Going by birth year, what was football's greatest generation?

Querulous Megapode

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2007 is shaping-up to be somewhat of a standout generation, potentially, in a similar vein to 1987, 1976, et al. before it.

Yamal, Cubarsi, Estevao, Kendry Paez, Nwaneri, Kuenda, Mastantuono, and others have gathered most of the attention, but there's probably a bit more depth to it than that:
https://www.transfermarkt.com/detailsuche/spielerdetail/suche/53647487

Other alleged talents have, understandably, yet to even break into their club sides (e.g. Nyoni), or suffered injury setbacks (like Bernal).

So my questions are:
1. What, if anything, do you expect from this generation at this juncture?
2. Which other class could field the strongest squad?
3. Which year had the highest concentration of talent (and possibly the biggest impact on the game)?
 
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Posted this earlier in the Newbie Forum (word for word, because I feck with OCD), but as I'll never get to see any replies, and we don't appear to have any similar topics, I figured I'd repost it here.

(I could change the title, if redundancy's a problem.)
 
Querulous Megapode said:
Posted this earlier in the Newbie Forum (word for word, because I feck with OCD), but as I'll never get to see any replies, and we don't appear to have any similar topics, I figured I'd repost it here.

(I could change the title, if redundancy's a problem.)
Click to expand...

I think it's a fun discussion but the opening post feels a little like an excerpt from the halfway through a longer post.
 
adexkola said:
Peaked as in the amount of talent born in that year?
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If we treat it like this I think 1987 must have been the best one in the last half a century or so.
Not only it has a GOAT in Messi, but arguably the best generation of La Masia ever (Pedro and Pique are also from 87), something was certainly cooking in Uruguay that spawned both Suarez and Cavani, France got Ballon d’Or Benzema and a tidy Payet (loved this guy), it was a golden era for Belgian talent too, with Vertonghen and Mertens who at their peak were arguably borderline world class and the one and only Premier League winner Jamie Vardy. Hard to beat that
 
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Imo some of the other strongest years in terms of best players are:
  • 1929 (Czibor, Didi, Djalma Santos, Kocsis, Santamaria, Yashin, Zebec)
  • 1942 (Bremner, Eusebio, Facchetti, Mazzola, Zoff)
  • 1944 (Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho, Johnstone, Maier, Netzer, Riva)
  • 1946 (Best, Croy, Dzajic, Figueroa, Rivellino, Vogts)
  • 1953 (P. R. Falcao, Gentile, Passarella, Scirea, Souness, Zico)
  • 1955 (Bossis, Briegel, Toninho Cerezo, Conti, Hansen, Platini, Tigana, Rummenigge)
  • 1959 (Demyanenko, Leandro, McGrath, Schuster, Vierchowod)
  • 1960 (F. Baresi, Brehme, Careca, Littbarski, Maradona)
  • 1972 (Figo, Nedved, Rivaldo, Stam, Thuram, Zidane)
  • 1973 (Cannavaro, Davids, Giggs, Makelele, Roberto Carlos, Zanetti)
  • 1976 (Nesta, Ronaldo, Seedorf, Shevchenko, van Nistelrooy, Vieira)
 
1987 has Messi, Benzema, and rat face. Other players include Cavani, Pique, Vidal, Pedro, Bonucci, Vertonghen, Mertens, Higuain, Hamsik, Arda Turan, and David Luiz
 
