Team of the 21st Century - Nominations

[RandoEFC+]

I think Cannabis ran something like this a couple of years ago, where a series of head to head votes took place to determine some sort of team of the season or best team of all time or something.

What I'm proposing here is something similar, but due to the ages of many of our members, who fall in their mid-late 20s, I'm going to restrict the nominations to players who were at least active for a few years post-2000. This isn't a strict line that I'm drawing. You could, for example, choose to nominate a player like Marc Overmars who enjoyed his best years before the turn of the century but was still active at Barcelona until 2004 or so. You can shove your Peles and Maradonas up your arse though. The point is to have people voting on players that they have actually seen play.

Please nominate as many suitable players as you can think of for each position, seriously don't be shy, and I will narrow down the 16 players with the most nominations (might make it 8 if it fits better) to go into a knockout competition. There will be two centre back positions so I'll have to figure that one out but the rest should stand alone, more or less. I will give it a few days then start setting up the polls to run over the next month or so for each position.

The positions are:

Goalkeeper: 

Right back/right wing back: 

Centre back: 

Left back/left wing back:

Defensive midfielder/"number six":

Central midfielder/"number eight":

Attacking midfielder/"number ten":

Right midfielder/winger/forward:

Left midfielder/winger/forward:

Striker:

Let's go!

[SirBalon]

I'm gonna seem quite biassed here and if this is the case then I get it. But most of mine are gonna be that Guardiola Barça side because for me it is the greatest club side ever witnessed.

 

• Goalkeeper: IKER CASILLAS (Spain)
• Right Centre-Back: FABIO CANNAVARO (Italy)
• Left Centre-Back: CARLES PUYOL (Spain)
• Right-Back: DANI ALVES (Brazil)
• Left-Back: ASHLEY COLE (England)
• Defensive Midfielder: SERGIO BUSQUETS (Spain)
• Central Midfielder: XAVI (Spain)
• Central Midfielder: ANDRÉS INIESTA (Spain)
• Right-Forward: LIONEL MESSI (Argentina)
• Left-Forward: RONALDINHO (Brazil)
• Centre-Forward: DAVID VILLA (Spain)

I know I've left out Cristiano Ronaldo and I fought long and hard between him and Ronaldinho, but in the end my love of fantasy and magic won through. 

[Stan]

46 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I think Cannabis ran something like this a couple of years ago, where a series of head to head votes took place to determine some sort of team of the season or best team of all time or something.

What I'm proposing here is something similar, but due to the ages of many of our members, who fall in their mid-late 20s, I'm going to restrict the nominations to players who were at least active for a few years post-2000. This isn't a strict line that I'm drawing. You could, for example, choose to nominate a player like Marc Overmars who enjoyed his best years before the turn of the century but was still active at Barcelona until 2004 or so. You can shove your Peles and Maradonas up your arse though. The point is to have people voting on players that they have actually seen play.

Please nominate as many suitable players as you can think of for each position, seriously don't be shy, and I will narrow down the 16 players with the most nominations (might make it 8 if it fits better) to go into a knockout competition. There will be two centre back positions so I'll have to figure that one out but the rest should stand alone, more or less. I will give it a few days then start setting up the polls to run over the next month or so for each position.

The positions are:

Goalkeeper: 

Right back/right wing back: 

Centre back: 

Left back/left wing back:

Defensive midfielder/"number six":

Central midfielder/"number eight":

Attacking midfielder/"number ten":

Right midfielder/winger/forward:

Left midfielder/winger/forward:

Striker:

Let's go!

Will do this properly later but players like Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Bergkamp, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Baggio, Del Piero, Maldini, Batistuta, Gazza, Shearer, Vieira, Schmeichel, Beckham should be included in some respect. 

To name a few, anyway

 

[Stan]

3 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I'm gonna seem quite biassed here and if this is the case then I get it. But most of mine are gonna be that Guardiola Barça side because for me it is the greatest club side ever witnessed.

