Top 50 Big Game Scorers: 5-1

Here it is, the Top 5 Big Game Scorers in the history of Football. All are well known superstars, and after taking thousands of goals and matches into account, the top player is revealed. To see numbers 10-6, click here

5. Zinedine Zidane (France) 1988-2006 / 33 points – 10 goals

In at number 5 is the man that many believe was able to break the Maradona/Pele stranglehold on the best player of all time title. And part of that can be attributed to his performance in big games. Although an attacking midfielder, he wasn’t in the Maradona, Platini and Lampard gang of prolific scorers. In an 18 year professional career, he got double figures on just six occasions, with his highest season total being 12. However, as you probably know, he stepped up on the biggest stages. The most recent player to score in two World Cup Finals, Zizou scored a headed double in 1998 and then a pretty much perfect penalty in the 2006 Final against Buffon, which also had added pressure as he’d announced it would be his last game as a professional. What a great way to bow out….

And it wasn’t just the World Cup that he excelled in. The successful Euro 2000 campaign for France saw Zidane put his country through in the Semi Final against Portugal (who must have a deep dislike of him after he repeated the trick in the 2006 World Cup semi final). In club football, he was equally adept at stepping up in the biggest games, most notably in the 2002 Champions League Final where he did this:

A perfect volley into the top corner from a looping cross on his weaker foot? Not a problem. That goal also won the trophy for the Madrid. And whilst that was his most notable goal in a great club career, he also scored plenty of other significant goals. Many forget the semi final goal against bitter rivals Barcelona at the Nou Camp (seen here), whilst his time at Juventus was also memorable, if a touch unlucky as he lost two finals with the Turin giants. In the 1997 Champions League Semi Final, Zidane scored against Ajax, before scoring against Monaco at the same stage a year later, before going on to lose the finals to Dortmund and Real Madrid respectively. In fact, his Champions League campaigns involving Juventus generally didn’t end too well, with his former club knocking out Real Madrid at the same stage in 2003, despite Zidane’s goal in a 4-3 aggregate loss.

He was of course much much more than about goals, but the fact that he stepped up with so many high pressure big game goals, only added to the high regard he was held in. There’s a great article that makes a pretty good case for comparing Rivaldo to Zidane, and rightly so, however, doesn’t quite match Zidane’s achievements and ability to impact the very biggest games so consistently – surely something that warrants the Frenchman’s placing in the history of football.

Cesare Maldini when manager of the 1998 Italy World Cup squad said that he’d give up five of his players for one Zidane, but perhaps Franz Beckenbauer sums up Zidane the best:

Beckenbauer on Zidane “Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player…….Zidane is unique, The ball flows with him. He’s more like a dancer than a footballer“

4. Ferenc Puskas (Hungary) 1943-1966 / 40 points – 15 goals

Yet another one of the dominant Real Madrid team of the 50s and 60s, Ferenc Puskas holds the distinction of scoring two hat tricks in the finals of the European Cup, in fact one of them was actually a four goal haul. He also had the distinction of playing for different countries at the World Cup – firstly Hungary and later on Spain. But more on that later.

A dominant part of three great teams, Puskas first came to prominence playing for the Hungarian military team Honved where he earned the nickname “the Galloping Major”, whilst playing alongside fellow Hungarian legends Czibor and Kocsis. He won five titles in his time with them and the golden boot in four seasons – including a 50 goal season in 1947-48, which was the highest in Europe. But it wasn’t with Honved that Puskas became known and feared around Europe, it was with his national team – the Mighty Magyars. He would eventually go on to score a massive 84 goals in 85 appearances for his (first country) and in that time they beat England 6-3 at Wembley and 7-1 away (unheard of then) as well as going on a 32 game unbeaten run that saw them win the 1952 Olympics (with Puskas scoring in the Final) that ended at the worst possible time – the 1954 World Cup Final. In the Final, Puskas showed his big game temperament once again as he put the favourites 1-0 up after just six minutes. That lead became 2-0 before West Germany managed to turn the game around and win 3-2 in a match that came to be known as the Miracle of Bern.

After leaving Hungary in 1956 on a tour around Europe, Puskas was one of many who refused to return to Hungary. As a result he received a 2 year ban from FIFA. Once the ban had ended, he was turend down by clubs in Italy and was denied a move to Manchester United before Real Madrid took a gamble on the overweight 31 year old. And it didn’t end too badly for him. In his first season, he scored two goals in the European Cup semi final against neighbours Atletico as Real went on to retain the trophy. The following year he really made his mark. In a semi final against rivals Barcelona, Puskas scored three goals over the two legs to put Real in their fifth straight Final – and it was in this Final that his legendary status at Madrid would be cemented. Facing Eintracht Frankfurt, Puskas scored four goals in a 7-3 win:.

And of course, he wasn’t done there. After a year off, Madrid were back in the final in 1962, and juts to prove it wasn’t a fluke before, Puskas scored another hat trick in the final – although unfortunately for him, he was facing a Eusebio inspired Benfica who scored five to his three. Not to worry though, him and Real Madrid won the trophy again in 1966 with the big 39 year old striker scoring four goals in one game against Feyenoord along the way.

So a World Cup Final goal, an Olympic Final goal, and two European Cup Final hat tricks. That pretty much settles any debate (if there was any). He went on to manage several teams, most notably taking Panathinaikos to the European Cup Final in 1971 (the only time a Greek club has ever reached that stage) and in 2002, the Hungarian national team stadium was renamed in his honour.

3. Pele (Brazil) 1956-1977 / 40.5 points – 13 goals

Where to start with Pele? How about some modest words from the man himself: “Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pele”. Well he is the only man to have won three World Cups, but personally, I wanted to be Tony Cottee. Even still, he is generally considered to be one of the holy trilogy of the greatest of all time. Scorer of over 1,000 goals, Pele will be judged by some due to never playing in European leagues – though this wasn’t necessarrily his fault, like Eusebio, Pele was banned from leaving Brazil – certainly in his prime anyway. As you’d expect, 3 World Cups + Brazil’s all time top scorer (77) = some big game goals.

A truly innovative player who’s near misses are almost as famous as his goals (this is the best one, but there’s also the halfway line shot and the Banks save), Pele burst onto the global scene during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Aged just 17, Pele scored six times, all in the knock out stages. First up was the winner as Wales were defeated 1-0 in the Quarters. From then, things really took off. Facing Just Fontaine’s France (the only player to outscore him at that tournament), Pele scored a hat trick in a 5-2 win – proving to be the difference on the day. And the momentum kept going as in the Final the teenager did this:

One of two days that day, Brazil won their first World Cup and a legend was born. He played and scored at both the 1962 and 1966 World Cup’s but injuries (fouls) robbed him of playing the full tournament. In fact the “attention” he was receiving from opposition defenders in 1966 led him to declare that he’d never play in the World Cup again. Luckily for us, Brazil and the 1970 World Cup, he changed his mind – spearheading the Brazil team considered to be the best in history. Scoring four goals along the way, including the opener in the Final, Pele also racked up five assists, including two in the 4-1 win over Italy to win their third title and the Jules Rimet trophy for keeps. It was his crowning performance in what was a glittering career:

He also did pretty well for his club team Santos as well. Although not quite as prolifc as Alberto Spencer, Pele did end Penarol’s dominance in the tournament as Santos became just the second team to win the tournament in 1962. With the two legged final ending level on aggregate, Santos had the returning Pele for the Play Off, and he didn’t disappoint with two goals in a 3-0 win for the Brazilians. A year later he was even more deadly, scoring a four goals in the two legged semi against Jairzinho’s Botafogo (including a hat trick in the away leg), before scoring again in the second leg of the final against Argentina’s Boca Juniors to claim his and Santos’ second title. In what was a good tournament for Pele, he also won the golden boot in the 1965 season.

Since retiring from football, he’s made a good career in comedy by getting into very public arguments with Maradona (who doesn’t?), saying that Nicky Butt was the player of the 2002 World Cup and doing adverts for viagra even though he made it very clear that he never need to use one. As entertaining as that’s all been, very few have or will ever be able to entertain on the pitch the way Pele did. A complete original, a genius, prolific in front of goal, provider of great goals, and inventor of iconic moments. He’s best summed up by Italy’s defender in the 1970 Final, Tarcisio Burgnich:

“I told myself before the game, ‘he’s made of skin and bones just like everyone else’ — but I was wrong”

2. Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina) 1945-1966/ 45 points – 19 goals

Much of what was said for Puskas can be repeated for his strike partner Di Stefano – apart from serving for the Hungarian Army that is. It’s more the games scored in then, and the fact that like Puskas, Di Stefano wasn’t particularly bothered about his nationality – also appearing for Spain as well as his native of Argentina, and also for one time home, Colombia. He also qualified for Italy.

