Are there any genuinely exciting footballers anymore?

Surprised none has mentioned Bellingham
 
Ok how many more can you list on Ronaldinho’s level just in general?

because the way I see it, we tend to have 1 or 2 truly visually exciting players at any one time. Messi and ronaldo are a bit too old but flair players at the top will come round again.
 
Also I don't think it's really coached out of players. Look at ASM. The guy can be electrifying to watch but has no end product. If he converted his movement to goals and assists he'd be the most expensive player in the world. Flair players are still around, they just happen to be not as good as some of those in the past. We'll have one again soon I'm sure.
 
FrantikChicken said:
Also I don't think it's really coached out of players. Look at ASM. The guy can be electrifying to watch but has no end product. If he converted his movement to goals and assists he'd be the most expensive player in the world. Flair players are still around, they just happen to be not as good as some of those in the past. We'll have one again soon I'm sure.
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7 games, 1 goal and 3 assist this season. ASM just needed better players around him to have more end product.
 
Few and far between but there’s a few great showmen still left in the game — Messi (rarer than it used to be), Neymar, Amad Diallo etc.
 
It’s weird that people talk about Ronaldinho as if he’s the flair player from the 2000s that you’d have found in all decades prior, and since then they’ve just disappeared. There’s few players from previous decades that played with his kind of flamboyance while reaching his peaks in last decades too. It’s not evidence of a decline, it’s recognition of an exception. This era is more systems based but he was hardly the example of the typical player from that era. There were players in prior decades full of flair that weren’t anywhere near as good, but that puts an entirely different spin on it.
 
The way the game is going the flair players are getting phased out unless you can put up numbers like Mbappe and Neymar.

Coaches want players who can first and foremost work hard and be effective in a press which wasn't the case 10-15 years ago. You could have a silky 10 or a winger who didn't do any defensive work.
 
I remember people saying that about Messi when he was younger. Sounds like old man talk. If you don’t find players like Mbappé, Vinicius, Neymar, Foden, or even Haaland at full speed exciting, maybe switch to a different sport.
 
Luis Figo Rivaldo are some other greats we seem to lack.
 
Here’s a list of all of the Ballon d’Or winners since it started in 1956. In most decades you can’t even find one player with more flair than Messi. The flair players of the past generally weren’t that good, and were just remembered fondly in highlight reels of international tournaments. The kind of highlight reels that make Kudus or Al-Dawsari look spectacular if you only catch a glimpse of them, but don’t linger long when you see them in an era over-saturated with football.