 

• Goalkeeper: IKER CASILLAS (Spain)
• Right Centre-Back: FABIO CANNAVARO (Italy)
• Left Centre-Back: CARLES PUYOL (Spain)
• Right-Back: DANI ALVES (Brazil)
• Left-Back: ASHLEY COLE (England)
• Defensive Midfielder: SERGIO BUSQUETS (Spain)
• Central Midfielder: XAVI (Spain)
• Central Midfielder: ANDRÉS INIESTA (Spain)
• Right-Forward: LIONEL MESSI (Argentina)
• Left-Forward: RONALDINHO (Brazil)
• Centre-Forward: DAVID VILLA (Spain)

I know I've left out Cristiano Ronaldo and I fought long and hard between him and Ronaldinho, but in the end my love of fantasy and magic won through. 

Err we're only doing up to and slightly after 2000??

[SirBalon]

1 minute ago, Stan said:

Err we're only doing up to and slightly after 2000??

Yeah I read that but it's too restrictive and eliminates people on one side of the age string (latest generations) and then the elimination of true greats like Maradona, Pelé, Di Stéfano, Best, Matthews etc... Makes it all pointless. I would've filled most of my XI with past greats and to be honest, the  late 90s through the 2000s has been the authentic match-up with the generations of the past greats. Too restrictive and you get a meaningless XI.

[CaaC (John)+]

6 minutes ago, Stan said:

Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Bergkamp, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Baggio, Del Piero, Maldini, Batistuta, Gazza, Shearer, Vieira, Schmeichel,

They came to my mind also so I thought I will give this one a pass.

[True Blue]

15 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

I'm gonna seem quite biassed here and if this is the case then I get it. But most of mine are gonna be that Guardiola Barça side because for me it is the greatest club side ever witnessed.

 

• Goalkeeper: IKER CASILLAS (Spain)
• Right Centre-Back: FABIO CANNAVARO (Italy)
• Left Centre-Back: CARLES PUYOL (Spain)
• Right-Back: DANI ALVES (Brazil)
• Left-Back: ASHLEY COLE (England)
• Defensive Midfielder: SERGIO BUSQUETS (Spain)
• Central Midfielder: XAVI (Spain)
• Central Midfielder: ANDRÉS INIESTA (Spain)
• Right-Forward: LIONEL MESSI (Argentina)
• Left-Forward: RONALDINHO (Brazil)
• Centre-Forward: DAVID VILLA (Spain)

I know I've left out Cristiano Ronaldo and I fought long and hard between him and Ronaldinho, but in the end my love of fantasy and magic won through. 

This team screams i stick my Barcelona flag up my ass.

[Stan]

4 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

Yeah I read that but it's too restrictive and eliminates people on one side of the age string (latest generations) and then the elimination of true greats like Maradona, Pelé, Di Stéfano, Best, Matthews etc... Makes it all pointless. I would've filled most of my XI with past greats and to be honest, the  late 90s through the 2000s has been the authentic match-up with the generations of the past greats. Too restrictive and you get a meaningless XI.

Well then it's not fit for this topic then . Can't just make your own rules after @RandoEFC has set out the parameters for a Team of the Century...

 

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

The point is to have people voting on players that they have actually seen play.

 

7 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

and then the elimination of true greats like Maradona, Pelé, Di Stéfano, Best, Matthews etc... Makes it all pointless.

Have you seen them play? If so, it's not pointless and you can put forward as a nomination. I'm sure you can think of players in 80s/90s/early 00s anyway and it's not that restrictive.

[RandoEFC+]

7 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

Yeah I read that but it's too restrictive and eliminates people on one side of the age string (latest generations) and then the elimination of true greats like Maradona, Pelé, Di Stéfano, Best, Matthews etc... Makes it all pointless. I would've filled most of my XI with past greats and to be honest, the  late 90s through the 2000s has been the authentic match-up with the generations of the past greats. Too restrictive and you get a meaningless XI.

That's sort of the point though. There's been loads of "best of all time" discussions in the past. The idea behind this one is to be a bit different and allow people to vote on players they've actually seen play.

