UEFA Release “Team Of The Century”

By BF Staff | November 21, 2017 |

Reuters / Albert Gea

The 21st century has witnessed some of the greatest footballers in action, and also the likes of Barcelona building the best team in the past two decades.

Nevertheless, the hall of fame is teeming with players of high calibre, and it’s virtually impossible to pick out the best XI. However, UEFA have put their neck on the line and published the 11 players who evidently deserve a spot in the best team of the century so far.

The legend guarding the goal is Iker Casillas, who made over 500 appearances for Real Madrid during his successful 16-years tenure at the Spanish club.

The back four includes Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol and Philipp Lahm. However, the general consensus is that the players linked with Barca shouldn’t have given a place on the legendary side.

https://twitter.com/Tacticomotion_/status/932634159549505537

A few people have expressed their thoughts on making the team better by tweaking the players on Twitter.

Imagine thinking Puyol or Pique are better than Cannavaro https://t.co/BIZyqWWeej

— Tolo (@TomOllier_) November 20, 2017

Very good team, but Buffon for Casillas, Cannavaro for Puyol and Drogba for Henry are my tweaks to this XI. https://t.co/qXPrdBmD59

— Ole K. Indergård (@oleinder) November 20, 2017

The legend who won the Champions League in a notable win against AC Milan, and having made over 500 appearances for the club, Steven Gerrard has picked a spot in the middle three as the only English player to have made it to the team.

Iniesta and Xavi being the fellow midfielders, ended up in the side as expected. And most importantly, the offensive line includes Thierry Henry, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo, leading the team from up front.

Ronaldo has been a part of UEFA’s team of the year 11 times, while Messi has secured a spot 8 times. Players like Iker Casillas, Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol, and Sergio Ramos have also featured 6 times.

Although this team named by UEFA seems impeccable, there are other players who have displayed greater quality football on the pitch and won more silverware, but couldn’t make it to the team.

So even though this team cannot be used as an absolute standard against which we measure the quality of footballers, UEFA has done some serious work to at least name a best XI squad despite the risk.

Written by Hritwik NE