Di Stefano spent 11 seasons with Real Madrid after playing for River Plate of Argentina and Millonarios of Colombia, despite not signing until he was 27. But it could have been very different – Di Stefano was destined for Madrid’s great rivals Barcelona until complications allowed Real to nip in at the last minute to at first share him with the Catalan club before eventually owning him outright. At one point there was a scenario where he’d play alternate seasons for each club – it’s hard to imagine that’d work out too well today. And Barcelona’s loss was certainly Real Madrid’s gain as the capital club went on to win the first five European Cups in a row, and whilst Puskas’ input was instrumental, no one had a bigger hand in the era of dominance than Di Stefano. Of the five European Cup wins from 1956 to 1960, Di Stefano scored in every single Final – including a hat trick in the 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

And it wasn’t just the Finals that he excelled in. Starting with inaugural tournament in 1955-56, where there were just 16 teams competing, Di Stefano scored in the semi final win over AC Milan (5-4 agg) before going on to score Madrid’s first goal in the final against Stade Reims as they won 4-3 against Hibernian’s conquerors. A year later he repeated thhe trick with a semi final strike against Matt Busby’s youngsters before going on to score the first goal in the Final win against Fiorentina. And his knack of scoring important goals would continue into the next season. After a hat trick against Hungarian’s Vasas in the semi final, Di Stefano scored Madrid’s first goal for the third conscutive Final – this time an equaliser against AC Milan, in a 3-2 win. The 1959 Final saw him score against Stade Reims who would no doubt be sick of the sight of him, this time in a 2-0 after he scored both home and away in the semi final win against city rivals Atletico Madrid. And the fifth and final consecutive European Cup win was arguably the best, with a famous 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt. Di Stefano once again scored Madrid’s opener and in fact their second as well, on the way to a hat trick in a match considered by many to be one of the greatest of all time. Perhaps just as importantly, he scored a brace in the semi final win over Barcelona. In what was a recurring pattern, not only would he score important goals, but he’d also step up in the games against rivals – with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid on the end of his goals.

So there you have it, the Alberto Spencer of the European Cup and undobtedly a big game player. The only disappointment was that he only did it in one competition. Everyone else in the Top 10 scored in multiple competitions, with most impacting the World Cup. Unfortunately for Di Stefano, Argentina refused to participate at the 1954 tournament, Spain failed to qualify in 1958 and he was injured for the 1962 edition – meaning Di Stefano would join a list of greats never to play on the biggest stage with the likes of George Best, George Weah, Ryan Giggs and Julian Dicks.

And it wasn’t just his playing career that was eventful, moving into management, he memorably led both Boca Juniors and River Plate to national league titles, whilst in Spain he won the League, the cup and European Cup Winners Cup with Valencia. However, he couldn’t quite replicate that success with his beloved Real – finishing second in the league, the Copa del Rey, the Cup Winners Cup, Supercopa de Espana and the Copa de la Liga – five runners up medals!

Eusebio described the Blonde Arrow as “the most complete footballer in the history of the game”. Not a bad way to be described if you’re a footballer.

1. Gerd Muller (Germany) 1963-1981 / 51 points – 16 goals

And at number one is a player that scored 68 goals in 62 Internationals for his country, and who scored in the Final and Semi Finals of the three biggest tournaments possible. Gerd Muller, known as ‘Der Bomber’ was a prolific striker for every team he played for and in every competition. In total, he scored 655 goals in just 709 games – and these don’t include the types of goals that Romario counted, these were real goals. He was top scorer in the European Cup, The World Cup, the European Championships, the Bundesliga, and probably in training too, yet he’s never seriously considered when talking about the second tier of greats – after Pele, Maradona and Zidane, people tend to discuss Cruyff, Best, Charlton, Di Stefano and plenty of others, but never Muller (certainly not in England anyway). Yet he was the most reliable and devastating player of his generation.

He won the Bundesliga four times, the German Cup four times and the European Cup three times (in a row), among other trophies. You could point out that he was playing for Bayern Munich but when he joined them (in 1964), they were still in the second division having won a single title in the 1930s. It’s fair to say that he played a massive part in the history of Germany’s super club.

So on to the goals, the first of his big game strikes was in 1970 World Cup. Aged 25, Muller scored a double in “The Game of the Century” – not a bad way to introduce yourself to a global audience. Unfortunately for Gerd, it was in a 4-3 defeat to Italy. He scored two goals in extra time which in any normal circumstances should have been enough to win a game, not in that game though, as Italy scored three. He did at least finish the tournament as the Top Scorer with 10 goals, including the winner in an epic quarter final against 1966 conquerors, England. Regarded as a better team than the 1966 champions, Muller capped off a comeback from 2-0 down to put West Germany through. He wasn’t to be denied though, and four years later, on home soil he would have his moment of glory. After scoring in the Final Group stage games against Yugoslavia and then the winner against Poland in what was effectively a semi final, this happened:

Although he didn’t quite get the golden boot, he did score the winning goal in the final against Johan Cruyff’s much fancied Holland, and in scoring his 14th World Cup goal, he became the top scorer in World Cup history – a record that stood for 32 years until Ronaldo took the crown (it took him an extra World Cup). That made it an impressive double as Muller also top scored as West Germany won Euro ’72, including two goals in the Final against Russia. Before that he’d scored a double against Belgium to put his country through.

For his club team, Bayern won three consecutive European Cups from 1974-1976 and Muller was once again instrumental in all three wins. The 1974 tournament saw him score in the semi final against Dozsa of Hungary before they faced Atletico Madrid. After the Final ended 1-1, Bayern won the replay 4-0 with a brace from our man Muller. And to prove that he wasn’t just the poacher he was made out to be, he scored two brilliant goals, one from a van Basten-esque angle after a great first touch, and the second a classy lob that he really should have taken more time on:

A year later, he and they faced Don Revie’s Leeds team led by Billy Bremner in France. Despite only finishing the German league in 10th positon, Muller and his team mates managed to shake off their poor domestic form to win 2-0 – Muller scoring the second. It was a game remembered for some unusual refereeing decisions, but Muller didn’t care as he and his team mates won their second successive European Cup. And a year later, they were celebrating again – this time beating Saint Etienne. This time Muller didn’t score in the final, instead saving his impact for the semi finals against Real Madrid – scoring once away and twice at home as Bayern knocked out the one time dominant force in the competition.

He was also known mistakenly as “Short Fat Muller” after a hilarious lost in translation moment, but what was never in doubt was his ability to influence the biggest games in football. Pressure was not an issue for him.

He was quite simply the most prolific big game scorer that’s ever played football.

Cheers,

Liam

Top 50 Big Game Scorers 10-6

Finally into the Top 10, and the big guns are out, with seven World Cup Final goals between the next five players, plus a Copa Libertadores legend. For 20-11 see HERE

10. Eusebio (Portugal) 1957-1979 / 23 points – 9 goals

Mozambique born Portuguese legend, Eusebio was one of the most prolific scorers of the 60’s. With a reported 727 goals for Benfica, the lightening quick frontman dominated the Portuguese league, winning eleven titles in his stay with the Lisbon giants. However, it was his performances in the European cup that first brought him to the World’s attention. Playing in four finals and scoring in two of them, Eusebio lifted the trophy just once in 1962. The previous year had seen Benfica end Real Madrid’s reign as Kings of Europe as they beat Barcelona in the Final, and the 1962 Final paired the two of them against each other. Despite Madrid storming into a 2-0 and then 3-2 lead (thanks to a Puskas hat trick), Benfica stormed back to win 5-3 thanks largely to a brace by Eusebio. The man known as the Black Pearl had done this aged just 20 in his first full season with the club.

A year later, he was in the thick of it again as he scored against Feyenoord in the semi before notching another Final goal, this time against AC Milan who overturned Eusebio’s goal with a brace by Altafini. He’d suffer further Final heartache to Inter Milan in 1965 and Manchester United in 1968, scoring two semi final goals in both seasons.

His stay with Benfica wasn’t always so smooth though. When he signed for them, he alledgedly had to go under an alias to avoid kidnapping, whilst after the 1966 World Cup, Portugal’s dictator Salazar passed a law stating that he wasn’t allowed to leave Portugal after Inter Milan bid a massive $3m for him. In 1966. And whilst on the subject of the 1966 World Cup, Eusebio top scored with nine goals, including a memorable four goals haul versus North Korea. Portugal would eventually bow out at the Semi Final stage where Eusebio’s goal wasn’t enough to stop hosts England progressing to the Final.

 

 

9. Mario Kempes (Argentina) 1970-1996 / 24 points – 6 goals

It’s fair to say that the 1978 World Cup brought the best out of Mario Kempes, and especially the big games. Kempes won the golden boot much like Paolo Rossi after him, with all his goals scored in the final stages. Argentina finished the first group stages behind Italy, but in the Final Group stage, Kempes would burst into life. He scored the only goals of the game in a 2-0 win against Poland, before hitting another brace in the 6-0 win over Peru, a result that put them in final ahead of Brazil on goal difference. And of course, it was the Final that would be Kempes’ greatest moment. On home soil, Argentina faced the mighty Dutch who were contesting their second successive Final. Kempes opened the scoring in the 38th minute, only for the Dutch to equalise late on. In extra time, Kempes put the hosts ahead for a second time before it was made safe by Daniel Bertoni. Argentina had won their first ever World Cup, and Kempes had finished top scorer with six goals. You might want to put the video on mute:

In what was a prolific career, Kempes will be best remembered for his time with Valencia which saw him win two Pichichi trophies, a UEFA Cup Winners Cup (versus Arsenal) and the Copa del Rey in 1979, when he scored both goals in a 2-0 win against the mighty Real Madrid. He became something of a journeyman in his later career (that saw him scoring goals into his 40s), taking in spells in Austria, Chile and Indonesia, where he still remained prolific. He went on to play twelve more times for his country, but the extra time goal in the World Cup Final was his last for his country. A big game player when his country needed him most.

