7 Footballers Who Seemed Irreplaceable But Weren't

there are some footballers who seem irreplaceable upon their departure or retirement and they really are tottenham spent more than 100 million pounds attempting to replace gareth bale and ended up with a forward line containing roberto soldado eric lamela and nasa chadley when luis suarez left liverpool in a mega deal to join barcelona the reds forked out more than 113 million pounds to offset the damage but the likes of mario balotelli and ricky lambert could not prevent brendan rogers this side slipping from second to sixth in the premier league table without their talismanic uruguayan frontman and over in spain barcelona are currently finding out that it is about as difficult to replace lionel messi as one would expect it to be to replace lionel messi even with perhaps the most talented cohort of young players at any club in the world however every now and then there are players who seem irreplaceable but aren't just take jalma santos brazil's 1958 and 1962 world cup winning right back and one of only three men to make the team of the tournament at three separate world cup finals santos played his final game for brazil at the age of 39 but during that very same year a 23 year old carlos alberto torres played 18 times for brazil rapidly cementing his status as the best right-back in the world and certainly supporters of the salazar didn't seem to have quite so much to fit there are occasions in which a player might seem irreplaceable such as philippe coutinho at liverpool but isn't not because of someone directly replacing them but just because of a system change or collective improvement making up for their absence but i'm interested specifically in this video with football legends and their unlikely ads without further ado then here are seven footballers who seemed irreplaceable but weren't 7th jan luigi buffon i was quite strict with my criteria for this video i didn't want any players where there was a big gap between the seemingly irreplaceable great and their eventual replacement such as the three years between oliver khan and manuel neuer are both club and international level but nor did i want there to be considerable overlap such as in the case of franco barassi and paolo maldini who played together for 13 years at ac milan and six years with the italian national team that's because in that instance and in those like it everyone was well aware of paolo maldini's many talents and his leadership skills before franco beressi hung up his boots which meant that beresi didn't seem quite so irreplaceable by 1997 as he would have done had he retired in 1987. similarly there are some successes to great players such as messi arguably replacing ronaldinho at barcelona or more recently phil foden filling the mantle that was vacated by david silva at manchester city where the overlap might not have been all that long but the replacement was already so highly regarded and known to be so talented that the d-party or retiree once again didn't seem totally irreplaceable when they actually left there are also some successors such as cristiano ronaldo following luis figo or cess fabregas succeeding patrick vieira where the heir may be comparable to their predecessor in terms of their talent and or contribution but not so much in terms of their style of play or role all of the examples that i've just mentioned explain why certain seemingly irreplaceable players and their eventual successors have been left out but they also explain why jan luigi buffon and jean-luigi donaruma are such outstanding candidates to get us started buffon and donnarumma not only share the traits of being world-class italian goalkeepers they are also both named jan luigi it's almost as though donnarumma was given to the italians like a gift from on high in theory buffon and donnarum's careers should never really have overlapped at all buffon was born in 1978 and donna rumor in 1999. that is a 21-year age gap buffon won his first caps for italy two years before donnarumma was even born but such was gigi's longevity still playing now at the grand old age of 44 along with donnarumma's teenage stardom breaking through at the age of only 16 the duo actually managed to spend two years as teammates within the italian national team buffon is without a doubt one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time and i don't just say that because we are very close friends his handling and reflexes were among the best in the business for the best part of two decades along with his finest attributes which have always been his positioning awareness and anticipation to have prolonged his career for this long it is worth mentioning that buffon was a successor himself in many respects for both italy and juventus replacing angelo perutzi for both the azuri after the 1998 world cup and eventually four juventus in 2001 following edwin van der sar's brief stint at the club donnarumma perhaps accelerated buffon's retirement from international football breaking the 2006 world cup winners record as italy's youngest goalkeeper of the post-war era in 2016 and cementing his status as international number one after buffon steps aside in 2018. though he grew up supporting ac milan donnarumma unsurprisingly idolised buffon as a child and he has received plenty of praise from his former hero having only recently turned 23 donnarumma has already won 40 caps for italy and has played almost 300 games for ac milan and psg which makes him a statistical freak in goalkeeping terms and he has all the tools to become one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time just like the man who preceded him sixth philliplah german football often seems to have a permanent conveyor belt of talent so perhaps no replacement should surprise us at this stage however there are some players who still seem impossible to replace miroslav closer is one of them given his importance in terms of scoring goals for germany when it mattered most and going a bit further back so too was someone like fritz walter in terms of his aura and leadership you could certainly be forgiven for thinking that philip lahm might fit neatly into that category as not just one of the greatest fullbacks to have ever lived but someone who was so consistent and so faultless that he raised the standards of all those around him you would be wrong for thinking that however since joshua kimmek has stepped into those literally rather small but figuratively extremely large boots better than almost anyone could have anticipated kermit and lom's international careers never overlapped llam retired from international football after playing a pivotal role in germany's 2014 world cup win aged only 30 at the time meanwhile kimok didn't make his international debut until 2016 age 21. they did share a