Iberian Footballers
Cristiano Ronaldo. Portuguese playmaker Cristiano Ronaldo is explosive with the ball. He brings intimidation and intelligence to football; he’s a player as likely to crash through defenders and blow the ball past the goal keeper with a brilliant header as he is to lithely maneuver around the opposition and finesse a goal to the back of the net. An unpredictable powerhouse, Ronaldo is Europe’s best football player.
Xavi Hernandez. Xavi is one of the top midfielders in football history. His intelligence on the field with both Barca, where he plays with Messi, and the Spanish national team is responsible for his unparalleled ability to read situations and the best of them. A natural tem leader, Hernandez was instrumental in Barca’s 2009 Champion’s League defeat of Man United.
David Villa. It’s hard to know how great Villa is because he plays for crap teams, but his career total 235 goals in twelve seasons is damn impressive. Along with Torres and Hernandez, Villa helped the Spanish national team do great things in 2010 World Cup qualifying; coupled with his preternatural ability to find the back of the net, this makes Villa one of the best European football players.
Fernando Torres. Spanish striker Fernando Torres plays his club football for Premier League Big Four club Liverpool. Torres scored twenty four times in his first season with Liverpool, and has since become the quickest player in the club’s history to reach fifty goals, doing so in just two and half seasons. The Spaniard became the first Liverpool player since 1946 to score hat-tricks in two successive games, when he did so in 2008.
English and Gallic Footballers
Wayne Rooney. Englishman Wanyne Rooney, at only twenty-four years of age, has found the back of the net with Man United 26 times in 2010. Rooney is an indispensable player with the willpower and talent to single-footedly win games. Rooney scored a hat trick in his first game with Man United, one month shy of his 19th birthday.
Steven Gerrard. Briton Gerrard is a teammate of Torres’ at Liverpool. In his twelve seasons with the club, Gerrard has found the back of the net eighty times; especially impressive for a man who primarily plays midfield. No further proof that Gerrard is one of the best European football players is needed than French great Zinedine Zidane’s praise: “Is he the best in the world? He might not get the attention of Messi and Ronaldo but yes, I think he might be.”
Frank Lampard. Chelsea midfielder Lampard is a great footballer. In addition to being a prolific scorer and forward presence, Lampard plays well in midfield, creating opportunities and reading the match for the benefit of his team. Lampard has been instrumental in Chelsea’s brilliant run in the 2000’s.
Yoann Gourcuff. Speaking of, this young Gallic player is often referred to as Petit Zidane. As with the man himself, Gourcuff is a tall but technical player, who posses great speed and strength on his feet and with the ball. His goal against Paris Saint-Germain in the French league was a beautiful piece of footballing, and is often compared to Zidane’s goal against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 Champions League final.
Swedish and Italian Footballers
Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Along with teammates Messi and Xavi, Ibrahimovic makes Barca a side to be reckoned with. His physical presence (six foot five) and speed allow him to dominate defenders as a striker, though there’s more to it than that. Even though he's struggled with Barcelona's style of play, the Swede, of Bosnian and Cortian heritage, hasn’t scored under fifteen goals since the ’05 – ’06 season.
Gianluigi Buffon Another intimidating physical force, this six foot three Italian is a monster of a goalkeeper. Buffon made Brazilian great Pelé’s list of the top 125 footballers of all time, and was named Serie A Keeper of the Year nine times, making him the current record holder. To top it all off, in 2006 he won the World Cup with the Italian national team.
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