Footballers that are more/less famous than normal for their quality level

Dybala has had a really weird career imo.

Was posting great stats for two years at Juventus and then Ronaldo turned up and he had to "adapt." Always been an eternal sub for Argentina due to Messi.

Now the main man at Roma but endless injuries and in his 30s now so could've done with that type of move 5-6 years earlier.
 
dazjoe said:
Kenny yeah. Superb player, but hit the bottle hard, last story I read about him was him in a park looking homeless and drinking from a bottle. Terribly sad story.
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That is very sad. If I remember correctly he played for Crystal Palace and England and was a cool customer defensively. In those days players weren`t set for life post football and maybe he had more problems than most adjusting to the end of his playing days.
 
Raul for underrated. He was a sensation at Madrid, the King of Madrid, but nobody talks about him much these days since Ronnie went over and became their goalscoring poster boy.

And then he stopped playing for Spain before they got really good so isn't talked about the same way as Villa, Torres and all the Barca prodigies who helped them win in 08/10.

Also Trezegeut for similar reasons. He had a better goalscoring record than Del Piero for Juve.

Anelka for overrated. A highly-regarded youngster turned journeyman that took until his last 20s to reach any sort of genuine potential with Chelsea.
 
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dazjoe said:
Kenny yeah. Superb player, but hit the bottle hard, last story I read about him was him in a park looking homeless and drinking from a bottle. Terribly sad story.
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sad

Was a brilliant defender in his day

He always came across well in his bits of tv punditry in the 90's.

I wish him all the best
 
Micah Richards wins this competition by far. How he's managed to become one of the faces of Sky, BBC and CBS is amazing given his ability.
 
Duncan Ferguson was the first name that came to mind for me as someone who is revered more than he should have been. Went for big money almost he went and barely hit double figures in goals in most seasons.

Dunno what people saw him. I just saw a violent Scottish thug.
 
Scholes is underrated by the English media but appreciated on the continent. Scholes was technically sound, had a great passing range and could score goals.

On the contrary, Gerrard is overrated by the English and probably justly rated on the continent. Gerrard was a headless chicken in the midfield with poor positional sense and often poorly executed hollywood passes. He stood out amongst a bad bunch which got him the fame.
 
Papin another shout for not getting enough recognition. I know didn't go to plan at AC Milan and Bayern but Jeez he was bloody good at Marseille, Balon D'or winner and a shout for best in the world at one point.
 
From names not yet mentioned:

Jamie Carragher - Average defender who has managed to shoehorn himself into the conversation of great centre backs by being everywhere, all of the time. Should have faded into obscurity post retirement.

Patrice Evra - Always second to Ashley Cole in any discussion despite being integral to the best defence the league has ever seen.

Alan Shearer - controversial but he scored lots of goals and won very little, he was a big fish in a small pond and that suited him. His record and fame is more a product of his longevity than his ability and he's not close to being the best striker to have played in the league.

Mo Salah - keeps himself to himself and doesn't get much media coverage despite being arguably Liverpool's best ever player.
 
11101 said:
From names not yet mentioned:

Jamie Carragher - Average defender who has managed to shoehorn himself into the conversation of great centre backs by being everywhere, all of the time. Should have faded into obscurity post retirement.

Patrice Evra - Always second to Ashley Cole in any discussion despite being integral to the best defence the league has ever seen.

Alan Shearer - controversial but he scored lots of goals and won very little, he was a big fish in a small pond and that suited him. His record and fame is more a product of his longevity than his ability and he's not close to being the best striker to have played in the league.

Mo Salah - keeps himself to himself and doesn't get much media coverage despite being arguably Liverpool's best ever player.
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Shearer is a ridiculous take unless you only saw him post injuries. For many years he was the perfect centre forward.

Also, is the argument that he's too famous? A lot of these are famous due to becoming pundits, which of course keeps them in the national eye.
 
11101 said:
From names not yet mentioned:

Jamie Carragher - Average defender who has managed to shoehorn himself into the conversation of great centre backs by being everywhere, all of the time. Should have faded into obscurity post retirement.

Patrice Evra - Always second to Ashley Cole in any discussion despite being integral to the best defence the league has ever seen.

Alan Shearer - controversial but he scored lots of goals and won very little, he was a big fish in a small pond and that suited him. His record and fame is more a product of his longevity than his ability and he's not close to being the best striker to have played in the league.

Mo Salah - keeps himself to himself and doesn't get much media coverage despite being arguably Liverpool's best ever player.
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Yeah, nah. There's a reason United were willing to spend a world record amount on him. He was the perfect number 9 and in a different class to any other 9 to have played in the Prem.

