So many things wrong with that list. Its like they just decided on Messi and Ronaldo and then randomly put the rest of the list together with no thought process. Henry above Zidane is the biggest joke I have seen
ESPN top 25 players of the 21st century
- Thread starter Korwas
- Start date
Ah, a list. Every football writers cheesy way to get a lot of engagement.
Modric at 5 is ridiculous.
The whole list is totally biased in favour of trophies.
The entire top 20 apart from De Bruyne played for Barcelona or Real Madrid at one point or another and most have won numerous UCLs.
Then you have Pirlo in 21st who basically has a Barca/Madrid level trophy cabinet despite never playing for them.
Maybe Micah Richards created the list
Figo?
Have a perhaps baseless appreciation for Rui Costa too
A violent racist though who probably should have been excluded from football.
Or Paul Merson.!
Mbappe that high up and no Scholes? Zlatan is way too high up as well.
The general consensus among football fans is that the top table of midfielders is Zidane, Modric, Xavi and Iniesta. Half a step below that you have Pirlo, Busquets and Kroos. Only after that do you begin to name English midfielders.
His career went downhill after the move to Milan, where he had his moments, but really failed to live up to the expectations at the time, sort of like Veron at United.
No Robben no party. How the feck is Suarez in over him 
Even Mbappe isnt above him yet for me.
Even Mbappe isnt above him yet for me.
Obviously a terrible list, as most have pointed out. Hard to pick a worst ranking out of it, but Robert Lewandowski sitting at number 18 with nearly 700 career goals is wild.
I would love to know why the hell Henry sits 21 places above Suarez when Henry has nothing on Suarez.
1. Suarez had the higher peak, had greater longevity, has a superior club career, and even has a superior international career once you apply context.
2. Suarez scored more goals than Henry at the World Cup despite playing for a vastly inferior national team.
3. Suarez has scored in a Copa America and Champions League final while Henry’s final records is abysmal.
4. Suarez won the golden boot twice without taking penalties at the height of Messi and CR7.
5. Suarez not only has far more career goals, but also has more career assists and is a statistically better chance creator than Henry.
Suarez >>> Henry in every single aspect
1. Suarez had the higher peak, had greater longevity, has a superior club career, and even has a superior international career once you apply context.
2. Suarez scored more goals than Henry at the World Cup despite playing for a vastly inferior national team.
3. Suarez has scored in a Copa America and Champions League final while Henry’s final records is abysmal.
4. Suarez won the golden boot twice without taking penalties at the height of Messi and CR7.
5. Suarez not only has far more career goals, but also has more career assists and is a statistically better chance creator than Henry.
Suarez >>> Henry in every single aspect
Obviously because he's partially cannibal. He is the most complete and deadly #9 since R9
I hate that Kaka went to Madrid and had the time that he did. Prime Kaka is easily top 10, he was unplayable at his very best.
No Robben no party. How the feck is Suarez in over him
Even Mbappe isnt above him yet for me.
Suarez was better than Robben.
Only thing Suarez has over him is not being injured half the time and somehow being an even bigger cheat (which is an impressive feat). Robben carried our national team to a world cup final and semi final and Bayern to a CL final and scored the winner in another. Of course they're completely different players, but both peak level and longevity Robben easily beats him.
I had the pleasure to see them both break through at Groningen so followed them for pretty much their entire career, so I'm not entirely just basing this on blind Dutch player bias.
Suarez was a much more complete player than Robben. Robben was a sort,-of one trick pony, albeit a very good one at it, whereas Suarez scored from every angle and situation. Robben should definitely be up there but Suarez should be somewhere in the top of the list, regardless what you think of him as a person
Robben was only a one trick pony if you know him from youtube highlights. Obviously the goals from the right are his trademark, but he also had a fantastic cross and throughball and is probably the best (or one of) the best dribblers of his generation. He didn't start playing on the right until his time in Munich and was also a sensational traditional winger in his early career. He just reinvented himself. I may have overreacted a bit by saying it's laughable Suarez is above him, but Robben's ability to basically function as a 1 man team is something I haven't seen any other Dutch player do in my lifetime. And that includes Gullit and Van Basten. Suarez was ofcourse a vital part of one of the best front 3s in history, but the M part of MSN was far and away the most important part of it. You could say he carried Liverpool of course, but he carried Liverpool to winning nothing in the end.
If he didn't have the insane amount of injuries I think he might have been the biggest player behind "those" 2.
I admit I'm MASSIVELY biast towards Robben. I realize that.
He's not. Maybe Troopz and Ty were on the panel.
Same here. He's been objectively more successful than Henry over his career, was a dominant player just like Henry was, and yet sits 21 spots behind. The biting and Evra incidents seem to have dropped him down the list.
Why the feck does the caf rate Suarez so highly. My faith in this place has been irreparably damaged.
Don't you know he played for Liverpool?!
Don't you know he played for Liverpool?!
No Bale is kind of ridiculous. Of course I am biased but he put Wales on his back and took them to 3 major tournaments and there a lot of other world class players from smaller nations who failed to do that for their countries.
