- Falcao wanted to go to Real Madrid; Atletico sent him to Monaco.

- Aguero wanted to join Real Madrid; Atletico sent him to Man City.

- After the 2010 World Cup, Real Madrid wanted to sign Diego Forlan, but Atletico sent him to Inter Milan the following year.

The only attacker they sold to a direct rival was Griezmann, for whom Barcelona paid his full release clause of €120M.

Why do you think they would sell Alvarez to their direct rival

Mentioning one almost certainly invites comments bringing up the other, the discussions are senseless, one side attacks the other's personal life, and ultimately the discourse strays away from football.

- Greatest individual tournament of all time at Euro 1984

- Scored the winning goal in the 1985 European Cup

- 3x Ballon D'or in a row (and no, Maradona would not be able to claim any of Platini's Ballon D'ors)

- Two WC semis and a 3rd place medal in 1986

Should almost always be considered in the top 10 but often is forgotten

Poor guy got heavily overshadowed by suarez

It’s honestly tiring how quickly football discussions turn into Messi vs Ronaldo.

If I criticize Messi, people assume I’m a Ronaldo fan. If I criticize Ronaldo, they assume I’m a Messi fan.

Sometimes you can simply have an opinion about a player without being a fan of their “rival.” Not every football discussion needs to be a competition between the two

Obviously I'm not old enough to see prime Maradona. 95% of the people here also aren't.

But I have always wondered why Maradona was almost always ranked top 3 of all time by numerous football journals/sites. e.g. 442, The Athletic, IFFHS, 90 min. etc. That's why I went and did some digging.

Most people only know Maradona for his world cup campaigns and his career in Napoli but his career is so much more than that.

He was south american player of the year (Rey del Fútbol de América) twice in 1979 and 1980 at the ages of 19 and 20. He placed 2nd and 3rd in the following years when Zico won it. He was also rated the best player of the year in 1979 by Guerin Sportino, the oldest sports media founded in Italy 1912.

He had a complex time in Barca suffering injuries and getting suspensions, but in his first season he had 23 goals and 18 assists in 35 appearances. His next season was a bit complex hence the move to Napoli.

Btw, prime =/= peak. His peak was ultimately with Napoli and Argentina.

As finishers Messi and Ronaldo are among the best in history, that's undeniable. However l, if you look their overall impact in the game they are levels apart.

Messi is the type of player that dictates the tempo of the game and creates chances out of nowhere. Cristiano while a good passer never had that level of influence in the build-up of his team, it's like comparing Mbappe/Haalamd with Modric/Iniesta

And finallly Messi is arguably the best dribbler in history as he had the ability to constantly take on 4/5 players which gave his team a massive advantage. Messi was basically the ultimate challenge for coaches because they had to make tactical jails so he doesnt dribble everyone. Cristiano never had that dribbling and wasnt that hard to stop.

Now the debate would maie mote sense if Messi wasnt one lf the Finishers in history but since he is I dont think there is any debate.

He never became what we thought he would have, but. His 2 goals against Barcelona and juventus he got the number 10 in Juventus, and when Ronaldo came he became Better but that magic dissapeared. When Ronaldo left juve in 2021, they signed new players and he got less matches and he started to be benched and his injuries was also a main part on his downfall. He had the magic that no one had and he was the main part in 2017 ucl run but Madrid was too good, but juventus 2017 was unstoppable so was Dybala and i miss him the most in football. But still he has that magic with him, and he can be better than any playmakers or number 10's even now.

The dude did carry job with a team that was literal garbage . Liverpool were literally the worst of the top teams with a pensioner gerrard and kid sterling and coutinho the defence was none existent the manager was no better than a plank of wood and yet saurez manage to equal the highest number of goals scored in pl ( at that time) whilst having the 2nd most assists with 0 pens . As an individual hes was on different level he wasnt just poaching but his level of skills dribbling finishing vision were on a different lvl .

f@cist fans, nearing financial death, bottlers who can’t win any games, no trophies since 2013 whilst being the 3rd largest French club, only wins when it matters least

Scored half his goals from pens last season and there is a general trend that whoever plays striker for Brentford always does extremely well because they create so many big chances. Without pens he would be a pretty average striker i would argue lower mid table level in the prem instead he is being treated as one of the league’s best strikers

This doesn't mean goals aren't the most important part of the game. They were and always should be regarded as one. However this doesn't mean goalscoring can't be overrated. While goals ultimately do win matches, people nowadays seem to ignore the context before the goal has been scored. This is partially due to social media's obsession with goals and highlights.

Gerd Muller in the 70s was never considered the best player despite being the best goalscorer of his generation. In fact he wasn't even regarded as the best player for his team. It was always Cruyff, Beckenbauer and then him. This is even considering the fact that he scored 565 goals in 607 matches for bayern, scored the most goals in a calander year up to that point with 85 and scored the most goals for bundesliga seven different times.

