#9 Michael Laudrup
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Michael Laudrup was an integral part of Cruyff’s Dream Team and is widely regarded as the greatest Danish player of all time. A career trajectory that includes stints at Juventus and Ajax, Laudrup is one of the few players that made a direct switch from Barcelona to Real Madrid, which he did in 1994.
Playing as an attacking midfielder mostly, he had a glorious career and captained the Denmark side to the 1995 Confederations Cup victory.
On retirement, he started out as a manager and had commendable success with Brondby, Getafe and more recently with Swansea in the Premier League, becoming the first Dane to manage in the Premier League.
Laudrup guided Swansea to a League Cup victory in his first season at South Wales, which was the Welsh club’s first major trophy in their history. He is currently the manager of Al-Rayyan in the Qatar Stars League.
(Video Courtesy – FC YouTube Channel)
#10 Julio Salinas
A tall centre-forward who started his playing career at Athletic Bilbao, Julio Salinas played for Barcelona mostly in his prime for six years and was an important part of the Dream Team. The Spaniard had a notable international career as well with 56 caps and took part in three World Cups and two European Championships.
He finished his career at Alaves in Spain and started working as a commentator since then. He worked with RTVE first, the largest audio-visual broadcasting agency in Spain and later at laSexta.
#11 Hristo Stoichkov
Another addition to the “greatest player of all time for a particular country” list from this legendary team, Stoichkov is tipped to be Bulgaria’s greatest. These players’ standing in the game and stature in their respective countries shed a lot of light on why this time is considered to be one of the best.
He developed his game at CSKA Sofia for six years before signing for Barcelona and etching his name in history. He won the Ballon d’Or in 1994, the Golden Shoe in the 1994 FIFA World Cup and was named the third best player in the tournament.
(Video Courtesy – FC Barcelona YouTube Channel)
He was nicknamed “El Pistolero” (Luis Suarez has the same nickname) in Spain for his goalscoring ability and eventually finished his career at D.C.United in the USA. He tried his hand at management with stints coaching the Bulgarian national team, Celta Vigo, Mamelodi Sundowns and CSKA Sofia among others.
However, he did not achieve any major success and is currently working as a football analyst for Spanish television network, Univision Deportes.
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