This seems very personal for you. Are you from Uruguay or something?
I think it's pretty close actually. Henry doesn't deserve to be 21 places higher or whatever, but if someone thinks he's better than Suarez, it's hardly a crime.
First of all, Suarez didn't play for a 'vastly inferior' national team. He played for a country that has a lot less people, yes, but the team he played for was pretty damn good. We're not talking Haaland with Norway or anything ridiculous like that.
Secondly, Henry was a much more elegant player, and better to watch, IMO. Also, he is not a racist cannibal, but we'll leave that aside for now.
We also have to talk about Suarez's extraordinarily poor CL record. WTF happened there? Henry's is not amazing, but it's a lot better than Suarez's
You are a Feyenoorder on a Man Utd forum. Doesn't get much more anti Suarez than that unless you had something like Hala Madrid in your usernameadmit I'm MASSIVELY biast towards Robben. I realize that.
It really has nothing to do with disliking Suarez. I just really really really love Robben.
Suarez was good at Ajax, but it was in a mostly dominant PSV period where Feyenoord were mostly irrelevant. PSV fans dislike him much more (he also bit a PSV player). While a fantastic striker I simply think Robben is a more impactful player.
Also, I'm pretty sure everyone outside of Uruguay, Barcelona and Amsterdam dislike Suarez.
The Uruguay team that Suarez played on doesn’t even come close to the France team that Henry played on. Henry played with Zidane, Ribery, Trezeguet, Vieira, Makelele, Thuram, Desailly… how is that even remotely comparable?
Henry should have had an international career comparable to R9 given the circumstances he found himself in, and yet he has fewer goals than Suarez at the World Cup. Now that is some achievement.
Henry being “better to watch” means nothing to me when Suarez is statistically more creative. If you’re going to judge by the eye test, you might as well place Eden Hazard in the top 3. As it stands he’s not even on the list and for good reason.
As for his CL record, Henry doesn’t have a single memorable moment in that competition apart from one goal against Real Madrid. CL is not an argument you want to use for Henry, he was average at best in that competition.
It's literally 1 goal less, while playing 200 minutes less. It's such a bizzarely specific statistic to obsess about.
Henry having an average international career despite very favourable circumstances is not one stat.
By the way, the reason why Henry played fewer minutes than Suarez at the World Cup, is because he was regularly benched or hooked due to poor performances.
I've seen numerous of the modern Liverpool 'legends' live - Gerrard, Owen, Torres, Alonso, Salah, VVD etc. Suarez is head and shoulders above them, in terms of what he could do on the pitch, allied to an obsessive will to win. As good as Robben obviously was, I can't put him anywhere near Suarez.
We'd likely have a couple more CL/PLs if he'd have stayed on for Klopp's reign.
What are you talking about? Did you actually watch France in early 2000 to talk about "favourable circumstances"?
He's nowhere near this level.
If I was playing international football, I would like for it to be teammates with Zidane, Thuram, Vieira, Makelele, Ribery, etc… those seem like good circumstances to me.
But if you don’t like the World Cup stat, how about these ones:
Total club goals scored:
Henry - 366
Suarez - 504
Best season:
Henry - 39
Suarez - 59 (without being a penalty taker)
Total club assists:
Henry - 172
Suarez - 258
Some odd choices there.
Mbappe is way too high in my opinion.No reason why he can't reach those heights dependant on his career but above Iniesta, Xavi and Ronaldo (just for starters) seems utterly insane.
De Bruyne is a phenomenal player but 12th place doesn't sit well with me either - perhaps I'm being a nostalgia merchant. Puyol and Vieira feel like questionable inclusions too, though don't ask me for who could take their place instead.
Mbappe is way too high in my opinion.No reason why he can't reach those heights dependant on his career but above Iniesta, Xavi and Ronaldo (just for starters) seems utterly insane.
De Bruyne is a phenomenal player but 12th place doesn't sit well with me either - perhaps I'm being a nostalgia merchant. Puyol and Vieira feel like questionable inclusions too, though don't ask me for who could take their place instead.
Fair enough. I suppose it's a bit down to preference as well. 2008-2014 Robben was so spectacular, but it's always more impactful when you root for someone I suppose.
Still, he should at least be in the list.
Exactly, it's all subjective with things like this, and it's hard not have a little bias, when needed.
Do agree on Robben being in there and fairly high up, certainly above Zlatan, Mbappe etc. He was a wonderful player. Also, the guy never seemed to age, in that he always looked like a 40 year old health and safety inspector, which is equally impressive.
If you were paying even basic attention to NT football during that period, you would know that France was a completely embarassing circus that was always 1 bad result from completely throwing everything. Maybe, just maybe, the reason for lack of minutes and bad results is because that team despite apparently amazing circumstances had 2 embarassing group stage exits in 2002 and 2010? And how the hell are you calling his international achievements bad, when he actually won the damn thing and got another time into the final and was an important part of the team in both?
Matter of opinion, personally feel he is better than half of the names on the list but perspective and bias is bound to come into this. How you judge a best player is subjective anyway, how much weight do you give to achievements, how much to longevity, how much to peak performance etc.