African Footballers And Those From Other Continents

[steds]

May I add Eric Cantona.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Quality.

 

[Matteh]

May I add Eric Cantona.

 

[BoyBrumby]

TBF "Eric" is a very Scandinavian name....

 

[roseboy64]

May I add Eric Cantona.

He is French young man.

 

[Matteh]

He is French young man.

National Geographic have left a phone call saying they want you to write an article on your stating the obvious skills.

 

[Craig]

I maybe dreaming but didn't Ameobi play for England u-21s?

 

[roseboy64]

National Geographic have left a phone call saying they want you to write an article on your stating the obvious skills.

He obviously didn't know or he's just stupid.

 

[roseboy64]

I maybe dreaming but didn't Ameobi play for England u-21s?

Pretty sure he's English.

 

[Tom Halsey]

TBH, I wish I could do the poll again and seperate Scandanavia from the rest of Europe.

Scandanavia being Denmark, Norway and Sweden but for the purposes of this adding Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

That might actually have got my vote.

How many genuine world-class players from Scandinavia played in the Premiership though? I can think of Schmeichel, and the odd other extremely tenuous case.

 

[Matteh]

I maybe dreaming but didn't Ameobi play for England u-21s?

Ameobi played 21 times and scored 7 goals iirc.

 

[Matteh]

How many genuine world-class players from Scandinavia played in the Premiership though? I can think of Schmeichel, and the odd other extremely tenuous case.

Brolin was gun at WC'94 i'm led to believe. Gravesen went off to Real Madrid.

Scandinavians have generally always done a solid job at their clubs really, regardless of whether or not they're actually world class standard.

 

[steds]

How many genuine world-class players from Scandinavia played in the Premiership though? I can think of Schmeichel, and the odd other extremely tenuous case.

Solskjær?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Brolin was gun at WC'94 i'm led to believe. Gravesen went off to Real Madrid.

Scandinavians have generally always done a solid job at their clubs really, regardless of whether or not they're actually world class standard.

Solskjær?

Bit of a stretch to call either genuinely world-class I'd say. Ole Gunnar has been a magnificent servant to ManUre (in fact he inherited the "token non-evil United player" mantle when Irwin moved to the Wolfs), but I doubt he'd attract too many votes in a "best foreigner to play in the Prem" poll. Brolin was very good in US 94 & more-or-less single handedly knocked us out of Euro 1992 (well, him & Graham "Do I Not Like That" Taylor), but was average & overweight for Palace. Jon Dahl Tomasson (sp?) who was very good over in Milan also played here for Newcastle & was poor too.

I suppose part of the problem is (as matteh says) that Scandinavia produce lots of solid, dependable pros but (rather like ourselves) not so many truly great players. I know Finland isn't strictly Scandinavia, but Hyypia & Litmanen were arguably the best players from the region to play here aside from Schmeichel and Litmanen was never the force he was for yer Scousers that he was for Ajax.

 

[Goughy]

Well if we are including Litmanen in the discussion, I think its time to point out that I, and many others, would describe Brian Laudrup as world class. Even though his stay in the Prem was short, he was there and he was an exceptional player throughout his career.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Forgot Laudrup had even played here. That makes 2 genuine world-class players then by my reckoning.

Yeah, as Brumby and Matteh said, they've all been solid and decent club-pros - nothing wrong with that, but they didn't really add too much genuine quality IMO.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Well if we are including Litmanen in the discussion, I think its time to point out that I, and many others, would describe Brian Laudrup as world class. Even though his stay in the Prem was short, he was there and he was an exceptional player throughout his career.

Yeah, he was arguably world class, even if his record at Rangers has something of the flat-track bully about it.

I'd totally forgotten he even played in the Prem TBH.

The best Scandianvian to play over here was probably Allan Simonsen, but his brief spell with The Addicks predates the Prem by about a decade & (IIRC) they weren't even in the top flight back then anyway.

 

[Matteh]

Surely the Brian Laudrup playing the Prem is similar to Litmanen and Larsson now. Absolutely gun for their careers then come to the Premiership late in their careers and do alright but not exactly spectactular.

 

[Matteh]

Brolin was very good in US 94 & more-or-less single handedly knocked us out of Euro 1992 (well, him & Graham "Do I Not Like That" Taylor), but was average & overweight for Palace. Jon Dahl Tomasson (sp?) who was very good over in Milan also played here for Newcastle & was poor too.

Definitely a link between how dire Brolin (who played for Leeds too iirc) and Tomasson were over here. But having seen Tomasson play the other week, he's certainly good enough in theory to play in the Premiership, yet for some reason he was dire at Newcastle. Think he's been playing well at Stuttgart these days too.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Surely the Brian Laudrup playing the Prem is similar to Litmanen and Larsson now. Absolutely gun for their careers then come to the Premiership late in their careers and do alright but not exactly spectactular.

Yeah that's true, he was here late in his career IIRC, and only played a handful of games.