Good but less known players from the 90s / early 2000s?

Benito Carboni was a little genius at Sheff Wed. Marcus Gayle and Leonhardson for Wimbledon. Van Hoijdonk and Schwarz at Forrest. Neil Redfearn was decent for Barnsley.
 
Titi Camara? Scored a wondergoal when Liverpool used to wear that dark green kit. Anyone remember?

Also another one was Bruno Cheyrou who was supposed to be the next Zidane.

Jari Litmanen?
 
Morten Gamst Pedersen.

That LB who used to play for Portsmouth and Bolton. His name eludes me but he used to score some crackers.

Matty Taylor?

Yup that's the one.

Ridiculous how someone can write such garbage and not get called out on it.

Fair enough if you missed that exchange but I wouldn't be mentioning a player by his name and then be saying 'his name eludes me' in the very next sentence, if I was referring to the same player.

Learn to read a bit more carefully before posting hastily the next time round :).
 
Juan Carlos Valeron of Deportivo La Coruna doesn't get talk much you talk about magical number 10. But for a season I thought he was one of the best player in the world
 
Fair enough if you missed that exchange but I wouldn't be mentioning a player by his name and then be saying 'his name eludes me' in the very next sentence, if I was referring to the same player.

Learn to read a bit more carefully before posting hastily the next time round :).
Yep. I missed it.
 
Paolo Wanchope
Stefano Eranio
Francesco Baiano all at Derby

Always remember sticking at least 1 of them in my dream team and mining points!:lol:

Wanchope went on to City and West Ham i think
 
Emerson - the Roma one, not the Boro one. Capello loved him.

Yep, tidy player and should have been a world cup winner if he hadn't dislocated his shoulder playing in goal in training for World Cup 2002. Even better we would have never signed Kleberson as it would have been Emerson and Gilberto at CM
 
Yep, tidy player and should have been a world cup winner if he hadn't dislocated his shoulder playing in goal in training for World Cup 2002. Even better we would have never signed Kleberson as it would have been Emerson and Gilberto at CM
Wow I didn’t know that, shame for the lad, great midfield player he was.
 
I enjoy looking up highlights from players on Youtube, both current and ex-players, and I'm interested in the good but less known players from the mid-to-late 90s / early 2000s?

Who were the Son's, Zaha's, Vardy's, Maguire's from those days?
Johan Micoud, had the bad luck that he met Zidane, otherwise would be a french legend
Mario Basler, Germanys version of Rooney :D. Raw talent, scored direct corners by the dozen, loved fags and beer and a good bar brawl more than fitness training.
Bayerns brazilians Jorginho and Paolo Sergio. Jorginho almost invented the modern fullback we see today, fast, technically perfect.
Yordan Letchkov, the mastermind behind Bulgarias 1994 WC campaign. for a short time maybe the best midfileder in europe.
 
Last edited:
Marcos Assuncao - midfielder who played for Roma and Betis and was deadly at free kicks. in FM 2004-05, it was so annoying playing away games against Betis, probably even more than against Deportivo or Valencia because it was almost instant goal whenever he would shoot from long range. so frustrating.

Ailton - always looked fat to me, but scored tones for Werder regardless. he was actually the first foreign player ever to win the German Footballer of the Year award.

Catanha, another forgotten striker from Brazil. had couple of good seasons in Spain, especially with Celta, and even managed to get couple of games for Spain NT. also, he was only the third black player in the history of their NT.

Basturk - I remember he was fairly good for that Leverkusen side that beat both us and Liverpool and was fairly good at WC in Korea and Japan. I also rated Hasan Sas.
 
Not sure if the right thread to ask - Anyone know much about a Brazilian player called Túlio/Túlio Maravilha?

Had never heard of him, and then the other day I was looking at a list of highest goalscorers of all-time and he was on there. He also had an excellent goalscoring record when he played for Brazil, 13 in 15 caps between 90 and 95.

Came to Europe age 23, but only to the relatively small FC Sion, didn't play much then fecked off back to Brazil. Smashed it at Botafogo for a couple of years then started moving around here, there and everywhere. Had a brief spell in Hungary when he was 33 then back to Brazil and had a million clubs between then and retiring at 43. He's apparently the only player to be top scorer in Brazil's Serie A, B and C and ended up with 575 career goals.

How good was he? Did he flatter to deceive at home, flop at Sion, homesick and didn't like Europe? Looks like he would have been regarded as a huge prospect at one time on the face of it, but then I'm surprised he would have gone to Switzerland rather than elsewhere if he really was. What kind of player was he too?
 
Last edited:
Yep, tidy player and should have been a world cup winner if he hadn't dislocated his shoulder playing in goal in training for World Cup 2002. Even better we would have never signed Kleberson as it would have been Emerson and Gilberto at CM

Didn't know that. Sliding doors hey.
 