 

 

8. Vava (Brazil) 1949-1969/ 27 points – 6 goals

And coming in at number eight is Brazilian great Evaldo Izidio Neto, known more widely as Vava. Despite winning just 20 caps for the national team, Vava won the World Cup twice, in 1958 and 1962 and scored nine of his 15 national team goals along the way. Nicknamed Steel Chest (not quite as cool at Zico’s nickname), Vava was known as a goalscorer first and foremost. And he did that very very well. The first man to score in two World Cup Finals (only three others have managed this), he first came to International prominence in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. With Brazil looking to make amends for finishing runners up at home four years earlier, Vava, along with a 17 year old Pele and the mercurial Garrincha, won Brazil’s first World Cup. Aftecr just four minutes, they found themselves 1-0 down in the Final to the hosts, courtesy of a goal from AC Milan’s Nils Liedholm. cometh the hour, cometh the man – Vava stepped up to make sure there would be no repeat of the 1954 disappointment. And despite all of Brazil’s beautiful football, it was two poachers goals from him that firstly equalised, and then put them 2-1 up. Brazil went on to win the game 5-2 and in doing so, would begin a legacy that has seen them become the greatest footballing nation in the history of game.

And it shouldn’t be forgotten that he also scored in the Semi Final win against France – once again an important goal, with Vava scoring the opener. And he wasn’t finished there. Four years later he was even more instrumental. He top scored with four goals despite the fact that his first goal wasn’t until the Quarter Final win over England. In the Semi final win against hosts Chile, Vava’s goals were the difference as he scored a brace in a 4-2 win (along with player of the tournament Garrincha). And once again, he was at it again in the Final, scoring the third and final goal as Brazil retained their trophy with a 3-1 win over the Czechs. Once again, it wasn’t a classic Brazilian strike, with Vava this time pouncing on a goalkeeper mistake as seen here.

He enjoyed spells with Vasco da Gama, Atletico Madrid and Palmeiras (among others) before moving into coaching, where most notably he was the assistant manager of the 1982 Brazil squad – generally regarded as the best team never to win the tournament.

 

7. Alberto Spencer (Ecuador) 1953-1972 / 27.5 points – 13 goals

After a few World Cup specialists comes the King of the Copa Libertadores, Alberto Spencer. After spending his whole career in Ecuador and Uruguay (he also represented both countries), he’s somewhat unknown in Europe, despite his prolific scoring record. Even now, he’s the all time Top Scorer in the history of the Copa Libertadores, and it’s his 13 goals in the latter stages of the tournament that warrants his inclusion in the top 10. In total he scored 54 goals in the tournament from 1960 to 1972. Internationally, despite never appearing in a World Cup, he does have the distinction of being the only player to have played and scored simultaneously for two countries. In fact, he swapped between Ecuador and Uruguay no less than four occasions. Nicknamed the Magic Head due to his heading ability, Pele once said of him “Someone that headed better than me was Spencer. I was good, but he was spectacular heading the ball“. He didn’t however, mention problems in the bedroom.

And so onto the goals. Spencer scored in four different Copa Libertadores finals, and has a whopping eight Final goals. It should be remembered that Finals were played over two legs, but that’s still an incredible record and the epitome of a big game player. On top of that, he also scored five goals at the Semi Final stages. In 1960, after Spencer scored two goals in the semis, Penarol were facing Olimpia of Paraguay. In the first leg, he scored the first Final goal in the history of the now prestigious tournament – a fitting start for what he’d go on to achieve. That goal proved to be the difference as Penarol won 2-1 on aggregate. A year later, and the opponents had changed (Palmeiras of Brazil) but the outcome was the same. Spencer scored the only goal of a 1-0 first leg win, as Penarol went on to defend their crown with another 2-1 aggregate win. Penarol found themselves in a 3rd successive final in 1962 as they looked set to dominate the tournament the way Real Madrid had done with the European Cup. But it wasn’t to be. Spencer scored three more semi final goals against fellow Uruguayan’s Nacional. In the final, they faced Pele’s Santos, and despite Spencer’s goals in both legs of the Final, the Brazilians went on to win the play off 3-0. Injuries and form meant that Spencer didn’t get to play in another Final until 1966, and once again, he was pivotal. Scoring in the second leg of the final, this time against River Plate, Spencer decided the playoff game with the first and third goals 4-2 win to win his third and final winners medal. Pele wasn’t lying about his heading ability:

6. Ronaldo (Brazil) 1993-2011 / 32 points – 9 goals

It’s probably easiest to just start with the goals for Ronaldo, as they tell a pretty clear story:

He’s played in the Final of four different major tournaments and scored in all of them. Some correctly point out that he never scored in the European Cup Final, to which the simple answer is that he didn’t play in one. The closest he came was with Real Madrid in 2002-03. They ended up losing to Juventus 4-3 on aggregate, with Ronaldo playing and scoring in the 2-1 first leg win, but missing the return match which meant both he missed the chance to play in the Champions League Final, and also that the rest of us had to watch what is one of the worst Finals in the history of the competition. But I digress. This is all about Ronaldo. In my eyes, the pre injury Ronaldo was the best player I’ve ever seen, and had the potential to be the best of all time. Quite a statement I think you’ll agree but when you compare him with say Messi at the same age (19-20) Ronaldo scored 47 goals for Barca whilst Messi scored 17. I know there are plenty of variables to that, but it does tell a story.

Unfortunately though, the injury did happen, and football fans of the World had to put up with a bulked up but watered down version of the Brazilian striker, and he didn’t do too badly. Pre injury, he played and scored the only goal in the Cup Winners Cup Final for Barcelona against PSG in 1997. A year later at Inter, he played and scored in the UEFA Cup Final win over a Lazio team containing Nesta, Casiraghi, Nedved and Mancini. The goal showed his trademark rounding of the keeper, something that he seemed to take great joy in doing (as seen here). For Brazil, by the time of his first injury, he’d dazzled all before him with goals and assists in the 1998 World Cup, including a goal in the Semi Final against Holland. Unfortunately, we all know what happened in the Final, though at the same time, we all know what was to come four year later. He’d also scored in the Final of both the 1997 Copa America verus Bolivia and the 1999 Final against Uruguay with this effort – highlighting his ability to finish equally well on his left foot as his right. Pace, Power, Technique and accuracy:

After the injury (November 1999), he was visibly different, but he adapted to great success and fulfilled his greatest dream by winning the World Cup in 2002 (after recoevring from a second career threatening injury). And how. Ronaldo scored 8 goals in his 7 games (the highest total since 1970) including the winner in a 1-0 defeat of Turkey in the semi final, before his moment of redemption – the 2002 World Cup Final against Germany. Sure, he had a crap haircut, but look at the hunger for the first goal – winning the ball back (after losing it to be fair), and following up on Rivaldo’s speculative effort. The second was a thing of beauty though.

To be the all time World Cup top scorer, to have scored in two Copa America finals, and two European club finals, and to be the only man to score on both sides of the el Clasico and the Milan derby tells you all you need to know about his big game credentials. Ronaldo was a man for the big occasion. The fact that he did all this and people still talk about what might have been also shows you what a player he was, especially before the injuries. When Zinedine Zidane was asked who was the best player he ever played with or against he didn’t pause when he replied “without hesitation, Ronaldo”

The Top 5 will be up next week.

Top 50 Big Game Scorers – 30-21

The countdown continues from 30 through to 21. This ten feature four players still active(ish), and some all time greats. For 40-31, click HERE

Cristiano Ronaldo makes the Top 50 Big Game Scorers – ahead of Lionel Messi…..for now

30. Sandro Mazzola (Italy) 1960-1977 / 15 points – 6 goals

Son of the great Valentino Mazzola of Torino and sadly the Superga air disaster, Sandro Mazzola was a great in his own right. Part of ‘Le Grande Inter’, he had a massive impact on the golden era of Inter Milan under Helanio Herrera. Despite the defensive tactics employed by the team, Mazzola was a regular scorer from the outside right position and especially so in the European Cup. An integral part of Inter’s run of three finals in four years from 1964-67, he scored some of the most crucial goals in that time. Facing European giants Real Madrid complete with Di Stefano, Amaro, Gento and Puskas in the 1964 Final, Mazzola was the difference with two goals in a famous 3-1 win, coming after his two goals in the Semi finals put Inter through against Borussia Dortmund. A year later, it was Mazzola’s away goal in the semi final away to Liverpool that made the difference on aggregate as the Italians defended their crown. Fast forward to 1967 and Mazzola scored in the final again although this time it would end in defeat to the Lisbon Lions of Celtic.

