Best Forward of this Generation

Peyton Manning

Who do you think is the best forward of the last 2 years or so? (The likes of Romario and Batistuta being the oldest elligible candidates)

There are many strong contenders, but for me, I just have to go for the wonderkid himself, Ronaldo. In his prime, his pace was unparalled with so much strength to compliment it. His touch was near perfect, he could beat any player on the pitch which he often did and he is the best player using both his feet that I have ever seen. Theres no shortage of superlatives to describe his brilliance.

Ronaldo Compilation
Ronaldo Compilation 2 (the trick at 2:57 is the best Ive ever seen to be honest)

Edit: I know that theres probably some glaring mistakes in people ive left out of the poll, i.e Shearer, Cantona, Ronaldinho etc. but jus class them as other please.

mike65

Are we talking arty-farty brilliance or the ability to score a goal when its needed? If its the latter proberly someone like Shearer. If its art then Henry.

Mike.

Peyton Manning

Overall

Gileadi

Totti or even Del Piero,before the injuries and even still abit after hes fairly lethal in front of goal, just my few cents

kinaldo

I don't think Del Boy deserves to be in that poll (Baggio was twice the player he was for a start) but Ronaldo by some distance for me. At Barca and Inter he was one of the greats, nobody could touch him not even Batistuta or Romario. At Real Madrid (before last season) I'd still class him as one of the best, just behind Henry maybe. Ronaldo now? He's a long way to go to get back to where he was.

eirebhoy

Ronaldo definitely.

Guy:Incognito

Ronaldo.

Mark

http://www.pobronson.com/ronaldo.htm

Watching Henry the last few years and still choosing Ronaldo is a true testament to his brilliance. His 1996/97 year with Barcelona is the best single season anyone has had, ever. 37 league games, 34 goals, 5 assists. 34 goals has been beaten 3 times since 1929. Overall that season he netted 47 in 49. In one 10 game sequence he scored 12 goals. Scored that ridiculous goal when he ran from the half way line. Barcelona scored 102 league goals that season and had a wonderful 5-4 match with Atletico Madrid in the Spanish Cup. came 2nd in the league though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1stM2-nc94
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEQOp9LmLQE

Noone better one on one with the keeper in the world, as demonstrated at last years World Cup against Ghana when Adriano tried and failed to imitate him. Successfully turned himself from a lithe speedrunner into a guileful powerhouse after 3 years of injuries stopped his steroid runs. It seems even Capello can't rehabilitate him at the moment which is a real pity.

Ballon D'or 1997, 2002.
World Soccer Player of the Year 1996, 1997, 2002.
Fifa World Player of the Year (the joke one, I know) 1996, 1997, 2002.

Del Piero hasn't a hope of getting a vote.

Edit: Even now, isolated from Real, Cassano said recently that he felt he was on par with the other strikers at Madrid apart from Ronaldo "who is a level above".

Lemlin

I'd go with Henry but does Shearer not deserve a mention? I'd have him in there ahead of Del Piero.

Paul Tergat

Ronaldo easy

Gillie

Ronaldo!
Simply because he has achieved more on the world stage than the other players there!
Remember the 02 world cup? Unreal!

Seaneh

Ronaldo followed by Baggio and Van Basten for me.

I'd also throw the likes of Weah in there.

Best European striker of the last ten years?
Shevchenko.
2nd highest scorer in European Club compitetion history, and only 3 goals off first highest Mullar.

aidan24326

For me the best forward of the last 20 years was Van Basten. Romario and Ronaldo would have the edge on pure skill but MVB was the complete striker. He had everything. Jurgen Klinnsman deserves a mention also, a brilliant finisher in his prime.

Another for the list is Hristo Stoichkov. Bit of a temperamental loonie but a genius player when he was in the mood.
His scoring record was 201 goals in 403 games at club level, and 37 goals in 83 games at international level. A record that compares favourably with the best.

Mark

Hold on here, I didn't know we were counting Van Basten. I'm so fond of him I can't bring myself to choose between him and Ronaldo.

kinaldo

I already voted but for what it's worth here's my top 10:

Ronaldo


Romario
Raul
Henry
V.Basten
Baggio
Shearer
Batistuta
Klinsmann
Weah

I was never a huge Shevchenko or Van Nistelrooy fan

(although they would still make my top 20...)