Ronaldinho was really unusual in being primarily a flair player while also being spectacularly good at his peak. Players like Rivaldo or Figo were not. They were just like Hazard or Neymar, who were neither as good nor as flamboyant, while facing competition who were both less efficient and less eye-catching. Excellent players all the same but they weren’t in Ronaldinho’s league in terms of entertainment, nor in Messi’s league in terms of quality.
2022Karim BenzemaFranceReal Madrid
2021Lionel MessiArgentinaParis Saint-Germain F.C.
2020not awarded
2019Lionel MessiArgentinaBarcelona
2018Luka ModricCroatiaReal Madrid
2017Cristiano RonaldoPortugalReal Madrid
2016Cristiano RonaldoPortugalReal Madrid
2015Lionel MessiArgentinaBarcelona
2014Cristiano RonaldoPortugalReal Madrid
2013Cristiano RonaldoPortugalReal Madrid
2012Lionel MessiArgentinaBarcelona
2011Lionel MessiArgentinaBarcelona
2010Lionel MessiArgentinaBarcelona
2009Lionel MessiArgentinaBarcelona
2008Cristiano RonaldoPortugalManchester United
2007KakáBrazilMilan
2006Fabio CannavaroItalyReal Madrid
2005RonaldinhoBrazilBarcelona
2004Andriy ShevchenkoUkrainMilan
2003Pavel NedvědCzechiaJuventus
2002RonaldoBrazilReal Madrid
2001Michael OwenEnglandLiverpool
2000Luís FigoPortugalReal Madrid
1999RivaldoBrazilBarcelona
1998Zinedine ZidaneFranceJuventus
1997RonaldoBrazilInternazionale
1996Matthias SammerGermanyBorussia Dortmund
1995George WeahLiberiaMilan
1994Hristo StoichkovBulgariaBarcelona
1993Roberto BaggioItalyJuventus
1992Marco van BastenNetherlandsMilan
1991Jean-Pierre PapinFranceMarseille
1990Lothar MatthäusGermanyInternazionale
1989Marco van BastenNetherlandsMilan
1988Marco van BastenNetherlandsMilan
1987Ruud GullitNetherlandsMilan
1986Igor BelanovSoviet UnionDynamo Kyiv
1985Michel PlatiniFranceJuventus
1984Michel PlatiniFranceJuventus
1983Michel PlatiniFranceJuventus
1982Paolo RossiItalyJuventus
1981Karl-Heinz RummeniggeWest GermanyBayern Munich
1980Karl-Heinz RummeniggeWest GermanyBayern Munich
1979Kevin KeeganEnglandHamburg
1978Kevin KeeganEnglandHamburg
1977Allan SimonsenDenmarkBorussia M”nchengladbach
1976Franz BeckenbauerWest GermanyBayern Munich
1975Oleg BlokhinSoviet UnionDynamo Kyiv
1974Johan CruyffNetherlandsBarcelona
1973Johan CruyffNetherlandsBarcelona
1972Franz BeckenbauerWest GermanyBayern Munich
1971Johan CruyffNetherlandsAjax
1970Gerd MüllerWest GermanyBayern Munich
1969Gianni RiveraItalyMilan
1968George BestNorthern IrelandManchester United
1967Flórián AlbertHungaryFerencv rosi TC
1966Bobby CharltonEnglandManchester United
1965EusébioPortugalBenfica
1964Denis LawScotlandManchester United
1963Lev YashinSoviet UnionDynamo Moscow
1962Josef MasopustCzechoslovakiaDukla Prague
1961Omar SívoriItalyJuventus
1960Luis SuárezSpainBarcelona
1959Alfredo Di StéfanoSpainReal Madrid
1958Raymond KopaFranceReal Madrid
1957Alfredo Di StéfanoSpainReal Madrid
1956Stanley MatthewsEnglandBlackpool
 
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Flair players have been all but phased out, replaced by workhorses and sideways passers.
 
Using Ronaldinho and Zidane as metrics is pointless. Ronaldinho is an outlier; you won't find another one, so he hardly counts. Zidane, too, he's not a player you're going to see replicated. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembélé and the like are out there. Interestingly, fans call Dembélé unproductive when he plays with abandon, so is flair particularly appreciated over productivity anymore?
 
Is it just a different type of exciting? I used to love watching Xavi and Iniesta but wouldn’t describe them as exciting, not like a Messi etc. I really enjoy watching KDB and Foden and more recently Casemiro, but just different types of entertainment.
 
rpitroda said:
Watching this World Cup has really put the spotlight on this for me. Yes Mbappe can be seen as exciting but he’s really just about effectiveness and efficiency. Are there any genuinely exciting players full of flair and tricks and a personality to go with it? I’m thinking Ronaldinho or Zidane style. And yes I know they are some of the best ever and don’t expect to see players of that calibre and nature frequently but is there even anyone remotely as fun anymore?
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I get where you are coming from.

We aren’t littered and spoilt with the incredible talents we had of 20 years ago. The best nations in the world seem to just have 1 or maybe 2 superstars in their team.

Yet back in the day we had R9, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Kaka and Adriano all in the same team. Not to mention Roberto Carlos and Cafu. It was the same with nations like France, Netherlands, Spain. Superstars everywhere.
 
Antony could be if he had any effectiveness to his tricks. A lot of them seem to be in front of the defender achieving feck all.
 
I don't see why they have to be mutually exclusive.