dressing room for two years at bayern munich though between chemic's arrival from rb leipzig in 2015 and lamb's full retirement in 2017. kermit has described lam along with pep guardiola and jaby alonso as having influenced his game more so than anyone else and perhaps that should be unsurprising given that he now shares a position with all three larm spent more than half of his career playing as a fullback initially a left back actually at my munich due to his versatility where he earned the nickname the magic dwarf in his latter years lahm transitioned beautifully into holding midfield a role that he found very easy given his tactical intelligence and technical prowess yeshua kamak has made the same move though he made it much earlier than lam and he has arguably been the most consistent and the most complete number six in world football for the past three years it is pretty remarkable to think that if kimmek were to retire from international football at the same age as alarm he would retire in only three years time but one doubts that he will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor in that regard at least fifth roberto carlos sticking with world-class full-backs just for now i gave the example of carlos alberto torres stepping into the void vacated by jama santos in the introduction and as you reel off the names it is really quite remarkable the number of outstanding fullbacks that the brazilian game has produced though his most recent appearance may have come for english non-league side bull in the barn united of the humble shrewsbury and district sunday league roberto carlos is certainly among them a left back in name only rarely carlos was among the most attack-minded full-backs of the 1990s and 2000s and probably the most entertaining to watch sure stocky and incredibly explosive carlos was gifted industrious and around for the power that he possessed in his left foot occasionally utilizing that force too devastating effect most notably perhaps with his swerving free kick against france in 1997. a year after that he was playing france again in a world cup final and four years later he got his hands on the trophy at club level carlos is best associated with real madrid where he spent 11 years and it was only in the last of those 11 years that he spent any time playing alongside marstello a graduate of the fluminense eu france marcelo joined real madrid in january 2007. six months before roberto carlos departed for fenerbahce what's more carlos played his last game for brazil at the 2006 world cup and within less than two months marcelo had made his international debut in terms of direct successors the time scale couldn't line up much better than that i must admit i long doubted marcelo's ability to reach anything like the heights attained by roberto carlos at his peak but i'm all too happy to hold my hands up and admit that i'm wrong and by about 2015 it was clear that was the case marcelo was for at least three years in my view the best left back in the world and roberto carlos could probably make a similar claim like carlos marcello was never particularly interested in defending but technically and physically he was outstanding sadly that is no longer the case and he has been a shell of the player that he once was at the santiago bernabeu for the last couple of years unlike carlos who left los blancos whilst still being able to make a real contribution marcelo is now a liability but that'll not diminish how good he once was or what a fine and long doubted successor to roberto carlos he has been fourth fernando torres i asked for some of your suggestions on twitter before i made this video and among the most frequent suggestions that i saw was fernando torres's departure from liverpool and how capably he was replaced by louis suarez now i cannot claim to have foreseen quite how well luis suarez would perform at anfield when he arrived at liverpool from ix but it did seem pretty obvious that he was a talent and it seemed equally apparent that torres even if you were being especially generous was no longer at his absolute best of course players have purple patches and not so purple patches of form and there was a lot of speculation around torres at the time and few expected him to struggle as he did at stamford bridge however personally and i can only state how i felt at the time i didn't think that he struck fear into the heart of the opposition as he once did he didn't feel obviously irreplaceable to me and i wasn't that surprised that liverpool managed to cope or write without him that doesn't mean that torres doesn't feature in this seven however since i don't think anyone could have expected him to have been replaced quite so expertly as he was by atletico madrid torres left atletico for liverpool in the summer of 2007 meanwhile a young argentine named sergio aguero had joined the club in the summer of 2006. torres was atletico's talisman at the time and spain's number nine whereas aguero was just 18 years old and could only manage seven goals in his debut campaign playing alongside horrors it was no secret that aguero was very good he had scored prolifically for independente and argentina and had won it all as a star man for argentina at youth level it just didn't seem as though he was quite ready still in his teens to plug the gap that had been created by torrez's departure indeed atletico madrid clearly weren't entirely convinced that he was ready to carry that burden so over the summer they signed diego forlan from the ariel who had outscored torres the previous season forlan would prove to be a brilliant sighting about atletico but it was aguero who was the real star off the back of scoring just seven goals in his debut campaign he scored 27 goals in his second which is more than torrez ever scored for the club not only did aguero replace torres he was better than torres and he scored more goals before departing for an even bigger fee in a move to manchester city it should be said that atletico madrid's record of replacing forwards whether that be vieri then hasselbank then ballesta then torres aguero falcao diego costa antoine griezmann and all the way up to luis suarez in the present day well that is quite some record with plenty of candidates for a seven of the silk but i felt that torres being replaced by aguero was the most impressive and at the time the most unlikely of the lot third romario romario is i think one of the five finest footballers of my lifetime and among the greatest of all time for context i am 26 years old and only lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo could i definitively say were superior to him and even then only messi in terms of raw talent and ability my admiration for mario and my feeling that he doesn't get the credit he deserves outside of south america is such that