Henry was better but not an out and out striker. Shearer was streets ahead of Kane, Aguero, Cole, Haaland etc.
 
dazjoe said:
Yeah, nah. There's a reason United were willing to spend a world record amount on him. He was the perfect number 9 and in a different class to any other 9 to have played in the Prem.

Henry was better but not an out and out striker. Shearer was streets ahead of Kane, Aguero, Cole, Haaland etc.
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I think @11101 is showing his age?

Shearer was a phenomenal player.

There have only been two players I’ve been genuinely apprehensive about when they played United. Ronaldo9 and Shearer.

Whilst he won the title, he never played in a great team.

Agree, that he’s the best striker (no 9) the PL has seen, and by quite some margin.
 
Wand of a right foot said:
A controversial one: Cristiano. An all time great but far more famous than better footballers atleast historically; his fans on social media are something else, only Trump supporters are worse.
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I'm far from being a CR7 fan, but this is a terrible take.
 
For Spanish football I'd put Jesé Rodriguez in 'more famous than normal.'

He's a former Real Madrid youth player whose career got derailed a very long time ago and ultimately amounted to nothing. But between being in a relationship with a "television personality" and (I assume) having a good PR firm, he gets way more news stories than you'd expect. He's currently playing in Malaysia and Marca will still run stories about his 'exploits' there, it's insane.
 
11101 said:
From names not yet mentioned:

Jamie Carragher - Average defender who has managed to shoehorn himself into the conversation of great centre backs by being everywhere, all of the time. Should have faded into obscurity post retirement.

Patrice Evra - Always second to Ashley Cole in any discussion despite being integral to the best defence the league has ever seen.

Alan Shearer - controversial but he scored lots of goals and won very little, he was a big fish in a small pond and that suited him. His record and fame is more a product of his longevity than his ability and he's not close to being the best striker to have played in the league.

Mo Salah - keeps himself to himself and doesn't get much media coverage despite being arguably Liverpool's best ever player.
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Don’t agree with any of those takes on Shearer.

He won the league for Blackburn - that was a big achievement in itself. He had no issues starring while playing alongside other ‘big fish’ for England, such as at Euro 96.

It was his peak rather than his longevity that made Shearer stand out for me. From 22 to 26 he could score any type of goal and seemed to do so just about every other week. The 40 goals-a-season peak sustained from 93-96 is what really stands out.

After his injuries, he had to become a different player. Less mobile and more restrained. Still continued to plunder the goals, but wasn’t the awesome all-rounder of his early-to-mid 20s.
 
ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
I think @11101 is showing his age?

Shearer was a phenomenal player.

There have only been two players I’ve been genuinely apprehensive about when they played United. Ronaldo9 and Shearer.

Whilst he won the title, he never played in a great team.

Agree, that he’s the best striker (no 9) the PL has seen, and by quite some margin.
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yeah there's a reason why Fergie went in for him twice.

When he was at Blackburn (his peak years) he was absolute World Class.

Up there with Ronaldo, Batistuta & Weah as the great number 9's of the 1990's.
 
11101 said:
From names not yet mentioned:

Jamie Carragher - Average defender who has managed to shoehorn himself into the conversation of great centre backs by being everywhere, all of the time. Should have faded into obscurity post retirement.

Patrice Evra - Always second to Ashley Cole in any discussion despite being integral to the best defence the league has ever seen.

Alan Shearer - controversial but he scored lots of goals and won very little, he was a big fish in a small pond and that suited him. His record and fame is more a product of his longevity than his ability and he's not close to being the best striker to have played in the league.

Mo Salah - keeps himself to himself and doesn't get much media coverage despite being arguably Liverpool's best ever player.
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Cole & Evra should always be behind Irwin in any left back discussion.

Shearer was top class. Better at everything than Haaland, if he played in that City team he'd have 60+ goals a season.
 
SilentWitness said:
Micah Richards wins this competition by far. How he's managed to become one of the faces of Sky, BBC and CBS is amazing given his ability.
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Very true, however aside from his trademark over the top laugh, I'd argue there's a case to be made that he's a better pundit than he was a player. And that his fame now is on the back of that. For me he finds a nice balance of not taking himself too seriously and still not being silly when talking about different aspects of football. I like him (or to phrase that differently, he's among the pundits I find easier to tolerate).
 
