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Every winning football team has always had its leader; has always had its superstar; has always had its talisman - they make the game a feast to watch. They are idolized, worshipped and venerated for their achievements.One look at any individual honor roll - right from the elaborately voted FIFA Ballon D'Or Award to an average seven year old's favourite players list -reveals that it is almost always the attackers who are celebrated, with the midfielders getting the occasional acclaim. The backline is often ignored, with their contributions receiving nothing more than a cursory glance, or a tacitly taken for granted acknowledgement.They do a thankless job, breaking up attacks, thwarting the opposition and doing the spade work. One mistake is all it takes to tear their reputation into tatters - football is an unforgiving game for the defenders. One mistake is all it takes for us fans to go all medieval on them, borrowing phrases from Tarantino movies.At the heart of the defence is the vitally important centre back partnership – the pair who marshall the entire team and act as it’s bedrock. And no team with a good centre back duo has ever fared very badly. So, let’s take a look at the ten best centre back duos of all time.
#10 Marcel Desailly and Laurent Blanc
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The pair that formed the cornerstone of the unbelievable success of Les Blues just before and during the turn of the millennium, Marcel Desailly and Laurent Blanc were as formidable as any defensive duo has ever been. While the former was a defensive dynamite, running around with boundless energy and tackling like a ferocious pitbull, the latter – aptly nicknamed Le President – was a born leader, who gave the backline a calming effect.
The duo was instrumental in the national team’s glorious triumphs at both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2000. The star defenders, who played for the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona respectively in their stellar individual careers, allowed Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira and Bixente Lizarazu to storm forward time and again, with gay abandon.
Desailly is a Laureus Academy Member today, while Blanc is the manager of the free spending French champions, Paris Saint-Germain. With the next young breed of French defensive talent cropping up, Deschamps would be hoping that they are at least half as good as his former teammates.
#9 Tony Adams and Steve Bould
There was a time in the game, when the very mention of the name “Arsenal” brought about shudders and frowns. Back in the “1-0 to the Arsenal” days under the tutelage of George Graham, the team was reputed to be defensively resilient and unimaginative attacking-wise, the opposite of what it is today. And leading the defensive pack of the oh, so boring, Gunners squad back then, was the dominant duo of Tony Adams and Steve Bould.
Now, little needs to be said about the legendary Adams, who is a club icon like no other. Captaining the team for what seemed like an eternity, Adams is exactly the defender that Gooners are yearning for today. However, his compadre, Steve Bould, has often seen overshadowed by the other great partner of Adams during the latter stages of his career, Martin Keown.
While Keown was indeed an incredible defender, it was during the time of Bould, that the North London club reached a level of world class, or even Italian class, of defending. Hardly the Arsenal we know today, isn’t it?
#8 Claudio Gentile and Gaetano Scirea
A club that’s been perennially known for churning out one world class defender after another, Juventus has seen many great defenders of the game in black and white colours. However, the greatest centre back pairing ever seen by the fans of the Old Lady of Turin, still remains that of Claudio Gentile and Gaetano Scirea.
One vowel less, and Gentile’s name could’ve been the biggest oxymoron to see the face of the earth. Repeatedly regarded as football’s hardest, roughest and toughest player of all time, the Italian was a powerhouse of a defender, breaking down attacks, with a perpetual scowl on his face. The Gennaro Gattuso of yesteryears, if I may call him so.
However, the Yin to the Gentile Yang, was Gaetano Scirea, the classy, polished Italian great. Not getting dismissed even once in an astonishing career, during which he kept even Franco Baresi out of the Azzurri squad, Scirea is arguably amongst the greatest defenders ever. And together with his rugged partner, he formed an immovable object that was seldom encroached.
#7 Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister
When Bafetimbi Gomis was scaring Daley Blind silly last week and beating the stuffing out of him time and time again, many Manchester United fans would’ve fondly reminisced about the days when United’s defence was as strong as Sir Alex Ferguson’s resolve.
And while the younger generation would’ve thought of a duo about whom more shall be said later, the older people among us would’ve harked back to the days when Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister were the watchdogs of the United goal.
Two Stretford End favourites, the indomitable Pallister and the indefatigable Bruce were very “British” defenders, never being scared to tackle and harry the opposing forwards. Considered by many as the greatest centre back partnership of the Premier League era, the two of them made a combined 626 appearances for the club, partnering each other during their most successful period with the club.
Winning three Premier League titles together, the current Hull City gaffer and the former English international formed a defensive pair of contrasting styles, with people often describing Bruce to have played with his heart and Pallister to have played with his head.
#6 Franz Beckenbauer and Hanz-Georg Schwarzenbeck
Everybody knows Der Kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer. Arguably the greatest German footballer of all time, many consider him to be the finest footballer ever. The founder of the libero or sweeper position in football, Beckenbauer was equally adept at attacking and defending, though he primarily made his name as a deep-lying centre back. However, Beckenbauer was bold enough to make those runs only because he had a bulldozer of a partner next to him.