29. Pieter Robert (Rob) Rensenbrink (Netherlands) 1965-1982 / 15 points – 6 goals

Eagle eyed readers will have noticed Kurt Hamrin’s pretty impressive four goal tally in UEFA Cup Winners Cup Finals – in fact it’s the joint highest in the history of the competition. Joint with Rob Rensenbrink. The left winger took an unusual career path, when you see a Dutch player from the 70′s featuring on this list then there’s a good chance he was part of the great Ajax team. Oh no. Rensenbrink played for AFC Door Wilskracht Sterk in Holland from 1965 to 1969 before moving to FC Brugge in Belgium. Surprise number two is that he joined big rivals FC Anderlecht after just two seasons. And it’s with Anderlecht that he shone – winning the Belgian league twice, as well as the Belgian Cup, and most importantly for this list, two Cup Winners Cup medals. In the 1976 Final, it was Rensenbrink that scored twice to deny West Ham their second European trophy in a 4-2 win. A defeat the following season in the Final was forgotten just a year later as they defeated Austria Vienna 4-0 with Rensenbrink scoring the all important first and second goals. His other big game entries came in the Final Group stages of the 1974 and 1978 World Cups where he scored against East Germany and Austria respectively. He could however have been a lot higher up the list and in the list of greats had it not been for a few inches. The 1978 World Cup final was stuck at 1-1 with hosts Argentina competing with Holland. Resenbrink was able to play in his preferred wide left of the front three due to Cruyff’s absence. With just 30 seconds left, this happened:

A few inches to the right and Rensenbrink would have scored the winning goal for the first time in Holland’s history and finished as the tournament’s top scorer. Instead, people talk about how they would have won it with Cruyff. Football can be a cruel game. In the words of Jan Mulder, his Holland and Anderlecht team mate “Robbie Rensenbrink was as good as Cruyff, only in his mind he was not”.

28. Hernan Crespo (Argentina) 1993-Present / 15 points – 6 goals

Now onto someone a bit more current – just. Hernan Crespo is currently a free agent (at the time of writing) after leaving Parma, though aged 37 it’s just a matter of time before he hangs up the boots. Perhaps, understandably compared to Argentine team mate Gabriel Batistuta, Crespo was once the holder of the World Record Transfer fee when he moved to Lazio for £35m in 2000. Famous for his off the ball movement, he was a clinical finisher and especially in the big games. Most notably in the 2005 Champions League Final, scoring two goals to put AC Milan 3-0 up. That didn’t end particularly well for him and his team mates, but his second goal was one of the best finishes seen on the big stage:

The previous year also saw him score in the semi final stage against Monaco for Chelsea, whilst in 1999 he scored the opening goal in the UEFA Cup Final as a star studded Parma team demolished Marseille 3-0. And to confirm his big game credentials, 1996 saw Crespo’s brace in the second leg of the Copa Libertadores Final to win the tournament for River Plate, for only the second time in their history. Final goals in three major competitions leaves his place in the list unquestioned.

27. Marcelo Delgado (Argentina) 1990-2010 / 15.5 points – 6 goals

Very much a Copa Libertadores specialist, Marcelo Delgado was not prolific striker (his 18 caps for Argentina produced no goals), but he was very much a man for the big occasion. Only two men in the history of football have scored more Copa Libertadores Final goals – Uruguay’s Alberto Spencer (more on him later) and Coutinho of Brazil (#42). Delgado’s first came in the 2001 Final when Boca Juniors faced Mexican side Cruz Azul. Delgado scored the away goal as the Argentines won in Mexico, only for the second leg to end in a reverse. Penalties ensued, and as befitting of a big game player, Delgado scored what would prove to be the winning penalty to give Boca their 4th title. Two seasons later he was at it again, this time scoring in the semi final win against Colombia’s America de Cali before an all Argentine team beat Santos 5-1 on aggregate. Alongside Carlos Tevez in attack, Delgado scored three final goals (two at home, one away). He then briefly left the club for a one season spell with Cruz Azul where he formed a partnerhip with Delgado (Cesar) before returning to Boca for 2005-06. In all, he won three Libertadores medals with the Buenos Aires team, who have won the trophy six times in their history.

26. Juan Alberto Schiaffino (Uruguay) 1943-1962/ 16 points – 6 goals

The Uruguayan and some time Italian international (that sort of thing was a lot more common back then) was part of the Maracanazo final of 1950. With Brazil leading it was Schiaffino that struck the equaliser in the high pressure Final against the hosts. Uruguay would go on to claim their third crown, much to the World’s surprise, with a goal from Ghiggia (51st on this list). For his club teams the forward excelled for Penarol in Uruguay but it was after a move to AC Milan in the mid 50’s that he’d score more high profile goals. He hit one in the 1956 European Cup semi final defeat to Real Madrid who were taking their first step to becoming the greatest team in competition’s history. Two years later he hit two more at the semi final stage to knock out a Manchester United that were tragically weakened by the Munich air disaster. In the Final Shiaffino actually put the Italians 1-0 up, but it wasn’t to be as the game ended 2-2 after 90 minutes and 3-2 to Madrid after extra time, thanks to Gento.

25. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) 2002-Present / 16 points – 7 goals

Ronaldo has an unfair reputation of being something of a flat track bully. But fear not Cristiano, you’ve made it into the Top 50 big game scorers, which is one of, if not the biggest achievement in football. He’s specialised in the Champions League with a semi final goal against AC Milan in 2007, followed by a brace at the same stage in 2009 against Arsenal, and then another two in this year’s semi final against Bayern, this time for Real. The biggest goal came in the 2008 final against Chelsea as United completed a memorable double when Ronaldo scored one of his famous headers. A year later, he didn’t score in the Final, but was Man Utd’s best player and the only one that put any real pressure on the Barca goal. For his country, a semi final strike for Portugal on home soil in Euro 2004 is the biggest goal he scored as they qualified for the Final, and if you point to the winning goal in the Copa del Rey Final (2011) against Barcelona and an FA Cup final goal against Millwall, then you have a case for the defence. In short, he’s not a bottler.

24. Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina) 1995-Present / 16.5 points – 8 goals

Despite spending a large chunk of his career in Spain with European regulars Barcelona and Villarreal, all of Riquelme’s big game goals have come in South American games, for club and country. A gifted if slightly lazy number 10, Riquelme specialised in dictating play and set pieces. A legend at Boca Juniors where he’s sometimes been seen as a disruptive influence (it is rumoured that team mate Martin Palermo retired instead of playing another season with him), the talented number 10 and Scarface impersonator brought back the good times to Boca. Scoring in the semis on the way to Boca’s first title in years (alongside Delgado), he would go on to do so again on his return to Argentinean football with semi final goals in both 2007 and 2008. But it was for his contribution to the 2007 final that would result in a statue being erected in his honour. Facing Brazil’s Gremio, Boca won the first leg 3-0 with Riquelme scoring the second. In the second leg, the playmaker scored both goals to give Boca a 5-0 win. Impressive. For his country, he often played second fiddle to Veron and Aimar but was on target in the Copa America semi final of 2007 against Mexico on the way to defeat in the final against Brazil.

23. Hector Rial (Spain) 1947-1964 / 17 points – 7 goals

Another of the great Real Madrid side of the 1950’s, Rial joined Real from fresh from winning the Uruguayan championship with Nacional. Born and bred in Argentina (although he played for Spain), the front man spent seven seasons in the Spanish capital from 1954 to 1961 – neatly coinciding with the five straight European Cup wins. And he had a pretty big part to play in them too. In the Semi Final of the first ever European Cup in 1956, Rial scored the first goal as Madrid knocked out Milan 5-4 on aggregate, and in the final, would score both an equaliser and the winning goal as they defeated Stade Reims 4-3. Not content with being the man to make the difference in the biggest club game ever played, he scored two semi final goals the following year – this time home and away against Matt Busby’s Manchester United before Real would claim the trophy against Fiorentina. In the 1957-58 competition he scored a 79th minute equaliser as Real came from behind to beat AC Milan to win their third successive trophy. He was scoring not only in the big games, but decisive goals. By the time the 1958-59 season had come around, the tournament had grown from 16 teams to 28, not that it made any difference to Rial and Madrid. He scored the equaliser in the semi final stage against city rivals Atleti before claiming another winners medal in the final. Sure, his international career wasn’t much to write home about (5 caps and 1 goal for Spain), but when it came to performing in the big matches, Rial was a man to rely on.

22. Alessandro Del Piero (Italy) 1988-Current / 17 points – 7 goals

There’s always been a feeling of Del Piero going missing in the big games (regular readers may remember these stats), but that’s only when taking his ability into account. The fact that he’s still 22nd on the all time list of Big Game Scorers suggests that maybe he has been a man for the big occasion. Hi first big game goal came in the 1997 Champions League Final against Borussia Dortmund as Juventus lost their crown as the Champions of Europe. Fast forward to the 1997-98 competition, and Del Piero was top scorer with 10 goals. In particualr, he absolutely dominated the semi final stage – hitting a hat trick in the first leg at home to Monaco, before soring his fourth against them in the return leg. Unfortunately for him and Juve, despite reaching their third successive final, they’d lose 1-0 to Real Madrid and a goal from Pedrag Mijatovic. He wasn’t quite done there though, as he scored in the semi final of the 2002-2003 tournament, getting revenge on Real as they were defeated 4-3 on aggregate. In the final, despite scoring his penalty in the shoot out with AC Milan, he ended up with his third runners up medal in seven years. Even more disappointing is that Juve had finished a massive 16 points ahead of their conquerors in Serie A. For the natioanl team, Del Piero famously missed two good opportunities as France came from behind to win Euro 2000 in extra time, but he would have redemption in the shape of World Cup semi final goal against hosts Germany in 2006.

21. Romario (Brazil) 1985-2009 / 17.5 points – 6 goals

World Player of the Year? Check. World Cup Golden Boot? Check. Scorer of 1000 goals? Check. All things point to a natural inclusion for Romario on this list. His most important goal came in the 1994 World Cup semi final win against Sweden to Brazil in their first final for 24 years. He also scored his penalty in the World Cup Final shoot out better known for Baggio’s miss. Aside from 1994, Romario also popped up with some valuable goals on the way to winning the Copa America in 1989 and again in 1997. The 1989 edition saw final group stage goals against bitter rivals Argentina, Paraguay and then in the final group game to decide the winners against Uruguay. Eight years later and with the tournament back in a knock out format, Romario scored a double in the semi final as Brazil scraped past Peru 7-0 on the way to winning the tournament. Big game scorer then?

