Best Italian player ever - soccer24-7.com Forums

Interista · Jul 30 2003, 04:09 PM

Zizou and I just wondered who do you think is the best italian player ever.

I voted for Guiseppe "Peppino" Meazza. He is the all time top scorer of Inter and played almost his entire life for Inter (1927-1940 & 1946/47). Scored an amazing 287 goals in 408 appearances which includes 246 league goals. Won 2 Scudetto's & Coppa Italia with Inter and 2 World Cups (1934 & 38) with Italy. He also won the Olympic championship in 1936. He was top scorer of the Italian league in the seasons 1929/30, 1936/37, 1937/38. He played 53 matches for the Azzurri in which he scored 33 goals. Only Luigi Riva scored more goals for the Azzurri then Guiseppe.

Clubs:
1929-1940 Internazionale
1940-1942 AC Milan
1942-1943 FC Juventus
1943-1945 Varese
1945-1946 Atalanta
1946-1947 Internazionale

After his career he worked as sport journalist and youth coach at Inter. Shortly after his death in 1979 the Milanese stadium "San Siro" was renamed in Guiseppe Meazza to honor this Italian legend.

**Zeman** · Jul 30 2003, 08:03 PM

Roberto Baggio still play

Interista · Jul 30 2003, 08:06 PM

But not for long

Anyway the best part of his carreer is behind him

**Zeman** · Jul 30 2003, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Interista@Jul 30 2003, 06:06 PM
But not for long 

Anyway the best part of his carreer is behind him

Well anyway I think that just one player from the team of 1982 is not enough, Bruno Conti, Paolo Rossi, Gaetano Scirea deserved a nomination too. Pietro Anastasi and Giampiero Boniperti were powerfull attackers but they are not at the same level of other players.

PS
Valentino Mazzola was better than Sandro Mazzola

Interista · Jul 30 2003, 08:28 PM

Zizou and I both picked 5 players who we thought were the best. I picked Meazza, Baggio, Baresi, Fachetti and Mazzola. Zizou picked the other ones. So if you have criticism at Giampiero Boniperti & Pietro Anastasi please adress your views towards Glenn

Anyway there are a maximum of 10 choices to add in a poll. Else we probably added two more players, Gaetano Scirea and Marco Tardelli.

Why do you think Valentino is better then Sandro? Sandro has archieved more although he was more fragile then his father. Although I know that Valentino was part of the legendary Torino. Didn't he die together with his team mates by a plane crash?

**Zeman** · Jul 30 2003, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Interista@Jul 30 2003, 06:28 PM
Why do you think Valentino is better then Sandro? Sandro has archieved more although he was more fragile then his father. Although I know that Valentino was part of the legendary Torino. Didn't he die together with his team mates by a plane crash?

I'm too young to have seen both (just something on tv about old matches) but everyone says that Sandro has never reached the levels of his father so I guess it's true.

Interista · Jul 30 2003, 08:41 PM

I have the same problem as you. I'm also too young to have seen legends like Meazza, the Mazzola's or Fachetti. My first memories go back until 1989 with the legendary Zenga and Lothar Mattheaus who gave Inter its last scudetto.

Anyway did you read the channel4 article about the Mazzola's. I know it is just an opinion and we probably will never agree who was better. Interisti almost automatically say that Sandro was better since he was one of our most succesfull players. I know it is a bad excuse

Article about Valentino & Sandro Mazzola

**Zeman** · Jul 30 2003, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Interista@Jul 30 2003, 06:41 PM

Anyway did you read the channel4 article about the Mazzola's. I know it is just an opinion and we probably will never agree who was better. Interisti almost automatically say that Sandro was better since he was one of our most succesfull players. I know it is a bad excuse

Article about Valentino & Sandro Mazzola

As I told you about Valentino and Sandro I dont have a own opinion, I was just refering what everyone say and said about them.
Sandro was for sure a great player but he has always been the son of Valentino, I mean that even when he played everyone still remembered his father. Another fact because he is not very loved is that in the World Cup of 1970 (when Italia arrived second) the coach made play Mazzola instead of Gianni Rivera who was in a great shape (what he did in the semifinal against Germany will remain in the history of Italian football). Rivera played just the last 6 minutes of the match against Brazil and fans got very angry against the coach and Mazzola.

**Zeman** · Jul 30 2003, 08:56 PM

Overwiew of the best Italy match of ever

ITALIA-GERMANIA 4-3 semifinal 1970

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/02/en/pf/h/c...a_frg_1970.html

**Zizou** · Jul 30 2003, 11:49 PM

Yeah that match is legendary, probably tired them out for the final against Brasil

How could I leave Anastasi out, when his 'rovesciati' are immortalised on the Panini stickers

And Boniperti is Juve's best Italian player. He's one of the all time top scorers and his long career was quite succesful.

