A joy to watch

Was just thinking about how much pray Messi, Kaka, Ronaldo and some others are getting here.
No wonder, cause they are a joy to watch when they play, at least when they are on form.
Question is which player according to you was the best to watch when he played.
Im talking about a period of the last 20 years, or from 90's onwards.
And this is when they were on their best form.
For example:
Ronaldo
Baggio
Ronaldinho
Cantona
Zidane
Figo
Rivaldo
Gascoigne
Giggs
Romario
Messi
Henry
Bergkamp
Maradona (out of the timeframe, but still)
Kaka...

From the oldest to newest:

- Platini
- Baggio
- Haggi
- Cantona
- Bergkamp
- Ronaldo
- Zidane
- C.Ronaldo / Ronaldinho / Messi

For me, it was Il Divin' Codin', Roberto Baggio... he was pure magic.

A lot of others were brilliant to watch as well, Maradona, Platini, Romario, Hagi, Zidane, Ronaldo, etc... but I guess the personal prefernce takes precedence here, and for me, it was Baggio!!! From my most tragic moment in football, to my most joyous moment, Baggio was always involved. Like the author (a good friend) says below - The real champions win our hearts!!

http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/baggio.html

Does Ronaldo means the brazilian one ?
Anyway both are joy to watch.

Didn't see much of Maradona

I love Romario but he was too much of a striker.

so i would say

Ronaldo
Dinho
Zidane
Rivaldo

Brought the most joy to me over the years

Yup, the brazilian one.
When he was playing, it was like he's out of this planet.
Pure striker with incredible skills.

Cantona
Ronaldo
Zidane
Rivaldo
Giggs
Nedved
Scholes
Riquelme
Kaka

What did you liked about Nedved as a player?

zidane

no one else is that magic

TITO wrote:What did you liked about Nedved as a player?

His attitude and character. Not all about skills for me.

Attitude yes, he had it, but charachter, no way, at lest IMO.
Actually i would have put skills and attitude there.

1992

Romario
Hagi
Baggio
Ronaldo(he took football to another level IMHO)
Weah
Cantona
Zidane
Rivaldo
Henry
Figo
Rui Costa
Ronaldinho(there were times i would put him on the same level as Ronaldo)
Kaka
Quaresma(makes the right career move he will take his game onto another level)
Robinho(soon to become top five in the world)
Cristiano Ronaldo(soon to become the best in the world)
Leo Messi
Karim Benzema
Alexandre Pato(going to be a big star)

bluenine wrote:For me, it was Il Divin' Codin', Roberto Baggio... he was pure magic.

A lot of others were brilliant to watch as well, Maradona, Platini, Romario, Hagi, Zidane, Ronaldo, etc... but I guess the personal prefernce takes precedence here, and for me, it was Baggio!!! From my most tragic moment in football, to my most joyous moment, Baggio was always involved. Like the author (a good friend) says below - The real champions win our hearts!!

http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/baggio.html

Excellent little sotry that.

For me, this moment was probably the most emphatic moment of joy I ever experienced as a football fan, morstly because of the who it was and at that point people were doubting if he were ever the same player he once was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3LB2b4Z83A&feature=related


Followed closely by this moment:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVMaIUSeRxA&feature=related


And this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFmTvXG1N_I&feature=related


For me, as a Spurs supporter, the best player I ever saw in my lifetime personally

Never used to watch a lot of football so its gonna be v. Arsenal-centric

Henry
Ronaldo
Bergkamp
Vieira
Pires
Rivaldo

Beautiful story!

Batistuta is my favourite Viola player to watch! Also Rui Costa, he was truely gifted. But overall I will go with Blue, there can only be one Roberto Baggio. There were riots in Florence like never seen before when Juve bought him from us in 1990. Every Italian has a favourite Baggio moment. My favourite Baggio moment was his first world cup goal, the one against the Czech. wow.

bluenine wrote:For me, it was Il Divin' Codin', Roberto Baggio... he was pure magic.

