Greatest players to never play in the world Cup

Pigman II

Who are the players that you are disappointed never got the chance to show their talents on the greatest stage?

Here's some examples....

Liam Brady
George Best
Eric Cantona
Ian Rush
Ryan Giggs (lets face it it's never gonna happen )

Feel free to add more.

empirix

George Weah(very generous dude too)

gimmick

Alfred Di Stefano
Me
David Ginola

Vokes

Zola (could be wrong)

gimmick wrote:

Me

Never heard of him.....any good?

cruiserweight

gimmick wrote:

David Ginola

Well if he hadn't given the ball away in the last minute he would have!

Johnny Giles

Töpher

Avery John... oh wait! :eek:

gimmick

SofaKing wrote:

Never heard of him.....any good?

Career tragically cut short by a combination of laziness and booze.

Big Ears

SofaKing wrote:

Zola (could be wrong)

1990 I think............I could also be wrong though .

cruiserweight

Big Ears wrote:

1990 I think............I could also be wrong though .

He played in 1994

Big Ears

cruiserweight wrote:

He played in 1994

ya his first cap wasn't until 1991 , silly me .

PHB

Steve Bruce

cruiserweight

Big Ears wrote:

ya his first cap wasn't until 1991 , silly me .

I think he might have been sent off in 1994, hmm I must look that up!

Rollo Tamasi

PHB wrote:

Steve Bruce

yeah, that's a damn shame that he never played in the world cup, at least he has a fabolous career as a manger ahead of him in the conference with Birmingham to look forward to in 2010. I'm sure he will win the Vans Trophy, that should soften the blow.

Big Ears

cruiserweight wrote:

I think he might have been sent off in 1994, hmm I must look that up!

Ya I think he was .

Anam

The greatest must be Alfredo Di Stefano.

Big Nelly

Me!!!

smackbunnybaby

matt le tissier
the best player never to have done anything on an international level?

DerekD Goldfish

Paul Osam

zAbbo

PHB wrote:

Steve Bruce

Did he even get a cap?

90 was too early and 98 was too late for him

eirebhoy

Jimmy Johnstone is known as the greatest ever Celtic player and won the European Cup. Never played in the World cup.

Revelation Joe

<Bias>
Billy Bonds and Phil Parkes
</Bias>

Del

cruiserweight

Hmmm now I am thinking about the best team to never win it, and I can't decide between Hungary in 1954 or the Dutch team of the 70's!

eirebhoy

cruiserweight wrote:

Hmmm now I am thinking about the best team to never win it, and I can't decide between Hungary in 1954 or the Dutch team of the 70's!

Unless you're about 70 or somehow managed to watch the '54 world cup I think it might just be impossible to decide.

cruiserweight

eirebhoy wrote:

Unless you're about 70 I think it might just be impossible to decide.

Or develop some form of time travel! Anyway I doubt many people here saw Best or De Stefano play!

I was thinking about it after I saw a documentary on BBC about Germany in the World Cup, funnily enough the team to beat Hungary in 54 and Holland in 74! Hungary had a great record and the Dutch brought a new style of play! of course both had some of the best players ever to play in Puskas and Cryuff!

Revelation Joe

cruiserweight wrote:

I was thinking about it after I saw a documentary on BBC about Germany in the World Cup, funnily enough the team to beat Hungary in 54 and Holland in 74! Hungary had a great record and the Dutch brought a new style of play! of course both had some of the best players ever to play in Puskas and Cryuff!

My Grandad saw the Hungarians at Wembley and always raved about how great they were and all the players were so technical and skilful.
But when we watched the Dutch in '78, he said to me: 'This lot would knock Puskas's team into a cocked hat!'. Dunno what he thought of them in'74, I never thought to ask

Del

eirebhoy

I seen a documantary on RTE a few nights ago about the German football team and they showed quite a bit of the '54 world cup. Hungary had already destroyed Germany in the group stages of the tournament and were the clear favourites to beat them in the final. They went 2-0 up after a few minutes and Germany pulled 2 back straight away. Hungary were all over them for the entire match and Germany sneaked a goal in the end.

I tend to be more biased towards anything in the later years. Any sport that can be measured (like athletics) show that they are improving every year and it's no different in football. I'm just looking at the results for the '54 world cup now and it's amazing how many goals they scored back then. You 9-0, 7-3, 7-2, 7-0, 4-4, 7-5, even 6-1 in the semi's. How times have changed.

Pigman II

There was rumours abound that WestGermany deliberately threw that first game against Hungary because they (rightly) reckoned they'd be playing them again in the final and wanted the Magyars to have written them off completely thereby giving themselves a 'surprise factor' in the final.

But I say "West Germany involved in match fixing?" Never!

herbieflowers

hehe, Germany - Austria 1982!

LostinBlanch

empirix wrote:

George Weah(very generous dude too)

Tell that to Denis Irwin!

Spider_Baby!

This is from the show some of you saw on BBC recently, there were a few episodes on already and then Italy will be on BBC on Monday night.

England: Going All The Way

Captain Bobby Moore parades the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley
This programme tells England's World Cup story, from a nation that refused to compete, through to our footballing 'finest hour' in 1966, to the trauma of failing to qualify in 1973 and eventual redemption in 1990.

Featuring interviews with English footballing greats including Tom Finney, Bobby Robson, Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks, Peter Shilton and Gary Lineker, we see how English football came out of international isolation to fight for its place among the World Cup's all time greats.

---

Brazil: The Golden Team
Think of the World Cup and you automatically think of Brazil.

We tell the story of how, inspired by the incredible talents of two of the greatest footballers of all time, Pele and Garrincha, Brazil put behind it one of the World Cup's greatest upsets to dominate the competition over the last 50 years.

---

France: Black, White & Blue

Zinedine Zidane holds the World Cup aloft in front of the home crowd
In France, the national football team has always been the subject of scrutiny and controversy. But this controversy hasn't just been confined to activities on the pitch.

Black, White and Blue tells the story of French football's finest hour: how their multi-racial, multi-coloured team succeeded where every other French team had failed by winning the World Cup in 1998, 68 years after another Frenchman, Jules Rimet, had finally seen his vision for a global football tournament realised.

Featuring interviews with the greatest names in French footballing history, this programme uncovers the complex relationship between a national team whose successes and uniquely fluid "champagne" football have always drawn heavily on players from immigrant backgrounds.

---

Argentina: From Darkness Into The Light
We see how Argentina emerged from the suffering of military dictatorship and the Falklands War to find a new national self-confidence in the 1980s inspired by the genius of Diego Maradona.

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Germany: The Will To Win

Gerd Muller scores the goal that wins Germany the 1974 World Cup
We tell the story of how, from the 1950s to the 1970s, unlikely World Cup successes turned West Germany from the pariahs of European football to its most dominant superpower.

And we see how the legacy of the 1954 team's "Miracle of Berne" has motivated German players to strive for World Cup success ever since, including a remarkable comeback in the 1974 final against perhaps the greatest team of the 1970s, the Dutch.

---

Italy: The Enemy Within
The last programme in the series tells the story of the rise and fall of Italian football and that nation's three World Cup successes.

The story is one of success achieved against the odds and frequently in the face of despondency and cynicism among football fans at home.

---

Links(torrents):
England - Going all the way : http://www.torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=730892
Brazil - The Golden Team : http://www.torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=745496
France - Black, white and Blue : http://www.torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=748701
Argentina - From Darkness into the light : http://www.torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=751829
Germany - The will to win : http://www.torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=756355

Enjoy, lads - i know i did!! Cant wait to see the Italy one.

*Edit*Actually should've made a new Thread on this, but...oh well!*Edit*