KingEric04 said:
More known:

- Gerrard Pique- Played in a very successful Barca side and was probably the most overrated center back of the modern era
- Ederson- Played in a very successful Man City side and was never among the best GKs in the world, yet was somehow always highly rated
- Alvaro Morata- Has played in every major club and yet he is very average. One of the worst "big" names in modern day football
- Victor Valdes- A pretty average goalkeeper for a star studded Barca for a long time. Was a bench warmer in a bad UTD side.
- Jack Grealish- He was brilliant in Aston Villa but he's arguably the most expensive Man City flop in the modern era.
- Marcus Rashford- Only had 2 great seasons and is easily the most overrated post Fergie era Utd player. An eternal 27 year old "young" prospect
- Jesse Lingard- Similar arguments as Marcus Rashford
- Jadon Sancho- Another overhyped English player who flopped in Man Utd before he turned 22. Has attitude issues, and would rather play Fifa than be a good professional.
- Harry Maguire- A good center back, but he was the most expensive defender at his prime and never fully settled at Old Trafford
- Jeremy Doku- A dribbling merchant who has a terrible cross and finishing.
- Federico Chiesa- had a great EURO 2020 and was one of the most expensive flops in Juventus history. He's still in his prime and has barely any game time in Liverpool
- Filipo Inzaghi- Mr Offside himself. He had zero technical ability and is more known than he should have been
- Marco Matterazzi- Only known for the Zidane headbutt, and he was a pretty average player back in day.
- Mario Balottelli- More known for his antics than his football game
- Marco Asensio- He happened to be in insanely successful Madrid side and that's what he's really known for, even though he wasn't really that good
- Adama Traore- Known for his build, pace and speed, yet is a painfully average footballer
- Eric Djemba Djemba- He was supposed to be a replacement for Roy Keane, but he's now regarded as the biggest flop in Ferguson era of Man Utd. He was a meme before memes became a thing.

Less known:
- Henrik Larsson. What a baller was he for Celtic in his prime. He could have easily signed for a bigger club but he stayed loyal for Celtic. A decisive player in 2006 UCL final, at age of 35.
- Dida- Probably the most underrated GK of all time- What a shot stopper and penalty saver this guy was! He deserves a far greater recognition.
- Pepe Reina- He was one of the best goalkeepers in his prime and rarely do people mention his name these days.
- Ashley Cole- Arguably the best ever EPL left back and in his prime, he was the best left back in the world. Ronaldo said that Cole was the hardest player that he played against.
- Gary Neville- Easily the best right back in EPL during his prime and a very reliable Man Utd player. He's more known for his punditry, than his footballing abilities in Man Utd.
- Wes Brown- Was not a world class player, but in 2007/08 season was insanely good. It's looked like Gary Neville was never absent in that season.
- Obi Mikel and Branislav Ivanovic for Chelsea. Mikel was a great replacement for Makelele and a longtime Chelsea player. Ivanovic was one of the best defenders in EPL in his prime and a very underrated Chelsea player.
- Roy Makaay- a prolific goal scorer in early 2000s and one of the best strikers of the world at that time
- Michael Carrick- A great servant to Man Utd club and one of the most underrated midfielders of the modern era-
- Guti- Played for Real Madrid in Galactico era and he was somehow never the "big" name in Real Madrid
- Rafa Marques- Integral to Barca's 2000s success, and somehow has flown under the radar
- Oliver Kahn- Before Neuer there was Kahn. Kahn was disrespected throughout his career and yet is easily one of the GOAT goalkeepers.
- Ze Roberto- Most known for his time in Bundesliga as an excellent left wing back.
- Ricardo Carvalo- His pairing with John Terry during Murinho era was legendary
- Deco- A midfield maestro. He was brilliant in Porto and Barca. Shame his attitude and professionalism ruined his career.
- Michu- One season wonder for Swansea and what a season he had. He's kind of streets never forget type of players
- Jermain Defoe- Before Kane, there was Defoe. A very underrated striker in pre Kane spurs Era.
- Roque Santa Cruz- Had two stunning seasons in Blackburn Rovers but kind of disappeared after that
- David Villa- A phenomenal striker in Valencia and Barcelona. He was responsible for Spain winning World Cup in 2010.
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I thought Wes’ season at RB that year was better than Gary’s best years tbh. He was phenomenal that season.
 
VivaJesperBlomqvist said:
I thought Wes’ season at RB that year was better than Gary’s best years tbh. He was phenomenal that season.
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Wes probably had a higher peak than Neville in that one season. People forget that Brown's career was plagued by injuries. He missed the entire 1999-00 season and he missed the the half of 03-04 season.