@Stan it is from the 2000s onwards so you could include players that are even playing now, Ronaldo, Messi, Van Dijk, Vardy etc. if you wanted.

[Stan]

2 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

@Stan it is from the 2000s onwards so you could include players that are even playing now, Ronaldo, Messi, Van Dijk, Vardy etc. if you wanted.

Oh I've misread that in your post then  

[True Blue]

From what i've seen:

Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

Right Centre-Back: Paolo Maldini (Italy)

Left Centre-Back: John Terry (England)

Right-Back: Marcos Evangelista de Morais Cafu (Brazil)

Left-Back: Roberto Carlos (Brazil)

Defensive Midfielder: Claude Makelele (France)

Central Midfielder: Frank Lampard (England)

Central Midfielder: Zinedine Zidane (France)

Right-Forward: Lionel Messi (Argentina)

Left-Forward: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - Had to fit him here

Centre-Forward: Ronaldo (Brazil)

[RandoEFC+]

This is off to a cracking start .

To clarify, then, this is a team of players that all of us (more or less) have seen play, so any player from around the 2000ish time period onwards is eligible. I will throw some of my own nominations out there to get us moving, yes you can nominate more than one, we need to get 16 players for each position:

Goalkeeper: P Schmeichel, Cech, De Gea, Buffon, Casillas

Right back/right wing back: Cafu, G Neville, Zambrotta

Centre back: Vidic, Ferdinand, Terry, Van Dijk, Ramos, Pique

Left back/left wing back: Roberto Carlos, A Cole, Jordi Alba

Defensive midfielder/"number six": Pirlo, Makelele, De Rossi, Busquets, Xavi, Keane

Central midfielder/"number eight": Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Iniesta, Zidane

Attacking midfielder/"number ten": Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Bergkamp

Right midfielder/winger/forward: Messi, Figo

Left midfielder/winger/forward: Henry, Giggs

Striker: Ronaldo, C Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic

 

Got bored on the last few positions and I'm at work but hopefully this serves as an example of what this thread is for!

[Cicero]

So is it century or 2000’s....?

[Stan]

49 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Goalkeeper: P Schmeichel, Cech, De Gea, Buffon, Casillas, Neuer

Right back/right wing back: Cafu, G Neville, Zambrotta, Lahm

Centre back: Vidic, Ferdinand, Terry, Van Dijk, Ramos, Pique, Puyol, Nesta, Maldini, Cannavaro, Thuram

Left back/left wing back: Roberto Carlos, A Cole, Jordi Alba

Defensive midfielder/"number six": Pirlo, Makelele, De Rossi, Busquets, Xavi, Keane, Kante, Vieira

Central midfielder/"number eight": Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Iniesta, Zidane, Deco, Schweinsteiger

Attacking midfielder/"number ten": Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Bergkamp, Zola, Totti, Seedorf, Kaka

Right midfielder/winger/forward: Messi, Figo

Left midfielder/winger/forward: Henry, Giggs, Pires

Striker: Ronaldo, C Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Shevchenko, Rooney, Aguero

Added mine in red as agree with ones you've put forward as well.

[RandoEFC+]

10 minutes ago, Cicero said:

So is it century or 2000’s....?

Team of this century, as in from 2000 onwards.

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

That's sort of the point though. There's been loads of "best of all time" discussions in the past. The idea behind this one is to be a bit different and allow people to vote on players they've actually seen play.

@Stan it is from the 2000s onwards so you could include players that are even playing now, Ronaldo, Messi, Van Dijk, Vardy etc. if you wanted.

That's what I mean mate which means you're excluding anyone born in the late 90s through the early 2000s. They won't have witnessed or remember anyone playing in the 90s (and earlier obviously). Why did you cap the "till present"?

[True Blue]

49 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

This is off to a cracking start .

