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

Thomas Häßler



Matthias Sammer



Andreas Herzog



Damiano Tommasi

 
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Bole Top said:
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.
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Very underrated player. I would like to see his free kick to goal ratio as he was ridiculously good at them. I bet he made Beckham levels at his peak
 
Based in la liga 98-02 more or less
Dutruel
Aguilera Djorovic Juanito Arruabarrena
Rufete Galca Cocu Gustavo López
Milosevic Craioveanu
 
Dutruel was pretty bad for Barca though but then again almost every keeper back then at Barca was average/decent at best - Bonano, Reina, Rustu, Arnau... till VV came in



Sir Scott McToMinay said:
Probably the only player I’ve seen at that level who could do anything Ronaldinho did with the ball, and possibly more.
Shame his decision making wasn’t anywhere as good as Ronaldinho’s, and as you’ve said, he was also inconsistent.
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Djalminha?
 
Brehme, Hassler

Balbo

Finidi George

Scifo

The 3 de Boer brothers - Frank, Ronald & my favourite Rupert (de Boer)

Samuel Eto'o

Thuram, Blanc (genuinely superb before he got to us)

Les Ferdinand

Sukur, Riquelme, Jarni
 
Steve Bruce said:
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.
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They were to be honest but I think underappreciated is a more accurate description. They were obviously liked then but they are generally ignored in discussions now by everyone except club fans. Also some of them were very good players but got less of the limelight to their more bigger teammates
 
Lubomir Moravcik
Torsten Frings
Roberto Ayala
Mehmet Scholl
 
Infordin said:
One of the best LBs of his generation
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Wasn't he a CM when he turned up at Barca? He certainly played there for Rangers and also at Arsenal where he struggled to get starts.

Anyway someone asking for Vardy type player from this period....Darren Huckerby came to my mind. Very quick striker and ideal for counter attacking system, had a couple of really good seasons at Coventry but couldn't quite hit the same form at Leeds. Don't think he got an England cap.
 
@Demyanenko_square_jaw

Love that list....as I was scrolling down I was wondering if you were going to mention Titov who as you say produced some really good CL games in that era. Brilliant summary.

Around that time you also had Victor Onopko, the bald CB who played for Oviedo and Rayo Vallecano in Spain.

Just wondering what you thought of Marat Izmailov? I remember he was massively hyped when he came through (e.g. talk of all europe's big hitters bidding for him) and he was actually part of that era of players.

Someone a little later but also got a similar level of hype would be Dzageov.
 
Just actually looking at Russia world cup 11 from World cup 2002 and seeing them play Japan reminded me of Shinji Ono, pretty sure he had good career in Holland so probably the next Japanese guy after Nakata to be relevant player in european football.
 
carvajal said:
Based in la liga 98-02 more or less
Dutruel
Aguilera Djorovic Juanito Arruabarrena
Rufete Galca Cocu Gustavo López
Milosevic Craioveanu
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Was thinking of that Villareal LB but couldn't remember his name....just knew it began with A and was ridiculously long. :lol:

He was a very good defender for many years for yellow Submarine. Barely scored any goals but did score a couple of big ones in 05/06, year they should've beaten Arsenal and made the final. Think he scored to knock out Rangers and Inter Milan. Only got a few Argentina caps but that was era they had world class selection of defenders. If he was around in this era he'd have 50 caps no problem.

Little Victor was a decent striker for them and Valladolid around that time aswell.
 
Lucas Radebe I remember fondly despite the shirt he wore. Also on the few occasions I saw Paolo Wanchope I thought he was decent
 
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Shaun Goater.

Scored millions of goals for Man. City in lower leagues. IIRC his premier league goalscoring record was pretty respectable especially as he was in his early 30s when he finally got a chance to play in it.

Also from that Man. City side was Ali Bernabia. Was fantastic for them for about 18 months and also had a great career in french league in 1990s.
 
Julio Arca playing left back for Sunderland around 2001.

Was thinking of nominating David Dunn but he was a pillock.
 
FootballHQ said:
Shaun Goater.

Scored millions of goals for Man. City in lower leagues. IIRC his premier league goalscoring record was pretty respectable especially as he was in his early 30s when he finally got a chance to play in it.

Also from that Man. City side was Ali Bernabia. Was fantastic for them for about 18 months and also had a great career in french league in 1990s.
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Came in here to add Paul Dickov as well. Who was replaced by Goater.
 
Neil Sullivan

I remember him as being the second best keeper in the prem up until that point where Beckham scored that famous midfield dream goal against him. He was always a solid keeper though, played some epic matches as well.


Thomas Sørensen

Played second fiddle to Peter Schmeichel as the best danish GK, but I always thought he was really good.


Harry Kewell

A player I always wanted at United until he signed for Liverpool. Lost his flair shortly after that transfer as well.


