Who is the most unique footballer?

I'm not too sure of a few of the shouts. Beckham might be an odd fit now that 433 and 4231 are in vogue, but when 442 was king he was the archetypal, hard-running, heavy-crossing wide midfielder. There were loads of them kicking about up till the end of the 1990s. Similarly so for Ozil as although he stands out in today's Premier League, he's quite a typical 10 in many ways. Ronaldinho's a better shout because few marry flamboyance with effectiveness. Most fancy-dan tricksters either have to adapt and become more economical or get squeezed out of the top level and have to spend the rest of their career as a big fish in a wee pond.

Ibrahimovic and Toure are good calls. Ibrahimovic obviously because of that unique combination of size and skill: a target man and a 10. Toure more so because his ability to decide a game is amongst the best ever seen in England from a midfielder. Yet he performs in fits and spurts and rarely the sustained 90-minute dominance that is typically how any central midfielders worth their salt exercise their class. Essentially some of the technical gifts and lethargy of a 10 combined with the physique of a centre-half or midfield anchor.

Joga Bonito said:
Brehme's style was quite unique and he was pretty unpredictable, which as a full-back was saying quite something. He could quite simply do it all, he could own either flank single-handedly, as two-footed as they come (could take free-kicks and penalties with either foot), was likely to either unleash one by cutting inside or playing a sumptuous cross on the outside, capable of significantly influencing play from the back with his excellent build-up play. Great defender to boot as well.

He's one of 5 full backs ever, to finish in a Ballon d'Or top 3 and he also won the Serie A POTY, in a ridiculously strong league featuring the likes of Maldini, Baresi, Gullit, Matthäus, Rijkaard, and Van Basten, as a LB for Christ sake!



The ridiculous bugger had it all. Can hardly think of such an well rounded threat at LB and someone who was such an imposing and versatile threat to opponents.

His match winning exploits at the WC as a FB were legendary to say the least. Scoring in the 86 semis against France and leading the failed comeback in the final against Argentina, with 2 of his corners resulting in goals. Repeated the feat in 1990 by scoring in the semis against England and topping it off with the WC winning goal in the final. Epic stuff.
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Yeah. He was a playmaker at left-back. That's quite rare as the more common model is the overlapping athlete (Dani Alves the best current example) or the neat-and-tidy defensively solid type (Lahm, Azpilicueta).
 
Ijazz17 said:
That output probably lasted 1-2 seasons. Rest of the time, he was frustrating and brilliant in equal measure. I don't think that makes him unique anyways. I just argued that if gervinho can be considered unique by the poster I quoted, then Nani is no exception either.
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one could argue he only got to play consistently for that duration of time only. after that there was the dispute about his contract, then injuries and then Moyes.

Again he was good at Sporting and now too. Anyways this is off-topic but your perception which is often held is not completely true
 
Messi, in the same time he is the best midfielder, best winger and best striker in the world. Not sure if there was ever a similar case in history of football, maybe only Cruyff in his Ajax days....
 
Joga Bonito said:
Brehme's style was quite unique and he was pretty unpredictable, which as a full-back was saying quite something. He could quite simply do it all, he could own either flank single-handedly, as two-footed as they come (could take free-kicks and penalties with either foot), was likely to either unleash one by cutting inside or playing a sumptuous cross on the outside, capable of significantly influencing play from the back with his excellent build-up play. Great defender to boot as well.

He's one of 5 full backs ever, to finish in a Ballon d'Or top 3 and he also won the Serie A POTY, in a ridiculously strong league featuring the likes of Maldini, Baresi, Gullit, Matthäus, Rijkaard, and Van Basten, as a LB for Christ sake!



The ridiculous bugger had it all. Can hardly think of such an well rounded threat at LB and someone who was such an imposing and versatile threat to opponents.

His match winning exploits at the WC as a FB were legendary to say the least. Scoring in the 86 semis against France and leading the failed comeback in the final against Argentina, with 2 of his corners resulting in goals. Repeated the feat in 1990 by scoring in the semis against England and topping it off with the WC winning goal in the final. Epic stuff.
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Love this post, Brehme was one of my childhood heroes. In 90 he also scored in the 1/8 vs Holland and of course in the penalty shootout against England. Like you said, epic stuff.

