In the wake of the Three Lions' failure to qualify for the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland, I’ve been forced to try and decipher the true meaning of the term "World Class."
I don't mean the term as it is by the English, but as a general epithet used to refer to the truly great footballers like Pele, Maradona, Eusebio, Zidane, George Best, Puskas, and Di Stefano.
The World Cup, Euros, African Nations' Cup, and Copa America have always been used as a yardstick to distinguish all-time great footballers from the merely excellent.
Today, questions have arisen regarding who is the superior player—the French midfield maestro Zinedine "Zizou" Zidane, and the Brazilian fat-boy Ronaldo.
Barring injury and typical Brazilian vices, I thought Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima was supposed to be the greatest player of this generation—considering his skill, pace, and his emergence at a relatively young age at PSV and Barcelona, where he was voted the World Footballer of the Year at the unprecedented age of 20.
Ronaldo managed to write his name on the world-class wall quite early compared to Zidane, who came on to the stage at the relatively older age of 26. Zidane's first posting on to the world stage was during the 1998 World Cup—and boy, didn’t he conquer the world!
At club level, Zidane wasn’t always the master he was on the big stages. But give him a Final, and he would show you what kind of player he was—Bayer Leverkusen and Brazil can both attest to this.
But is it fair to christen any player with a smidgen of talent as "world class"?
From Wayne Rooney right through to Alexander "The Duck" Pato—these days, any player who excels at club level is considered "world class." Shouldn’t there be a separate classification for such players? To put players such as Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Dimitar Berbatov, Joe Cole, Steve Lampard, and Raul Tarmudo—just to name a few—on par with the world greats is completely ludicrous.
Then, there is the emergence of young players—always referred to as "wonder kids" by the English press. Every kid that is linked to a big European club is called a wonder kid—which is understandable when considering players like Anderson, Benzema, Ben Arfa , Dosantos, Bojan, El kun Aguero, and Aquilani.
But labeling Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Darren Bent, Aaron Lennon, Stewart Downing, James Vaughan, and Darren Fletcher as future world beaters is sickening. The same was said about David Dunn, Shaun Wright Phillips, Michael Owen, Ivan de la Pena, Francisco Javier Yeste, and David Bentley.
Where are they now? Are they "world beaters"? I don’t think so.
Of all the young players you have to spare a thought for the mesmerizing Lionel Messi—the best player in the world at the moment—and the Portuguese trickster Cristiano Ronaldo. I believe these players are world class, considering what they have done for both club and country.
19 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Matt S about 1 year ago
I agree that the term “world class” is incredibly over-used these days. In the case of young players there are often potentially world class, but of course by definition only a few could ever become world class, if they all achieved it then the word would lose all meaning.
I agree that Steven Gerrrard is slightly over-rated (and I do only mean slightly as he is brilliant), especially by the English press who deem him super-human and one who can do no wrong. I am surprised he has not got more criticism for that shocking miss against Russia (which would have made it 2-0 and pretty much guaranteed qualification with 30mins to go even before the Croatia game) and also for his inept performance as both player and captain in the debacle against Croatia. In fact, aside from the Germany 5-1 game (when everyone played well. Yes, even Nicky Barmby) and the Andorra game I cannot remember a Steven Gerrard performance for England that even remotley resembled his heroics for Liverpool. Not a great claim for a world class player with 60 odd international caps.
Having said all that, imagine where Liverpool would have been these last 4-5 years without him?! Now there’s a thought to scare Liverpool fans…
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duke hampton about 1 year ago
"world class", in a class good enough to play anywhere in the world. gerard, cole, and virtually every player you mentioned are world class.
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leonard ronaldo about 1 year ago
World class means achieving something of significance on the world stage as well as just being an excellent footballer, like Kakas 10 or so goals in the last Champions League campaign not scoring a good brace against Bolton.
Few players do this. The one player in England who has done this recently was Rooney in the European Championships in 2004 Portugal when he truly showed his genius. I think that Rooney is the one player of the current generation who could at the end of his career be truly considered as world class.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Finally someone is writing some thing useful, these english press make too much from very ordinary things and the commentators too, if any english player scores a goal , he will comment on that like nobody in the world can score like that, and these england fans still cant understand that they are manuplating the people of England with these type of things
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
#MATT#: YOU ASKED WHERE LIVERPOOL HAVE BEEN WITHOUT GERRARD LAST 4-5 YEARS , CAN U EXPLAIN ME WAT THEY EXCATLY LIVERPOOL HAVE WON WITH STEVEN GERRARD WON IN THESE LAST 4-5 YEARS, DONT SAY THAT SICK CL U PEOPLE WON, AND HE IS NEVER GOOD FOR HIS COUNTRY, LIVERPOOL IS A GOOD TEAM, WITHOUT THAT TEAM HE IS USELESS, DONT SAY THAT HE WON BY HIMSELF .
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
ronaldo da bes
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
hi dis is frm ahmed ronaldo da bes no1 beta den him
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Duncan Adlem about 1 year ago
"Fat boy" has been the deciding factor in his teams victory, many more times than your "maestro". You nail your colours to the mast so early that you devalue your article completely. i.e it's based on hearsay not knowledge..why don't you study the players you talk about? Did you watch Ronaldo from age 19 to 26, when he was without equal, or just compare him with his team mates and current opponents?
History will see him compared favourably against Pele and Marradonna, with Zidane not getting a mention. It's also laughable to think that his diving cheating Man U namesake may win world footballer of the year for far inferior performances than Ronaldo (Fat boy) gave when he was 20.
Get a grip, do some homework. Eloquence is nothing without substance.