A lot of others were brilliant to watch as well, Maradona, Platini, Romario, Hagi, Zidane, Ronaldo, etc... but I guess the personal prefernce takes precedence here, and for me, it was Baggio!!! From my most tragic moment in football, to my most joyous moment, Baggio was always involved. Like the author (a good friend) says below - The real champions win our hearts!!

http://www.rsssf.com/rssbest/baggio.html

Zidane was sooo great to watch. what made him great for me was that he did everything a hint of arrogance in it. even the simple passes he would make in a special way. normally it would called showboating but he did it so well. what impressed me the most was that he a slow player but still a great dribbler.

the best one to show what i mean is this video which is more the small things he would do. its a bit long but i enjoyed it more then any great goal he has scored:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4106904264256959842&q=zidane+duration%3Along&total=125&start=20&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=6

when Barca bought ronaldinho i saw pretty much all barca games that season. i had never seen a player to soo much on his own. that was very special but i never felt he kept up that level. i can imagine it was similar to what people who followed maradona thought in 86 or 90.

- The Pires-Henry connection around the unbeaten season

- Ronaldinho 03-04 and 04-05

- Messi ever since he began

- Totti

but most of all, the player who just makes me smile in amazement at least 2-3 times a match without fail:

Riquelme

Okocha
Kinkladze
Asprilla
Gascoigne
Albert

Then the usual suspects.

Merry Krimbo wrote:Okocha
Kinkladze
Asprilla
Gascoigne
Albert

Then the usual suspects.

Your a card Dimbo

Dreaming Of A White Tevez wrote:

Merry Krimbo wrote:Okocha
Kinkladze
Asprilla
Gascoigne
Albert

Then the usual suspects.

Your a card Dimbo

An attacking centerback ffs, when do you see them these days? Or ever for that matter? You've got to doff your hat to unique players 0trick.

Zidane. Absolutely Majestic.

From the 92/93 season I regularly went to St James' Park to see Newcastle play - my Grandfather and my Dad had, and still have season tickets and we alternated home matches in the league (as well as going to a few cup and European matches) up until a couple of years ago now when I moved to Sweden - though Ive still managed two or three games when back in England since then. So Ive seen a lot of the Premier Leagues top players in that time, and Newcastle had an abundance of talent in the Keegan era. The best player Ive seen live was David Ginola. In his first six months with Newcastle he was the best player in the league, and part of the reason we lost the title that season was because, after being sent off in the cup against Arsenal, he wasnt able to continue his form into the latter stages of the season - this, mixed with inexperience and bad luck.

He could play with both feet and truly glided past players, either going down the left or moving inside the pitch. It was often the case that teams would double up on him, with the full back and a midfielder tracking him, but all to no avail because he would effortlessly move past them to get in a cross - and he found Les Ferdinands head with great regularity in that season. He was superb at spreading the play - the best Ive seen for switching the play with accurate balls across the width of the pitch. And he had a great shot from distance, again with either foot. Certainly, in terms of ability, Id happily put Ginola up there with the likes of Zidane and Ronaldo. He struggled with consistency.

This is one of my favourite goals:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pwy_MrjR3R8

Ive liked left wingers from an early age. When I was really young, like five or six, I really liked Chris Waddle and actually pretended to be him in the playground when playing games like that - other people were playing dinosaurs or superheroes or whatever, and I was Chris Waddle, my weapon to kick imaginary balls. So I'll throw Chris Waddle in too, and I agree with Peles commendation for Gazza. I remember Hagi from the 94 World Cup. Then for Newcastle there has been Beardsley, Shearer, Tino. And in later years I go with Ronaldo and Rivaldo.

about everybody mentioned so far, & lots of others like

Laudrups, Henke Larsson, Brian Roy, Joszef Kiprich, Gaston Taument, Overmars, Pires

Everyone's mentioned the usualls I enjoy, one I haven't seen is Davids. I loved watching him ply his trade, in his peak especially at Juve.

He was amazing at his peak... one of the best DMs I have ever seen!

robert wrote:Everyone's mentioned the usualls I enjoy, one I haven't seen is Davids. I loved watching him ply his trade, in his peak especially at Juve.

Roberto Baggio - Legend !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOPbT-nRNzs

Batistuta
McManaman
Zidane
Stoichkov
Laudrup
Overmars
Henry

bluenine wrote: He was amazing at his peak... one of the best DMs I have ever seen!

robert wrote:Everyone's mentioned the usualls I enjoy, one I haven't seen is Davids. I loved watching him ply his trade, in his peak especially at Juve.

It wasn't just his DM work he could go forward as well, and had quite handy dribbling.

Zidane
Figo
Ronaldo
Ronaldinho (03-05)
Baggio

McManaman
Beardsley
Le Tissier
Litmanen
Grobbelaar
Barnes
Ablett