To clarify, then, this is a team of players that all of us (more or less) have seen play, so any player from around the 2000ish time period onwards is eligible. I will throw some of my own nominations out there to get us moving, yes you can nominate more than one, we need to get 16 players for each position:

Goalkeeper: P Schmeichel, Cech, De Gea, Buffon, Casillas

Right back/right wing back: Cafu, G Neville, Zambrotta

Centre back: Vidic, Ferdinand, Terry, Van Dijk, Ramos, Pique

Left back/left wing back: Roberto Carlos, A Cole, Jordi Alba

Defensive midfielder/"number six": Pirlo, Makelele, De Rossi, Busquets, Xavi, Keane

Central midfielder/"number eight": Scholes, Lampard, Gerrard, Iniesta, Zidane

Attacking midfielder/"number ten": Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Bergkamp

Right midfielder/winger/forward: Messi, Figo

Left midfielder/winger/forward: Henry, Giggs

Striker: Ronaldo, C Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic

 

Got bored on the last few positions and I'm at work but hopefully this serves as an example of what this thread is for!

Fuck you bitch, you didn't say we can get more

[Cicero]

——————Buffon——————

Lahm—Puyol—Maldini—Cole

—————Makelele——————

————Xavi———Iniesta———

Messi—————————Cristiano 

———————Henry———————

Tried to be as balanced I could 

 

[Stan]

Waiting for Teso to come in with Pogba  

[RandoEFC+]

15 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

That's what I mean mate which means you're excluding anyone born in the late 90s through the early 2000s. They won't have witnessed or remember anyone playing in the 90s (and earlier obviously). Why did you cap the "till present"?

2000 just seemed like a convenient place to draw the line. I was born in 1993 and I'm only 26. As far as I know, we don't have many (any?) members on here who were born this century as they'd only be 18-19 years old. I might be wrong but I think I'm one of the youngest on here, as I was only about 19 when I joined TFF as one of the youngest guys and don't remember anyone younger joining apart from perhaps Brian.

15 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Fuck you bitch, you didn't say we can get more

Please add as many as you can think of.

[SirBalon]

23 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

2000 just seemed like a convenient place to draw the line. I was born in 1993 and I'm only 26. As far as I know, we don't have many (any?) members on here who were born this century as they'd only be 18-19 years old. I might be wrong but I think I'm one of the youngest on here, as I was only about 19 when I joined TFF as one of the youngest guys and don't remember anyone younger joining apart from perhaps Brian.

Hahaha... Was gonna say Brian! 

But you never know who may join in the future and this thread is resurrected.

You forgot Lord Bentdner in your list of players. He reckoned he was on Messi's level!

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, True Blue said:

From what i've seen:

Goalkeeper: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

Right Centre-Back: Paolo Maldini (Italy)

Left Centre-Back: John Terry (England)

Right-Back: Marcos Evangelista de Morais Cafu (Brazil)

Left-Back: Roberto Carlos (Brazil)

Defensive Midfielder: Claude Makelele (France)

Central Midfielder: Frank Lampard (England)

Central Midfielder: Zinedine Zidane (France)

Right-Forward: Lionel Messi (Argentina)

Left-Forward: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - Had to fit him here

Centre-Forward: Ronaldo (Brazil)

Did you melt when you felt forced to add Messi? 

You almost almost made it! 

[Mel81x+]

1 hour ago, True Blue said:

Right-Back: Marcos Evangelista de Morais Cafu (Brazil)

Cafu over Alves, interesting. Is that because you don't like Alves or just don't like the team he was with?

[SirBalon]

50 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

Cafu over Alves, interesting. Is that because you don't like Alves or just don't like the team he was with?

As good as Lampard was, having him there instead of a total legend like Iniesta is rather remarkable too. But they are his choices and they are all top players. 

[Mel81x+]

5 minutes ago, SirBalon said:

As good as Lampard was, having him there instead of a total legend like Iniesta is rather remarkable too. But they are his choices and they are all top players. 

Oh I am not questioning his choice. God knows, we'd all pick players we like and they may not necessarily be stat-driven but I was just curious why he picked Cafu over Alves. I think they are both stellar and lord knows Cafu as well because when I was younger I thought he was superb back then. But, Alves is a more rounded RB imo and has some great accomplishments of his own.