Saturday, January 16, 2021

350 Greatest Brazilian Players (51st-150th)



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.  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? 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 brings the fantasy closer to home. 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?  What if Yugoslavia had gone to the World Cup in 2018? 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 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.


I have created a list of the Top 350 footballers from Brazil. The top 50 are ranked individually.  From 50th to 350th, I created two tiers or clusters of players.  This is the first tier of players between 51st and 150th.  


From 51st to 150th (alphabetic order)
Adriano    
Alemao   

Explanation
--  I actually do not believe in ranking of individual players.   I tried many times to do a ranking on various topics, but I changed my mind each time I edited the list.  The topic is subjective. I can never ever create a conclusive ranking.  Then, I divided the rest of the 300 players into two different tiers or clusters.  Even that is very hard to do an incontestable list.  For example, Zito (43rd) can easily make it to the top 25 or even fall out of the top 50.  Brazil or most nations can produce so many footballers with similar preeminence that the task of a ranking is impossible. 
-- Mario Zagello, Amarildo, Aldair, Reinaldo, Clodoaldo, Pepe (WC 1958), Heleno de Freitas, etc could be in the Top 50.  
-- Balthazar, Dada Maraviha, etc could easily make this tier.  They are on the second tier.
-- Some names are listed differently to help better identification.  Eder Aleixo was better known as Eder, but there were several Eder's in the football world.  
-- The names of Brazilian footballers have been confusing.  I created this fun blog team.  Brazilian footballers who shared names with historical figures.  
-- Brazilians who were capped by other national teams are also considered.  I included those players because of José Altafini (Mazzola) and Anfilogino Guarisi.  Both of them also played for Brazil. I cannot justify the selection of them without considering the others.  Deco and Pepe are on this tier. Deco had a decorated career with Porto and Barcelona FC.  Pepe's performance at Euro 2016 was among the best ever for a defender in a major international tournament.  
 -- Adriano was known as a bust later in his career, but his peak was higher than most Brazilians.  He is probably the controversial selection here.  I also seriously considered Denilson.
-- Dirceu Lopez suffered by playing at the same time as the Golden Generation of Brazilian playmakers.  He was 5 years older than Dirceu, the star of the 1978 World Cup Finals.  Their career overlapped.
-- Juninho Paulista, Juninho Pernambucano and Alex de Souz played around the same time.  That affected their number of total caps and their standings.
 -- Julio Cesar was widely considered among in the best in the world.  He is one of three non-Italian keepers who have won the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year and he won it twice. It is a big achievement that no one would have thought of before the 1980's when Brazilian goalkeepers were not respected.  However, I know some Brazilians cannot forgive him for the game against Germany in 2014 as well as another poor performance in 2010.
-- Reinaldo could have been higher if he had a better 1978 World Cup Finals.  He was also ignored by Brazil for the 1982 World Cup.
-- Jair da Costa was a big part of La Grande Inter.   I hope no one confused him with Jair de Rosa Pinto of the 1950 World Cup team.
-- Julio Cesar's performance in 2010 and 2014 World Cup Finals affected his standings among Brazilian fans, but he was considered one of the world's best goalkeeper during his prime.  Most Brazilian goalkeepers were never in that position.  Many people considered Moacir Barbosa the scapegoat of the 1950 World Cup Finals.  The fans condemned him for many years, but the modern pundits and experts always considered him among the greatest Brazilian goalkeepers.
-- I might have overrated many footballers here.

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1 comment:

  1. NirtallicaJanuary 28, 2021 at 3:09 PM

    Love your work, but there’s no way David Luiz belongs in this list.

    ReplyDelete

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