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wera

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They have Bernardo Silva and Argentina don't have a player like that in their midfield
 

wera

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:lol:

I mean, he is good, but he ain't Kaka level, at least not yet. Overall, I rate this Portugal team a lot, at least they haven't started underperforming like France
 

thatdude

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How spoiled Portugal is, to go from having the GOAT in Ronaldo to the GOAT 2.0 in Leao. A footballing dynasty if I've ever seen one.
Crazy part is to me Joao Felix is even more talented. Could you imagine that player in Inzagh’s Inter instead of Simeone’s Atletico? Scary stuff.
 

wera

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@brehme1989 @Il Drago who was Vasilios Chatzipanagis (I hope I pronounced it right)

And who from today would you compare him to?
 

brehme1989

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@brehme1989 @Il Drago who was Vasilios Chatzipanagis (I hope I pronounced it right)

And who from today would you compare him to?
There's a very long story.

In short, he's a Greek player of Cypriot descent who was born and raised in the Soviet Union and he's considered the greatest we've ever had.
Old regime of football meant he couldn't transfer and it also meant that he wasn't allowed to play NT football so he's not widely known.

He was called the Greek Maradona although I think his playing style was closer to Gheorghe Hagi than that.
 

Il Drago

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He was ahead of my time and i have only watched videos so brehme is more suitable to respond.

But yeah. Definitely the best Greek football player ever and the closest thing we ever had to Maradona from every aspect. It's a real shame he never played for the national team. His myth only grew by staying at the same team almost for his entire career despite interest from abroad. If he was playing in Bosman era he could have easily made it at a top league.
 

brehme1989

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I think his legend grew a lot due to the whatif discussions.

We've had great legends like Domazos, Papaioannou, Saravakos etc who accomplished more and also had intense interest from abroad (Inter, Real Madrid, Juventus respectively being the most prevalent) that probably deserve to be considered the greatest. Not sure on the new era guys (2004 generation). Apart from Karagounis and Katsouranis, the next best player wasn't part of the team (Lyberopoulos) and they've all done well in Europe, but they just don't have the allure or the brand name let's say. Also helps that they were robbed of a shitload of domestic titles due to a legit mafia that runs the sport here.

Some other old time greats are Sideris, Mavros, Delikaris, Antoniadis, Nestoridis, Koudas etc.
Hatzipanagis gets love by all because he played for a team that no one really hates, didn't compete for trophies and there's no pride lost in saying that he was better than your legend.

Apart from the Bosman era not being a thing, there never was any success apart from the 1971 Panathinaikos team, just a couple of big tournaments for the NT because the system was different, less countries etc, so they're not popular. But then again, you don't hear much about Feyenoord, Goteborg, Steaua, Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Partizan or Red Star either, so it's more of a modern era reflection thing. People don't realize that the status quo is just 10-20 years old.
 

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Did Nery Castillo ever come close to Greek citizenship?
 

Il Drago

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Did Nery Castillo ever come close to Greek citizenship?
Not really. Lots of discussion about it but he was never really close to a Greek citizenship. Tbh his club wanted it a lot more than the player himself.
 
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