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Yahya Risas about 1 year ago
i agree Fat boy Ronaldo is a great player, But for this generation non can be greater than zidane.he knew how to pick his moments of brilliance.He took brazil to the cleaners with Ronaldo in it. be it in 98 or 2006.da lima at 20 was playing fantastic football, no doubt.but to discredit zidane the way you just did,man c'mon get serious, the guy has done and won everything needed in both club and national football.Cristiano is also a brilliant footballer, u have to give him credit for what he does.what ever team u support, try and give credit where its due.
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S B about 1 year ago
I couldn't agree with you more.
Although I think "world class" should be used with players who have won world tournaments i.e. ones which involve all countries.
Beckham in his entire career has only managed an intercontinental cup (not FIFA recognized)
apart from that he's a pretty boy with a spice girl...world class model....not footballer.
The same would go for C.Ronaldo who has not a single world title to show for all the wannabe Ronaldo antics.
You need to at least win on the world stage before being considered for world class status.
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S B about 1 year ago
I couldn't agree with you more.
Although I think "world class" should be used with players who have won world tournaments i.e. ones which involve all countries.
Beckham in his entire career has only managed an intercontinental cup (not FIFA recognized)
apart from that he's a pretty boy with a spice girl...world class model....not footballer.
The same would go for C.Ronaldo who has not a single world title to show for all the wannabe Ronaldo antics.
You need to at least win on the world stage before being considered for world class status.
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Yahya Risas about 1 year ago
I think being world class is not only about winning the world cup and euro championships, i think its also about individual brilliance.
Because if its about winning trophies only then world class players would only come from Brazil, Germany,France and Argentina. what about players like Hristo Stoichkov, George weah, George Hadji, Gabriel Batistuta, Johann cruyff etc who were not only world class in their days but also recognized as Great footballers to this day yet internationally they never won anything.
i think Beckham was world class because he stood up to be counted for England on occasions when every one around him failed and what he did for united in that treble season was fantastic.
If C. ronaldo isnt world class right now, then apart from Ronaldinho i dont know who is. according to your assertions
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Andrew McNair about 1 year ago
Alan Shearer was World Class, yet he only won one English League title and hardly played in Europe. To say Cristiano Ronaldo is not World class is just ludicrous.
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S B about 1 year ago
The lad never won anything that involved the world.........very simple concept really.
The title worldclass has to be earned.
He's good....but so are 10s of thousands of others.
You need to widen your scope of football viewing and sop limiting yourself to the big fish in your little pond.
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Andrew McNair about 1 year ago
Darlon when are you going to get over yourself. You criticise everyones opinions and pretent like you are gods gift to football. If you can't recognize that Shearer was world class then you are the one being narrow minded.
So the worlds media is wrong? Every defender who played against him is wrong because you hate the EPL?
You talk to me like I'm 5, and it makes a mockery of yourself.
I've never criticised anyone on this site, but you have earned it.
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S B about 1 year ago
Andrew
Alan Shearer: Southhampton (nothing)
Blackburn Rovers ( one local title)
Newcastle United(nothing)
English Team 1992 Eurocup (kicked out first stage) 1996 Eurocup(got to the semi's)
2000 Eurocup(kicked out first stage)
World event: Worldcup 1998(sharing a group with Romania,Tunisia and Columbia placed 2nd in opening stage) (promtly knocked out in the second stage)
17 year career - one local title. Awful scant for such a worldclass player. I guess the rest of all those teams were the problem. He also loved the sport so much that he turned down those millionare contracts.
By this measure everyone's a worldclass player.
Did he have a cute wife too just like Beckham?
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Andrew McNair about 1 year ago
Darlon a player is not world class because of the team he played for but for his individual brilliance!!!!
He turned down Man Utd to play for his hometown club....his dream!
Had he gone to United he would have won it all.
Beckham won the European cup as a player...hardly nothing is it.
Darlon you are free to have your ideas but the way you tell everyone they are wrong on this website is a pain. You are actually starting to annoy the websites writers with your over the top comments. Please respect other peoples views as you would want yours to be treated.
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Yahya Risas about 1 year ago
I dont know about Allan Shearer being World class because no doubt He was an amazing goal scorer but thats all he could ever do. may be calling him a world class finisher is more appropriate just like van nistelrooy.
But C. Ronaldo certainly is world class, he's phenomenal. If he isnt world class like diego thinks then Kaka and Messi are not world class either. Atleast Cristiano helped portugal to the finals of Euro 2004 and was outstanding for portugal in worldcup 2006, a tournament in which Kaka flopped and messi rarely made it off the subs bench. But judging by the brilliance of all these players, they are absolutely worldclass no doubt. so if diego thinks they ar not world class, then certainly football today is devoid of any world class players.
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S B about 1 year ago
I think Messi and C.Ronaldo have potential but are far from being worldclass yet.. similar to Requelme and others. Requelme was denied his chance to become worldclass last year against Milan but he had his chance in the Worldcup and blew it.
Kaka has titles. He's intitled to bask in his worldclassness now and just make money.
Messi understands fully what I am saying and I believe he is focused and will one day soon get there.
The media has destroyed any chance for C.Ronaldo becoming something worldclass cause they have fooled even him. His recent interviews are proof as he makes threats sbout changing his style or country etc. as if he were excellent or something and the sport would lose something.
Not even Kaka who is at the top makes comments like this cause he is focused and well advised about letting the media get to his mind...as is Messi I believe.
I certainly agree with you Yahya in that there are curently no players on the world scene who have that special touch of class even above just worldclass. That unique touch of genius has been absent from football for some time.
I keep praying that he is coming around the corner...Ronaldo (BR) showed some signs but even he is not what I am talking about.
Ronaldinho had the potential to be the new genius but got lost somewhere along the way.
Kaka is great but still not it.
I can't help but think the money is somehow doing damage to the sport.
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