Players you loved to watch...

...not necessarily your favourite player, nor the best player, but players you enjoyed for their style or brand of play. Maybe you like the snarling midfielder who could rouse his teammates with a crunching tackle, or the graceful winger, or the striker with missing teeth and a broken nose from years of sticking his head in when defenders boots were flying.

Please illustrate your answer with some point about their style, and maybe a video.

I'll start with Chris Waddle. He just looked so lazy, he had a ridiculous hunched posture, and maybe not the most prolific or even productive player, he often ran into blind alleys and could frustrate. But every now and again, he'd just dance around opponents like the best kid in the playground, the ball stuck to his boots. And he could turn like Cruyff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC67tFYfmQs

Tom Mann Centuria

Gianfranco Zola, an artist with the ball and always seemed to play with a love for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ZjVvq68Po

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiN_XEPIP7I

Agent Coulson

The Real Ronaldo he may have had one of the worst haircuts in football history but he was a joy to watch.

murphyebass

As an Owls fan op I'm going to across biased but Waddle was a superb player.

Speaking of ex Owls players I'll throw Eric Cantona into the mix.

Shook hands with him at Old Trafford a long time ago.

What a player. Also made me hate scummy Crystal Palace. Well in fairness just their few knacker fans.

Mr.Nice Guy

I always loved watching Bergkamp play. There was an elegance and gracefulness about his style that seemed so unique and yet so clinical. It was like watching magic at times.

I remember the goal he scored for the Dutch against Argentina at the 98 World Cup and being stunned by the skill involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azUgsIkBGYc

Ol' Donie

Zidane. It didn't really seem to matter who else was on the pitch when he was on it.

5starpool

Jari Litmanen. I was delighted when Liverpool signed him after being a big fan for years. Pity he was in the downward phase at that stage, but his class still shone through.

The_Kew_Tour

Ronaldhino and Maldini

Both for different reasons. Xavi and Pirlo too but the 2 above just made me watch in awe in how good they were at what they do

Dirty Dingus McGee

Matt Le Tissier. Lazy as **** but what a player just a complete genius, he should have played 50 or 60 times for England.

Juan Carlos Valeron. Such a wonderfully composed player made the game look easy never seemed panicked or rushed and just a beautiful creative player.Watching him play made you feel relaxed.

Cafu.The best full back of his generation brilliant going forward and equally good in defence he was such a great player, if Kyle Walker is worth 50 million how much would Cafu be worth in todays market.

fermanagh_man

Paul Scholes

I hate Manchester Utd but man what a player he was

Van.Bosch

Suarez/Herrera in the modern game.

Love seeing players with passion who care, not saying others don't just love seeing the energy these guys have.

Roy Keane also

Yeah, some obvious ones mentioned so far, Zola and Ronaldinho were right up there, played the game with a smile and had you thinking "no...they can't try that...ah no". Ronaldinho was almost like a character in a comic book, bringing down the ball off his shoulder, using his back to bring a misplaced pass under control. It was somewhere between being unnatural and yet being the most natural player ever.

tayto lover

Bergkamp for me.
You never knew what he'd do next.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Matt Le Tissier. Lazy as **** but what a player just a complete genius, he should have played 50 or 60 times for England.

Wonder how many times they played together for England? If they had played on the same club team, imagine how infuriating and yet inspirational that would have been? Week after week grumbling at how lazy they were...apart from that moment when Waddle ghosted around defenders who were left kicking air, to lay it off to a striker who hardly broke sweat but would gently stroke it in off the angle.

deadybai

Ronaldo in his United days. Just perfection

Dirty Dingus McGee

Juan Roman Riquelme. Much like Valeron earlier he just was such a composed player could run a game and was brilliant fee kick taker, he's exactly the type of player Argentina needed at the last world cup.I always liked that he played with a smaller club and elevated those around him.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Deleted User wrote: »

Wonder how many times they played together for England? If they had played on the same club team, imagine how infuriating and yet inspirational that would have been? Week after week grumbling at how lazy they were...apart from that moment when Waddle ghosted around defenders who were left kicking air, to lay it off to a striker who hardly broke sweat but would gently stroke it in off the angle.

Never.Waddle played his last game in 1991 and Le Tissier made his debut in 1994.

When you look back at all the old clips Waddle must be one of the the most underappreciated english players, unbelievable dribbler of the ball and to win footballer of the year at 33 years old as a winger shows the class he had.

bucketybuck

Andrei Kanchelskis is the archetype for this, for me anyway. I know he wasn't the greatest player in Premier league history, but I love seeing fast, direct, powerful players running at defenders, skinning them on the outside and heading in on goal for a rocket of a shot.

