Making the Case - A new Occasional Opinions Series
Football is a special game.
The closeness of the fans to the pitch, for the most part, gives fans one of the most intimate experiences of a team sport that exists, and because of the vastly different positions and styles, Football allows for players and teams develop their own distinct identities and signature styles through their creativity flair and athleticism.
Each club is deeply linked to the area in which it is based, and takes on the characteristics and identities of the fans they represent out on the pitch. Those fans, in return, pour their lives into the club.
While the game has changed significantly in recent times thanks to the huge amounts of money being poured in at the top levels, below those sections the game is still as it once was.
Players are constantly compared to their peers and to the legends of the past in order to answer the most hotly contested question in the sport:
Who's the greatest football player of all-time?
Modern era fans will tell you it’s Messi or Ronaldo. Older fans will espouse the virtues of Pelé and Maradona. If you were compiling a list of players that many would place on their personal Mount Rushmore’s, they’d be the obvious answers.
For many the question is redundant. They believe in only one correct grouping of answers. Their ones. Others might have their own personal stance but acknowledge one or two alternatives.
I believe that there's much more nuance to the question of greatness.
I’m a fan of the less obvious choices. The icons that could have been. Those that often fly under the radar in these arguments. The legends who left a mark on the game that’s so significant, it ripples through time. Those that embedded themselves into the game. Those that *became* Football.
It's a subjective thing though. I can't give you a definitive answer. All I can do is make an argument. Give my opinion. Show you why I believe what I believe.
So, I’m going to be writing a series of pieces over the next couple of weeks and months about the greats of the game, and whether they deserve to be mentioned amongst the upper echelons alongside the names I’ve previously noted.
To decide whether these players deserve this kind of recognition, we need to define some decision criteria in in order to provide a holistic comparison.
I’ve devised 4 criteria to judge each player on:
Honours
Trophies won, individual accolades (Ballon d’Or’s, PotY trophies, Top goalscorer acheivements, Team of the Season/Tournament recognitions, etc.)
Team Contribution
What they contributed to each team they played for over the course of their career. Recognition of performances in major games.
Style
Their style of play. How their game would translate across to the modern age.
Cultural Contribution
What did they contribute to Football as a whole? How did they change the game for the better/worse?
The first two are quantitative measures. The last two are a qualitative assessment. Individual honours very much depend on where a legend played, rather than how they played, so I’ll be taking this as a more generalised section in the beginning of each piece, and only slightly taking it into account in analysing each player.
So, for the sake of clarity, Honours will be worth 10% of the player’s overall mark. Each other section will be worth 30%.
If you’d like a certain player to get this focus from me, the list is yet to be completed, so feel free to let me know!
The first piece in this series will be released next week. I’ve left a clue around here somwhere as to the identity of the subject of that piece. Let me know if you guess it.
Until then, share your opinions, and take care.