Tall and burly, with huge sideburns that gave him the look of a bad, bad villain, Hans Georg Schwarzenbeck was an absolute monster of a defender. Partnering Der Kaiser at both club level, with Bayern Munich, and international level, Schwarzenbeck had his task cut out – stay deep and defend. While his acclaimed partner was breaking the barriers of Total Football, he was busy breaking up attacks and forays.
Schwarzenbeck is the kind of defender that the game misses today. In an era of ball playing centre backs, we do not have enough of them who did the spadework well. Franz Beckenbauer would agree wholeheartedly.
#5 Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique
Counting the number of trophies that Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique have won together would be an exercise in futility. Among the greatest centre back pairs of modern times, the two of them played together for arguably the greatest club and national team of the past few decades – Pep Guardiola’s FC Barcelona and Vicente Del Bosque’s Spain.
Winning the 2008 Euro, and coming to the Camp Nou in high spirits, Carles Puyol, the lion hearted defender, found himself without a renowned centre back partner. Up stepped Pique, a former La Masia graduate, upon whom Guardiola placed his trust. Needless to say, it was perfectly vindicated, as the team went on to win an astonishing sextuple that season, including the European treble.
While captain Puyol played the more traditional role of cleaning up moves and tackling with his life, Pique was Barcelona’s first attacker – somebody who was as good with the ball at his feet as anybody else. Together, the two of them went on to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the 2011 UEFA Champions League.
#4 Armando Picchi and Aristide Guarneri
Back in the day when football was all about outscoring your opponent and attacking at full tilt, the Argentine manager, Helenio Herrera came up with a legendary innovation, known today as Catenaccio – the doorbolt. It simply meant that football wasn’t about outscoring your opponent, but about not letting them concede. This tactic that he used with Inter Milan, won the club two European Cups during his tenure, earning them the nickname Grande Inter.
While Inter’s 5-3-2 formation was heavily reliant on their marauding fullbacks (Giacinto Facchetti didn’t become a club legend for no reason), it was equally dependent on having rock solid centre backs. And in Armando Picchi, Aristide Guarneri and Carlo Tagnin, the club had a trio of them. However, the latter had a habit of joining their famed counter attacks frequently, often leaving the duo of Picchi and Guarneri at the back.
The captain of Grande Inter, Picchi was a defender par excellence, while Guarneri was another gentleman of the game, who like Scirea, was never dismissed in a stellar career.
#3 Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand
While Mancunians across the world are still swooning over Anthony Martial’s Thierry Henry act, last night’s defeat over PSV Eindhoven, still shows their defence is as creaky as David Moyes had left it. With all the money in the world spent on everything except a proper centre back, United fans would be pulling their hair apart – especially since they were accustomed to seeing the best centre back duo of this era, week in, week out.
Two brilliant defenders, the partnership of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand was greater the sum of them as individuals. While the Serb, who was definitely among the greatest captains Old Trafford has ever seen, led with heart and valour, the Englishman, who was the world’s most expensive defender for a long, long time, anticipated and intercepted moves with consummate ease.
Together, they formed the bedrocks upon which Sir Alex Ferguson built one title winning unit after another. If a club could field the likes of Fabio and Anderson (without meaning any offence to either player) in a Champions League final and still win the darned thing, they must’ve had one hell of a defence. Manchester United had exactly that.
#2 Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta
The third Italian pairing in this list, Franco Baresi and Alessandro Costacurta would top the rankings of many a list, and with reason. The defenders who led the club to their most successful period ever, along with Mauro Tassotti and Paolo Maldini, the centre back duo were the kings of the San Siro.
While the expensively assembled attack of Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco Van Basten repeatedly wowed fans and pundits alike, it was the tigerish defending of the two Italian centre backs that kept oppositions at bay. While there’s very little left to be said about Baresi, one of the greatest defenders of all time, people almost always forget to give Costacurta the credit he deserves.
Playing for AC Milan for an incredible 21 years, the Italian retired as Serie A’s oldest goal scorer at the age of 41 in 2006. Baresi, on the other hand, voted Milan’s Player of the Century in 1999, played for the Rossoneri in an astonishing 532 games. And when the two of them combined, as they did more often than not, strikers were in for a hard day at work.
#1 Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta
What is it with Italy and centre backs? Dig this: Alessandro Costacurta made 458 appearances for AC Milan. Franco Baresi made 532. And, Paolo Maldini made 902, with more than half of them at centre back. And partnering him was arguably the best technical defender the game has ever seen since Beckenbauer, Alessandro Nesta. In fact, Nesta was so good at what he did that Wikipedia describes his tackling as artistic!
Together with Il Capitano, Nesta marshalled Milan to Champions League triumph, in his very first season with the club. And while he didn’t partner the great man on too many occasions with the national team (Fabio Cannavaro was his partner in crime there), he certainly formed a club duo with him, that has been immortalized since.
Arguably the greatest centre back pairing any team has ever been fortunate enough to field, the two of them were the two best defenders in the world during their peak – and in Maldini’s case, his “peak” lasted about two decades. Surely, the game will never, ever see another duo quite like this.
