Why hasn't England ever produced the worlds best footballer?

[NQCitizen]

Because if you show invention you're accused of "trying to be clever" and people still genuinely think "letting him know you're there" and "wanting it more" are serious concepts.

Messi, silva, pirlo, kroos, modric and millions more would never make it through our academies where being big and/or fast is the top priority. So we get Henderson and Smalling while they get veratti and kimmich.

Even now we delude ourselves with these lofty ideas about who could survive in the Premier League as if Neymar would break down at the first sight of Swansea.

 

[Afganitia]

In the last 18 years, England has more Ballon d'or winners than Spain in the last 55. So, i would say that England do produce talent if we look historically.

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

Was just about to post that too, and its such a good job that united's youth policy is so good to bring players like him through.

Hahaha

 

[Why Always Ste]

It's a compliment that we don't excel specifically at one sport, but rather a wider range of sports we have alot of activity in.
Be it Disabled Swimming, Rugby, Lacrosse, we even have a national ice hockey league.

What does piss me off though is the cost if obtaining coaching badges over here, and how this does hinder the sport of Football at grassroots level.
Countries such as Spain have far higher numbers of coaches than The UK.

This is something that needs addressing.
Maybe funding schemes to encourage lower income people to learn how to coach the game.

Overall though, in a sporting context, we do excel across a wide range of sports.

Imagine If we discouraged all those kids from playing cricket, and threw them into Football?
We might just then challenge the likes of Spain.

Spain and Brazil don't have to contest with Cricket, and we'd smash them all over the ground in a series

 

[Kippax.]

Didn't Owen win Ballon D"or

Owen has never been the world best, nor has colin bell or Keegan. There has always been better players out there. Pele, Best, Maradona etc

 

[Crouchinho]

Owen has never been the world best, nor has colin bell or Keegan. There has always been better players out there. Pele, Best, Maradona etc

They might have been better players (Best was overrated) but Keegan and Owen were at the time the world's best, voted by their peers

 

[Kippax.]

They might have been better players (Best was overrated) but Keegan and Owen were at the time the world's best, voted by their peers

let me tell you, Owen has never been the best player in the world

 

[Kippax.]

They might have been better players (Best was overrated) but Keegan and Owen were at the time the world's best, voted by their peers

The 2001 Ballon d'Or, given to the best football player in Europe as judged by a panel of sports journalists from UEFA member countries, was awarded to Michael Owen on 18 December 2001

Im saying the WORLDS best player, not the best European footballer voted by the media

 

[Kippax.]

When Owen was playing we had Zidane, Real Ronaldo, R Carlos, Maldini, Kaka to name a few, Owen wasn't at that level.

 

[BimboBob]

Worlds best now? Messi and Ronaldo.
10 years ago? Beckham. The little shit.
20 years ago? Gazza. Oh Gazza.
30 years ago? Lineker. World's best forward for a while.
40 years ago? Keegan was nearly there. Shilton. Worlds best goalie.
50 years ago? Moore. Worlds best defender. Banks. Worlds best goalie. Peters. Worlds best Box to Box player.
60 years ago? Duncan Edwards. Stan Matthews.

We have produced worlds bests. It was just a very long time ago.