Thomas Gravesen

This guy was the near perfect destroyer in Evertons midfield. I was so sure he would become a worldie at Real Madrid but he never seemed to repeat that amazing last season at Everton.


Ian Harte

Left back with an amazing left foot. I swear sometimes I didn’t know who was the better set piece specialist: Harte or Beckham.


David «nintendo» James

Wonderful GK in his early years. Fantastic shot stopper. Too bad his concentration was never top notch.


Matt Le Tissier

This guy should have been a worldie. Among my 10 favourite goals of all time he probably scored 5 of them.


Tore Andre Flo

In his prime and on his day this guy was pure destruction. His Chelsea move was supposed to sement him as one of the very best strikers in the game, but it never really materialized into that. Still performed quite well in the prem though.


Marcel Desailly

Really good CB who could be a living wall on his day. If you think Bailly is hard you should have seen this guy. Pure rock. A shame he wasted his prime at Chelsea. When the oligarch money came in he was more or less on the decline. Still really good though.


I could probably think of a few more of my favourite non-United players from the 90s-00s, but these are the ones I felt really stands out as special to me at the time. Sure, I like Leonardsen, Ginola, Neville Southall, Tony Adams etc. But as my number 10 on the list I want to list a United player that nearly made it to legend status, and I am of course talking about Lee Sharpe. I thought he had an amazing potential. Great technique, good passer, good reactions, but for some reason he never really became more than a potentially great player.

I love threads like this as they bring out that nostalgic feeling. Kudos to the OP for this one. Great thread.
 
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lemmiwink said:
Neil Sullivan

I remember him as being the second best keeper in the prem up until that point where Beckham scored that famous midfield dream goal against him. He was always a solid keeper though, played some epic matches as well.


Thomas Sørensen

Played second fiddle to Peter Schmeichel as the best danish GK, but I always thought he was really good.


Harry Kewell

A player I always wanted at United until he signed for Liverpool. Lost his flair shortly after that transfer as well.


Thomas Gravesen

This guy was the near perfect destroyer in Evertons midfield. I was so sure he would become a worldie at Real Madrid but he never seemed to repeat that amazing last season at Everton.


Ian Harte

Left back with an amazing left foot. I swear sometimes I didn’t know who was the better set piece specialist: Harte or Beckham.


David «nintendo» James

Wonderful GK in his early years. Fantastic shot stopper. Too bad his concentration was never top notch.


Matt Le Tissier

This guy should have been a worldie. Among my 10 favourite goals of all time he probably scored 5 of them.


Tore Andre Flo

In his prime and on his day this guy was pure destruction. His Chelsea move was supposed to sement him as one of the very best strikers in the game, but it never really materialized into that. Still performed quite well in the prem though.


Marcel Desailly

Really good CB who could be a living wall on his day. If you think Bailly is hard you should have seen this guy. Pure rock. A shame he wasted his prime at Chelsea. When the oligarch money came in he was more or less on the decline. Still really good though.


I could probably think of a few more of my favourite non-United players from the 90s-00s, but these are the ones I felt really stands out as special to me at the time. Sure, I like Leonardsen, Ginola, Neville Southall, Tony Adams etc. But as my number 10 on the list I want to list a United player that nearly made it to legend status, and I am of course talking about Lee Sharpe. I thought he had an amazing potential. Great technique, good passer, good reactions, but for some reason he never really became more than a potentially great player.

I love threads like this as they bring out that nostalgic feeling. Kudos to the OP for this one. Great thread.
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Desailly is definitely not lesser known but otherwise great post.
 
FootballHQ said:
Wasn't he a CM when he turned up at Barca? He certainly played there for Rangers and also at Arsenal where he struggled to get starts.
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Let’s just say, I liked him better at LB than CM.
 
Steve Froggatt. He used to be a pretty productive and entertaining winger to watch, plus he was left sided which was a rarity at the time for English players, but he got injured by a shocking tackle and had to retire at pretty much the exact moment people started to notice and talk about him playing for England.
 
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FootballHQ said:
Wasn't he a CM when he turned up at Barca? He certainly played there for Rangers and also at Arsenal where he struggled to get starts.
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Infordin said:
Let’s just say, I liked him better at LB than CM.
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Van Bronckhorst moving from central midfield to left back was partly to do with a couple of serious injuries he suffered - firstly during his last year at Rangers and then not long after joining Arsenal. As a central midfielder, his Champions League performances for Rangers around 1998-2000 was the highest level I saw from him throughout his career. He first played left back consistently with Holland from around 1999/2000, replacing Numan there, which made sense given the competition for spots in the middle of midfield was fierce - Davids, Seedorf, Cocu all jostling for a game - while there was a natural opening on the left side of defence. That situation mirrored itself at Barcelona who were looking for long-term replacements for Sergi and De Boer, while they had a load of classy options in midfield.
 
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