AnCapaillMor

No shearer is shocking, if we we're mentioning batistuta and romario i think Van Basten has to be mentioned. the guy was the complette forward good in the air, good on the ball, could hit the ball and pretty acrobatic too. His bicycle kicks for ajax and the one for milan against gothenberg were the best i've ever seen. His career being cut short by injury was one of the greatest travesties in soccer.

Aidan mentioned 2 absolute legends in klinsman and stocihov. Stoichov was fantastic, i always remember him nearly driving campo into the net with his hot on gaol in WC94.

MrJoeSoap

Le Tissier.

Seaneh

Putting Henry and Sherar on the same plain as Ronaldo, Raul, Shevchenko, Van Basten and so on is madness in my opinion.

He has constanty under proformed for france, he was crap untill he was about 25 and in Italy he was shocking!

Yeah he is good to watch, but when he comes up against woprld class defences he is found wanting time and time again.

Pigman II

If these "Best Forward of the Past 15 - 20 years" are the parameters then I shall choose Marco Van Basten. Legend!

kinaldo

Seaneh wrote:

He has constanty under proformed for france, he was crap untill he was about 25 and in Italy he was shocking!

Honestly, that's probably the biggest load of crap I've ever read on this board. In the 96/97 season he played out on the wing for Monaco and scored 9 goals in the Uefa Cup and single handedly destroyed Newcastle in the quarter finals. That was at the age of 19. The following season he scored 9 goals out on the wing in the Champions League (second top scorer if I recall) as Monaco reached the semis where they lost to Juve having eliminated Man Utd in the QF. A few months later, at 20 years of age, he helped France win the World Cup by being their top scorer with 3 goals. Two years later he helped France win the European Championships, again finishing as their top scorer with 3 goals. In the semi final against Portugal he scored a brilliant late equalizer to dispel the myth that he goes missing in big games. Again this is all before he turned 25! He only played 16 games for Juve so his spell in Italy hardly proves anything, especially as he has since scored hat-tricks for Arsenal against Inter and Roma, and also destroyed Juve.

His Arsenal stats read:

Total 496 apps (36 as sub) 253 goals

His International stats:

91 apps (6 as sub) 40 goals

iregk

I can't believe Van Basten was left out of this list. For anyone who actually saw the man play he was without doubt the all time great, regardless of time period. That said I also can't believe the brilliance of Baggio or Stoichkov are not featured where as Henry and Van Nist are!!!! I'm not even going to mention Rivaldo. Had a couple of good season in his entire career and that was it.

For those doubting Shearer you also need a reality check, the man was class.

So for me the best strikers of the last 20 years are Van Basten, Romario, Baggio. They just about squeeze out Batistuta.

_blank_

If we are squeezing Van Basten in, then I'd nominate him too, my favourite player of all time.

eirebhoy

If we're talking about a generation then maybe just choose between players who began their career 20 years ago or less. Van Basten is just outside that. I'd still have Ronaldo over van Basten anyway though.

Nalz

kinaldo wrote:

Honestly, that's probably the biggest load of crap I've ever read on this board

I agree. I went for Henry, had the thread have read striker I probably would have chosen Ronaldo...

Marco Van Basten was however the best striker soccer had the past 25 years,

So my top five forwards would be:

Van Basten
Henry
Ronaldo
Baggio
Shearer

Bodhidharma

Batigol - any day of the week. He played in a much weaker team than the rest in the most defensive league and still destroyed everyone. He could do everything brilliantly - head, tap ins, outside the box, penos. Really strong and a good leader also.

Batistuta all the way. (Followed closely by Romario and Ronaldo).

smackbunnybaby

I'm going to stick my neck out here and vote "Other".

David Hirst - http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...90240424316936

event

for me its shearer, scored all type of goals, and got aroudn 25 goals a year, with all his teams

all goals, headers, tap ins, bullets, free kicks, penalties. Also did it for his country and was a leader of club and country

Mr. Presentable

JPP, 30 from 54 for France

Ronaldo really.

Del P shouldn't be an option, but maybe Vieri should.

Vokes

Ronaldo or Romario, can't decide

Ronaldo probably, but Romario was awesome in that Brazil '94 team (they played a 4-2-2-2 defensive setup, i think, which lacked many supporting attacking players compared to other Brazil teams).

