Whose the luckiest Footballer Ever???

[SeeBass]

I somehow came across the below stat a few weeks ago.  Ex-goalkeeper Steve Banks has won the Scottish Cup three times with different sides...Heart Of Midlothian (2006), Dundee United (2010) and St.Johnstone (2014) having never played a single minute of all above Cup campaigns.  I didn't think he had been in Scotland that long!!!

 

Any other fortunate player we can think of as many great players never achieve anything in football???   

[Jute]

I somehow came across the below stat a few weeks ago.  Ex-goalkeeper Steve Banks has won the Scottish Cup three times with different sides...Heart Of Midlothian (2006), Dundee United (2010) and St.Johnstone (2014) having never played a single minute of all above Cup campaigns.  I didn't think he had been in Scotland that long!!!

 

Any other fortunate player we can think of as many great players never achieve anything in football??? 

 

Good piece of trivia for pub quizzes that.

[SeeBass]

Jute, I've just checked said information and I believe he played against Forfar Athletic for St.Johnstone had but he was definitely substitute keeper in all three Final matches.  Still an unbelievable record no matter what said stat does read.

[Ten Caat]

Neil Lennon

 

No discernible footballing talent, no physical presence (other than being fat) and slower than a week in Murmansk suffering food poisoning.

 

Yet somehow had a career winning plenty silverware and retired a millionaire a few times over. And now repeating the feat as a manager.

 

[tlg1903]

Lennon was great at what he did, mast bastard midfielder that broke up play and moved it on to the tech players in his team.  Real leader too, I would have happily had him at Aberdeen as a player.

[Guest kiriakovisthenewstrachan]

Been thinking about this since your first post SeeBass.

 

Ryan Giggs?

 

Just my opinion and many will probably disagree but I never considered him to be one of the football greats and when I say that I mean I would not bracket him alongside the very top players like Messi, Henry, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo (both) who were/are all frighteningly good.

 

Giggs was certainly one of the top premier league players in his day but for a forward player I can't recall him having loads of outstanding games where he won the game single handedly for his team like a Rooney-type did.  In fact, the only one that sticks out is the semi final winner against Arsenal.

 

His goal scoring record was about one in six which is not startling.  For example, in comparison, his fellow Welshman Gareth Bale scores more than one in every three games playing in a similar position.

 

Yet, Giggs won 13 league titles, 4 FA Cups, 3 league cups and 2 champions leagues!

 

Got to be the luckiest player ever!   

[sheepheid]

Djimi Traoré.

Won the champions league and has always been utter horse shit!

[LA-Don]

I never rated Darren Fletcher. Multiple major trophies and 80 caps!

[manc_don]

Djimi Traoré.

Won the champions league and has always been utter horse shit!

 

Absolutely, good shout with that one!

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

Marcelo retiring got me thinking.  He retired as Real Madrid's most decorated player with 25 trophies won including 5 Champions Leagues and 6 La Liga titles.

I don't remember anyone mentioning his name when talking about "great players".  Must be the luckiest player.

 

[Elgindon]

On 21/04/2019 at 02:10, LA-Don said:

I never rated Darren Fletcher. Multiple major trophies and 80 caps!

Always thought he was OK,and no more than that.Think his long Man U career was as much down to Fergie giving him more game time than he probably deserved

Edited June 16, 2022 by Elgindon

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, Elgindon said:

Always thought he was OK,and no more than that.Think his long Man U career was as much down to Fergie giving him more game time than he probably deserved

I think he's that sort of Ryan Jack type where what he does isn't immediately obvious, but when he's not there it's noticeable. He had some really good games for Scotland but struggled to make an impact in others. It's a bit like McTominay and Robertson these days. The role they play isn't something that is going to turn a loss into a win necessarily, but they will be the best option in their position. Wales have been very lucky in having Bale as world class in a role that will also bring lots of goals (Portugal with Ronaldo). McFadden is probably the closest thing Scotland have had to that since somebody like Dalglish (there were others at McFadden's level of course, I'm talking recent times). There wasn't a single player I'd have had ahead of Fletcher for Scotland during his 80 caps, and I doubt Man utd fans would have swapped many for him in his time there. I bet there were some pretty high profile players in that time who came and went and couldn't displace him too. 

Don't know enough about Marcelo at Real, but I'm guessing he's that type of player who is bloody good but not in area that can be adequately measured by stats. It'd be very difficult to put a figure on how many attacks were stifled by Ryan Jack for the dons because he covered for a full back, jockeying his man until the defence recovered their shape, but it was a large number. It didn't require a beasting challenge or tanking about like a feel, just really intelligent fitbaing.

[sancho_panza]

Fletcher was a great player in my opinion. If you look at the teams Fergie won things with at that time, it was partly down to players like Fletcher, Park Ji-sung and Valencia who would do all the dirty work, run themselves into the ground, and do whatever Fergie asked of them tactically. There was no luck about his career, he was in that Man United side because he was a key player.

[sheepheid]

If anything he was unlucky. What he had to deal with with illness undoubtedly affected him in the latter part of his MU days. 

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

Roberto Martinez “on the brink” of becoming Portugal manager.
I don’t need to add any more.

[Jute]

That’s him appointed. 
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64211118