Soccer, football or whatever: All-time Team Index

Some of the best 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 Picture football's wildest dreams actually coming true. Could Brazil's already-beautiful 1982 side, with Careca leading the line, have cruised to the title? Could Sweden with "Gre-No-Li" have somehow stopped the Maracanazo in 1950? Imagine Pelé, Garrincha, Didi, Zizinho and Julinho all starring for Brazil at once in 1958. And what about the United Kingdom sending its team to the 1970 World Cup? I believe they would have been the strongest side on earth — Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Jack Charlton, George Best, Denis Law, Jinky Johnstone and Billy Bremner could have beaten Brazil. How about 1982? The United Kingdom could feature Peter Shilton, Kevin Keegan, Graeme Souness, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Glen Hoddle, Trevor Brooking, Bryan Robson, Alan Hansen and Pat Jennings. Then, in 1994, Ian Rush, John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, Alan Shearer, Ryan Giggs, Paul Ince, Neville Southall, Tony Adams and Gary McAllister joined forces for the United Kingdom. Consider Argentina fielding Omar Sivori, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Amadeo Carrizo, Nestor Rossi and Ángel Labruna in 1958 — and in that same World Cup, Alfredo Di Stéfano playing with László Kubala, Francisco Gento, Estanislau Basora, Luis Suárez Miramontes and Antoni Ramallets. It was a real Spanish side that failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals. Before that, László Kubala could have played in the 1950 World Cup with Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Hidegkuti, Jozsef Bozsik, Istvan Nyers and Zoltan Czibor. What if Pat Jennings, Norman Whiteside, Sammy McIlroy, Liam Brady, Paul McGrath, Mark Lawrenson, David O'Leary, Ronnie Whelan, Frank Stapleton, Kevin Sheedy and John Aldridge in an All-Ireland team. Could Yugoslavia win the World Cup in 1994 with Predrag Mijatović, Davor Šuker, Dejan Savićević, Dragan Stojković, Robert Prosinečki, Zvonimir Boban, Robert Jarni and Siniša Mihajlović? Imagine Johan Cruyff lining up alongside Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Willy van de Kerkhof and Ronald Koeman. They could win the 1984 European Championship. And had France beaten Bulgaria and qualified for the 1994 World Cup Finals, they could have sent a team with Eric Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djorkaeff, Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, Fabien Barthez and Didier Deschamps. Then there is Eusébio playing for Brazil — he and Pelé on the same team. And that's only scratching the surface — Volume 1 is packed with legendary "what ifs" that will keep you turning pages.

Volume 2 What if England had Michael Olise, Erling Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and Jamal Musiala in 2026 — could they go all the way with Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham? Then imagine Germany winning the World Cup in 2002 had they selected Yıldıray Baştürk, Stefan Effenberg, Sebastian Deisler and Mehmet Scholl. And picture East Germany at Euro 1996 with Matthias Sammer, Michael Ballack, Jens Jeremies, Bernd Schneider, Thomas Doll, Carsten Jancker, Ulf Kirsten and Jörg Heinrich. Could Spain have won the 2010 World Cup without Catalan players? Could Catalonia do it alone? And could they have won Euro 2024 with only Basque players — the Iñaki and Nico Williams brothers, César Azpilicueta, Martín Zubimendi and Aymeric Laporte? What if the Basque team could recruit Nicolás Otamendi and Antoine Griezmann? Then, the Williams brother decided to team up Ghana in 2022 with Jeremie Firmpong, Alphonso Davies, Cody Gapko, Memphis Depay, Jeremy Doku and Danny Welbeck. What if Yugoslavia had gone to the World Cup in 2018 with Luka Modrić, Edin Džeko, Miralem Pjanić, Jan Oblak, Ivan Perišić, Nemanja Matić, Mario Mandžukić and Aleksandar Kolarov ? What if the United States could select Neven Subotić and Giuseppe Rossi in 2010? It would be the greatest American side ever. Could Brazil overcome Germany in 2014 with new players? And imagine Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi actually playing for the same national team in 2006 — it could have happened, if the soccer gods had smiled on us.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

All-time Team Index

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