Well maybe, but if you’ve claimed to have scored 1000 goals (including youth matches and presumably headers and volleys in the back garden), surely you should have scored more than six goals in the Finals and Semi Finals of major tournaments? Especially when playing for the likes of Brazil and Barcelona. In fact, when you scrapte the surface, he played in the Finals of the 1994 World Cup, the 1994 Champions League, and the 1997 Copa America, but didn’t score. Fair enough, you can’t be expected to score in every match, but when you say that you’re better than Messi, and equal to Pele, Maradona and Zidane, then you should probably be able to back it up a bit better. More on Messi vs Romario (and Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho) here.

Serie A Round 31

Amauri counts his goals this season

After just one win in their last eight games, there seemed to be absolutely no chance for 17th placed Fiorentina travelling to an in form AC Milan team. Well, it’s a funny old game because the Viola won 2-1 at the San Siro. It looked as though business as usual as I Am Zlatan opened the scoring from the penalty spot for his 23rd goal of the season (average opposition per goal 11.39). He’s reached this total in just 25 games, and is just two goals short of his best league total of 25 which he reached in his last season with Inter. It was the Swedish striker’s 30th goal in all competitions. But this isn’t about Z-Vic, this is about Fiorentina’s turn around in form, and the title race. Stevan Jovetic equalised with his 13th goal of the season (9.23), in what was his first goal in 6 games. He now has 4 goals against Top 6 opponents. Jovetic then turned provider in the 88th minute as he tee’d up Brazilian/Italian Amauri for the winning goal, and his first for Fiorentina in ten games. The big striker did of course used to play for Juventus, but hilariously, he absolutely hates them after broken promises, and some poor performances from him (see more here). He has a funny way of showing it.

That defeat for AC Milan opened up the chance for draw specialists Juventus to regain top spot for the first time since round 23. Juve remain the only unbeaten team in all of the major European Leagues, and whilst they have drawn almost half of their games (14 of 31), they have hit form at the right time. Having won the previous three games, confidence was high for Conte’s men, but they were facing a tricky task away at Palermo, who had the 4th best home record going into the fixture. Not a problem. Goals from Quagliarella and Bonucci gave Juve their 4th win in a row, at an aggregate score of 12-0. Their top scorer (Matri) only has 10 league goals, but the rest of the squad are now chipping in, to help out. Juve now have a two point lead at the top of the table, and with just seven games left, it could go either way. The good news for AC Milan, and football in general was that Antonio Cassano made his comeback after a minor stroke earlier in the season. He could prove very important to the run in.

In the battle for the third and final Champions League spot, it appears to be advantage Lazio after they beat 5th placed Napoli 3-1 in the showpiece game of the weekend. Napoli have now gone four games without a win, as the hangover from the Champions League knockout by Chelsea looms over them. That, and the fact that they’ve had a tough run of fixtures. Their last four games have been against an average ranked opposition of 4.5 – Udinese, Catania, Juventus, and now Lazio. Also in the hunt for a top three spot were Udinese and Roma. Luis Enrique’s team were given a footballing lesson as they lost 4-2 away at 18th placed Lecce. A brace by David Di Michele and another two from Udinese owned Luis Muriel proved the difference. Muriel’s two goals were impressively taken, and will help his parent club. Strangely, he’s one of 13 players on loan at the club. Udinese remain just 3 points behind Lazio after ending a poor run of form with a 3-1 win over Parma (16th). Di Natale scored his 150th Serie A goal, and 20th of the season (12.2).

It was no surprise that Di Natale scored against Parma – he’s scored almost half of his goals this season against teams in the Bottom 6. He shares the worst average opponent per goal with Roma’s Osvaldo, who gets the Flat Track Bully tag as he only has two goals vs Top 6 opponents, compared to Di Natale’s rather more respectable four. Ibrahimovic’s goal against Fiorentina, means that his 11.39 is now the third lowest of the leading scorers.

On the flipside, Fabrizio Miccoli looks like he’s going to be the Big Game player for the season, with both the highest average ranked opponent per goal with 6.17 and also the most goals against the Top 6 teams, with nine. Di Michele’s double against 6th placed Roma means he makes the list, and with a decent average of 8.80, the former West Ham forward can be classed as a big game player (4 goals against Top 6 teams for the season). Genoa’s Rodrigo Palacio continued his good scoring season with his third goal in as many games – his 17th overall.

Comedy club, Inter Milan have had their honey moon period under new manager Stramaccioni ended after one win. They drew 2-2 away at 12th placed Cagliari. Carrying on the trend from last week, it was an all Argentinian affair as Esteban Cambiasso got in on the act, as well as regular scorer Diego Milito (10.61). This was Inter’s 10th league goal in a row scored by Argentinians, and 15th in a row by South American players. You have to go back to January for an Italian scorer (Pazzini).

There’s another round of fixtures this midweek which could have a large impact at the top of the table. AC Milan travel to 9th placed Chiveo, whilst Juventus face a tricky game at home to 3rd placed Lazio. Hoping Lazio will slip up are Roma vs Udinese who meet in Rome on Wednesday. At the bottom of the table, bottom team Cesena face 17th placed Genoa, whilst 16th Parma host 19th Novara. All to play for. What’s that? You want me to put my neck on the line and make predictions based on the stats? Well okay then….

1. Alessandro Matri is Juve’s leading scorer and has 4 goals against Top 6 teams. He’s started te last two games on the bench, but is due a goal after scoring against AC Milan back in February.
2. For Lazio, they’ll be hoping that Miroslav Klose makes a speedy recovery after missing the last three games. If he’s fit, he’s a big game player (5 vs Top 6 teams), and is most likely to score. If not fit, then Lazio have faced team in the Top 6 on 12 occasions this season and have 6 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats. Playing away, the record is Played 7, Won 4, Drawn 2, Lost 1. So that’s clear then? A draw, as they’re playing unbeatable Juventus.
3. Ibrahimovic to score against 9th placed Chievo. He specialises against mid table opponents.
4. Genoa hot shot Palacio to score against Cesena.

Cheers,

Liam

Serie A Round 30

There’s only one place to start this week, and that’s at the San Siro. Andrea Stramaccioni took control of his first game for Inter Milan after the sacking of Claudio Ranieri. Despite every man and his dog being linked with the job, owner Moratti insists that this is not a temporary appointment and that the 36 year old (younger than Zanetti) has the job. He’s never managed at senior level before, but is fresh from winning the Next Gen Series (think of a Champions League for Under 19s). In what appears to be an attempt to copy the Guardiola model at Barcelona (but without the history and connection to the club), the young manager was introduced to the media, only for Mad Mario Balotelli to turn up at the press conference – as you do.

Inter Milan + Argentinians = Happiness

Needless to say, the new manager effect kicked in and Inter put behind them a run of 1 win in 10 to over come 14th placed Genoa. But that’s only half the story. The final score was 5-4! It’s clear that the Inter defence needs a lot of work on it. They’ve let in 42 goals – which is the 7th worst in the league. Although it was a new manager, it was an old tradition of the club that shone through – all of their five goals were scored by Argentinians. Part of the reason the club was founded was to create an International club for all nationalities. Argentina have certainly featured heavily in the club’s history from legendary manager Herrara to the current squad of players.

On this occasion, Diego Milito (10.53) did what he does best and scored against mid table opposition. That’s 13 of his 17 goals that have been scored against the middle 8 teams – thanks to a hat trick against Genoa. After a very disappointing 2010-11 season in which he only scored 5 league goals, the 32 year old striker now has returned to the sort of form that he showed on the way to the treble in 2010. Also in on the act was and Mauro Zarate, who’s season can be firmly described as disappointing. This was just his first goal in the league, in his 17th apperance. The other goal was scored by Walter Samuel who was obviously too busy attacking to worry about defending. Add in Cambiasso, Zanetti, and Ricardo Alvarez, and there’s a pretty strong Argentinian contingent at the club.

And South Americans scoring in Serie A this weekend seemed to be a theme. Other South American scorers this weekend were Cagliari’s Pinilla (Chile), Lazio’s Scaloni (Argentinian), Roma’s Osvaldo (Argentinian born), Genoa’s Palacio (Argentinian), Roma’s Marquinho (Brazil) and Hernandez (Uruguay), Vidal Pardo (Chile) of Juventus, and AC Milan’s Robinho (Brazil). You probably get the idea by now. Plenty of South American Stars do well in Italy.

In the race for the title, Juventus continued their unbeaten season, and recent good form with a 3-0 win over Napoli (4th). What’s more impressive is that Napoli are currently second in the form table over the last eight games (Behind only AC Milan). Mirko Vucinic, Vidal Prado and Quagliarella were on the scoresheet against the Top 6 opposition. That’s now 3 wins in a row for the Turin giants, and coupled with AC Milan’s 1-1 draw against 7th placed Catania – courtesy of goals from Robinho and Catania’s Spolli. This leaves just 2 points at the top of the table, and AC Milan have to face Inter in their penultimate game.

