Thanks to all this “LARP” culture, you’re apparently no longer allowed to rank players you haven’t seen. This especially goes for lists based on position or maybe country, I think it’s a little more accepted in overall GOAT lists. To be fair, I do get being a bit iffy on Bican or players with 0 existing footage or just pre war guys in general. But let’s be real here, the fun of ranking is about forming your own thoughts based on a combination of knowns and unknowns.
As the players get older, the highlight reels grow thinner, though, and the older folks in your life may not be able to comment on Di Stefano the way they might be able to praise Maradona or R9 to the ends of the earth. But I think it’s a balancing act. You take highlights, ideally raw game footage, trophies, accolades, anecdotes from players and coaches of their time, maybe anecdotes from people around you now, and you form a relatively educated opinion.
I’m going to mention my personal take now: the Brazil 1958-1970 guys are somehow, despite those teams widely being considered some of the very best, underrated. Where’s Didi on your list of best midfielders? Is Garrincha not the best winger behind Messi? And what argument could you make that Jairzinho isn’t right behind him? Is Carlos Alberto not better than Cafu? I even see players from the 80s generation like Zico and Socrates now missing out on a lot of modern discussion which is just crazy to me.
I don’t know, I feel like it’s a shame that there’s a lack of nuanced discussion of a lot of these great older teams and players. I think a lot of modern players get grossly overrated because young people just forget about how many great players there have been, or they’re even encouraged not to mention them because it’s such a travesty to give flowers to a player of yesteryear. Is Neymar top 20? No, he’s not. There are players I’d rank above him even when it comes to raw skill as opposed to trophies who don’t ever get those plaudits. For instance, Gullit could play in every position to an arguably greater degree than Cruyff and would be the best player on the pitch no matter where you moved him to. Definitely above Neymar on a list, and it’d be difficult to imagine him being above the very lowest spots on a top 20.
In summary, I believe we need to educate ourselves a little more on players of the past, while destigmatizing the formation of value judgements on their greatness and skill. All the players I’ve mentioned are very surface level, and the more you dive deep into some of these mid century national and club sides, the more amazing players to watch and read about you’ll find.
