Football's most beautiful players to watch in past 20 years

corny

Patww79 wrote: »

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Rubbish.

crusha101

Mertesacker

Fr Tod Umptious

homerjay2005 wrote: »

List is fine apart from the fact McDonald is at two. The most over rated footballer of our generation, people seem to forget he was a laughing stock in Mayo and disliked/booed by his own fans for years before he had one good game against Dublin.

McDonald was brilliant but for the most part not that well loved during his playing days.

As another poster here suggested he was not afraid to be different and Ireland being Ireland and Mao being Mayo some people resented that.

Its only in hindsight I think that people, Mayo people, properly appreciate him.

I think you can see that with the reaction to his TV interview from last year.
Anyone who did not know him assumed he was a arrogant, self important, prick, but then he spoke, for the very first time, and people were fascinated by him.

OldMrBrennan83

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homewardbound11

Matty forde. Maybe not a top 20 but on the other shown I'd replace one or two with forde.

bruschi

homewardbound11 wrote: »

Matty forde. Maybe not a top 20 but on the other shown I'd replace one or two with forde.

easily a top 20 on that list.

And I'll say it as a homer too, but having Enda Muldoon at number 5 and having Sean Marty Lockhart on the list, the author isnt a fraid of homer picks himself. There is no way that Muldoon should be that high, with Declan Browne at 20 and Forde not even on the list. It's ridiculous but what's even more ridiculous is the fact that it is a discussion and is getting their clicks as the clickbait site wants.

Forde was a GPA player of the year and an all star for a county that has virtually no history of football in the last 100 years. He had some absolutely phenomenal performances over his career before succumbing to injury.

gigantic09

Off topic,but since there is no thread for 'The most beautiful goal celebrations of the last 40 years',

https://youtu.be/dzxADJao9UY

Bearing in mind that Mayo went on to loose that match 2-19 1-06, celebration was probably a teeny, weeny bit o.t.t.

keane2097

Maurice Fitz for me is out on his own on any list that prizes style, elegance, poetry in motion sort of stuff.

BonnieSituation

corny wrote: »

He scored a better one in that game where he made a fool out of Killian Young.

I remember that too. I just remember watching that game thinking "this is Tyrone's day".

paul71

Actually there is a back I can think of who would certainly fit in the list and as his last year was 96 he is in the timeframe.

Martin O'Connell was a beautifully elegant footballer, one of those who seemed to have all the time in the world to do what he wanted to do with the ball.

tanko

The most beautiful, elegant footballer i've ever seen has to be Bernard Morris:pac:

DoctaDee

paul71 wrote: »

Actually there is a back I can think of who would certainly fit in the list and as his last year was 96 he is in the timeframe.

Martin O'Connell was a beautifully elegant footballer, one of those who seemed to have all the time in the world to do what he wanted to do with the ball.

I'll give you another defender and half Meath man that was great to watch from the sideline not so great on the pitch - Paul Curran

OldMrBrennan83

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Comic Book Guy

Paul Barden from Longford was great to watch.

Super athlete who would just glide past players when on one of his solo runs down the middle of opposition defence.

galwaylad14

I think that list is almost more of a "best forwards of the last 20 years" as opposed to "most stylish". Brilliant and all as Gooch is, Maurice Fitz should be a clear number one on that list. Poetry in motion that guy was. Colin Corkery should be there too, and Ja Fallon, Ja was magical to watch. Also Stephen O'Neill, left and right and never looked like he broke a sweat.

The likes of Conor McManus and Alan Brogan were great forwards but I don't think they have the same effortless style as some of those guys above and that's what this list should be about.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Cheese Wagstaff wrote: »

MDMcA being called an excellent footballer and being mentioned in the same company as Brian Dooher.

Jesus wept.

McAuley is a former player of the year.

He's been a very effective player over the years.

DoctaDee

Patww79 wrote: »

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Aye good old Keith gave something competely different to the game .. usually someone elses teeth back :rolleyes:

threeball

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

McAuley is a former player of the year.

He's been a very effective player over the years.

Dublin aren't half as effective without MDMA. Awkward as a new born giraffe but very effective

Comic Book Guy

Dara O'Cinneide

I mention purely based on his free taking ability off the ground. Effortless is only way to describe it when in his prime.

Not that one

Frank Mc Glynn, Donegal, has been in the top 10 ball players of the past 5 or 6 years.

