Childhood Footballing Heroes.

[Alex]

Roberto Carlos gets a mention from me. Made being a Left Back cool, and man could he smash a free kick

[greenbloodred]

I thought Ossie Ardiles was a football God when playing in England!
Maradona my all time football hero though

[Stanbull]

Pele in the 1970 World Cup was unbelievable, in fact that Brazil side had some awesome players

[Muddled]

Non-Liverpool players, obv.

Ian Rush

Oh, Pabs.

Del Piero.

An excellent shout.

I hated Del Piero's pointy sideburns. Poncey cunt. Always been a big sideburns fan, but the Italian, pointy poncefest ones always pissed me off.

Fernando Redondo.

Oh and Zidane - Genius.

:hi-5:

Curveball: Finidi George.

[rodo]

laudrup was amazing and that 1986 denmark kit was lovely

[fah-q]

Zico and Socrates were my childhood heroes.

Along side Laudraup, Elkjær and Butragueno, although special mention for this outrageous goal.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzgxThtwUHM"]Mexico VS Bulgaria Gol de tijera de Manuel Negrete Mexico 86 - YouTube[/ame]

Every kid the next day at school was trying this one.

[Kenneth]

Billy Liddell

[rodo]

france 84 and mexico 86 were both quality tournaments

[nineteen]

Zigi Boniek, Michel Platini & Pierre Littbarksi ... could watch them all day long.

Loved the French side from Euro 84 ... Didier Six, Alain Giresse, Jean Tigana & Patrick Battiston ... brilliant! And the Brazil team from Mexico 86 ... last of the great samba sides.

[James P]

Zico

Him and Eder.

And Paulo Rossi in 1982.

[Corndog]

My first memory of a big tournament is France 98', because of that my first non-LFC footballing heros were mostly Brazilian or French. Rivaldo, roberto carlos, Ronaldo, Henry, Zidane. Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn were also impressive especially the latter for his moustache and lively demeanour.

Rivaldo in particular is often over-looked a bit i think. Maybe because he played for Brazil and they have so many greats or perhaps because he was beside the greatest striker of his era in real ronaldo. Either way he was a great player, i vaguely remember him playing well against Liverpool for Barcelona. Although im not sure when that was. maybe a Uefa cup match.

[Fosterbloke]

Gheorghe Hagi. Had a wand of a left foot and made everything tick.

[fah-q]

A few more that I remember from childhood; Smolarek, Boniek, Rummenigge, Scifo, Papin and for the goal celebration alone, Tardelli!

[Alex]

Its odd how I think of Eras of players based around World Cup Cycles.

I mean....

USA 94: Roberto Baggio, Stoichkov, Romario

France 98: Viera, Petit, Ronaldo, Carlos

Japan and S Korea 2002: Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Oliver Kahn, Vieri

Germany 2006: Zidane, Materazzi, Klose, Crespo

South Africa 2010: Sneijder, Iniesta, Villa

Obviously Iniesta could have an impact this tournament too, but each group has sort of defined that 4 year era, and then another set did it again.

Obvious exception is Zidane as he was awesome from 98-06.

[fah-q]

He wasn't awesome in the 02 world cup, he barely played.

Also why do you associate Materazzi with 06 and not Cannavaro? Is it the headbutt? For me Cannavaro was more or less the player of the tournament.