THOSE were the days
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That chip at 0:19, then remember that bullshit Son did vs Man City.
‘Players are better now’
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Modric #5 and R9 at #9. Vieira at #23
Annnd that list is getting tossed in the bin. Trash.
Kaka all the way down at 19 is hilarious too.
Puyol on the list like Nesta and Cannavaro didn’t play football in the 00s 
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No Thuram either. Actually there’s no fullbacks as well ffs.
Do this shit over
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I think they cooked. 21st century doesn’t include 98’ for either Ronaldo or Zizou so it’s understandable why they’re a little lower.
Luis Suarez feels a little low.
- I prefer Xavi over Iniesta too
Where would you have Kaka? 
In the Top 10 for me and ahead of Modric and Mbappe.
- Xavi
- Ronaldo
- Iniesta
- Ronaldinho
- Kaka
Why ahead of Modric? Both have a Ballon d’Or. Modric has the longevity argument locked up too. Kaka’s peak may have been higher but also dipped considerably after 2008.
Kaka in his prime was magical and at times almost unstoppable. Kaka’s peak wins it over Modric’s longevity for me. Not by much though.
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You think Puyol belongs on the list that high over Nesta / Cannavaro?
I even forget about Maldini. He was still playing like a monster for the first 7 years of the decade.
Kaka belongs higher on that list for the quality of his peak. That 03-08 run is one of the highest peaks I’ve ever seen from a midfielder.
In terms of list of accolades at the time, yes. Season after the season he was part of a winning teams.
Is he a better defender than Maldini or Nesta? I’d still say no tbf.
But how high…Top ten?
Pirlo is way too low. The influence he had in multiple legendary teams, and the longevity… Should be quite close to Xavi really. I rate him above Xavi easily, but at least he should be close. I rare him above Modric too. Maybe just a style thing… Pirlo is the shit. They should swap him with De Bruyne.
R9 ahead of Ronaldinho for the 21st century? No way.
As mentioned by @SRCJJ , Puyol over Nesta and Cannavaro, an absolute joke.
Regarding Kaka… His peak was an absolute joke. Imo peak 07 Kaka > CR7 from any season.
But it just didn’t last long enough. Should be higher on the lost though.
This… I’d definitely rather have Alves or Lahm over Puyol here.
Puyol in general gets so overrated imo. He was very fortunate play for Barca and Spain in ther golden era’s when they were collecting titles like mad, but you had so many better CBs than him around all that time.
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Modric has gone from being underrated to overrated.
He is class but Xavi and Iniesta had to retire for him to get this stint at the top.
I also knew it was espn that made that list before even looking.
I think accolades are a skewed way of looking at it though. You could take Puyol out of that Barcelona team and they would have had the same success without him as they showed when his influence declined.
So looking at it from a pure talent perspective - Nesta, Cannavaro and Maldini were superior defenders to Puyol and 2 of the 3 had their absolute peaks in the 00s.
Nesta was still operating as a top level defender as late as 11/12. Maldini was still eating up individual awards and was pivotal to the strength of the Milan team.
Puyol doesn’t belong on any list. I’d have had Dani Alves there before I had Puyol.
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Can’t believe you didn’t mention Gianluca Zambrotta.
It’s a shit list seems like the espn experts are Spanish, I count only 4 players that didn’t play in LaLiga
This might shock some, but always rated Puyol similarly as Carragher.
Just for the record, Carragher is absolutely underrated and forgotten nowadays. He was actually brilliant for Liverpool since their road to the CL title in 2004/05 up until their title challenge in 2008/09 (including that season).
Similar styles, superharworking, great attitude, always on 120%, but not really as good as those very best CBs at the time.
Loved Zambrotta. Was an absolute beast and probably the most exciting FB/WB in the world for a few years.
Brings me to another name…
Zanetti >>>>>>>>>> Puyol.
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