Greatest Players from each UEFA country

Some of the unpublished posts from this blog have been turned into a two-volume book: The Multiverse of the Beautiful Game: National Teams of Pure Fantasy.

Volume 1 takes you back in time and asks the questions every football fan has dreamed about. What if Brazil had a more beautiful team in 1982 — would they have cruised to the title? What if the United Kingdom could send its team to the 1970 World Cup? I believe they would have been the strongest side on earth. What if Argentina had fielded both Omar Sivori and Alfredo Di Stéfano together in 1958? What if Johan Cruyff had lined up alongside Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard? What if Eusébio had played for Brazil? And that's only scratching the surface — Volume 1 is packed with legendary "what ifs" that will keep you turning pages.

Volume 2 brings the fantasy closer to home. What if England had Michael Olise, Erling Haaland and others in 2026 — could they go all the way? What if Yugoslavia had gone to the World Cup in 2018? What if the United States could select more players in 2010? It would be the greatest American side ever. And what if Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had actually played for the same national team in 2006? It could have happened — if the soccer gods had smiled on us.

*** Both Volume One and Volume Two are available now on Amazon. ***

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.

Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Austria 
Switzerland, Belgium, France, Spain.

I tried to come up with a different list from the UEFA Jubilee awards.

UEFA:
Albania: Panajot Pano 

Andorra: Koldo

Armenia:  Khoren Oganesian, Nikita Simonyan

Azerbaijan: Anatoliy Banishevski

Austria: Ernst Ocwirk, Matthias Sindelar 

Belarus:  Alexander Hle, Sergei Aleinikov

Belgium: Paul Van Himst, Jan Ceulemans, Jean Marie-Pfaff

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Safet Sušić

Bulgaria:  Hristo Stoichkov

Croatia: Robert Prosinecki, Branco Zebec , Luka Modric

Cyprus: Sotiris Kaiafas

Czech Republic:  Pavel Nedved,  Josef Masopust 

Denmark: Peter Schmeichel, Michael Laudrup, Allan Simonsen

England:  Bobby Moore, Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton

Estonia: Martin Poom 

Faroe Islands: Abraham Løkin

Finland:  Jari Litmanen

France:  Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, Raymond Kopa 

Raymond Kopa

Georgia:  Murtaz Khurtsilava, Aleksandre Chivadze, David Kipiani

Germany(East): Mattias Sammer, Hans-Jurgen Dorner

Germany(West): Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Fritz Walter

Greece: Vassilis Hatzipanagis

Holland: Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten

Hungary:  Ferenc Puskás, Jozsef Bozsik 

Iceland: Ásgeir Sigurvinsson, Arnór Guðjohnse

Ireland: Roy Keane, Johnny Giles, Liam Brady

Israel:  Mordechai Spiegler, Avi Cohen, Yossi Benayoun

Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Paolo Maldini, Roberto Baggio, Giuseppe Meazza, Franco Baresi

Kazakhstan: Sergey Kvochkin

Latvia: Māris Verpakovskis

Liechtenstein:  Rainer Hasler

Lithuania: Arminas Narbekovas

Luxembourg:  Louis Pilot

Macedonia: Darko Pančev

Malta: Carmel Busuttil

Moldova:  Pavel Cebanu

Montenegro:  Dejan Savicevic.Predrag Mijatovic

Northern Ireland:  George Best, Pat Jennings, Danny Blanchflower

Norway:  Rune Bratseth

Poland: Grzegorz Lato, Kazimierz Deyna.Wlodzimierz Lubanski

Portugal: Cristano Ronaldo, Eusebio, Luis Figo

Romania: Nicolae Dobrin, Gheorghe Hagi, Ilie Balaci

Russia:  Lev Yashin, Eduard Streltsov, Igor Netto

San Marino:  Massimo Bonini

Scotland: Kenny Dalglish, Denis Law, Alex James

Serbia: Dragan Dzajic, Dragan Stojkovic, Velibor Vasovic

Slovakia: Laszlo Kubala, Jan Popluhar.

Spain: Ricardo Zamora, Xavi, Raul, Iker Casillas, Francisco Gento, Luis Suarez Miramontes

Sweden: Nils Liedholm, Gunnar Nordahl, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Switzerland;  Severino Minelli, Stephane Chapuisat, Andre Abegglen, Josef Hugi

Turkey: Lefter Küçükandonyadis,  Hakan Sukur

Ukraine: Oleg Blokhin, Andrei Shevchenko, Igor Belanov

Wales: Ryan Giggs, John Charles

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index