Dream Team - first edition

Comprising 3 Italians, 3 Ballon d'Or winners and a Crystal Palace legend, here is the first of our Dream Teams...

Manager: Steve Coppell

There could only be one. No, he hasn’t ever won the Champions League, no, he hasn’t built different double winning sides and no, he doesn’t have the sort of personality which makes people in the media fall over to jump on his bandwagon. However Steve Coppell is more than that. Well to Crystal Palace fans anyway.

Described by many as ‘boring’ and ‘grey’, it’s clear Coppell hasn’t very often displayed the sort of exuberance that would make you want to go over and engage him in conversation at a cheese and wine tasting evening, however, coveting the limelight and stealing headlines has never really been his intention. Steve Coppell is the very definition of ‘substance over style’ a man able to take the proverbial water and turn it into wine. Or at least take a squad comprising the likes of Lee Bradbury, Leon McKenzie and Nicky Rizzo and not get it relegated.

Four times he has managed Palace, and in some unbelievably trying circumstances, he never moaned, never complained, just got on with doing a damn fine job. His greatest achievements were taking the club to several promotions, an FA cup final and an unprecedented 3rd place finish in England’s top flight in 1992, however his most notable achievement to me came when picking up a team, a hairs breath from going into liquidation in 1999 and helping to steer the club through their most troubled waters, all with a dignity and class that few other managers seem capable of showing.

1. Peter Schmeichel

A position close to my own heart. They are often under-appreciated, but arguably the most important player on the pitch. Growing up, no other ‘keeper transmitted an aura of ‘you will not score past me’ and no other ‘keeper had a presence which made the goal appear so small. It says it all that my perception when I was a kid, was that anytime Manchester United conceded a goal it was like a public holiday, such was the image of utter invincibility projected.

2. Cafu

There’s a common misconception that Brazilian’s can’t defend. The reason? Too much time spent dancing to samba, producing step over’s and generally producing a care free brand of football that lives on the motto of “you score four, we’ll score five”. Anyway, you don’t win World Cups by not being able to defend, and indeed the reason Cafu gets in this team is because he could. And attack. Brilliantly. Roberto Carlos got a lot of the plaudits, but Cafu was the real deal, a man who could control an entire right flank by himself. Right back and right winger? You didn’t need both with Cafu in the team, he could perform both roles at the same time and he could do them pretty darn exceptionally to boot.

3. Paolo Maldini

Sadly the term ‘uber male’ isn’t in the dictionary, however if it was, the definition would be a picture of Paolo Maldini. Regardless of how successful a footballer is, for an outfield player to serve one single club for 25 years and play on into the fourth decade of his life is a momentous achievement. When one considers that this also encompassed winning seven league titles and five (count them) European Cups, you’re probably talking about something of a special player, which is perhaps, something of an understatement. Simply put, footballers don’t get any better.

6. Franco Baresi

Is it possible to be both stylish, and rugged? I think that’s rhetorical, but if you ever wanted the epitome of what you want in a defender, and what you want in a leader, then the man who was so legendary that AC Milan retired his No. 6 jersey is probably your man. Sadly my knowledge of world football was only really starting as the great man was winding down his legendary career, but I saw enough during those brief couple of years to see what all the fuss was about.

The world Cup in America is often remembered as the tournament of Romario, Stoitchkov, Hagi and Baggio (more on him later), however an abiding memory for me was Baresi undergoing emergency surgery DURING the tournament itself following an injury in the group stages and returning to captain his county in the final, from where he was able to drag his battered body through the 120 minutes to keep the white hot Romario completely nullified.

5. Alessandro Nesta

If Baresi was the quintessential Italian master, then Alessandro Nesta was very much his long term replacement, for both club and country. A defender who oozed style (Italian’s tend to really) and who made dispossessing an onrushing forward look as effortless as lifting a feather. Very rarely ruffled, and supremely comfortable on the ball, his quality has been underlined this season through his return to form following almost a year on the sidelines. It says it all that he has been arguably Milan’s most important performer this season.

8. Roberto Baggio

If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll probably be noting a high percentage of players who happened to grace Serie A during the 1990’s in this team. For a generation of fans out there, that’s probably understandable, given the unbelievable standard of Italian football during this period (not to mention the iconic status of its coverage on Channel 4). Of all the great attacking players on show, Baggio was always the one who caught my eye, an individual genius blessed with the skills that can make football look like an art form. Indeed, sadly just the sort of player lacking in the modern game.