Im suprised a lot of people are voting V. Basten (unless you're >25yrs)....I was sort of aware of him, but too young to remember seeing his exploits on the telly, circa 1988-92.

wheres me jumpa

Tops for me are:

Van Basten
Batistuta
Shearer

In terms of the PL, Shearer was the best for me however Van Basten is the greatest striker of all time imo. Maybe someone can help me, a friend showed me a clip, it was a veteran Milan team agains some form of Barcelona team. Puyol was centre half and an aging Van Basten destroyed him for a goal. Never lost it.

smackbunnybaby

event wrote:

for me its shearer, scored all type of goals, and got aroudn 25 goals a year, with all his teams

all goals, headers, tap ins, bullets, free kicks, penalties. Also did it for his country and was a leader of club and country

interestingly enough alex ferguson tried to sign shearer all his life for man u. but that was plan b. plan a was hirst, and sources close to him say that the deal was done and dusted and he was on his way to unted when he had a change of heart and stayed with wednesday.
if you watch the above footage of his goals you will see all the same types of goals hirst scored as you stated shearer used to score.
unfortunately hirsts career was cut short by injusy, the guy just couldnt stay out of the physio room

besty

Ronaldo. End of story.

Although, I am too a huge fan of Van Basten.

acquiescefc

Im going for the 'boy wonder' David Hirst.

Never forget his 4 goals against Hull opening day of the season and his goal away at Kaiserslautern before being sent off for by the worst referee ever.

and he has the official record for 'hardest shot in the premier league'.

Sorry lads but he was a legend.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

iregk

Whats very interesting is people voting for Ronaldo and Van Basten. Ronaldo for me was incredibly talented but lost the hunger and is now just an over weight has been. That dulls his light a little i'm afraid.

Van Basten had half a career, retired at 27 but hadn't played for pretty much the year or two prior to that. A player with such high standing who we never truely saw the best of takes some doing! He was cut down short of his prime but still did enough to make most peoples list of best striker ever. Imagine if he'd stayed injury free and reached his prime? Scary....

Xavi6

iregk wrote:

Whats very interesting is people voting for Ronaldo and Van Basten. Ronaldo for me was incredibly talented but lost the hunger and is now just an over weight has been. That dulls his light a little i'm afraid. .

Was FINDING the hunger not the problem?!

Mossy Monk

Marco van Basten

legend

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

redspider

I think its very hard to pick the best forward in the last 20 years. Most players go through a career cycle where they peak and then diminish, and if you remember their latter years only you wont have a good memory of their peak. Have we missed any of the greats? I dont know.

Van Basten should be in the list, even if his career was curtailed. Ronaldo, definitely, Romario too. Shevcenko, yes, probably. Batistuta. There are others and its hard to draw a line. Shearer was good for a while and a high standard for a long time. That should count for something to. Owen, too. Henry is a different type of forward. Klinsmann, Suker, Raul, Kluivert, Bergkamp, Bierhoff, Larsson, Blokhin, Klose, Trezeguet, Pappin, .....

Do any of them compare with Puskas or Pele? Probably not, but then they are from a different era and not from the last 20 years.

iregk wrote:

Whats very interesting is people voting for Ronaldo and Van Basten. Ronaldo for me was incredibly talented but lost the hunger and is now just an over weight has been. That dulls his light a little i'm afraid.

Van Basten had half a career, retired at 27 but hadn't played for pretty much the year or two prior to that. A player with such high standing who we never truely saw the best of takes some doing! He was cut down short of his prime but still did enough to make most peoples list of best striker ever. Imagine if he'd stayed injury free and reached his prime? Scary....

Yes, Ronaldo's career curtailed quicker than most, but he started earlier than most at the top level. Something similar could happen to Wazza Wooney. Still, Ronaldo was able to show that even if podgy he still had the skills at last year's world cup.

The Van Basten story has some murky allegations behind it, all due to insurance. ie: his career was cut short semi-artificially allegedly because it paid Milan/Burlusconi a bucket load of insurance money to do so. Not many people may know that Van Basten was often seen kicking a ball on the beach in those many years when he was injured. Its a case of what might have been.

Redspider

RE*AC*TOR

Would Cantona be considered a forward? I reckon he would. Not an out and out goal-scorer, but his contribution was immense.