a while back i even devoted an entire video to him though i suspect that it hasn't done a great deal to enhance his reputation if i'm honest romario was just a natural everything seems to come easy too quick diminutive and endlessly inventive his decision making in front of goal is the most interesting and spontaneous of any striker i've ever seen and that's why there are few players if any who i find it more enjoyable to go back and watch from time to time at his best which was probably during the mid 1990s romario was essentially unplayable though during the 2000 season in which he scored 66 goals in 71 games age 34 he was pretty special as well though his last game and goal for brazil came in a celebratory game against guatemala in 2005 romario's tournament career at international level ended at the 1997 confederations cup and you could be forgiven for thinking that his contribution would be impossible to replace even for a national team like brazil at the 1997 confederations cup however romario starred alongside a forward who was 10 years younger than him namely ronaldo luis nazario de lima together they formed a frightening combination nicknamed roro each scoring a hat-trick as brazil battered australia's 6-0 in the tournament's final sadly the world would never see them play at a tournament together again but like romario ronaldo went on to spearhead brazil to welcome glory becoming one of the finest footballers and goal scorers that the game has ever seen second kevin keegan talking of all too often overlooked and slightly diminished legends of the beautiful game kevin keegan is rarely talked about when it comes to discussions around the greatest footballers that the british or english game have produced that is despite the fact that keegan is the only british and therefore obviously the only english player to have won the ballon d'or more than once putting him level in terms of ballon d'or titles with the brazilian ronaldo keegan won those two ballon d'ors back to back in 1978 and 1979 immediately after leaving liverpool in a move to hamburg keegan spent six years at anfield where he won three first division titles and a european cup as bob paisley's starman when he departed in 1977 just after inspiring liverpool to the double liverpool fans certainly felt as though he was irreplaceable and they were understandably pretty distraught the man tasked with replacing keegan on merseyside was kenny dalglish bought by bob paisley in liverpool from celtic dargalesh was already a very established player at club and international level but replicating keegan's impact would nonetheless be a big ask douglas did that and then some going on to play more than 500 games for liverpool across 13 years at the club during which time he cemented his status as the greatest player to have ever played for one of the biggest clubs in world football dar gliesh won the european cup three times in anfield and though he never won a ballon d'or like keegan finishing second to michelle platini in 1983 his impact and legacy at liverpool was even greater than his predecessors first garincha in some respects garincha really was irreplaceable if you have ever chanted olay at a football ground you have garincha to thank for it was the way in which he taunted and teased opponents before beating them at the last second that inspired the bullfighting chant to be incorporated by the brazilian public into the world of football garincha was a tragic character in many respects who allegedly lost his virginity to a goat and struggled with addiction all of his life a life which ended in obscurity in 1983 when garincha was only 49 years of age garincha's performances out on a football pitch however could not have been in any more of a contrast to his troubled personal life known simply as the joy of the people in brazil garincha didn't take football too seriously to him simply beating an opponent or scoring a goal was far too simple he was born to entertain arguably the greatest dribbler of a ball to have ever played the game grincha had the spirit of a child and the talent of a god and brazil never lost a game in which both he and pele played at the 1962 world cup after pele was injured during the group stage garancha stepped up to the mantle becoming the seller south's main man and winning his second successive world cup garincha was 29 at the time and by far the best player of the tournament and in the world besides pele at least but it would mark the end of his career at the very highest level he played at the 1966 world cup recalled to the brazil squad in 1965 after a three-year absence and even scored at the finals in england but off-field problems meant that he was no longer the player he once was garincha's final game for bottafogo where he spent 12 years came in 1965 and for his last three years at the club he played alongside an exciting afro-donning wide man named jerzinho jerzini was a right winger just like him but grinch's presence forced him to play out wide on the left once garincha left the club jazzini made the right flank his own for both potter fogo and for brazil at the 1970 world cup he scored in every single game for brazil developing the nickname the hurricane as i began by saying garincha was in some respects truly irreplaceable but in replacing one of the greatest players to have ever lived with at the very least one of the greatest players of the 1960s and 1970s bottafogo and brazil didn't do too badly with jazzinio as garincha's heir apparent that is it for my seven but there were a great many examples that just missed out whether that be david de gea replacing edwin van der sar alessandro del pierro replacing roberto baggio tebow courtois replacing petr cech and actually also jan oblak replacing tebow courtois there are many others of course you need only look at the replies to my tweet to find some but i hope you enjoyed the seven that i picked out if that was the case feel free to hit the like button it is free of charge and greatly appreciated leave a comment if you have anything to say that is of interest or otherwise and make sure that you are subscribed and have notifications turned on of course three side cc sets a youtube channel that is truly irreplaceable you can also find us on uh well i say us it's just me on social media on twitter or instagram via the username at hrtcms on both should you wish to do so and why wouldn't you

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 288,257

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Footballers, Irreplaceable, Legends, Players, Buffon, Donnarumma, HITC Sport, Champions League, Juventus, AC Milan, PSG, Premier League, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Brazil

Id: euB5Di6Zoe4

Length: 21min 26sec (1286 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 12 2022