Keep your tiki taka, to me nothing gets the fans on their feet like a Kanchelskis in full flow!

Mitch Connor

Juninho, kinkladze, di canio, Pires.

Was so gutted when United didn't sign Juninho!

QikBax

Pure silk. A pity injuries prevented him from becoming an all time great.

&

Djalminha. A maverick

Francesco Totti on Football Italia was like a religion to me. TnaG & Channel4

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Denilson

Dirty Dingus McGee

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Never.Waddle played his last game in 1991 and Le Tissier made his debut in 1994.

When you look back at all the old clips Waddle must be one of the the most underappreciated english players, unbelievable dribbler of the ball and to win footballer of the year at 33 years old as a winger shows the class he had.

Ah, had figured they must have had 1 or 2 outings together c92/93. Waddle obviously let go far too early, he was only 31 in 1991 and was a huge part of the highly successful OM side. I guess he was sidelined by the crazy days of the Taylor rein.

Zebra3

fermanagh_man wrote: »

Paul Scholes

I hate Manchester Utd but man what a player he was

Amazing how highly Iniesta spoke of him in his (Iniesta's) autobiography. Two similar players, and similar human beings.

Batistuta was a player I loved watching when Serie A was on C4. Great to see him on the Football's Greatest series.

GT_TDI_150

Ronaldinho...

Saw him play for barca while on hols in mallorca...

Tickets cost me €180 for the pair back then and he had it paid back in full after the warm up.

The trickery, the accuracy ... a legend

tastyt

As a Newcastle fan its david ginola.
What a breath of fresh air he was. Always, always tried to take on his man and make something happen and was pure magic when on form.

An absolute gent too who was very harshly dropped from the french squad before they won the world cup at home because the manager blamed him for losing the ball in the opposition half that led to a goal.

Seen a documentary recently about it and ginola has never gotten over it, he was commentating on the final with the bbc when he should have been playing.

Class player to watch

Ferris_Bueller

Jay Jay Okocha, at the end of one season in the premiership he was embarrassing other players while he was playing for Bolton.

Lyle Lanley

Joseph Ndo. Came to the Showgrounds and made us champions. Played with flair, always capable of pulling off something unexpected. Most teams ended up sticking two men on him all the time but it didn't matter, Joey would find the space.

Richie Ryan in 2011 was the best season I've seen from a LOI player. He just ran every game. The game was played at the pace he wanted it played at.

Internationally Ronaldinho is my all time favourite. He was like a poor man's Joey Ndo.

Lyle Lanley

Lyle Lanley wrote: »

Joseph Ndo. Came to the Showgrounds and made us champions. Played with flair, always capable of pulling off something unexpected. Most teams ended up sticking two men on him all the time but it didn't matter, Joey would find the space.

Richie Ryan in 2011 was the best season I've seen from a LOI player. He just ran every game. The game was played at the pace he wanted it played at.

Internationally Ronaldinho is my all time favourite. He was like a poor man's Joey Ndo.

As you mention LoI, John O'Flynn. Used to go into Turners X early the odd night in the mid 00s just to see him warming up, trying to hit the crossbar from way outside the box, trapping the ball between his calf and thigh etc. It was a privilege to see him. Easily the best player I've seen live, injury robbed him of a great career when lesser players like Kevin Doyle made fortunes.

pjohnson

Dimitar Berbatov.

fergiesfolly

Ruud Gullit in his AC Milan pomp.

eagle eye

Xavi Hernandez was my favourite. In domestic Premier league Bryan Robson, Kenny Dalglish, Matt Le Tissier, Gianfranco Zola, David Silva, Kerimoglu Tugay, Denis Irwin, Paul McGrath, Mark Hughes, David Ginola, Christian Eriksen, Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and there are lots more.

Outside of England Maradona, Messi, Zizou, Marco van Basten, Paolo Maldini, Dejan Savicevic, Del Piero come to mind of the many.

Robson99

QikBax wrote: »

Pure silk. A pity injuries prevented him from becoming an all time great.

Loved Redondo as well.
Couple of others from yester years who I thought were class
Glenn Hoddle
George Hagi
Hristo Stoichkov

chicorytip

Frank Worthington

brevity

Henry, McManaman, Brazilian Ronaldo. I liked Guti as well.