Elsewhere, a couple of teams who certainly aren’t anywhere near the top of the form table are Fiorentina and Udinese. Fiorentina have just one win in eight games, and are freefalling towards the relegation places. They now sit just one place above the relegation zone. At the other end of the table, but in even worse form are Udinese. They’ve gone one worse than Fiorentina, and have just one win in nine games. Are they starting to miss Alexis Sanchez? The Barcelona winger scored 12 league goals for Udinese last year, as they finished in the Champions League places. The current form has seen them drop from 3rd to 5th.

In terms of the Average Opposition ranking, it’s pretty much as we were at the top. Fabrizio Miccoli remains the big game player with both the best average (6.17) and the most goals against Top 6 teams, with 9. He’s also the clear leader in the assists table with 12 (against good opponents again). He’s without doubt the big game player in Serie A, and all done with a very mid table Palermo (9th). Bologna’s Marco Di Vaio has done well with an average opponent of 7.80, with four goals against Top 6 teams, though has one more than Miccoli against the Bottom 6 with…..one. Not bad.

At the other end, Roma’s Osvaldo is the flat track bully with an average ranked opponent of 12.20 per goal. He was on the score sheet against Novara in a cracking 5-2 win for Luis Enrique’s team. The fact that Novara were ranked in 19th at the start of play certainly didn’t help the Argentinian Italian.

That’s all for now, AC Milan have just been knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona, but Nocerino continued his best goal scoring season with the Italian club’s goal in a 3-1 defeat. It’s been quite the improvement in front of goal from the former Palermo man, who has now reached double figures in all competitions for the first time in his career. And scoring away at the Nou Camp/Camp Nou (remove as applicable) is always classed as a big game.

Cheers,

Liam

The Myth of Maradona?

It’s long been the biggest debate in Football – who has been the greatest footballer of all time. The debate has generally included Pele, Cruyff, Best, Ronaldo, Zidane, and lately, Messi – but it’s usually Argentina’s Diego Maradona that comes out on top for the oft used line “he won things with poor teams”. Well I’m gonna look into the accuracy of that statement in an attempt to prove it’s relevance to the World’s greatest debate. The teams in question are Argentina’s World Cup winners of 1986, and Napoli’s Serie A winners of 1987 and 1990. I’ll put forward the data, will add my views and will let you decide:

It’s never really been in doubt. Growing up, my Dad told me the following ‘facts’ about football – Maradona was the best player of all time, George Best was the best player from UK & Ireland, and Alan Devonshire was the best player he saw for West Ham (though there was an honourable mention for Sir Trevor Brooking). And that was that. I had no reason to doubt any of that in the last 20+ years of watching football and from what I remember of Maradona in Italia 90 (especially this assist).

But

In my quest/obsession to discover the best big game players of all time, I noticed a few interesting things. I’ve been trawling through all of the data from World Cups, European Championships, Copa Americas, Champions League, Copa Libertadores, and UEFA/Europa League/Cup Winners Cup games and discovered that a) the Top 20 Big Game Players article is going to take me absolutely ages, and b) Maradona isn’t even in the top 25 Big Game players since 1980 (Semi Finals and Finals).

Argentina 1986:

The best place to start is his greatest achievement in football, and the tournament for which he will be most remembered. The idea that he singlehandedly took his teams to glory was created on the back of the World Cup win in 1986 with an “ordinary team”.

Firstly, the defence:

Titles are won built on solid defences, and regardless of whether you have the best player of all time in your team or not, you won’t win anything without a solid defence. As seen from the table above, letting in less than a goal a game will go a long way to winning the World Cup, and the Argentina 1986 team conceded just five goals in their seven games, including three clean sheets. The previous winners Italy conceded six, and West Germany also conceded five on the way to lifting the trophy in 1990.

Secondly, the squad. We’ve already seen the defence were certainly good enough to win a World Cup, and there were also some other noticeable players alongside Maradona. Whilst he top scored with five goals, Jorge Valdano of Real Madrid (no less) also weighed in with four, including one in the Final. Elsewhere there was also quality from Oscar Ruggeri, Jorge Burruchaga and Sergio Batista. This was by no means a squad without talent.

And what of Maradona’s impact? Well it is fair to say that he did have an amazing tournament. He scored one goal against Italy in the group stages, but it was the Quarter Final meeting with England that really won him the plaudits. He scored a brace against a country that Argentina had recently been at war with, including the best goal ever scored in World Cup football. Then in the Semi Finals against Belgium, he scored another brace in a 2-0 win to get his country to the Final. He also grabbed five assists meaning that he either scored or created 10 of Argentina’s 14 goals.

Is there any other player to so dominate a major tournament? Well yes, just two years earlier in fact. Michel Platini lifted the European Championship Trophy for France. Like Maradona, he was an attacking midfielder, but his impact was arguably bigger than Maradona’s in 1986. He scored 9 goals in 5 games for the French including the winner in the Semi Final and the opener in the Final. In fact his career record of 312 goals in 580 games is almost identical when compared to Maradona’s 311 in 589. Platini’s international record was 41 in 72 games compared to Diego’s 34 in 91. Yet France’s Euro 84 winners are best remembered for the midfield four or magic square of Platini, Alain Giresse, Luis Fernández and Jean Tigana. Not one player, despite his massive input.

There’s little doubt that Maradona was the player of the tournament, but did that mean that the rest of the team were poor?

Napoli 1987:

El Diego was celebrating again a year later as he was instrumental in winning Napoli’s first league title. Once again he had a big input in the team’s win. Though was he the one man team he’s made out to be?

Napoli were the best team in Serie A in 1986-87, they won the most games, lost the fewest, and had the best goal difference. They won the league by 3 points, when a win was only worth 2 points. First up – their league record in isolation:

Once again, we’ll start with the defence. As with Argentina’s 1986 World Champions, Napoli’s 1987 Serie A winners were built on one of the strongest defences in the league. Conceding just 21 goals in 30 games (0.7 conceded per game), meant that they had a great base to build on. Of the 30 games, they kept clean sheets in 16 of them. Only Inter Milan (3rd) conceded less goals that season, with 17. So it’s fair to say that the Title Win was built from the back.

Next up, Maradona’s team mates. The team that won the title that year, ended up with 167 Italian Caps between them – hardly average players. The defence contained a young Ciro Ferrara who went on to win a second title with Napoli, and then to won six more with Juventus, along with the 1996 Champions League. Also in the squad were Italian Internationals Salvatore Bagni, Fernando De Napoli, Bruno Giordano (more of him later) and Andrea Carnevale. Not too shabby.

So it’s been established that the team had a fantastic defence and had other quality in Italian internationals. What did Maradona bring? Well, he was the Top Scorer that season and brought 10 goals in 29 appearances – a one in three strike rate. Of the 10 goals, 2 of them were penlties and two of his goals were scored in a 4-0 win over Empoli. So his goals only affected 9 of Napoli’s 30 league games.

As Serie A was made up of just 16 teams that season, I’ve split the opposition range in Top 4, Middle 8 and Bottom 4, and looking at the above, there’s a glaring omission. As someone who is supposed to have singlehandedly won the league for Napoli, he didn’t score in any of the games against their immediate rivals for the titles – Juventus in 2nd, Inter in 3rd and Verona in 4th. His average ranked opponent per goal was just 10.5 out of a 16 team league. They took just one point from Inter and Verona (0-0’s thanks to the defence), and did the double over Juventus – 3-1 away and 2-1 at home. Despite being top scorer, Maradona was not amoungst the 5 goals. Big game player? Maybe not in that season.

Having looked at the opposition he scored against, and that just 8 were from open play/free kicks, how important were his goals? Well as you can see from the above table, his goals were worth 10 points to Napoli, although this doesn’t take into account the part played by the defence in keeping clean sheets. To put the 10 points into perspective, Robin van Persie’s goals this season have been worth 22 points after 29 games. Perhaps not quite he one man team that’s made out.

And lastly, what of the standard of the league that season? Well Napoli’s 45 points with a +20 goal difference would not have been enough for the title in either the season before or the season after.

Without taking away from the achievement, they won less points, less games and scored fewer goals of the previous and following Champions. They were still undoubtedly the strongest team in the 1986-87 season, but their final performance would not have won them the league in most seasons.

So in reflection of the 1986-87 season, it’s fair to say that whilst his contribution was certainly impressive, and he was certainly their best player, he didn’t by any means carry the team to the title. First and foremost, the defence were the foundations of the win, with 16 clean sheets. His team mates were by no means ordinary, and Maradona’s actual performance in the most important games were not the difference. Add to that the lower points tally that won the league and I think it’s fair to say that it was definitely not a one man show.

Napoli 1990:

After the glory of their first title in 1987, Napoli would only have to wait a further three seasons to win their second (and at the time of writing, last) Championship title. Once again, Maradona played a massive part in the 1990 triumph, in what was now a 34 game season (18 team league).

Once again, the title was built on a strong defence. In the 34 league games, they conceded just 31 goals, at a rate of 0.9 goals per game and 14 clean sheets. This was once again the second best defence in Serie A, second only to Milan. It’s once again fair to say that without this defensive display, Napoli wouldn’t have been Champions.