Messi played in the most effective pressing team of all time, you can have both.
 
A number of the Brazil players are still exciting, including Raphina, Antony, and Vinicius in my opinion. But yes players are getting more efficient and less flamboyant, which is an inevitable result of European nations like Germany, Spain, England and France mass-producing players in academies with a particular playing style.

I would add that France's Dembele is still a genuinely exciting player, even if he is more efficient than his predecessors would have been.
 
Jay Jay Okacha was a great flair player, so so so actual footballer though, don't think the 00's are much out of a outliner
 
Mbappe being effective is a weird statement, the guy is 23 and won a world cup and already has a great highlight reel in this one and we arent at the quarter finals yet.

I think we will look back at this world cup as a godo one personally. May be some old players buy this world cup still has two of the best plaeyrs of all tie involved in it whoa re both scoring, it has Neymar, it has Mbappe and when we look bak in 15/20years time at this tournaments squads we may not look at them as weakly as currently, there are several players on the cusp may go on to have stellar careers and this tournament doesnt have Haalana and the winger at Napoli for example.

COmparaing current players with some all time greats is maybe unfair I feel. I cant think of many periods where there was a whole host of stellar players, usually 1/2 stand above the rest for a few years.....of coruse we hav ehad a whole decade of that. But we have that now too happening with Haaland and Mbappe who are both young
 
Ronaldo at United was electric, once he pulled it all together from 2006 onwards. Nani was also great fun though wildly frustrating.

In the modern game Saint Maximin stands out.
 
Brwned said:
It’s weird that people talk about Ronaldinho as if he’s the flair player from the 2000s that you’d have found in all decades prior, and since then they’ve just disappeared. There’s few players from previous decades that played with his kind of flamboyance while reaching his peaks in last decades too. It’s not evidence of a decline, it’s recognition of an exception. This era is more systems based but he was hardly the example of the typical player from that era. There were players in prior decades full of flair that weren’t anywhere near as good, but that puts an entirely different spin on it.
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no, brwned. you’re completely wrong. football always used to be better and in the 80s the likes of ronaldinho were regularly turning out for the dog and duck 2nd xv.
 
There's still exciting players but I do I think it's changed a bit. It's a natural evolution of the game as professionalism and understanding of the sport increases over time. It's normal that high-risk skills and flair moves are going to be discouraged at least a little, with less emphasis on players playing off the cuff and more detailed coaching with them knowing what to do at all times. Efficiency and sticking to the plan is more important than ever and if I had to guess I'd say that's likely to continue over time.

That said, catenaccio was highly structured and that's an old system with plenty of exciting players having played in exciting setups since that was first implemented so it's not inevitable.

One day the sport and it's players might be very boring but we're not there yet.
 
Precaution said:
Jay Jay Okacha was a great flair player, so so so actual footballer though, don't think the 00's are much out of a outliner
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Okocha wasn’t a so so footballer at all, he could pass dribble and shoot with both feet, just made some odd career choices.
 
Neymar is one of the most exciting players that ever played the game.

Few are as technically gifted, as efficient and as productive
 
Neymar would be thought of in a very different light if he didn't waste his career in PSG and if he wasn't injury prone.

People ignore him when talking about the best players, people assume he's lazy or doesn't work hard or track back...he's a phenomenal footballer and has a great work rate on the pitch. And is easily the most "flair" player in today's game.
 
This is nostalgia. How are you not excited by Foden, Mbappe and the likes?

Ronaldinho was just one of a kind. I don't think we'll ever see a player like that at that level.

Ronaldo at Man united was another one. Crazy amount of flair and showmanship that we have seen since only from Neymar (Messi is more body feints)

Zidanes was not doing 5 of his turns every game either.
 
It's Neymar.

Silly how there are still people who refuse to acknowledge anything about him
 
Mbappe’s explosive speed and power
Dembele’s dribbling, directness and penetration
Messi still has in spurts

but in terms of larger-than-life personality and charisma, the heroes of today are more sanitizer
 
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