Me being very two footed is partly his "fault". Well, him and a broken leg.

From wiki:

"He was well known for taking penalties (although not exclusively) with his right foot and taking free kicks and corners with his left foot. It's believed that Brehme felt his right foot was more accurate than his left, but his left was harder. This was shown when, in the 1990 World Cup final, Brehme took the spot kick that won West Germany the trophy, with his right foot, but four years earlier in 1986 Brehme scored in the quarter final penalty shootout against Mexico, with a left foot piledriver."

Any other players who could take penalties with either foot? As in having actually done that?
 
sajeev said:
one could argue he only got to play consistently for that duration of time only. after that there was the dispute about his contract, then injuries and then Moyes.

Again he was good at Sporting and now too. Anyways this is off-topic but your perception which is often held is not completely true
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yeah, this is off-topic. I just don't think he is Unique, just like Gervinho is unique.
 
Fellaini. Unique in that he's the worst professional footballer on the planet.
Gotta be a hypnotist under that ridiculous 'fro.
 
iKeano said:
Fellaini. Unique in that he's the worst professional footballer on the planet.
Gotta be a hypnotist under that ridiculous 'fro.
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Saw someone describe Fellaini as either the worst good player in Europe or the best bad player. Think that's apt.
 
Boycott said:
Saw someone describe Fellaini as either the worst good player in Europe or the best bad player. Think that's apt.
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Haha that's fair enough.... Although I think it's harsh on some of the other bad players ;)
 
Ramires has to be in with a shout, very weird player. A centre mid with a shitload of pace and completely average passing, has an incredible knack of getting into scoring positions but is incredibly average at finishing them. Used to dribble right through teams despite looking like he had very little control of the ball. Just as capable of outrageous pieces of play (the chip vs Barca being the prime example) as he is capable of looking completely uncoordinated/like he's never played football before.
 
BobbyManc said:
It's often said about Yaya Toure that's he a footballer hard to compare to anyone else in terms of the way he plays as well as the combination of abilities he has. It got me wondering who is, past or present, the most unique footballer in how they play? I'm not talking just about the best talent, so not Messi or whoever you deem to be have been the best (but you could argue he is the most unique for other reasons), I'm thinking of players along the lines of Gullit, di Stefano, Ibrahimovic, Berbatov, etc...

Who would you say it is and for what reasons? Focus primarily in terms of what they did on the pitch and not off it.
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Yaya isn't unique. Pogba is pretty much a more talented version of Yaya Toure.

One player that is truly unique is Thomas Müller.
 
@Joga Bonito

Great call on Brehme. He really is a special player. Almost like how Dani Alves pretty much controlled Sevilla's attacks, Brehme did something similar for West Germany. Defensively, he was also quite good and not just reliant on his speed and athleticism like Alves is.

Also, I'm quite surprised that @harms didn't come in here yet to mention Gyorgi Sarosi. John Charles may have been world class in two positions, but Sarosi was world class pretty much wherever he played (except goalkeeper, of course).
 
Zidane's signature turn and spin away was every bit as unique as the Cruyff turn. He kept his skills to the end of his career, that's rare enough. And even as a manager his voice doesn't really work.
 
I liked Figo and the fact that he didn't look particularly fast and he didn't generally pull off amazing skills, but just the drop of a shoulder by an inch would send two players trying to mark him in the opposite direction in complete bewilderment. He reminded me of James Toney in boxing. There were just incredibly subtle head movements that would make opponents miss even though he was standing right in front of them (often calling them a pussy :lol:).
 
I remember (hopefully correctly) Marco Delvecchio on the old Champ Manager for position was: Defender, Midfielder, Forward all left, right and centre.
 
The way Ronaldo morphed from a streaky thin flair type player into an absolute beast was pretty unique.
 
Tarrou said:
The way Ronaldo morphed from a streaky thin flair type player into an absolute beast was pretty unique.
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It's happening more and more I think. Depay being a clear example for me, he is such a huge fan of Ronaldo and wants to imitate his style of play.
 
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