Roy Makaay - brilliant forward and often overlook on how good he was.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Juan Carlos Valeron of Deportivo La Coruna doesn't get talk much you talk about magical number 10. But for a season I thought he was one of the best player in the world

Incredible player. The closest thing to a Spanish Zizou.

Top players from my youth who I rarely see mentioned nowadays:

Djalminha



Zvonimir Boban



Luc Nilis



Dragan Stojković



Claudio López



Pablo Aimar



Roberto Mancini



Jari Litmanen



Zlatko Zahovič



Raí

 
Last edited:
Good names so far, so nostalgic.

Gareth Southgate
Noberto Solano
Mark Viduka
Kanu
JJ Okocha
LuaLua
Danny Mills?
Akwe- something forgot the name. Maybe I remember wrongly.
Wanchope?
Huckerby?
Vicente?
Steven Taylor? That Newcastle english CB.

Kevin Nolan
Stewart Downing
(maybe these two are more mid 2000s than early)

:drool: Great thread mate, kudos to OP.

responsible for one of the most WTF moments ever

 
Here's another I just remembered- Espanyol's Raul Tamudo.

Two decent defenders - Ivan Helguera and Igor Tudor.

Christian Chivu was also pretty good. Part of the excellent Ajax side including Ibra, Mido, van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Steven Pineaar
 
Brian Laudrup
Linderoth
Numan
Marco Branca
Fernando Redondo
Paulo Sousa
Konsel

Paulo Sousa and Redondo actually share a lot of things in common: both were excelent defensive midfielders who would become deep lying playmakers with the ball, and both were made of glass since they had multiple surgeries way before they were 25 y.o.
 
Here's another I just remembered- Espanyol's Raul Tamudo.

Two decent defenders - Ivan Helguera and Igor Tudor.

Christian Chivu was also pretty good. Part of the excellent Ajax side including Ibra, Mido, van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Steven Pineaar

Helguera at his peak was a beast!
 
Fergie considered signing Gareth Southgate a couple of times iirc.

He was a good defender. Tall, agile, could play out from the back.
 
hasselbaink from Leeds, people mention Viduka, i think he was joint top scorer in 98-99 season. Also moved to Atletico Madrid at some point.

Mariam Pahar from Southamptom, Tore Andre Flore at Chelsea in 98-99 season was quite good alongside Zola.

Javier Saviola time in Barcelona in early 00s was good as well. Pablo Aimer in Valencia was one of my favorite players of early 00s.
Thought Javier Saviola was going to push on and become something really special.
 
Benny McCarthy
Jardel
Rui Costa (big name but felt overshadowed by bigger names in his team's)
Vucinic (was good early 00s)
Kluivert (feel he gets overlooked)
Zamorano
Cordoba
Salas
Montella
Beirhoff
Elber
Sol Campbell (I think he gets overlooked too but he was a beast. Maybe underappreciated than obviously forgotten)
Saviola
Morientes
Mendieta
The vast majority of them are well known surely?

Vucinic, Jardel I think would be the lesser known ones their, but Beirhoff, Mendieta, Campbell, Morientes, Kluivert etc etc where majorly well known.
 
From the Portuguese league:

  • Valdo: One of the best playmakers of the late 80's and 90's that a lot of people barely remember. Oozed class.
  • Balakov: Amazing support striker / midfielder hibrid. His dribling and shooting were just amazing.
  • Domingos Paciência: Skilled striker made of glass. Was doing an excellent season at Tenerife, benching Roy Makaay, then got injured, got multiple surgeries due to reinciedent injuries. Ended up as a luxury substitute back at Porto scoring a lot of important goals, though.
  • Rui Barros: Even in Portugal he's easily forgotten, but he made a brilliant career at Europe's top clubs, mainly at Juventus where he is fondly remembered by a lot of old school fans.
  • Ricardo Gomes: brazilian center back who could play the ball was a rarity back then: what more could you ask?
  • Branco: before Roberto Carlos, there was Branco, who IMHO was a better free-kick taker.
  • Jonas Thern: Swedish hardworking midfielder that was actually brilliant on the ball.
  • Stefan Schwarz: Crazy bastard. Was class on the ball, but was also a walking red card :D
  • Fernando Gomes: the last portuguese quality striker. He would score from anywhere and had a brilliant vision and first touch.
  • Rui Jordão: another tremendous striker, more the explosive poacher style. He was a goal machine. Almost took Portugal to the victory back at Euro 1984.
  • Alex Bunbury: this canadian was quite unfortunate because he was found too late in his career, because otherwise he would had played at top three clubs. Excelent poacher that would score in decisive games.
  • Mladen Karoglan: Croatian striker that Braga found, but as Alex, he also came a bit late on his career to the portuguese league. He was quite a complete forward, that would offer options for his team.