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« on: July 19, 2005, 09:21:39 AM »
Ten of the best...Eurostars
Norman Hubbard
The best players of the last decade: it is a broad brief. There is only one qualification, however; none can have played in the Premiership.
And, almost inevitably, that leads to a focus on Serie A and La Liga. Of our top 10 players, all have played in either Spain or Italy; four in both. All bar one have excelled in major international tournaments. Each deserves to be remembered for decades to come.
Gabriel Batistuta
Forget Diego Maradona and ignore Mario Kempes; Argentina's record goalscorer is Batigol. Besides 56 in 78 internationals, Batistuta's single-minded pursuit of goals and ferocious shot brought him 168 for Fiorentina. In the last decade, there has been no more consistently clinical finisher.
It was only after leaving Florence that Batistuta finally won Serie A, with Roma in 2001. His loyalty cost him medals, but earned him the adoration of the Fiorentina fans. His three World Cups should have brought more than a solitary quarter-final appearance, but provided further proof of Batistuta's wonderful ability to score goals.
Not that everyone was a fan. Daniel Passarella, who also objected to his preference for longer hair, once commented: 'he has square feet and a technique to match.' But how many players have a pitchside life-size bronze statue of them erected during their career?
Edgar Davids
Nicknames are rarely more apt than 'the pitbull'; such is Edgar Davids' competitive zeal that his grandmother must be in permanent danger of being tackled. The concept of becoming more cautious after being booked is an alien one to the Dutch midfielder.
But to some, Davids is best known for the wraparound shades he wears, one of the few ways an immediately identifiable player could have become more prominent. If there is sense of underachievement about many of Ajax's precocious Champions League-winning side, he is the exception.
This last decade, however, began and ended badly, with an ill-fated spell at AC Milan and a turbulent Euro 96, and culminated in a bit-part role at Internazionale. In between, especially in his time at
Juventus, he was explosive and the best central midfielder of his type.
Luis Figo
The change in the balance of power in Spain can be told in the story of one player, Luis Figo. Admittedly, Real Madrid were already European champions before their world record bid of £37.5 million for Barcelona's idol but the Catalan club were established as Spain's most glamorous and exciting team.
It was Johan Cruyff's legacy, but it was soon superceded by the galacticos, Florentino Perez's homage to the rich and famous. Figo, who combined the trickery all wonderful wingers possess with a distinctly perspiring brand of endeavour, fitted right in.
And once regarded as an endangered species, the winger enjoyed a comeback in Euro 2004. The tournament did not provide Figo with a fairytale farewell to his Portugal career, but his influence on wingers worldwide may prove a more lasting contribution.
Paolo Maldini
It says much for Paolo Maldini that the last 10 years are, arguably, only his second best decade as a footballer and yet he can still be regarded as the outstanding defender of the time. But there is much to marvel at in Maldini's magnificent career.
Though denied victory in a World Cup or European Championship, he ended his Italy career with 126 caps. He will retire with a record number of appearances in Serie A and anything up to 200 games in European club competitions.
But statistics only say so much. Maldini should be regarded as the world's greatest ever left back and a very fine central defender. Even at 36, he defends with almost unparalleled elegance and enviable ease, timing tackles to perfection despite a slight loss of pace.
As FIFA's World Player of the Year and the Ballon D'Or prizes have constantly eluded him, recognition of his enduring excellence is due: perhaps a lifetime achievement award?
Pavel Nedved
The most unfortunate, and perhaps most costly, suspension of the last decade came two years ago, denying Pavel Nedved a chance to play for Juventus in the Champions League Final. In Euro 2004, he cemented his reputation as an unlucky footballer by limping off in the semi-final against Greece.
His earliest displays in international football came for a country that no longer exists (Czechoslovakia) and one of his best goals decided a now-defunct competition (the European Cup Winners' Cup) during his Lazio days. Some things about Nedved's career don't appear to add up.
