Missing the dynamic Greats

The present era has undoubtedly seen the two greatest footballers on the planet, Messi and Ronaldo. But when you just sit back and rewind to the days when Zidane, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo(Brazil) and many were at their peak, you just get goosebumps. The future may find superstars like Messi and Ronaldo who possess great talent but what we may not find is an aura of brilliance or magic. Here are some who I think can never be replaced in footballing folklore.

Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira: Two great captains for their respective clubs and true fighters. The present day United-Arsenal matches just revolve around the tactics of Ferguson and Wenger, but what we all miss are those battles in midfield, those crunching tackles. Though Vieira and Keane never possessed the talent like their team mates such as Scholes, Overmars or Parlour, if their team was down these two would just give their all. The best example would be of Keane’s performance against Juventus in the 2nd leg semi final of the 1999 UCL. He gets a yellow card and misses the final, yet plays the finest hour of a footballer, tormenting arguably the best midfield pair in Europe of Zidane and Davids. Regarding Vieira, his performance during the 03/04 season says it all.

Eric Cantona: If United are on the top of English football it is only because of Eric Cantona. Cantona was a religion at United. People outside Old Trafford still keep on wearing the Cantona jersey and that tells you how much of an impact he had on the field.

Ronaldinho: If one could perform magic tricks on a football field, it would be just one person – Ronaldinho. During his peak, when he won the Footballer of the Year awards, you would probably be valiant enough to say he may be better than Ronaldo and Messi of today. Freekicks, long range goals, bicycle kicks, dribbles, no look pass and of course his classy goals and tricks. Just one instance tells you about his class. The match against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu where he was on the top of his game. He dismantled the Real Madrid line up to score 2 excellent goals and Casillas had no chance. At the end of the game, he received a huge applause from the home fans and that’s considered to be special when an away player gets cheered after a game, and that too an el Clasico.

Zinedine Zidane: Arguably considered to be the BEST of the BEST. Is there something which he can’t do? He could get pasts defenders the way he wanted, perhaps with his trademark 360. An experienced player usually would know what an opponent would do but against Zidane, it was different. He didn’t have a weak foot at all. He was the captain of France and he made a commanding post of it. Silent by words, but his actions would say it all. Against Brazil, he demanded a player to make a run and the whole defence went to mark him, which resulted in leaving Henry of all people free. And what came was a sublime pass to Henry. If at all there was a player who deserved to win 2 World Cups, it was him.