Moving on to his team mates, Napoli had strengthened since the 1987 title. Maradona could now list Brazilian International Careca amongst his team. The striker would score 73 goals for Napoli in just 164 games, as well as 29 in 60 appearances for Brazil. Playing alongside Maradona and Giordano, Careca made the final piece of the famous “Ma-Gi-Ca” attacking trio. Another new name from the 1987 triumph was a young Gianfranco Zola. The future Chelsea legend won the title in his first season with the Naples club. Elsewhere, the club had also strengthened in midfield, with another Brazilian international – Alemao, adding some steel in the middle of the park. In all, the 1990 Napoli squad contained players that would finish with over 280 caps for Brazil and Italy. Maradona was the brightest star, but by no means the only one.

And so after seeing another strong performance from the defence, and an improved squad, what was Maradona’s performance like? After starting the season at 29 – near the peak of most players careers, he enjoyed his best league season for the club, with 16 goals in 28 appearances:

 

That’s a bit more like it. He managed 5 goals against Top 5 teams including a goal against 2nd placed Milan, and a brace against Juventus. His average opposition was a decent 9.18 when the average excluding first placed Napoli is 10. When the big games came about, he stepped up. You can however point to 7 penalties in the 16 goals. His 16 goals, were worth 9 points to Napoli’s points total of 51.

And once again we can also point to the standard of the contenders that season:

For each of the surrounding seasons, Napoli’s haul of 51 points with a goal difference of 26 would agave meant 2nd place. So when looking at Maradona’s contribution, other factors such as the performance of rivals must be taken into account. 

So as with his triumphs in 1986 and 1987, Maradona was undoubtedly instrumental. But they were far from ordinary teams that relied solely on their talisman to inspire. Once again, the defence let in less than a goal a game, the squad had lots of quality in, and the level of opposition was lower than in surrounding seasons. At least in this season, you can point to Maradona’s performance in the big games to show his importance.

Other:

World Cup 1990 – He took Argentina to final but scored no goals

Copa Italia 1987 – 10 games, 7 goals as Napoli lifted the trophy

UEFA Cup 1989 – 3 goals in 12 appearances as they won the trophy

In Conclusion:

There’s no doubt that Maradona is one of if not the greatest footballer there has ever been, no one can argue against that with any real conviction. However, the notion that he’s the greatest because he won trophies with weak teams is not something that can be used in his favour. As seen above, although a key part in each of the trophies he won, he couldn’t have done it without strong defences behind him. He didn’t singlehandedly win the tournaments on his own, when his list of team mates include Valdano, Ferrara, Zola, Careca et al. He didn’t score in either of the World Cup finals he appeared in, and only one of the Semi Finals. When Napoli won the Copa Italia in 1987 over a two legged final, Maradona was not on the scoresheet despite a 4-0 aggregate win. He did score in the UEFA Cup Final win against Stuttgart, but that was from the penalty spot. Comparing him with the other greatest attacking midfielders and in the big games, he comes out a distant second to Zidane. Zizou had 3 World Cup Final goals, a World Cup Semi Final goal, a Champions League Final goal, and 4 in the Champions League Semi finals for good measure. You can also add in a semi final goal in Euro 2000. Maradona on his part has 4 goals in 12 Copa America appearances, which is a long way off Platini’s record in the European equivalent.

So when people point to Messi and say that he can never be considered the greatest because he didn’t win any tournaments with average sides, then who did? If Messi’s Argentina team had the defence that Maradona had behind him, then there’s a good chance they would have gone a lot further in the last two World Cups. The fact that Messi has played his whole career at Barcelona is not a reason to discount his claim to being the greatest.

So there you have it, I’m not disputing his place with the greats, but I would think twice before using the old one man team argument.

Any Maradona fans looking for more, then this is a great site for rare footage of Diego in his prime: http://wn.com/Maradona_87

Cheers,

Liam

Player Comparison: Romario vs Ronaldo vs Rivaldo vs Ronaldinho vs Messi

From the early 90’s to the current team, Barcelona have relied heavily on the magic of their South American superstars. One club, two nationalities and five of the best players of all time. All won the World Player of the Year Award in their time with the Catalan club. But who performed most in the big games? And who was most important to the team? The fourth feature in the Player Comparison series compares those brilliant Barcelona boys – Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Messi.

The Contenders:

First up is Romario, the Brazilian marksman was a ruthless finisher, and one of only two players to have scored 1,000 career goals – depending on what you class as official (more on that one here). He played in 6 different countries for 10 different teams, including footballing giants Adelaide United, Miami FC and Al-Sadd. For Brazil, he scored an incredible 55 goals in 70 games, winning the World Cup and the Copa America (twice). Described by Johan Cruyff as a “genius of the goal area”, he won La Liga and the Spanish Super Copa during his time his short stay at Barcelona.

Ronaldo came next. And it was an even shorter stay. For the single season that he represented Barcelona, there were absolutely no doubts who the best player in the World was. Although he didn’t win the League title with the Spanish Club, he did win the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Cup Winners Cup, and despite later going on to play for bitter rivals Madrid, he is still considered one of the Barca greats. Like his predecessor, he also won the Two Copa Americas and a World Cup with Brazil – and is the tournaments all time top scorer with 15 goals. In total he scored 62 goals in 98 appearances for Brazil. He suffered three career threatening injuries, with many suggesting that without them, he could have been the best of all time. Despite this, he still managed to win the World Player of Year award on three occasions.

After Ronaldo’s sale to Inter Milan, Rivaldo was identified as the player to fill the “Brilliant Brazilian” hole that had been left behind. More of a playmaker than the two before him, he was still a prolific scorer, particularly in his 5 years with Barcelona. Deadly from set pieces, he also had the eye for the spectacular – none more so than his hat trick to beat Valencia on the final day of the season to pip them to the last Champions League spot in 2001. The third goal was an over head kick from outside of the area in the last minute (as seen here), and possibly better than Pele’s in escape to Victory. He had a left foot like a magic wand/traction engine, and like Ronaldo, he enjoyed his greatest moment in the 2002 World Cup, as part of the 3 R’s attack. As appears to be the pre requisite, he also won the Copa America, and scored 34 goals in 74 appearances. He’s had even more clubs than Romario, and at 39, is still playing.

Fourth in the list, was cheeky schemer Ronaldinho. As with Rivaldo, he was also more of a playmaker, one blessed with incredible dribbling skills. He is one of the few Barcelona players to have received a standing ovation from fans of Real Madrid in the Bernebeu. Although mainly deployed from wide positions, he has close to 300 career goals (stop laughing Romario) including the 33 for his country (from 93 caps). At 31, he is still strutting his stuff in the Brazilian league with Flamengo. He’s regarded by some as a wasted talent, but during his time with Barcelona he won two World Player of the Year awards. Not bad for an International Playboy (I met him once in Las Vegas – the reputation is justified). Ronaldinho’s partying and the emergence of another skillful playmaker resulted in a somewhat premature exit from the Nou Camp, after he signed for AC Milan (like Rivaldo and Ronaldo before him). As with the players above, he also has World Cup and Copa America medals.

And so on to the last and current Barca player in our list – Lionel Messi. He has the vision of Rivaldo, the dribbling of Ronaldinho, and the finishing and pace of Romario and Ronaldo. He, like Ronaldo has 3 World Player of the Year titles. Where he differs from his Brazilian predecessors (apart from his nationality) is that he’s been a one club man. He had to overcome similar physical challenges as Rivaldo before making it as a top class player. The undoubted best player in the World at the moment, he just has to do it on the International stage to truly cement his place as one of the best, if not the very best of all time. He currently has 222 goals in 309 games for his club (as at the time of writing), and a rather more modest 19 in 66 for Argentina.

“No hard feelings, I just want your Number 10”

Rules:

As per usual, it’s primarily a comparison of their Leauge goals rather than all goals. Why? Because it’s similar opposition (give or take for relegation) – and these opponents are ranked, meaning that we can calculate an average. As they played for different amounts of time for Barcelona, it’ll be a look at their most prolific season in the league. This is calculated on final league positions, rather than at the time of playing.

Of course these players aren’t just about goals, but I don’t have the assists available for Ronaldo and Romario, so will leave them out for this comparison.

Background:

Romario, then 27, signed in the summer of 1993 after 129 goals in just 5 seasons with PSV Eindhoven. Under the stewardship of Johan Cruyff, he had just one full season with the Spanish Giants, so we’ll be looking at the 1993-94 season.

Like Romario before him, Ronaldo made his European club bow with PSV, though only stayed for 2 seasons – his 54 goals in 57 games were enough to persuade Barca to part with $17m for a teenager. Under Bobby Robson, Ronaldo played just the one season with Barcelona – 1996-97.

Rivaldo joined aged 25, from La Liga rivals Deportivo La Coruna for a fee of $26m. Though he played for Barca for 5 seasons, it’s his most prolific that we’ll look at – 24 league goals in 1998-99. Free from the shackles placed upon him by Louis van Gaal in previous years, he thrived under Ferrer.

Ronaldinho’s most prolific season was actually after his two World Player of the Year awards. 2006-07 saw him bang in a decent 21 in the league in Frank Rijkaard’s penultimate season with the club.

And lastly, Messi’s best haul in La Liga was as a 22 year old. He looks set to have his best season in goal scoring terms this season, but for the purpose of this piece, we’ll use his prolific season under Pep Guardiola (Romario and Ronaldo’s team mate) in 2009-10.

This was initially going to be about the 4 Brazilian’s, but you can’t leave Messi out of this. He fits the South American World Player of the Year criteria, and plays up top, so we’ll leave him in. Even though his name doesn’t begin with R and end with O.

