Footballer who carried the whole team

Sky1981

Fending off the urge
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Very few players can single footedly carry a team into glory. Do you know anyone who carried the whole team to glory?

Maradona / napoli
Olaf Marshall / kaiserlautern
Ronaldo / united 2008 (to a lesser extent)
Robson / united (nothing won though)
Zidane / france
Ronaldo / brazil
Laudrup / Denmark
 
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Sky1981 said:
Very few players can single footedly carry a team into glory. Do you know anyone who carried the whole team to glory?

Maradona / napoli
Olaf thon / kaiserlautern
Ronaldo / united 2008 (to a lesser extent)
Robson / united (nothing won though)
Zidane / france
Ronaldo / brazil
Laudrup / Denmark
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C Ronaldo was excellent for us but he did not carry us to glory. The defense had a major part to play during that incredible streak we had in Europe.

When did Ronaldo carry Brazil?

Zidane was the best French player in 2006 but by no means did he carry them.

Don't know enough about the others to comment.
 
Bale carried Spurs and Wales at the same time.

Ronaldo has carried Portugal for most of the last decade.

Ibra doing the same with Sweden.

Benteke single-handedly saved Villa with his 20 or so goals two years ago (or three, I'm too lazy to check).

The others I can think of (RVP, Suarez) have been mentioned.
 
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Sky1981 said:
Very few players can single footedly carry a team into glory. Do you know anyone who carried the whole team to glory?

Maradona / napoli
Olaf thon / kaiserlautern
Ronaldo / united 2008 (to a lesser extent)
Robson / united (nothing won though)
Zidane / france
Ronaldo / brazil
Laudrup / Denmark
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That's an awful list. Maradona with Napoli is at least somewhat deserving of the myth because his influencing was way bigger than what your normal superstar offers. But the rest?

Olaf Thon never played for Kaiserslautern and what Laudrup do you mean with Denmark by the way? Brian played a great Euro in 1992 but didn't carry the side and Michael, the actual superstar, wasn't part of the Euro winning team.
 
Jagga7 said:
Batistuta carried Fiorentina for years! They didn't win much though.
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Harsh on Rui Costa. For half a decade those two were absolutely brilliant together.
 
Balu said:
That's an awful list. Maradona with Napoli is at least somewhat deserving of the myth because his influencing was way bigger than what your normal superstar offers. But the rest?

Olaf Thon never played for Kaiserslautern and what Laudrup do you mean with Denmark by the way? Brian played a great Euro in 1992 but didn't carry the side and Michael, the actual superstar, wasn't part of the Euro winning team.
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No he isn't
 
Stobzilla said:
No he isn't
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I think it's difficult to find a player who was more influential in his side than Maradona was at Napoli. Di Stefano in the early days at Real before the other superstars joined maybe. Obviously the notion that one player carries a whole team is an exaggeration, but if you make a list of players who came close than surely Maradona at Napoli has a great shout to top it.
 
Balu said:
That's an awful list. Maradona with Napoli is at least somewhat deserving of the myth because his influencing was way bigger than what your normal superstar offers. But the rest?

Olaf Thon never played for Kaiserslautern and what Laudrup do you mean with Denmark by the way? Brian played a great Euro in 1992 but didn't carry the side and Michael, the actual superstar, wasn't part of the Euro winning team.
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Olaf marshall my bad.
 
Balu said:
I think it's difficult to find a player who was more influential in his side than Maradona was at Napoli. Di Stefano in the early days at Real before the other superstars joined maybe. Obviously the notion that one player carries a whole team is an exaggeration, but if you make a list of players who came close than surely Maradona at Napoli has a great shout to top it.
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RVP 12/13 is way out in front the very definition of taking an average side to silverware. Those Napoli sides were peppered with Itallian and Brazilian internationals, as you well know. any team that has Ferrara, Careca, Zola, Bagni, De Napoli and Giordano can be considered one that was carried. Especially when you actually look at the breakdown in the games Maradona actually had a big influence on. He was their best player for sure, but he by no means carried them.
 
