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Where will he stand among the best French players ever?

  • He will be the French GOAT

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • He will retire as greater than Zidane but not as good as Platini

    Votes: 0 0.0%

How will Mbappe go down in French football history?

3K views 87 replies 13 participants last post by  PoetGooner 
#1 ·


Would you bet on him becoming the greatest French player ever? Or at least second to Platini?
 
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#2 ·
Club: I don’t think he’ll surpass Henry staying at PSG. He needs to change his club and play in (Spain/England) and make his legacy at that club.
International: yes, he’s at the age where he has time to become France’s greatest ever forward/striker on the International stage.

He’ll never be a ‘better footballer’ than Michel Platini though.
 
#3 ·
Club: I don’t think he’ll surpass Henry staying at PSG. He needs to change his club and play in (Spain/England) and make his legacy at that club.
International: yes, he’s at the age where he has time to become France’s greatest ever forward/striker on the International stage.

He’ll never be a ‘better footballer’ than Michel Platini though.
What about Zidane?
 
#4 ·
Not Platini or Zidane level, but yeah just shy off those if he really stays focused and keeps dominating for coming decade.
 
#5 ·
I remember you were more enthusiastic about him during the World Cup.
 
#10 ·
I started watching football as a kid by following the Galactico team of the early 2000s and Raul outshone Zidane more times than not while they were team mates. So that is an overstatement.
 
#14 ·
Zidane had the better highlight reels but Raul was the more important player.
 
#12 ·
He's better than Henry was at the same age. Way better.

You can't compare him to Zidane or Platini, it's like comparing R9 to Scholes, just doesn't compute.

I can see him winning 3 Balon d'Or in his career so yeah maybe he will be the best ever.

Also don't rely on 20 year old opinions, you most likely weren't paying proper attention when comparing Raul to Zidane. Knowing you you were looking at Raul's arse for 85 minutes.

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#15 ·
It isn't just me. Plenty of experts, players and coaches were rating him as our best player.
 
#18 ·
For me Raul is/was always a bit underrated if anything. He was the (gay) Ronaldo of his day, iconic. A supreme goal scorer and could play a few positions including midfield. He was the runaway leader of European goals for a long time too.

But hardly gets mentioned when discussing true Real greats. Today was the first time I ever saw anyone even compare him to Zidane.

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#23 ·
For me Raul is/was always a bit underrated if anything. He was the (gay) Ronaldo of his day, iconic. A supreme goal scorer and could play a few positions including midfield. He was the runaway leader of European goals for a long time too.

But hardly gets mentioned when discussing true Real greats. Today was the first time I ever saw anyone even compare him to Zidane.

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See, no offense but it's you guys who sound crazy to me. Have you ever even checked how they were rated back in the day? (Zidane no doubt higher in general but there were plenty dissenting opinions)

It might be that where you guys come from (England and Sweden right?) Raul was terribly underrated, but around here Raul was often praised as the best player in the world.

I guess he's the kind of player that needs more refined eyes to be appreciated. I suspect Osman is mainly won over by players like Dinho or Zidane with great highlight reels but if he watched the actual games, Raul was the heart of the team.
 
#25 ·
Bro I watched it with my own eyes, I don't need to read a bumlicking quote from Fergie's auto to realise, what not even realise, to KNOW that Raul can't touch Zidane.

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To be sure, I wasn't saying that Raul is a greater player than Zidane. Just that he was a more important player for Real.
 
#27 ·
And btw, I only suggested that you check the ratings because you said: Today was the first time I ever saw anyone even compare him to Zidane. Not because the're the gospel or something :D
 
#30 ·
You don't rate Raul better in overall but rate him better in Real? Zizou spent his prime years with you and dominated. So how does your two comments mesh together?
 
#31 ·
Lol at the highlights argument @pele10brazil. We were here watching the games while you were in short pants, riding your Big Wheel around the house.

Zidane joined Real well before video compilations were prevalent and well before YouTube. At the time Zidane joined Madrid, many people were still using 56k dial up, lol.
 
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#33 ·
From now on I can only see the argument going about how your adult eyes were better than my kid judgment, but it's not my fault I had a premature understanding of football compared to you old frats :stuckup:

I do however doubt you two combined had seen as many of the games of Zidane and Raul as team mates as I have, so at least quantity should be on my side. I guess non-RM fans are more familiar with the famous matches (alla World Cup, EURO, UCL Finals) where Raul under-performed with Spain and Zidane always killed it.

