Sports
Inside UEFA All Time 11: A Cursory Appraisal
Recently, the apex football governing body in Europe, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), released a list of the most decorated players to ever grace Europe’s biggest club football competition.
As expected, the list generated mixed reactions from football fans all over the world who held dissenting views in view of certain inclusions and omissions on the list.
Eko Hot Blog now takes a look a critical look at the list as well as certain debatable points that has greatly divided the views of football enthusiasts around the globe.
Between the sticks is none other than former Real Madrid goalie, Iker Cassilas, who won the competition twice with Les Merengues and featured prominently in the Champions League for the better part of two decades.
At the heart of the defence are Barcelona duo, Gerard Pique and the legendary Carles Puyol; a defence partnership with several UCL titles between them.
There was also space for Sergio Ramos at the back, although not in his preferred Centre Back position. The enigmatic Real Madrid skipper was made to settle for a place at Right Back.
The last defensive slot is occupied by Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm, a captain fantastic who dazzled in Europe’s top club competition for a decade or thereabouts.
Perhaps a surprise to many UCL faithfuls, Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard gets the nod in midfield ahead of several other UCL midfield maestros, while Barcelona duo of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez complete the remaining midfield places.
Up front, perhaps the biggest surprise in this all time list is former Arsenal skipper, Thierry Henry, who gets the nod at Centre Forward while all time greats in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo unarguably complete a lethal forward line up.
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On the face of it, there are no doubts about the sheer depth and richness lodged within this list of UCL dazzlers; but, from a more critical position, certain question marks seems to surround some of its inclusions and omissions. One of such question marks comes with the inclusion of Steven Gerrard in midfield, who, for all his fine qualities merely has a single UCL title, and perhaps only one decent campaign in the annual European club cup competition. This question mark even becomes bigger when placed within the context of notable absentees like Zinedine Zidane, Paul Scholes, Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, just to mention a few names.
Another questionable inclusion in the defense which has generated mixed reactions is Gerard Pique, whose Champions League exploits pale in comparison to other defense leaders like Nemanja Vidic, Pepe, Paolo Maldini, amongst several others. It may also be relevant to note that the latter has 5 Champions League titles under his belt.
Further question marks has been raised with regard to UEFA’s choice of Centre Forward in the all time list, primarily due to the fact that Henry seems to have jumped the queue ahead of other marksmen like Raul Gonzalez and Filipo Inzhagi who have registered more Champions League goals than the Frenchman.
While there are no doubts about the rich vein of quality in this team of legends, it hasn’t also helped that UEFA’s indices for calculating deservedness was drawn from the number of times each player has made the UEFA team of the year, consequently dismissing other vital elements in its permutation.
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