What separated Wes in that season was that he was good both in defence and offence. That interplay with Scholes and then the cross to Ronaldo in UCL was brilliant. Modern fullbacks like Trent or Alves (now retired) are more like wingers and they are shit in defending. Especially Trent, 1v 1.
 
Some of these where pundirity is a part of an ex-player's fame seem a bit daft to me as it's a different job. Might as well include managers who are more famous for that than they were for playing too. Sir Alex, Mourinho, Wenger, Guaridola, Klopp etc.
Querulous Megapode said:
Antonin Panenka has been plucked from relative obscurity to become a common noun.
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His penalty was in '76 and I was born in '79. Never heard anyone reference it at all growing up in the 80s or 90s in the UK. Might well have been different in different countries, but someone "doing a Panenka" seemed to come in much later here, the 2000s or 2010s. Had to look up where it came from at one point.

Assumed it was a translation of a word in a different language for a good while. Maybe the word for float, loft, lob or chip in an Eastern European language. :lol:

Euro 76 where he did it had no British teams in it and it was only a 4 team tournament, far from what it's become. Perhaps the whole tournament didn't have much of a following on UK shores? His penalty certainly didn't seem to have seeped into the conciousness of most football fans here.

Other stuff from before I was born or form when I was small did. Pele shooting from the halfway line in 1970, Schumacher taking out Battiston in '82 etc.
 
Gio said:
Don’t agree with any of those takes on Shearer.

He won the league for Blackburn - that was a big achievement in itself. He had no issues starring while playing alongside other ‘big fish’ for England, such as at Euro 96.

It was his peak rather than his longevity that made Shearer stand out for me. From 22 to 26 he could score any type of goal and seemed to do so just about every other week. The 40 goals-a-season peak sustained from 93-96 is what really stands out.

After his injuries, he had to become a different player. Less mobile and more restrained. Still continued to plunder the goals, but wasn’t the awesome all-rounder of his early-to-mid 20s.
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a couple of those were 42 game PL seasons, mind (1993-94, and 1994-95) which helps.

It is always harder comparing footballers from different generations, but let's not forget that Blackburn were the Man City/Chelsea of the mid 90s - not at all a 'Leicester'
 
In the OP I would say Lucio and Di Natale are actually somewhat outsized remembered due to being meta players on EA FC these days - there will be 14 year olds with not much concept of football from 20 years ago and beyond knowing Di Natale and thinking he’s one of the best Italian forwards ever when he wasn’t. It’s one of the biggest selling games in the world so it makes a big impact. You have Endrick saying Bobby Charlton was his favourite player, and Cole Palmer saying he only knows Zola from it so the legacy of these players are actually living on well from that game.
 
Gio said:
Don’t agree with any of those takes on Shearer.

He won the league for Blackburn - that was a big achievement in itself. He had no issues starring while playing alongside other ‘big fish’ for England, such as at Euro 96.

It was his peak rather than his longevity that made Shearer stand out for me. From 22 to 26 he could score any type of goal and seemed to do so just about every other week. The 40 goals-a-season peak sustained from 93-96 is what really stands out.

After his injuries, he had to become a different player. Less mobile and more restrained. Still continued to plunder the goals, but wasn’t the awesome all-rounder of his early-to-mid 20s.
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Phenomenal centre forward and credit to him that he lived his dream and played for his boyhood club. Big shame for us though, if he was paired with Eric English football would have been a non event for the other teams.

He did everything well but his finishing was out of this world, he seemed to never miss.
 
Wand of a right foot said:
Scholes is underrated by the English media but appreciated on the continent. Scholes was technically sound, had a great passing range and could score goals.

On the contrary, Gerrard is overrated by the English and probably justly rated on the continent. Gerrard was a headless chicken in the midfield with poor positional sense and often poorly executed hollywood passes. He stood out amongst a bad bunch which got him the fame.
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Yeah, been seeing people, including Scholes himself, saying that Gerrard could do everything Scholes could, but not vice versa. Gerrard didn’t have the nous or patience required to be the metronome like Scholes. His desire to be Roy of the Rovers worked a lot of the time for him, but in the match he slipped against Chelsea, for example, he spent the rest of it trying to redeem himself, and wound up being pretty much ineffectual, taking lots of long range shots that didn’t pan out.
 
Wand of a right foot said:
Scholes is underrated by the English media but appreciated on the continent. Scholes was technically sound, had a great passing range and could score goals.