I did nominate Conti and Scirea, but deemed the others (especially Riva and Rivera) a step higher.

About Baggio, we just couldn't not list him down. I know that if we put him down we should have put also Maldini, but Baggio is Baggio afterall.

**Zeman** · Jul 31 2003, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zizou@Jul 30 2003, 09:49 PM
Yeah that match is legendary, probably tired them out for the final against Brasil

How could I leave Anastasi out, when his 'rovesciati' are immortalised on the Panini stickers

And Boniperti is Juve's best Italian player. He's one of the all time top scorers and his long career was quite succesful.

I did nominate Conti and Scirea, but deemed the others (especially Riva and Rivera) a step higher.

About Baggio, we just couldn't not list him down. I know that if we put him down we should have put also Maldini, but Baggio is Baggio afterall.

The one on figurine panini is not Anastasi but Carlo Parola.

For me Anastasi and Boniperti are at the same level of Boninsegna, Graziani, Pulici, Pruzzo, Domenghini, Bettega, Chinaglia, Giordano, Vialli.

***Blue*** · Jul 31 2003, 08:55 AM

Im not much of a follower of Italian football but I have always respected Franco Baresi....a very tough and uncompromising player imo.

**Zeman** · Jul 31 2003, 09:03 AM

For non italians people who dont know Carlo Parola, he was the one to invent the bycicle kick. He was a defender

**Zeman** · Jul 31 2003, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by USA Blue@Jul 31 2003, 06:55 AM
Im not much of a follower of Italian football but I have always respected Franco Baresi....a very tough and uncompromising player imo.

He was not very tough (if compared with other Italian defenders) and not very uncompromising but he was the leader of the Milan who won everything (the one of Van Basten and Gullit) and he was a defender with a lot of class.
I didnt like of him the fact he has been the first defender to stand up his hand to tell referee that an attacker was in offside

***Blue*** · Jul 31 2003, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zeman+Jul 31 2003, 02:06 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Zeman @ Jul 31 2003, 02:06 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-USA Blue@Jul 31 2003, 06:55 AM
Im not much of a follower of Italian football but I have always respected Franco Baresi....a very tough and uncompromising player imo.

He was not very tough (if compared with other Italian defenders) and not very uncompromising but he was the leader of the Milan who won everything (the one of Van Basten and Gullit) and he was a defender with a lot of class.
I didnt like of him the fact he has been the first defender to stand up his hand to tell referee that an attacker was in offside [/b][/quote]
I stand corrected but every time I saw him play he was a great leader (like Beckenbauer of Germany)....he always seemed to have time on the ball and to be honest I thought he was a pretty good tackler too.

**Zizou** · Jul 31 2003, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zeman+Jul 31 2003, 09:06 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Zeman @ Jul 31 2003, 09:06 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-USA Blue@Jul 31 2003, 06:55 AM
Im not much of a follower of Italian football but I have always respected Franco Baresi....a very tough and uncompromising player imo.

He was not very tough (if compared with other Italian defenders) and not very uncompromising but he was the leader of the Milan who won everything (the one of Van Basten and Gullit) and he was a defender with a lot of class.
I didnt like of him the fact he has been the first defender to stand up his hand to tell referee that an attacker was in offside [/b][/quote]
That is so true. I remember that whenever he put his hand up, the refs would just whistle as if he was always in the right.

Milan’s success in the early 90s was mainly thanks to the rock solid defence Baresi offered. They even have the record of number of minutes without getting any goal against them.

I always thought that was Anastasi, don’t ask me why, must have been brainwashed when I was a kid

I wouldn’t list Vialli with the other players you mentioned, cos basically he was a great leader, but a normal striker. His best thing was probably that strong overhead kick.

**Zeman** · Jul 31 2003, 09:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Zizou@Jul 31 2003, 07:24 AM
They even have the record of number of minutes without getting any goal against them.

The record of Sebastiano Rossi finished when Milan was playng agaisnt Foggia and Igor Kolyvanov scored a great goal. I was at the stadium

**Zizou** · Jul 31 2003, 09:55 AM

At the time Milan were so good that they were very annoying. At the time I used to 'hate' them more than Inter

Now I actually have respect for them, though they are still big rivals.

Interista · Jul 31 2003, 10:36 AM

I don't like big teams. I always will support the underdogs