: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan and Sweden): He’s the second most expensive player in the history of this great game. He had his bags packed by Pep Guardiola, clearly unimpressed with the Swede, following an up and down sort of season at Barcelona. Now 29 years old, he has still to stamp his own indelible print on a truly massive occasion. I know someone will come and tell me that he scored a goal in El Gran Clasico last season or that he scored a penalty to beat an out of sorts Inter this year, but I’m talking about the stage where great players are truly judged. The occasions that the likes of David Villa, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have all influenced – major international matches or the latter stages of the Champions League. I struggle to see how anyone can overlook the fact that he has scored just 3 goals in the knock-out phase of Europe’s top club competition. It’s not as though he has any mitigating circumstances – he’s played for some of Europe’s most esteemed and well-regarded clubs (and Juventus) and has featured on more than enough big stages. Just remember that Barcelona parted with a substantial wedge and Samuel Eto’o to obtain Zlatan’s services. After a season, they decided to loan him out with a view to getting rid permanently. He has got a legacy though – one of the worst value transfers ever to be conducted. Sorry, but I’m just not that into you.
Centre Forward: Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid and Argentina): Before someone comes and batters me with his goals-to-games ratio, let me set my stall out. I’m not denying that the boy knows how to stick the ball in the net. But surrounded by the stellar talents of Ronaldo, Di Maria and Ozil, there’s something of the ugly duckling about Higuain – and I’m not talking about looks. Harsh perhaps, but his involvement in the build up play tends to be rather minimal and it’s worth pondering what his impact in a less attack minded side would be. With Karim Benzema finally starting to get his act together, it is Higuain’s position that is most under threat. Although it’s another discussion entirely, Benzema, in terms of playing style, is the present-day embodiment of the original Ronaldo. If he can sort his attitude out, there’s no doubting he’d bring more to the party than the workmanlike Higuain.
Centre Forward: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan and Sweden): He’s the second most expensive player in the history of this great game. He had his bags packed by Pep Guardiola, clearly unimpressed with the Swede, following an up and down sort of season at Barcelona. Now 29 years old, he has still to stamp his own indelible print on a truly massive occasion. I know someone will come and tell me that he scored a goal in El Gran Clasico last season or that he scored a penalty to beat an out of sorts Inter this year, but I’m talking about the stage where great players are truly judged. The occasions that the likes of David Villa, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have all influenced – major international matches or the latter stages of the Champions League. I struggle to see how anyone can overlook the fact that he has scored just 3 goals in the knock-out phase of Europe’s top club competition. It’s not as though he has any mitigating circumstances – he’s played for some of Europe’s most esteemed and well-regarded clubs (and Juventus) and has featured on more than enough big stages. Just remember that Barcelona parted with a substantial wedge and Samuel Eto’o to obtain Zlatan’s services. After a season, they decided to loan him out with a view to getting rid permanently. He has got a legacy though – one of the worst value transfers ever to be conducted. Sorry, but I’m just not that into you.
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Lemmy and his band Motorhead at a French bar
This week it is former Liverpool WAG Claudine Keane.
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CLICK ON THE IMAGE OR HERE TO SEE CLAUDINE KEANE’S GALLERY
Have to agree with you about Casillas. Buffon would be a good shout as well.
Completely agree about casillias, most overrated player in the world in my opinion. Strongly disagree about Alves, Carra and Zlatan though.
Pretty good list but I’d have to strongly disagree with you putting Essien in there.
I’d also probably put Clichy in there at left back – for all the talk about him being a clone of Ashley Cole, you’d expect somebody a lot better than Clichy!
Seriously u need to get your head examined, Essien is fantastic and when he plays chelsea are a different team and to have a 22 year old with the record of Higuain is truly laughable, i suppose gettin in the national side ahead of aguero/ milito/ is a fluke as well! what a joke
Alves and Zlatan should not be on this list. Zlatan has pretty much single handedly carried whatever team he has been at to the league title for like 7-8 years in a row. Not counting Barca though, clearly they wasted a lot of money to buy Zlatan for the role they played him in. Not his fault though, Pep dropped the ball on that one. Of course there are better goal scorers around, but he is so much more than that.
agree abt higuain…all he can do is score those sitters and tap-ins..if it came down to skills n’ talent, m pretty sure m better than him..
Completely agree about Zlatan. Without doubt the worst transfer in the history of the game. Eto has been just about the best striker in the world for nearly a decade, consistantly top scorer in spain now the top scorer in Italy.
And Barcalona paid what £50 million quid PLUS Samuel Eto to land Ibrahimovic, who’s never been top scorer in any competition or even consistant.
They’d have taken Eto over Zlata any day of the week, to get £50 million aswell lol, they must have been laughing all the way to the bank.
I have to say that I like the idea posed by this blog…but surely to assess someone as overrated you need to consider how highly they are rated now.
Is Jamie Carragher rated as world class? No. Was he rated as world class in 04/5? Yes. Was he? Yes. I don’t think you can quantify it by saying he’s good in a defensive team but that it doesn’t make him a good player. As evident from his lack of games for England he was never as highly rated as he should have been.
You need to put a context on what you write.
Ibrahimovic WAS overrated when he was sold to Barcelona. Inter were laughing all the way to the bank with that cash and with Eto’o on their side they got a much better player. I’m not saying he’s not a talented player, just that he didn’t play to his potential often enough.
very good list but i do disagree with Higuain he’s a striker so his job is to score goals so the fact he has a great goals to game ratio means he is a great player he’s doing the job that hes suppossed to be doing brilliantly. The problem is I like Cassillas so I wouldnt say he is the most over-rated keeper but even though i like him you put a good argument for him so (for me) apart from Higuain (and possibly) Cassillas i’d agree with tha list.
what a complete load of crao, hence why the mug that wrote this can not get a job for a real paper or proper web page, what a total load of miss writtern crap i have ever seen. what a mug
i love how you typed ‘miss writtern’…
Freudian Slip anyone??