On the contrary, Gerrard is overrated by the English and probably justly rated on the continent. Gerrard was a headless chicken in the midfield with poor positional sense and often poorly executed hollywood passes. He stood out amongst a bad bunch which got him the fame.
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Is that true?

A logical way to see how much a player was appreciated eslewhere would seem to be to look at Europe-wide, worldwide or any non-English awards.

Gerrard:
UEFA Club Footballer of the year 2005
Ballon D'or - 3rd place 2005, received votes in another 4 seasons, nominated with 0 votes once
Onze d'or - 2nd place 2005
FiFPro World XI - 2007, 2008, 2009
UEFA Team of the year 2005, 2006, 2007
European Sports Media Team of the year - 2008/09

Scholes:
UEFA Club Footballer of the year - never
Ballon D'or - Never received a single vote in his career, nominated 5 times
Onze d'or - nothing (to be fair I'd never heard of it until just now, spied it on Gerrard's wiki entry)
FIPro World XI - never
UEFA Team of the year - never
European Sports Media Team of the year - never

Not saying they were right, but Gerrard clearly recognised by overseas media and in the case of FifPro fellow players there. Nothing for Scholes. :(
 
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Chipper said:
Is that true?

A logical way to see how much a player was appreciated eslewhere would seem to be to look at Europe-wide, worldwide or any non-English awards.

Gerrard:
UEFA Club Footballer of the year 2005
Ballon D'or - 3rd place 2005, received votes in another 4 seasons, nominated with 0 votes once
Onze d'or - 2nd place 2005
FiFPro World XI - 2007, 2008, 2009
UEFA Team of the year 2005, 2006, 2007
European Sports Media Team of the year - 2008/09

Scholes:
UEFA Club Footballer of the year - never
Ballon D'or - Never received a single vote in his career, nominated 5 times
Onze d'or - nothing (to be fair I'd never heard of it until just now, spied it on Gerrard's wiki entry)
FIPro World XI - never
UEFA Team of the year - never
European Sports Media Team of the year - never

Not saying they were right, but Gerrard clearly recognised by overseas media and in the case of FifPro fellow players there. Nothing for Scholes. :(
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Gerrard had lots of hype from the English press and hype plays a huge role in these awards, absolutely huge; remember Beckham finished 2nd twice without being the second best footballer in the world. But listen to comments from the likes of Guardiola, Henry , Zidane etcetera, that gives one a better idea.

Plus Gerrard benefited significantly from being the big fish in a small pond similar to Bruno in our current team. Scholes on the otherhand played with some world class midfielders with whom he shared the spotlight and with world class forwards who naturally got all the spotlight.
Eriku said:
Yeah, been seeing people, including Scholes himself, saying that Gerrard could do everything Scholes could, but not vice versa. Gerrard didn’t have the nous or patience required to be the metronome like Scholes. His desire to be Roy of the Rovers worked a lot of the time for him, but in the match he slipped against Chelsea, for example, he spent the rest of it trying to redeem himself, and wound up being pretty much ineffectual, taking lots of long range shots that didn’t pan out.
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Scholes just being humble. It probably worked against him in terms of individual honours.
 
Slightly different from the context of the thread but some players were very high rated in their primes but somehow fans regard for them is not as high as it should be:

Vieira - IMO, he was the ultimate CM of his time. Pace, physicality, technique, tackles, ball carrying. Somehow the debate is always Scholes, Gerrard, and Lampard and his name is never mentioned. And he was very important for the national side unlike the 3 other gents.

Sol Campbell - I would put him in the same discussion as Ferdinand, Vidic.

I am not an Arsenal fan btw.
 
Chairman Steve said:
Duncan Ferguson was the first name that came to mind for me as someone who is revered more than he should have been. Went for big money almost he went and barely hit double figures in goals in most seasons.

Dunno what people saw him. I just saw a violent Scottish thug.
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Was it really necessary to throw 'Scottish' in there? :lol:
 
I always felt Mark Hughes should be talked about more than he is. When people talk about great Premier League strikers he rarely, if ever, comes up. I know he was older when the league started, but he's a genuine great. My absolute idol growing up, along with Robbo, and just a brilliant forward.
 
Less:

Gary Lineker - Maybe more known for MOTD instead of his football career. he was a bit before my time but from what I've heard he was a pretty good player.

Gilberto Silva - Important member of Arsenals invincibles and Brazils 2002 WC team. Probably overshadowed by bigger names from both those teams.

Sol Campbell - Similar to Gilberto Silva. Probably overshadowed by bigger names.
 
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