Others do. The shaggy-haired midfielder's constant running and annual improvement, his pivotal role in winning Serie A with first Lazio and then Juventus and his European Footballer of the Year award in 2003. A decade ago, it appeared unlikely, but Pavel Nedved has earned his place among the greats.
Rivaldo
There are those who think that it is only right and proper that Rivaldo wears the number five shirt for Olympiakos as he is only half the player he was at his glorious peak. And during his Barcelona days, few players did more to enhance the myth of the number 10 as goalscorer, flair player and inspiration.
And who else - even in this stellar selection - could have clinched a Champions League place with a late overhead kick? It completed a superb hat-trick against Valencia and provided proof of Rivaldo's ability to decide even the biggest games.
He was something of a rarity among players who are not out-and-out strikers, regularly scoring 20 goals a season. And if he appeared unloved in his native Brazil, he still played a full part in taking his country to back-to-back World Cup finals.
Ronaldinho
Rivaldo's spiritual successor for club and country, the catalyst for Barcelona's revival over the past two seasons and arguably the world's greatest player now, Ronaldinho is the personification of the attacking ethos essential to Brazil and Barcelona.
Defending doesn't matter much. Instead, the gifted and the celebrated are free to indulge themselves in displays of uncommon skill. But, together with Edgar Davids, he inspired Barcelona's rise from mid-table to second in 2004; in the 2002 World Cup, he upstaged supposedly more reliable players.
So there is an end product. There is also, at 25, the possibility that Ronaldinho will go on to dominate the next decade. He will spearhead Brazil's defence of their World Cup next year; he could yet make Barcelona the champions of Europe.
Ronaldo
The defining figure of the last two World Cups, Ronaldo's career - and decade - have been interrupted by the knee problems that meant he hardly played between his anonymous performance in Paris in 1998 and the cathartic, eight-goal return in Japan and South Korea four years later.
Brilliant at Barcelona, usually injured at Internazionale and reliable for Real Madrid, he still ranks among the world's leading strikers even if he is yet to recapture the destructive form that earned him the World Player of the Year award in 1996 and 1997. One of the enduring images of the time is of the defenders left trailing in his wake as he single-handedly scythed his way through to goal.
These days, there is less attention given to his goofy look and more to his expanding waistline. He retains a goal-poacher's speed off the mark - the first five yards are obviously in his stomach - but Adriano and Robinho have strong cases to replace him in the Brazil team next summer. But Ronaldo has a history of influencing World Cups...
Andriy Shevchenko
Sheva, the sleekest and smoothest striker in the world today, qualifies for this selection purely for his club form. Ukraine have been bafflingly ineffective in international football, but it proved no impediment to their greatest player when he was named European Footballer of the Year.
He emerged in a Dynamo Kiev side who specialised in overwhelming more fancied sides in the Champions League. But unlike the late technocrat Valery Lobanovsky's other proteges, Shevchenko prospered on leaving the Ukraine.
He was the first foreigner to top-score in his first season in Italy, and retains an uncanny knack of getting 24 goals a season. At AC Milan, he looks every inch Marco van Basten's heir.
Zinedine Zidane
With apologies to the nine men mentioned so far, if anyone can be described as the player of the decade, it is Zinedine Zidane. After an unpromising start - he was rather muted at Euro 96 - he determined the course of the 1998 World Cup final and reached his imperious best in Euro 2000.
Two years later, France's disastrous World Cup campaign was conducted in the shadow of Zidane's absence. Just weeks earlier, his dexterous, brilliant volley earned Real Madrid their ninth European Cup; it is rare that a goal of that calibre wins a game of that stature, and rarer still that it is scored by a great player.
He has won league titles in Italy and Spain and, despite complaints that his goals are too infrequent, holds one prestigious record as the most expensive player ever. Along the way, his monkish demeanour has failed to disguise a vicious side, but it is for the beauty of his touch, technique and vision that he will be remembered.
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