Statistics:

Apologies for the long build up, but we can now move onto the stats. I’ve decided to look at it based on three criteria – goal scoring out right, big game players, and importance to the team.

Goalscoring:

First up is the the goal scoring records of each player – based on goals per game and goals per minute:

Firstly, Ronaldinho’s 21 goals in 32 games would be an incredible season in most players careers, and a rate of 0.66 goals per game is an awesome strike rate. When you add to that the fact that he played wide of a front three, then it’s even more impressive. However, this comparison is against some of the greatest and most prolific forwards of all time. Whilst Ronaldinho is perhaps only second to Messi in the dribbling stakes, he’s last in the goals table. Similarly, Rivaldo was more than just a goal scorer, so 24 league goals is a great season. To put it into perspective, it would have won the golden boot 4 of the seasons from 1997-2004.

And so onto the super strikers. In all honesty, there’s not much in it. Ronaldo and Messi lead the way in terms of goals scored with 34 (Messi in two games less). Romario wasn’t too far behind with 30 league goals from just 33 games. They all have close to a goal a game strike rate with 0.91, 0.92 and 0.97 goals per game for Romario, Ronaldo and Messi respectively. To add some perspective, in the last 20 years only 3 other players have broken the 30 goal mark in a season – Cristiano Ronaldo last season, Diego Forlan the year before that, and Pizzi for Tenerife back in 1996. Pizzi did so in a 42 game season (he played 41 games), and whilst Ronaldo also did so in a 42 game season, he only played 37 games – within the confines of a normal season now. It’s interesting to see that the 30 goal mark has been broken in the last 3 (soon to be 4) seasons. Is La Liga getting easier?

When looking at the goals per minute, it’s Messi once again that does this business with a goal every 83.53 minutes. That works out better than a goal a game, and when allowing for injury time at the end of both halves of football – Ronaldo and Romario pretty much equal that with goals every 94 and 91.9 minutes. In terms of games scored in, Ronaldo walks this one, with a massive 23. It’s up to you the reader to decide if it’s better to score in more games, or to score multiple times in fewer games. Ronaldo can certainly say his goals influenced more games than the other players.

Winner: It’s a joint win for Ronaldo and Messi on this one. Messi equalled Ronaldo’s 34 in less games/minutes, but Ronaldo did it in more games. It’s also easy to argue that Messi’s team mates were better than Ronaldo’s. Honourable mention to Romario.

Big Game Players:

And so on to round 2, and the lifeblood of this site – who was most effective in the big games? Once again, unfortunately I don’t have the assists available for each player – so whilst they may have dominated the game without scoring (see Messi vs Real Madrid in 2010/11), we’re solely looking at goals.

Well well well. I didn’t just put it together like this so that Ronaldinho and Rivaldo could prevent it from turning into a 2 horse race. It’s certainly interesting that the two Playmakers have the best average ranked opposition per goal. Even though they scored the least amount of goals, they had the mentality to perform in the big games – more so than the small games. They’re the only two on the list that have more goals against the Top 6 than the Bottom 6. It was certainly levelled at Ronaldinho that he didn’t always turn up for the small games (mentally not physically) – and this goes some way to proving it.

Big game? That’ll be Real Madrid. Interestingly, all 5 players scored against arch rivals Real Madrid in their Barca careers, though Ronaldinho didn’t manage it in his most prolific season (a young Messi did though). Romario banged in a hat trick in a 5-0 whitewash, Ronaldo scored the winner in a 1-0 win whilst chasing the Madrid club for the title, Rivaldo scored in a 3-0 win, and Messi scored in a 2-0 win at the Berbebeu.

Although Ronaldinho didn’t have the goal against Madrid, he did score against the teams in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th. And this was a league table where 3rd placed Sevilla were only 5 points off the title, rather than the 24 points that Valencia are behind in today’s table.

Messi has the most goals against Top 6 opposition with 10, but this was in a league where 3rd placed Valencia finished 28 points behind the Champions, and 6th placed Getafe were 41 points off Top spot – whilst only 22 off relegation. The gap between 1st and 6th was only 16 points in Ronaldinho’s 2006-07 season – the lowest by someway – adding to the importance of Top 6 goals.

Ronaldo and Romario fall victim to being consistent with an expected split weighted towards the middle range, and it’s worth noting that Ronaldo’s goals against the Top 6 opposition were worth more points (6) than any of the others.

Winner:Although his star had started to fade, it was Ronaldinho’s big game mentality that shone through. He scored twice the amount of goals against Top 6 as he did against Bottom 6, had the best Average ranked opposition for each goal, and the league he played in was still very very competitive. The only he didn’t notch against Real, he did against all the other challengers.

Importance to team – goals as points:

The last measure is based on the importance of the goals. It’s not an exact science but it does give a basis to measure the importance of a goal. For the mathematics behind it, click on the Rules and Workings page. So if we take Romario’s hat trick against Real Madrid as an example, he’d receive zero points for his treble as the team won 5-0. If you take his goals away, then they’d still win 2-0. Similarly, Rivaldo’s hat trick against Valencia in 2001 was worth all 3 points as they were the only Barca goals in a 3-2 win. Take them out and the team lose 0-2. So with that in mind:

Despite scoring less goals than Romario, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, it’s Rivaldo who’s goals were most important to his team. His 24 goals were woth a massive 20 points to Barcelona’s final tally of 79. This means that he also leads the way in the percentage of team points he was responsible for, with a mightily impressive 25.32. Barcelona went on to win the title that year and usually you’d expect the Champions points spread quite wide across a team. It’s not unusual to see a struggling team have a stand out player for points, as the team points is that much lower, so to score goals worth a quarter of the final tally is very impressive.

Ronaldo once again is there are there abouts. His 34 league goals were worth 17 points as Bobby Robson’s team just missed out on the title by 2 points to Real Madrid. If he’d played all the games, it’s likely that he would have made the difference. He edges out his predecessor Romario who had a credible 16 points. Surprisingly enough, Messi and Ronaldinho’s goals were only worth 13 points – 13.13% and 16.67% of the the over all points tally.

Although they were less important that the other players, Messi is ahead on the percentage of the team goals scored with 34.69% – narrowly ahead of Ronaldo and Romario.

Winner:This one has to go to Rivaldo. Whilst he scored less goals than than 3 of the other contendors, the goals he did score were worth more to his team. Honourable mention to Ronaldo who won 17 points, and scored a third of his teams goals.

Overall Winner:

With wins for each player (aside from Romario) across the three categories, it’s incredibly hard to call this one. Each reader will have their own opinion as to which parameter is most important. Some may well argue that stats don’t tell the whole story – and i’d agree to an extent, as there is no measurement on assists, on brilliance, beauty, style etc…..Personally, Ronaldo is my favourite footballer of all time, regardless of the stats, but regular readers will no that I don’t like to sit on the fence, nor let my preconceptions shape the outcome.

As a result, I decided to rank the players on each measurement and work out the average position. And so, without further ado, I give you:

Overall Winner:

Well it looks like Messi has done it again. Taking into account every single parameter, he just edges out Ronaldo with a average rank of 2.4 across the 10 measurements, with Ronaldo averaging 2.5. It’s no surprise that the order is the same as the number of goals scored.

Whilst he appears set to be crowned Barcelona’s all time greatest player – and 3 Champions League titles of their 4 would suggest it’s justified, it’s worth noting that Ronaldo’s 34 league goals (and 47 overall) came when he was just 19 years old. Messi’s season at 19 read played 26, scored 14 (17 in 36 overall). So whilst Messi is the winner here, i’d stick my neck out and say that had Ronaldo stayed at Barcelona, and avoided injuries, then he would have won.

Interestingly, if you remove the percentage of team goals statistic, then Messi and Ronaldo are level.

In Conclusion:

All five players were among the best of their generation, and arguably of all time. It’s a shame that Romario and Ronaldo’s stay was so short as they both had their best seasons with the club, and it meant that the comparison was restricted to just one season per player.

Whilst Messi tops the league in this comparison, he still falls short on the international stage. The four Brazilians have World Cup and Copa America glory, and until Messi wins big and performs well on the biggest stage, there will still be some doubting his place on the football pantheon, alongside Pele, Maradona and Zidane. I would also put Ronaldo on that list. He’s the all time top scorer in the World Cup, he’s the three time World Player of the year, and he had to overcome three career threatening injuries resulting in having to change his game. A good piece of trivia is that he is the only player to have scored on both sides of the Clasico and the Milan derbies. Ronaldo aged 17-21 is one of the greatest players of all time, and better than Messi at the same age.

Luckily for Messi, there were no measurements based on partying.

Further Viewing:

Enjoy:

Romario 1993/94

Ronaldo 1996/97 Top 10 (The top 3 are ridiculous)

Ronaldo 1996/97 All Goals

Rivaldo 1998/99

Ronaldinho 2006/07

Messi 2009/10

Apologies for the length of this one, but with five players (and five of the all time best), it’s hard to keep the word count down. Make up your own mind who you think was best for Barca. The stats say Messi, my own personal choice is Ronaldo, but it differs for everyone. I hope you enjoyed the latest Player Comparison, and as always, all suggestions are welcome. Whether you want an in depth anaysis, or are just wondering about the stats of a few players to settle a pub argument.

Cheers,

Liam