Also Fowler in his pomp was as good as anyone on the list.

woodyg

i voted for Ronaldo as he was my generation. Van Basten was class no doubts but i'm to young to remember him before he was cut down in his prime.
Ronaldo had the lot in my view power, pace, guile, control, awareness, finishing, heading, both feet everything you would need to be a world class player.
He did it in the 2 top leagues in the world for different teams.
I watched him play for Barca and Inter and a latter extent Real and for those 3 teams he was the complete player.
Yes he's gone down hill dramaticaly now but if he found a club where he got the hunger to play again he would still distroy any defence he comes up against no doubts. He is the leading scorer in word cup history as well which is some achievement.

A Dub in Glasgo

Other - Larsson

aidan24326

SofaKing wrote:

Im suprised a lot of people are voting V. Basten (unless you're >25yrs)....I was sort of aware of him, but too young to remember seeing his exploits on the telly, circa 1988-92.

Well believe me those of us old enough to remember him at his best are not at all surprised to see so many votes for him. He was not only the best striker of the last 20-25 years, he will go down as one of the all-time greats.

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Also Fowler in his pomp was as good as anyone on the list

Maybe not quite in the class of a few on that list, but at his peak he was one of the best finishers in Europe without a doubt. You'd have to wonder how good he might have been were it not for injury, loss of appetite for the game, too many distractions etc. There was a few years, before his return to Liverpool, where he seemed to be just going through the motions even when fit. Building up the Fowler property empire. Though I would say at his very best he was almost on a par with Shearer.

Mossin

I'd have to say that Marco van Basten was the best striker I have ever seen play.

Honourable mentions to George Weah, Dennis Bergkamp and Jari Litmanen too.

Little-Devil

Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima for me without doubt. he has proved himself on the world stage for Club and Country( apart from world cup 2006 ) proved himself in Holland, Spain and Italy.

I remember watching him in this game, one of the best goals i'd reckon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iXOMPo7cEI

Career Stats To Date:

• 1993-1994 Cruzeiro (Brazil) - 14 appearances, 12 goals
• 1994-1996 PSV Eindhoven (Holland) - 46 appearances, 42 goals
• 1996-1997 FC Barcelona (Spain) - 37 appearances, 34 goals
• 1997-2002 Internazionale (Italy) - 68 appearances, 49 goals
• 2002-Present Real Madrid (Spain) - 120 appearances, 82 goals

Shearer, Bergkamp, Henry, Van Nieslrooy where all class strikers, but i dont think you can really compare them to Ronaldo. I do think he has let himself go at Madrid, which is sad because he could have being the greatest, even pele stated this.

Raskolnikov

Ronaldo = The greatest finisher of this generation
Henry = The most skillful forward of this generation

super_furry

I don't think anyone comes even close to Henry. He's the best player the world's seen since Maradonna.

tdv

nipplenuts wrote:

JPP, 30 from 54 for France

Ronaldo really.

Del P shouldn't be an option, but maybe Vieri should.

Why should Del Peiro not be an option & Vieri should be?

tdv

super_furry wrote:

I don't think anyone comes even close to Henry. He's the best player the world's seen since Maradonna.

Lots of people from the past 20 years have been better than Henry. Sure he can score a hat-trick in the premiership against but he's never been a great player at International level which is the difference between a very good striker & great one.

Pro. F

past 15-20 years: van Basten
This football generation: Ronaldo

But I can't say I saw enough of van Basten as I'm 25.

I saw plenty of Ronaldo and he was a legend in his prime. Pace, power, positioning, technique, finishing.
One of the worst things I've seen in football was when Inter sent on an unfit Ronaldo to try and salvage the match against ManU in the '99 CL. His knee was still recovering from a cruciate strain/operation (I can't remember exactly) and he had probably been given steroid injections in the knee so that he could run at all. It was disgusting treatment of a player. Enough to make anyone lose their hunger for the game.

Some posters have been comparing Ronaldo and Henry..
I reckon Ronaldo>Henry by a big margin. Even though I think Henry is real class.

Some of the other players who should be mentioned in a list of forwards from this generation (as in players still playing or recently retired): Shearer, Larsson, Bergkamp.

Insect Overlord

other- Cantona

I'm only 18 so I missed never got to see most of the names mentioned here in their prime, but growing up watching Cantona at United was a priviledge. He never made it with France though...