Mad Props: Top 10 Retirees After The World Cup

I disagree about Crespo. He hasn’t being a stater in a team since he left Parma. In my opinion he is very overestimated. Now back in Chelsea he has done nothing.

FIGO: I think he’s doing a great job with INTER right now. Still a “class” in itself. That surelly compensates for Real and don’t forget he was an easy scape goat for a team falling into pieces. As a portuguese I feel all of us “tugas” must say MUITO OBRIGADO = Thank you very much, for all he’s done for us.

As far as I’m concerned, Totti (an even bigger prima donna that can hardly spell his own name in is own language) can go somewhere nobody knows, in the search for the meaning of life…

Beckham’s move to Real Madrid (following their strategy of making money not goals) strongly contributed for it to become the richest club. A position previously occupied by Man Utd… So, yeah, the guy sells.

But he also plays, Bob. I’ve never been a big fan of his but he plays. Truth must be said, I’ve also always found him overrated and maybe he’ll never be the same as he was when with Man Utd.

Moreover, if you put such a big emphasis on image and in a strong masculine look, you should at least have a man’s voice and not a baby’s.

[...] Get these guys a pension. The top 10 retirees after the World Cup (South Korea Blog) [...]

Posted from  United States

I think a couple of people you might of missed include Edwin Van der Sar from Holland. He is an outstanding goalkeeper who will probably playing his last world at his age. Also Gary Neville will be gone from the english team as well, he just played 500th game for ManU, the man must be tired. Also you will probably never see Philip Cocu pull on the orange shirt of Holland again. Thierry Henry will be 30 after the WC, so you might not see him again as well.

Posted from  United States

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Posted from  United States

As far as I know, Kahn will not stop goalkeeping after the WC. If he can conserve his shape, that bloody bastard will be playing until 2008, so he can finally win another title if Germany doesn’t make it this summer.

And to be honest: Kahn was a great g/k. But one thing we gladly never lack in Germany are great g/ks.

Posted from  United States

Oh, I forgot to add:

If it were for me, they could keep Becks playing for 4 more years. I love seeing him blown penalties and giving the crows the face afterwards in a way only he can.

He’s actually the only thing who keeps England from being more successfull.

Posted from  United States

If Ronaldo plays well in this WC a great number of European clubs will try to hire him. That’s not his international retirement at all. At least that’s what I think.

I just wrote about him in Brazil’s blog.

http://brazil.worldcupblog.org/group-f/how-important-is-ronaldo-now.html

How can you say that Zidane is still a force to be reckoned with. Have you seen him play at Real this season. I do not even understand how he is getting a spot on the pitch to play. Unless the ball is delivered right to his boot, there is no effort at all from this once amazing and gifted player. Zizou should have hung up his boots when he retired after EC2004. He has been a discrace to himself ever since.

And Luis Figo, who is doing a fantastic job over at Inter (apart from a few bad moments..err games) cannot be blamed for a ‘dissapointing’ end run at Real. He was sidelined by one of the worst and vendictive coaches in history. I mean, this guy bounces around from club to club on a yearly basis. He’s with a team long enough to screw up their team spirit and then gets sacked.

I like this article a lot, but maybe you’re not being completely fair to all the players here. It seems to me you just don’t like Beckham and have done a bit of a hatchet job as a result. Don’t forget he was a large part of Manchester United’s treble winning season and has played well for England more times than he’s disappointed. And that ‘disppointing end-run’ of Figo at Real Madrid was because Beckham took his place from him at right wing.
If I gave Edgar Davids the same treatment as you’ve given Beckham here, all there would be is ‘too many cards, sent home from Euro 96, banned for two years for steroid abuse’.

Posted from  Canada

OK Rabotnik, I’m gonna be 100% honest with you:

1)I’ve never been a huge fan of Bekham’s but I, for one, never said he’s bad.
2)The demise of Real Madrid din’t “just happen”. It was a consequence of the club’s policy. A clear example is that they bought several “stars” for up front, when what they really needed was first and foremost someone to replace Makele and also in the defense. This costed Carlos Queirós’s job as a coach, who went back to Man Utd. This, naturally, affected the whole team. Look at them now. NOBODY there does anything worthwhile watching, theese days. The point is that in Figo’s early days with Real, everybody was more than satisfied with him. He performed poorly at the end, but so did ALL of them. He was smart enough to leave and he should have done so much before.
3)Beckham, with all the ups and downs a player has, didn’t simply “steal” Figo’s place in the squad, because he was not delivering. Beckham, being still a very good player, was more of an investment. And he never really played as a true winger there. He did at ManUtd. In Real he was a right midfielder and, for what I saw, was clearly inferior to Figo AS A WINGER. Not necessarily as a player.
4)I also think that the english are worse to him with the critics, than all the others. In the POR ENG match (EC04), Rui Costa also failed a penaltie and said exactly the same as Beckham about the lawn. Rui Costa NEVER fails penalties and giving bad excuses has never been his style, so I’ll take his word. The english, press and fans, almost cruxified Beckham. And I don’t really believe he’s all that worried…
5) Maybe there has been a bit of a so called “hatchet job”, but you must see that he’s clearly been asking for it.

Wow! Didn’t expect so many comments, so thanks to all and keep ‘em coming.

Regarding Van Der Sar and Henry, they were not excluded out of malice; it was, after all, only a ‘top 10′ and they surely would have made a top 15 or 20 list. There are quite a few more names you could make a case for, including Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Kluivert (although who would notice?, Barthez, Veron, etc.

Regarding Becks; the man’s been overrated for years in my opinion. Midfielders like Zidane, Deisler, Ballack, and Figo deserve more credit for not only being able to take a free kick but being able to draw fouls, create spaces/chances, and leading by example. Doesn’t mean Beckham has had a crap career as a whole, but he’s seemingly intent on ending it badly.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

no defenders mentioned here…

cafu for brazil,javier zannetti and roberto ayala for argentina, jaap stam of netherlands, thuram for france should also be mentioned…they are world class and international soccer will surely miss them too…

Posted from  Malaysia

roberto carlos still going to play major roles for brazil after world cup…he is so fit and there are not much good leftback in brazil to replace him….

cafu has found his successor… cicinho….i thought of sol campbell for england (great performance last world cup)too…with terry and ferdinand brothers…we might not be seing too much of campbell in the future

Posted from  Malaysia

No love for Michael Ballack or Sol Campbell?

Posted from  United States

If Ballack is still healthy, count on him being a sub in 2010 (Germany has had a history of keeping older players around past their expiry date). I’ve never been a great admirer of Campbell, and don’t think he’ll be missed as much as some others I’ve mentioned.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

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Posted from  United States