Zaph

Gabriel Batistuta, I always loved when C4 had a Fiorentina on Football Italia just to see him in action.

And from before the days of wall to wall live football, and before he went a bit mental, Glenn Hoddle was a joy to watch. His passing accuracy was incredible and he scored to cracking goals.

When I moved to Manchester in 2001 I was lucky my partners family were City fans so I had a season ticket for several years.

I got to watch City being promoted that year and then play their last season at Maine road.

Ali Benarbia is the player I remember most from all the live football i got to see in Manchester. No matter what pace the ball arrived to him he would kill it instantly. I never seen him play a pass to feet. It was always ahead of a player and into space.

He also played a pass at Maine road that I will never forget. He was on the halfway line, facing his own goal, when a ball came to him at pace and he instantly directed it, with the inside of his right foot, down the line and the winger ran on to it from about 15 yards away. Benarbia didn't look up to play that pass. He seen the winger go and just played the most beautiful instant pass I can remember.

I'd love to know where Anelka, Wanchope, Goater and Huckerby put him on a list for providers they played with. SWP would also have raced on to many of his passes over those 2 seasons and Benarbia probably made him look a better player than he was.

Benarbia made going to the game fun and was the kind of player that could make a dull game worth going to.

Quazzie

Surprised not to see Del Piero mentioned here more.

Jesus Wept

Freddie Adu

RobertKK

Cantona.

Arghus

Suarez. I didn't want Liverpool to win the league that year, but I also kind of did because Suarez was so great. He also used to make some people foam at the mouth with hate - made me love him all the more.

Zidane. I remember that back in the day whenever Real Madrid were on TV in the champions league there always was numerous slow motion replays of Zidane gracefully escaping - usually with a piroutte - with the ball from the opposition marking or attempting to tackle him. I kinda got used to it after a while -"ah there he is doing something effortlessly class again". I took that pure magic for granted at times and now that I don't see that unique brilliance anymore I realise how wonderful he was to watch. Such grace. Ah the best.

Henry. It's weird, even though it wasn't that long ago, I think people forget how brilliant a player he was.

Beefy78

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah, had figured they must have had 1 or 2 outings together c92/93. Waddle obviously let go far too early, he was only 31 in 1991 and was a huge part of the highly successful OM side. I guess he was sidelined by the crazy days of the Taylor rein.

To be fair England had a hell of a team back then. Waddle would have had to get by Andy Sinton and Tony Daley FFS.

Beefy78

Quazzie wrote: »

Surprised not to see Del Piero mentioned here more.

I never 'got' Del Piero.

HalloweenJack

Bergkamp, Zola, Del Piero, Ronaldinho, Messi, the two Ronaldos, Okocha, Totti, Zidane, Weah are some of the names that come to mind.

Robinho and Adriano when they were arsed.

Skylinehead

Tomas Rosicky. Sure, there were others who achieved more, but in those rare moments of fitness, Mozart was just a fantastic player to watch. The way he'd glide around the pitch...and he wasn't all style either, he could hit a thunderbastard into the top corner when he wanted to.

callaway92

Currently Moussa Dembelé is up there for me. Been saying it for a while now, he's one of my favourite players to watch in the Prem League. Doesn't matter how many opponents are around him..He always seems to find a way out and pick out a pass.

artanevilla

Pirlo was masterful, love watching Modric as well, another masterful player.

For Bohs, Joxer Kelly. The type of player when he got the ball you've move to the edge of your seat. Pity how he turned out, still in his 20s.

Robbie Fowler ............ ridiculous knack of scoring for 3 or 4 seasons before it all went downhill.

GavRedKing

An easy one, Messi. I've no fondness at all for Barca, but for years now I'd purposely watch Barca games just to see what he was going to do, I could spam the post with videos of his excellence, like the goal against Getafe or more recently the goal against Bilbao but theres no need, the guy has no equal.

Ronaldinho and Zidane were also favourites, they made everything look easy, Zidane always seem to be playing the game in slow motion but a quick feint or drop of the shoulder and he had the yard he needed to hurt teams. Ronaldinho used to do things that seemed to defy belief, a joyous footballer to watch.

ClareVisitor

Dennis Bergkamp. It's not just that he was a great player in himself (and he was!), but he made everyone around him look better with his intelligent movement and passing. I was always happier when he was in the team regardless of who else was playing.
So many of the Arsenal players of the time say he was the best player they have played with, high praise indeed considering the quality around him.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Roberto Carlos. Swashbuckling full-back with a left peg like an ass's kick.