P.S. I wasn't taking a dig at Zidane in the previous posts in case anyone thinks I'm a hater. He was a phenomenal player but it seems I hold the unpopular opinion that Raul was as well.
 
#36 ·
From now on I can only see the argument going about how your adult eyes were better than my kid judgment, but it's not my fault I had a premature understanding of football compared to you old frats :stuckup:
Had? :err:

I do however doubt you two combined had seen as many of the games of Zidane and Raul as team mates as I have, so at least quantity should be on my side. I guess non-RM fans are more familiar with the famous matches (alla World Cup, EURO, UCL Finals) where Raul under-performed with Spain and Zidane always killed it.

P.S. I wasn't taking a dig at Zidane in the previous posts in case anyone thinks I'm a hater. He was a phenomenal player but it seems I hold the unpopular opinion that Raul was as well.
I'm willing to bet that I did. I watched a LOT of Real and Barça once I got cable internet...even more than I watched, say, Milan or Juventus over a season. I even made sure I caught friendlies, like Barça vs Brazil (1999). I was raving about Figo before he became a world famous name during Euro 2000 (ftr, I think his peak was he joined Real). I watched Mallorca games for Eto'o too. I watched a stupid amount of football in those days.

I didn't judge Raul based on his Spain performances...he was unlucky, imo. And regarding his legacy, I think he's underrated now. He was a monster of a player but the stars brought in during the Galactico era and the tiki taka era has made his name less famous than it should be. But it's a fact that his darling status had diminished once the Galactico era was under way. You can just tell it from the match commentary alone.
 
#43 ·
Here's a very interesting statistic I found on transfermarkt and expected it before I ever saw it. Prior to the emergence of CR and Messi, Raul was most likely the all-time leading goal scorer in match-winning goals. I searched all the great players from his era all the down to a pretty decent countdown of Gerd Muller's stats (decent as in they missed quite a few for him). Admittedly, Pele would surely lead the ranking if his stats were counted but they only seem to keep track of Europe in olden times.

I don't expect any non-RM fan to back me up on the Zidane-Raul comparison but retrospective always does wonders for the guys who actually are enshrined as all-time greats. Like Andy said, I viewed Zidane as the Modric/Iniesta type of maestro (only much better), but Raul was the guy who brought you to ecstasy in the crucial moments with his genius. So for me, yes, it's not even a question.
 
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#44 ·
Here's a very interesting statistic I found on transfermarkt and expected it before I ever saw it. Prior to the emergence of CR and Messi, Raul was most likely the all-time leading goal scorer in match-winning goals. I searched all the great players from his era all the down to a pretty decent countdown of Gerd Muller's stats (decent as in they missed quite a few for him). Admittedly, Pele would surely lead the ranking if his stats were counted but they only seem to keep track of Europe in olden times.

I don't expect any non-RM fan to back me up on the Zidane-Raul comparison but retrospective always does wonders for the guys who actually are enshrined as all-time greats. Like Andy said, I viewed Zidane as the Modric/Iniesta type of maestro (only much better), but Raul was the guy who brought you to ecstasy in the crucial moments with his genius. So for me, yes, it's not even a question.
If I adopted that test, then Vecino would be the greatest Inter player of recent times.
 
#48 ·
And it only took me a few minutes. Imagine if Raul was a Croatian and my man ante would use his god-like research skills to dig up all the golden statements about Raul. He would seem on par with Pele :cool:
 
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#49 ·
Using labas who admits he's not objective. :hmm:

Not highlighting the part about Henry and Zidane's 2002 WC being factored into the voting. :hmm:

Telling us in your earlier post to disregard Raul's NT performances. :hmm:

:hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:
 
#51 ·
I only quickly copy pasted whatever posts I saw Raul's name in w/o reading them completely. I'm a bit in a hurry now :stress:
 
#53 ·
Labas was super biased in general, everything Spain related.


But there are few good Raul threads. There is even an old relevant thread asking who is better between Raul, Zizou and Figo there. I remembered because I read it at the time. I wonder if our little Hercule Poirot here can find it? Easy clues already.



Find it kiddo, it supports your claim because it was after Rauls best season in galactico era.
 
#55 ·
It's you guys who don't remember that he was actually in contention with Zidane so good luck :thumbsup:
 
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