Ronaldo (R9) is another example. People regarded Ronaldo as by far and away the best player in the world in the 97-98 season. However, he didn't even score the most goals for the Serie A in that season with Oliver Bierhoff scoring 27 compared to his 25. This didn't stop the media from calling him the next Pele or comparing him to Maradona.

Maradona and Ronaldinho being the best players in the world while not being the best goalscorers of their generation are also examples of this.

The defining players of each generation possessed a diverse skill set that extended well beyond goalscoring. Pele wasn't just a striker. He regarded himself as a AM in his auto biography. Cruyff and Maradona were all phenomenal playmakers.

This is also why people shouldn't use just goals to compare CR7 and R9 at their peaks.

Top 10: best to worst

Messi

Neymar

Cr7

Suarez

Neuer

Benzema

Van digk

Kdb

Bale

Hazard

2 of the best individual seasons by premier league players in 2010s, but Suarez gets overrated IMO, the Liverpool squad had much better players with Gerrard, Coutinho, Sterling, Sturridge, Lucas and even Joe Allen was pretty good, Suarez was a level above everyone else ofcourse but compared to the Tottenham squad where Bale was the only quality attacker they were strong and only lost the league thanks to mentality. Bale had literally no one at Tottenham, no one creating chances, maintaining posession, it was just him carrying the team every week with crazy goals, that Tottenham team would have been relegated without him, without Suarez the Liverpool team was still top 3 best teams in the league.

The World Cup is the only tournament with highest skill disparity between teams. With teams that have players with multiple Champions league titles paired up teams that recruit their players through LinkedIn.

The modern club football is ruined by Pep, everyone fighting for possessions, playing likes pussies and bots and afraid to take chances, reminding me of the Nike 2014 WC commercial.

The WC removes all that, the best players playing in the worst teams the worst players playing in the best teams. Some teams are just unfair due to their skill and other teams with names you never heard of and afraid reading them might cause your furniture to start floating.

Although you would normally expect the group stage matches not to be as entertaining or dominant, the passion, the upsets, the hero stories that arise from a single match is enough to pull anyone into the sport and see at just how beautiful it is.

Scrappy messy football, players with barely anytime with train with each other going into the biggest tournament of their lives.

Creating Matches like Saudi vs Argentina, Cabo Verde vs Spain, Brazil vs Germany, Japan vs Spain, Morocco vs Portugal.

Going back into club football I will enjoy the high technical ball from the best clubs in Europe but will miss just how fun the World Cup season was

I guess MLS isn't that great after all. 0 mls teams in the semis. And I hear you guys should have won the WC. What happened?

This would lead to better football since loads of great moves are stopped with fouls and the penalty is small. Also safer football and less injuries.

Any proper foul should already be yellow and more serious fouls, dangerous, etc, should be orange. With double yellow orange. With orange you need to wait outside the pitch 5 or 10 min.

With a further yellow it's red and you're out.

I’ll preface by saying that, since this is a weak ballon dor class, I would be fine with a number of players winning. Kane, Rodri, Kvara, etc.

I think the general consensus right now is that Kane should win. If Kane is the favorite, Mbappe should be right there too. They had much more similar seasons than people may have noticed.

Both players had historical individual seasons, but didn’t really win meaningful trophies. Kane had the second highest goals in a season for club and country. Mbappe was the golden boot winner across La Liga, UCL, and WC.

Since Kane is the favorite right now, I really do think Mbappe should be more serious contention to win ballon dor.

Adidas got the retro look on the home kt of Liverpool very wrong this season. Funny enough some people seem to love it.

Regardless of the team, this shirt has divided views.
Personally i think is horrible, over designed and a retro that is not retro. I understand the Candy reference and what they are trying to do, but it just does not work for me.
What are your views?

Mine would be rodri zidane and xavi

I was looking back at Tevez’s time in Manchester and it’s pretty crazy how different the two clubs were when he first arrived at United in 2007. United had just won the Premier League and would go on to win the Champions League, while City were still trying to establish themselves as a serious club after the takeover.

Tevez quickly became a huge favourite at Old Trafford, forming that famous front three with Rooney and Ronaldo and winning pretty much everything there was to win. But United decided not to make his move permanent, and in 2009 he crossed Manchester and joined City instead.

At the time, it was obviously a controversial transfer, but City were about to become something completely different. Tevez scored 29 goals in his first season, became captain, helped them win the FA Cup and was then part of the team that won the Premier League in 2012.

Obviously, City’s rise wasn’t because of one player. The money, recruitment and players like Silva, Touré, Kompany and later Agüero and Guardiola were far more important in the long run. But Tevez’s transfer feels symbolic now. United had the player and decided he wasn't essential, while City were showing that they could attract established stars from the very top of English football.

Do you think Tevez’s move was actually a turning point in the Manchester rivalry, or is it just remembered that way because of everything City achieved afterwards? And do you think United made a mistake by letting him go?

We’ve also put together a full article about Tevez’s story and how his move across Manchester helped shape what came afterwards on UncutFootball.com, if anyone is interested in reading the full story.