Top 5 south American players excluding Maradona, Messi and Pele

International Football
#1

Came up the other day this in work and be interested to gain some opinions on here.

1 Ronaldinhio
2 Ronaldo
3 Zico
4Socrates
5 Suarez

6 Likes
#2
  1. Ronaldo
  2. Ronaldinho
  3. Suarez
  4. Batistuta
  5. Kaka

That would be in my lifetime.

Honourable mention to;

Rivaldo, Cafu, Dani Alves, Riquelme, Zanetti, Neymar, Aguero, Romario

6 Likes
#3

Redondo was one I loved watching but couldn’t fit him in.

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#4

Loads that I wanted to fit in but couldn’t. Found it tough to decide between Rivaldo and Kaka for the 5th spot. And obviously Romario is one of the great strikers but I never caught his peak

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#5
  1. Ronaldo
  2. Ronaldinho
  3. Suarez
  4. Kaka
  5. Dani Alves

Alves could be a wild choice, one thats at least partially inspired by not wanting to have a top 5 that’s strictly attack focused.

I’m sure Zico, Socrstes and a few others potentially deserve a spot, but I’ve kept it to players i saw a lot of. I haven’t seen Zico, Socrates etc play a single game.

My top four is an absolute lock imo.

4 Likes
#6

No Garrincha?

#7

Good picks. Alves is probably in any discussion for best full back of all time it’s difficult to deny his greatness and longevity.

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#8

Carlos and Marcelo sprang to mind for that fifth slot, but I’d have Alves over both, I think.

1 Like
#9

I like Marcelo but I can’t help but remember all the times I’ve seen him eaten alive defensively. It’s a stain when a full back can’t defend well it’s largely why I don’t view Trent as highly as others.

Alves was never the greatest defender but he was much better in one on one duels than he was given credit for and actually became pretty solid defensively as he got closer to his peak

4 Likes
#10

Cafu in the equation?

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#11

Think on Marcelo I’m likely a bit swayed by all those Champions League titles, hes got an impressive CV. But thinking back, there were quite a few years when I didnt rate him all that highly, I probably only started to rate him highly in later years. On reflection I’d probably not quite have him in contention, but his name was one I considered when posting.

Edit: fuck, @Stroller, what on earth was I thinking?! I always preferred Cafu to Carlos. So if I may be so bold, I’d like to further revise what I said and say it’s Alves edging out Cafu for that final slot lol. With Zanetti coming in third, above Carlos and Marcelo. Can’t believe I forgot Zanetti too, if we’re talking South American full backs.

Starting to look like I have a real bias for right backs over left backs lol. Guess which of the two positions I regularly played in at school level, when not in my usual position of centre back.

2 Likes
#12

Had you as a left winger :innocent:

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#13

It’s hard to disagree with that list.
There have been quite a few, especially from Brazil who had arguably the greatest World Cup team when they had Pele, Rivellino, Jairzinho, Alberto, etc and before that they also had Di Stefano.
But after that there was Rivaldo, Romario and Carlos who were top players in La Liga.

7 Likes
#14

Ronaldinho
Rivaldo
Diego Milito
Roberto Carlos
Alexis Sanchez

#15

Love it.

#Alexis Sanchez, BABY
Alexis Sanchez, o-o-o-oh#

1 Like
#16

Gilberto Silva
Martinelli
Gabriel Magalhães
Sylvinho
Edu

Special mention to Andre Santos and Denilson :joy:

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#17

You seem to have missed the greatest Brazil player to wear an Arsenal shirt, Denilson. :grinning:

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#18

Haha. I fixed it.

1 Like
#19

He was Portuguese

  1. Ronaldo
  2. Ronaldinho
  3. Cafu
  4. Rivaldo
  5. Batisuta

Tried my best not to go full Brazilian :rofl:

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#20

Yeah I really could quite easily have gone full Brazilian lol

2 Likes