For many of the great figures of football, the moments of supreme success are often mixed with moments of desperate tragedy, and perhaps no one sums this up more than Baggio. For many the image that will never be shaken from their minds is the Italian’s penalty in the 1994 World Cup final, skied high, way into the Californian sunshine. A sad end to a tournament in which he put in an almost herculean effort to drag his side all the way to that final, in a campaign every bit as good as Maradona’s in 1986. If he’d scored, if Italy had won, it’s an individual performance that would have put him amongst the highest echelon to have ever played the game. Such are the fine lines in sport that legacies are built on. He’ll just have to make do with being in my dream team.

4. Roy Keane

You don’t necessarily need to like someone to recognise their ability. And I never really liked Keane; in fact, you could probably say that I hated him. The fact that he just ended Alf Inge Haaland’s career is an offence which many also seem to forget. However, I am nothing if not a man who constantly sells out on his principles, and so whilst I can freely see that the man is/was a lunatic, I can also see that he was also a monster of a football player. He never possessed ‘eye catching’ skills in the way of back heels and flicks, but as an all round midfield player at his peak he was both easily capable of breaking up an attack on the edge of his own box to charging down the pitch to get a goal in the other. Keane was the heartbeat of an all conquering side, with an almost pathological desire to win. As I’ve already highlighted, that may have been in some cases as much of a weakness as it was a strength but let’s face it, you’d want him on your side wouldn’t you?

10. Zinedine Zidane

You’ve read the tag line to the ‘dream team’ section, it says it all. Some think Pele is the greatest player of all time, some say Maradona. I have my own views on the subject, but not having seen either of these guys in their prime, means it’s hard for me to actually debate. Likewise comparing players from generation to generation and position to position is an impossible task, however what I can say, is that in my time as a football fan, I am yet to see any other player so complete and so multi dimensional in all the various skills needed to make up the ultimate professional footballer as Zinedine Zidane. As strong as a bear, but with the touch, skill and technique to pull off moments that took the breath away. The ultimate big match player and a player so good that an entire film was devoted just to watching him play one game of football. What’s happening with that Shefki Kuqi bio pic by the way?

9. Alan Shearer

Every time he opens his mouth on MOTD he may kill a little bit more of the reason I’ve got him in this team, but in this case, cold hard facts simply don’t lie. There are players born to be great goal scorers. There are players born to score great goals. Shearer was both. No-one does goals like Shearer did, a man who could bully a towering and imposing centre half into a quivering pile of jelly following a 90 minute battering designed to do anything and everything that would end with the ball in the net. Which it undoubtedly did. A lot. 622 games for club and country, 313 goals. Enough said.

11. Ronaldo

Not that one, the real one. The Ronaldo who is the leading goal scorer in world cup history, and the Ronaldo that is the proud owner of one of the most obscene goal scoring records that you will ever likely see. When it comes to picking a dream team, I never said that they would actually win games, given that I’ve sort of over loaded on attacking players. But then, isn’t that always the way? Ronaldo was a physical freak, a man so strong, so powerful and yet so fast that he could single handily rip an opposition defence to pieces. It’s perhaps unsurprising that his body just couldn’t stand up to the sheer physical strain that he put on it. With such a muscular frame and yet such an unbelievable turn of pace, his body was always likely to suffer under all that pressure, which sadly it did. The greatest striker of his generation.

7. Dougie Freedman

Allow me finally, if you will, a sentimental choice...

Is Dougie Freedman the best player of all time? No. Is Dougie Freedman a name known all over the world? No. Is Dougie Freedman a legend? Well yes, I’m afraid he is. Here is a guy, with as sharp a football brain as I have ever seen on the football pitch. Yes, you read that correctly. Never blessed with great physical attributes, he was neither strong nor fast, and if he was an Olympian he’d come home empty handed every time. Freedman’s skill however, was in his mind, where the speed of thought in his head was often three steps ahead of the quicker defenders around him. Great players are also those who turn it on when it matters the most, and the phrase ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’ could never be more apt.

One of my all time favourite players, who scored my all time favourite goal (87th minute winner at Stockport in 2001 if you’re wondering). For that alone, he’s in.