vs
Team Mike
My team will play a 4-2-3-1 formation. The big advantage that I think I'll have in this match up is the central midfield battle of Maradona, Keane and Bonhof for me vs. presumably some combination of Socrates, Crerand and Essien for him. I will give information on the players who do not have their career peaks before lastly providing info on the 2 less well known players in my line up (N'kono and Chislenko).
Non Career Peaks
Berti Vogts (Monchengladbach) - Played his entire career at Monchengladbach so this is effectively a career peak
Tommy Gemmell (Celtic) - Gemmell spent 10 years at Celtic making 418 appearances. Gemmell made all of his 18 Scotland appearances while at Celtic and both of the times he received votes for the Ballon d'Or were while he was at Celtic including a 6th placed finish in 1967 where he was the highest placed defender (Beckenbauer was a midfielder at this time) including 1 1st placed vote.
Rainer Bonhof (Monchengladbach) - Spent 8 years at Monchengladbach between 1970 and 1978 during which time he was in kicker's Bundesliga team of the season 3 times (73/74, 76/77 and 77/78) as well as being in World Soccer's Overseas Editor Eric Batty's team of the year in 1975 and 1977. During this time frame with the national team Bonhof also won the World Cup in 1974 and was in the Euro 1976 Team of the Tournament as well as being in the World Cup Team of the Tournament chosen by sofascore for both 1974 and 1978 and by the Castrol Index for 1978.
Roy Keane (Manchester United) - Spent 12 years at Man Utd (1993 to 2005) being included in this time frame in the PFA Team of the Year 4 times (96/97, 99/00, 00/01 and 01/02) as well as being chosen by both the Football Writers and the PFA as the Footballer of the Year in 2000.
Dragan Dzajic (Red Star Belgrade) - Dzajic had 2 spells at Red Star Belgrade, the first of them 12 years (1963 to 1975) before returning for his last season (77/78). His 2 top 10 Ballon d'Or finishes (3rd in 1968, 6th in 1970) both occurred while at Red Star Belgrade as did his 2 inclusions in Eric Batty's World XI (1969 and 1973). During his Red Star timeframe, with the Yugoslav national team he was also both included in the Team of the Tournament and was the top goalscorer at the 1968 Euro's.
Player Profiles
Thomas N'kono was African Footballer of the year twice (1979 and 1982) as well as being chosen in 2021 by the IFFHS in their All Time African XI. N'kono's performances at the 1990 World Cup inspired Gianluigi Buffon to play as a Goalkeeper.
Igor Chislenko was a Soviet RW who won 53 caps between 1959 and 1968. In the award for the Best 33 Football Players of the Season in the USSR where the best 3 players for each position were chosen by the National Coaches Council and confirmed by the Presidium of the Soviet Federation Chislenko finished 1st in his position in 1963, 1964, and 1966, finished 2nd in his position in 1960, 1961, 1962 and 1965 as well as finishing in the top 3 in 1967 (the top 3 were not ordered that year but he was the highest placed Soviet footballer in that year's Ballon d'Or finishing 9th). When they played against each other Chislenko generally got the better of Giacinto Facchetti who I consider one of the three best LB's ever. Chislenko's career effectively ended in June 1968 at the age of 29 when he injured his knee in an Olympic match against Czechoslovakia (link). Chislenko was described by legendary Soviet striker Vsevolod Bobrov (who also managed CSKA Moscow from 1967-69 and 1977-78) as follows:
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Former USSR manager Konstantin Beskov describes Chislenko as follows:
Source
He was also described in a 1994 Futbol Weekly article by Oleg Kucherenko as follows:
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Team Zlatan
Upgrades didn’t go as planned once I’d got Socrates and didn’t want to go 442 again with crerand in the middle as it only just scraped the last round so last minute came up with this monstrosity to try and fill midfield a little more.
same back 4, Lahm capable of going down the wing or filling in midfield if di livio goes down the wing or forward. Di livio gets a bad rep but tenacious tackler and hard worker to play right of the midfield 3.
Essien to try and keep tabs on Maradona.
Socrates can drop and pick up the ball and Bergkamp licence to join and link up with Ronaldo upfront.