Excellent man marker, excellent ball carrier, does not lose possession, clean tackler, still has a burst of pace on the ball, runs great angles in Donegal's attack system.

Has the knack of holding back from an attack and then ghosting into an "acre" of space and popping over a point or creating a goal chance.

Hammer Archer

DoctaDee wrote: »

He's like a young fella chasing a pigeon...

threeball wrote: »

Dublin aren't half as effective without MDMA. Awkward as a new born giraffe but very effective

Simile central :pac:

Ted111

If my jerseys been cleaned and I put a bit of gel in my hair - I don't think 'beautiful' is too much of a stretch. :pac:

keane2097

'Young fella chasing a pigeon' was a genuine tea through the nose line

North of 32

Joe.ie and the junk words written on it are nothing more than placeholders for all the ads on their website so they can monetize as much as possible the traffic they drive to the site through click-bait. I'd say they're delighted with this thread.

Pure and utter garbage. Same for Balls.ie; their articles are just word-feces to keep you on the page as long as possible so they can tell their sponsors that "the average balls.ie reader spends 12 seconds on our page/looking at your ads!". I hope to god those people don't think of themselves as journalists. They're just the internet equivalent of walking billboards.

paul71

DoctaDee wrote: »

Aye good old Keith gave something competely different to the game .. usually someone elses teeth back :rolleyes:

3rd biggest hit I ever saw on a football pitch was Barr on O'Rourke, two bloody hard buggers never figured out O'Rourke got up from it, but indictative of the time he bolocked the player who gave him the hospital pass and said nothing to Barr.

Bunny Colvin

homerjay2005 wrote: »

List is fine apart from the fact McDonald is at two. The most over rated footballer of our generation, people seem to forget he was a laughing stock in Mayo and disliked/booed by his own fans for years before he had one good game against Dublin.

Wow, what utter tripe.

McDonald was never a laughing stock in Mayo. Some of the begrudgers (every county has them) saw him as a bit arrogant for the long hair and pulled up socks but he was anything but. Any decent GAA fan knew he was a top class player before the Dublin game. He had countless good games in the red and green and won the Club Championship with Crossmolina. Technically he will go down as one of the best players of our generation, he was the type of player you'd pay to watch. The more Ciaran McDonald's that the GAA produces, the better.

ArnoldJRimmer

Bunny Colvin wrote: »

Wow, what utter tripe.

McDonald was never a laughing stock in Mayo. Some of the begrudgers (every county has them) saw him as a bit arrogant for the long hair and pulled up socks but he was anything but. Any decent GAA fan knew he was a top class player before the Dublin game. He had countless good games in the red and green and won the Club Championship with Crossmolina. Technically he will go down as one of the best players of our generation, he was the type of player you'd pay to watch. The more Ciaran McDonald's that the GAA produces, the better.

Ciaran McDonald was a joy to watch and had many more good games than bad. He always seemed like a nice enough fella too, but with his unique look, and swagger on the pitch, people equate this with him being a tosser which I completely disagree with.

Cheese Wagstaff

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

McAuley is a former player of the year.

He's been a very effective player over the years.

I am well aware of his accolades. I am just of the opinion that he is far from an excellent footballer. He lacks the most basic skills, so much so that he is reduced to carrying and handpassing to a better teammate, even the latter skill is a bit dodgy aswell.

The sad fact is that he has won FOTY and Colm Cooper won't. I was also of the impression that the thread was looking at beautiful and non-beautiful "excellent" footballers. I didn't realise that "effective" and "excellent" meant the same thing.

Jayop

Put me into the McDonald fan club too.

PressRun

Ciaran McDonald was and is dead sound. It so happened he was also one of the flashiest lads to ever play football which seems to instantly turn people off him. People seemed to assume that there must have been an ego to go with the look and the style of play, which may be understandable, but really couldn't have been further from the truth. He might have had a difficult time with some Mayo fans over the years (I'm sure there are a good few inter-county stars in the country who, at some point or another, had a difficult relationship with some fans, especially in more rural parts where players and fans are likely to cross paths more frequently), but anyone I know has the utmost respect for him and would regard him as one of the best to ever wear the Mayo jersey. He's certainly the most naturally gifted footballer we've ever had, in my opinion. To say that he was a "laughing stock" in Mayo is utter garbage, tbh. The man is practically a Mayo legend.