Lay said:
Nah, he had a good team around him. Blackburn were well funded in those times.
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True and I don't really buy in to the one man team thing but he seemed just as valid (if not more so) than "Zidane / France" and "Ronaldo / Brazil" in the OP.
Let us not forget that very few of the Blackburn team went on to challenge for the biggest trophies after that season. Flowers, Sherwood and Batty were solid players but nothing more, Sutton was injury prone and I personally never saw the fuss, Henning Berg was largely a back up for us (it hurt me a little to deride his quality), Le Saux was one of the few who's reputation continued to grow afterwards but then we are left with a mixed bag of players of questionable quality.

#Edit# Forgot Colin Hendry who was a bit of a beast in his day.
 
Sky1981 said:
Olaf marshall my bad.
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Oh that makes more sense. He played a sensational season in 97/98, that's true. Wouldn't go as far as saying he carried them though and he never came even close to that level in any other season.
 
You need to take an axe to that list and start again. For all their quality and even accounting for many great performances, Ronaldo and Laudrup never really carried their national teams. Through the mid-1980s Denmark were loaded with attacking quality in Elkjaer, Olsen, Simonsen and Lerby and in the 1990s it was mostly Brian Laudrup that was Denmark's outstanding outfield player. As for Ronaldo he shone brilliantly for Brazil but so did Rivaldo, Cafu, Carlos, Romario and Ronaldinho amongst others.
 
Balu said:
Oh that makes more sense. He played a sensational season in 97/98, that's true. Wouldn't go as far as saying he carried them though and he never came even close to that level in any other season.
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He won the bundesliga straight after promotion. Probably not by his own, but if my memory serves me correctly he was their top scorer.

Dont take it too literally, no man can play by himself in football, but their contribution is far greater than what a normal one person offers.
 
Gio said:
You need to take an axe to that list and start again. For all their quality and even accounting for many great performances, Ronaldo and Laudrup never really carried their national teams. Through the mid-1980s Denmark were loaded with attacking quality in Elkjaer, Olsen, Simonsen and Lerby and in the 1990s it was mostly Brian Laudrup that was Denmark's outstanding outfield player. As for Ronaldo he shone brilliantly for Brazil but so did Rivaldo, Cafu, Carlos, Romario and Ronaldinho amongst others.
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Im not well versed, not that good of knowledge to put a grand list. Hence I'm asking for input.
 
Sky1981 said:
He won the bundesliga straight after promotion. Probably not by his own, but if my memory serves me correctly he was their top scorer.

Dont take it too literally, no man can play by himself in football, but their contribution is far greater than what a normal one person offers.
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I did say he was sensational. Came close to a goal/game and scored countless matchwinners despite missing quite a few games.
 
Zlatan is probably a good shout. Not certain though, don't follow Sweden.
 
Stobzilla said:
RVP 12/13 is way out in front the very definition of taking an average side to silverware. Those Napoli sides were peppered with Itallian and Brazilian internationals, as you well know. any team that has Ferrara, Careca, Zola, Bagni, De Napoli and Giordano can be considered one that was carried. Especially when you actually look at the breakdown in the games Maradona actually had a big influence on. He was their best player for sure, but he by no means carried them.
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I disagree with the RVP example. It's nowhere near comparable to Maradona's influence at Napoli in my opinion. There's so much more to Maradona's story, the consistency over several years with Napoli being the only Italian side to finish in the top 2 for 4 consecutive seasons and the title win against truely great sides like Sacchi's Milan and not an average City side like United in 12/13.

Fair enough if you don't want to call that 'carrying the team on his own', there's certainly a point to be made that his teammates were actually quality footballer. But it's still a lot more than pretty much every other football ever had in terms of influence on his team.
 
Anyone mentioned Suarez at Liverpool a season or two back? :nervous: Only a several so far
Shearer at Blackburn
 
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