http://www.sportphotogallery.com/Photos/Football/Diego-Maradona/Diego-Maradona-v-Belgium-1982-1619809_10.aspx

The Belgians knew they did not stand a chance.

No other footballer struck so much fear into his opponents with the ball at his feet.

(Incidentally, I write this as one who shares the same birthday as DAM and who also regards him as the best player I have seen … and my father actually took me to see Pele at the Sydney Sports Ground in 1970, not to mention that I watched the 1974 World Cup on TV as a 10 year-old kid … but I would hardly say that I had mature sporting judgement back then!).

I suspect that like most football people you have almost unavoidable bias towards goal creators and goal scorers when it comes to making judgments about who is or was best. Indeed, for this reason it’s almost impossible to make comparisons between Beckenbauer and the others. However I for one am not prepared to eliminate players like him, Maldini and Cannavaro (to name a few more modern examples) simply because of the positions they played. Similarly with goalkeepers. Perhaps there should be separate categories, across which one never tries to compare. But at the end of the day that is not entirely satisfactory.

The implication of putting goal-scorers and -creators at the top of these lists is that the best football players always play in these positions. It is true that the best kids do tend to play in the front half of a team, but (1) this does not apply to all the best kids, and (2) often such kids move back in position as time goes on (from memory this describes Beckenbauer’s trajectory).

Incidentally, on the topic of goalscorers I have never understood why Gerd Müller does not rank higher. His goalscoring statistics for both Germany and Munich are phenomenal by any measure (from memory they are second only to Pele’s). And it’s not as if he played for Munich at a time when German football was weak (has it ever been?). So what if Müller was not the prettiest on the field – I thought football was about getting the ball in the onion bag? (as Tommy Smyth with a Y would say). It has always seemed to me that Müller has suffered in appraisals because he doesn’t have a glittering and/or larger-than-life personality, as do Pele, FB, JC, DAM, etc.

I also remind you of a point I made earlier: you can’t just judge DAM on his fabulous highs as a player. He also had a lot of lows. Exactly as a batsman’s ducks must be counted in his cricket average, so also with DAM’s lows.

Diego – for me is the greatest player I have seen. Not old enough to have seen the other players in their prime. But there is no way how our mate Franz can be ranked above Diego.

Here is their IFHHS currnet ranking of the top 20 clubs in world football.

You gotta laugh!

1. (1.) Manchester United FC England/4 326,0
2. (2.) FC Barcelona España/4 298,0
3. (5.) FC Shakhtyor Donetsk Ukraina/3 293,0
4. (3.) Chelsea FC London England/4 283,0
5. (7.) Hamburger SV Deutschland/4 274,0
6. (4.) Club Estudiantes de La Plata Argentina/4 265,0
7. (8.) SV Werder Bremen Deutschland/4 263,0
8. (6.) Arsenal FC London England/4 245,0
9. (10.) Cruzeiro EC Belo Horizonte Brasil/4 231,0
10. (12.) AS Roma Italia/4 228,0
11. (12.) Galatasaray SK İstanbul Türkiye/3 222,0
12. (18.) Olympiakos Pireas Greece/3 215,5
13. (14.) Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto-Alegrense Brasil/4 212,0
14. (11.) FC Bayern München Deutschland/4 209,0
15. (22.) FC do Porto Portugal/3 204,0
16. (14.) Olympique Lyonnais France/4 201,0
17. (17.) Juventus FC Torino Italia/4 195,0
18. (9.) Liverpool FC England/4 194,0
19. (20.) FC Twente Enschede Nederland/3 187,5
20. (19.) FC Internazionale Milano Italia/4 185,0

So one might as well say that it’s Pele first, then the next four all equal second. Definitely one can say that the points of 3-4-5 are within noise of each other, i.e., they are equal third.

I don’t think too many people would be uncomfortable with such rankings.

Moral of the story: the points tally is more important than the rung on the ladder.

Also DAM may have had some exceptionally high highs, but he also had a lot more lows than the other four. The lows cannot be ignored when assessing overall performance, even if there is a reason for them.

Beckenbauer obviously was an amazing player, had an amazing career and has done some amazing things, his crowning achievement must surely be being one of only two men to win the WC as both a player and a manager.

He is a national hero, his part in Germany’s history will never be forgotten as the WC’s he has bought them have been extremely important for rebuilding the nation.

Problem is, he won’t leave the limelight, at 64 he’s still relatively young but he is far too prominent, constantly in the papers, on tv, in commercials, in Munich you’ll often see posters advertising this or that and none other than the Kaiser is attending. He’s got his finger in a lot of pies but people find it hard to criticise the man, even when he destablises Bayern, fans religiously follow his comments and agree with him without second thought.

There’s nothing wrong with egomania – after all, he is a Kaiser! – if the egomaniacal ideas are on the money. I freely admit that it could be the case that in the 15 years since I stopped following Beckenbauer closely, age has caught up with him and his ideas are now generally wide of the mark – in that case egomania is a big problem.

However I prefer to live nostalgically in the past and think of the Beckenbauer who is the only man to have won the IFFHS’s “Universal Genius of World Football” award (see http://www.iffhs.de/?38cdc3380f05f94e02691a55685fdcdc3bfcdc0aec70aeedb88106).

As for Bayern, well they are a team that people love to hate so of course people are enjoying their downfall.

Beckenbauer mostly, he just can’t help himself, he’s a real egomaniac.

Rummingge just has no idea and Hoeness, overrated by you and he’d say his worth is way under-appreciated, he loves trying to sound smart in the media.

Then again, what he has done for Bayern’s finances, well it’s been that incredible that the fans can’t help but love him, he has bought them so much success for so long and they are in a financial state of bliss mainly thanks to him. I found a tidbit in the following quite interesting:

http://www.tz-online.de/sport/fussball/fc-bayern/hoeness-mein-leben-tz-534103.html

He was trying to work his way into the Dassler clan, as you know the Dassler’s (particulary Horst) were the trailblazers for finances in football, I’d love to know how much of what Hoeness did were his own ideas and how much of it he was told by other people.

Since I’m coming to live in Germany next year, you need to know that Beckenbauer and Rummenigge both walk on water in my opinion. Admittedly this opinion may need revising, as I have not followed them closely for the last 15 years, having left Germany in 1995. But until I see evidence that satisfies me of their decline, I will live on in the past!

However Hoeness you are right about: I always thought he was overrated.

One of my favorite lines from KHR, after Germany was beaten by Denmark in the final of Euro 92: Co-commentator: “How do you feel about that?” KHR, angrily: “How do you think I feel? We’ve just been beaten by a country that has fewer people than we have registered football players.”

Best line ever on FB, by Mehmet Scholl after Munich won the 93-94 Meisterschaft with the great man as caretaker coach: “Dem Mensch gelingt alles.”

Leverkusen 27
Bremen 26
Schalke 25
Hoffenheim 23
Hamburger 23
Mainz 22
Bayern 21
Wolfsburg 21