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Mikel Arteta: "Lionel Messi is the most influential player ever in the history of football. We have never seen someone do what Messi has been doing on the field for all these years before." (www.planetfootball.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Obviously there's many ways to measure influence, but Franz Beckenbauer is worth a shout:

As a player, one of the all-time greats
Invented the libero position
Also played in midfield with great success
Captain of the first national team to win the Euros and the World Cup consecutively
Captain of a Bayern team that won three consecutive European Cups
Manager of World-Cup winning West German national side
One of three people to win the World Cup both as player and manager
Chair of Germany's winning bid to host the World Cup (yes, tainted by corruption)

I'd still give the nod to Cruyff, though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

"In the 1970s, I was a teenager in a country (Germany) that loved football – and in that country, there was no argument about who was the best player of all time. There was no contestation, no hierarchy, although there were many good players at the time. Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff were out of the ordinary. But even they never thought they could be the No. 1 player in the world. It was a time when the Ballon d'Or was reserved for players in Europe, so there was a very clear hierarchy: there were the very good ones, and there was the superstar. This is something we no longer have when discussing who is the best among several great players. None have the impact that Pelé had at the time."

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