Michaelf7777777 said:
Imo some of the other strongest years in terms of best players are:
  • 1929 (Czibor, Didi, Djalma Santos, Kocsis, Santamaria, Yashin, Zebec)
  • 1942 (Bremner, Eusebio, Facchetti, Mazzola, Zoff)
  • 1944 (Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho, Johnstone, Maier, Netzer, Riva)
  • 1946 (Best, Croy, Dzajic, Figueroa, Rivellino, Vogts)
  • 1953 (P. R. Falcao, Gentile, Passarella, Scirea, Souness, Zico)
  • 1955 (Bossis, Briegel, Toninho Cerezo, Conti, Hansen, Platini, Tigana, Rummenigge)
  • 1959 (Demyanenko, Leandro, McGrath, Schuster, Vierchowod)
  • 1960 (F. Baresi, Brehme, Careca, Littbarski, Maradona)
  • 1972 (Figo, Nedved, Rivaldo, Stam, Thuram, Zidane)
  • 1973 (Cannavaro, Davids, Giggs, Makelele, Roberto Carlos, Zanetti)
  • 1976 (Nesta, Ronaldo, Seedorf, Shevchenko, van Nistelrooy, Vieira)
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Oof, some crazy talent in them years.
1953 is the pick of the bunch in my opinion. 1955 and 1960 are not far behind.
 
Michaelf7777777 said:
Imo some of the other strongest years in terms of best players are:
  • 1929 (Czibor, Didi, Djalma Santos, Kocsis, Santamaria, Yashin, Zebec)
  • 1942 (Bremner, Eusebio, Facchetti, Mazzola, Zoff)
  • 1944 (Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho, Johnstone, Maier, Netzer, Riva)
  • 1946 (Best, Croy, Dzajic, Figueroa, Rivellino, Vogts)
  • 1953 (P. R. Falcao, Gentile, Passarella, Scirea, Souness, Zico)
  • 1955 (Bossis, Briegel, Toninho Cerezo, Conti, Hansen, Platini, Tigana, Rummenigge)
  • 1959 (Demyanenko, Leandro, McGrath, Schuster, Vierchowod)
  • 1960 (F. Baresi, Brehme, Careca, Littbarski, Maradona)
  • 1972 (Figo, Nedved, Rivaldo, Stam, Thuram, Zidane)
  • 1973 (Cannavaro, Davids, Giggs, Makelele, Roberto Carlos, Zanetti)
  • 1976 (Nesta, Ronaldo, Seedorf, Shevchenko, van Nistelrooy, Vieira)
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The sheer depth of 1976 is impressive. The first eleven'd look something like:

Given
Belletti Nesta Cordoba Sorin
Vieira Ballack Seedorf
Totti
Ronaldo Shevchenko​

With guys like Marcos Senna, Emerson, Gilberto Silva, Frings, Camoranesi, Guti, De la Pena, Gallardo, RVN, Kluivert, Recoba, Kanu, and Diego Tristan vying for the bench.

1945 had both Beckenbauer and Muller.

No one's even mentioned Fabregas for 1987 yet. (1988 is fairly stacked as well. So are quite a lot of years between the late Sixties and mid-Seventies, actually.)
 
Querulous Megapode said:
The sheer depth of 1976 is impressive. The first eleven'd look something like:

Given
Belletti Nesta Cordoba Sorin
Vieira Ballack Seedorf
Totti
Ronaldo Shevchenko​

With guys like Marcos Senna, Emerson, Gilberto Silva, Frings, Camoranesi, Guti, De la Pena, Gallardo, RVN, Kluivert, Recoba, Kanu, and Diego Tristan vying for the bench.

1945 had both Beckenbauer and Muller.

No one's even mentioned Fabregas for 1987 yet. (1988 is fairly stacked as well. So are quite a lot of years between the late Sixties and mid-Seventies, actually.)
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Excuse me, but you do know that Rory Delap was also born in 1976?
 
1985 has Rooney and Ronaldo, so a contender for United’s best birth year for sure.
Can’t be arsed finding out who else was born in ‘85
 
1966 is pretty top-heavy, with Romario, Stoichkov, Weah, Savicevic, Futre, Cantona, Zola, Sosa, Yeboah, and other thoroughly decent strikers like Sheringham, Balbo, Les Ferdinand, and the Brazilian Muller.

Elsewhere, there's Pagliuca, Higuita, Martyn, and Taffarel in goal,
Adams, Costacurta, Keown, Nafal, Sensini, Dukic, Di Livio, and Reuter in defense,
and Mazinho, Hassler, Scifo, Balakov, Thon, Platt, Wise, and Jonk for midfield.
 
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