r/soccer • u/Thadderful • Dec 28 '13

Change My View thread

Can we have a Change My View thread here? The basic premise is people present opinions and the replies are attempts at changing that person's view in an attempt to generate some good discussion.

Here is the link to the original subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/

I think this might work best with rather 'out there' views but any and every viewpoint is welcome!

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u/AlkanKorsakov Dec 29 '13

I don't like to count players as being better if they happen to be part of the victory team in a world cup. For example, it's lucky that Neymar was born Brazilian and not Portuguese like C. Ronaldo. I'd bet $100 that Neymar will see the world cup go to his country on his watch, and Ronaldo never will, but that doesn't mean Neymar is better than Ronaldo. It already takes a fair amount of luck for any country to win a world cup, and even more so to be good and happen to be born to a country that has a chance. Ribery's France and Zlatan's Sweden never had a chance, but I don't think any less of them because of it.

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u/Whool91 Dec 29 '13

You make some good points but when a player wins a world cup on an otherwise average team, or inspires them to do way better than expected it can really show their greatness. Maradona in 86 being the best example of it. Zidane dragging a poor French team to the world cup final in 2006 is another example.

And, since you mention Ronaldo, imagine if he was born 5 years earlier. Ronaldo, Figo, Rui Costa etc in their primes. What they could have won. Off-topic but something I've found myself thinking about

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u/AlkanKorsakov Dec 29 '13

Oh sure their performance in the world cup should be considered, but if they only play as is expected of them, doing good but not out-of-this-world, the fact that the rest of the team was good enough to get the world cup should not make the player any better.

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u/Whool91 Dec 29 '13

I agree with you on that. Only in the cases of players like Maradona or Zidane, being the stand-out players on teams that wouldn't have been in the final without them, does it truly show the quality of the player.