Perthis thread and the post by Busy Scissors I was surprised there is no Hall or Fame or equivalent for Soccer players. It’s the most popular sport in the world by a wide margin. Why no institutional acknowledgement of the best players that ever competed?
It would never fly. Too much jingoism involved. To get a HoF going, everybody has to agree on standards and the like. Never gonna happen in soccer.
There is a US soccer hall of fame. The players either are American, or played in an American league.
As to a world wide one, I somewhat agree with silenus. Recently Fifa had a poll as to who the best player of all time was. Diego Maradona won the poll, but because he’s a crazy, loud-mouthed, coke head Fifa decided they wanted Pele to be named the best ever and pretty much handed him the honor.
Agree with Silenius.
It’s just to friggin hard to organize (well) considering the size of the sport.
The best we have at present are the FIFA/UEFA “Player of the Year” and the Golden Boot.
The HoF idea, retiring numbers etc is quite US-centric AFAIK. It’s part and parcel of US sports, even at the amateur / high school level right? I’m sure I’ve even heard examples of non sports orientated HoFs, but can’t recall them right now. Anyway, it’s an ingrained concept in how sports are structured in N. America. It wouldn’t necessarily have the same currency overseas. The basic idea would, as it’s universal to sports, but people wouldn’t readily grasp the point of ‘electing’ HoF members, and what exactly the object of the whole exercise is.
I’m not sure if it’s relevant, but football, rugby etc are not the type of statistic-generating activities that seem to fuel so much HoF discussion in the US. There are examples of world class football players who never really won anything. Gary Lineker is a good example, but at least you can say he scored a lot of goals. The qualities of some great defensive footballers would be hard to quanitify in hindsight, in a HoF discussion after they had retired.
Cricket would be a great HoF sport. Domestic cricket has a very small fanbase in the UK though.
Halls of fame are one of those quaint American things, see…
There’s things like club museums, just no interest in the hall of fame “brand” anywhere except the USA.
Amusingly enough, “The” Cricket Hall of Fame is an American organization. There is an Aussie cricket HoF, though.
Association football just doesn’t lend itself well to the Hall of Fame idea. You can’t judge any player except maybe strikers and goalies by statistics, and sometimes not even then - Teddy Sheringham was technically a striker when playing for England but was really more of an attacking midfielder, setting the table for Alan Shearer.
In American Football it’s relatively easy to say who “definitely” goes into the HoF and who “should” go- to the extent that talking heads judge players as “first-ballot” HoFers, “second-ballot”, and so on.
In soccer/football, you just can’t do that. There are a very few obviously transcendent talents - Pele, Eusebio, Maradona, Platini, Best, Charlton, Muller, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Puskas, Zidane and so on… and about a million “maybe” types.
For example, Edwin Van Der Sar has been a fixture on the Dutch team for 16 years or so, and I’d put him into any proposed Hall of Fame in a second - but I doubt you’ll find anyone who isn’t Dutch who’ll tell you he’s the best goalie ever, or even one of the ten best in the world today.
Incidentally, notice anything odd about my “great” list? They’re all forwards or attacking midfielders, except for Beckenbauer. It’s really, really hard to recognise great defenders, unless they happen to excel going forward. Philip (?) Lamm of Germany is a great example - he’s a liability as a defender, but absolutely superb when it comes to creating chances and goals.
I remember that. Pele was an amazing player but based on the fans I have spoken to, most do not consider him the best ever. He played on a Brazil team in 1970 that was just amazing. I might have been able to score a few goals for them.
For me, it’s Maradonna.
Until they build one. I guarantee you something like this would be huge if they built it in Europe. It would be a museum to the game itself rather than to just one team. Political considerations and a reluctance to do something “American” will probably prevent this from happening for a long time though.
And by the way the Hockey HOF fame is in Toronto, Canada.
Because Halls of Fame are silly, and far too political.
Maldini, Fachetti, Baresi, Lev Yashin, Schmeichel, Gordon Banks, Dino Zoff, and Lothar Matthäus are all considered all time greats. None of them are as highly regarded as Cruijff or Maradona, but I don’t think there’d be much of a problem finding keepers or defenders to put in a HoF.
Sure, but how many casual fans know their names - aside from Maldini and Schmeichel, who played pretty recently?
Besides, I’ve never been sold on Maldini. I know he’s Italy’s most capped player and all, but he was a dominant defender at the club level and it never seemed to translate so well to international play.
I’m sure that in any hall of fame you’re going to have players that lots of people don’t know. That’s one of the reasons you have the hall of fame, people can go to the building or website and read how Yashin won the European player of the year and was the only keeper to do so.
The club and country debate is an interesting one. I wouldn’t want to punish George Best or Ryan Giggs for not having international success, but Italy is a heck of a lot better than Wales. That’d certainly have to be considered in any nomination if a HoF was started.
I’m not really talking about whether or not the team did well - no player (well, maybe Maradona) is good enough to single-handedly win football matches.
Giggs and Best were certainly the best players on the field most of the time when they played for Wales. I don’t believe that’s true of Maldini; he was never even the best player on the Italian team.
And that’s why it wouldn’t succeed. A museum to the game means a museum to your arch-rivals as well as to your own team or nation.
Only Giggsy played for Wales. Best played for Northern Ireland. With all due respect to Giggs, not sure I’d put him anywhere near Best’s level.
Halls of Fame are an intrinsically American thing. It’s like asking why soccer doesn’t have quarterbacks or cheerleaders. Is there supposed to be an actual hall around which fans traipse, looking at statues or waxworks of famous players? Creepy.
The concept of a brick-and-mortar Hall of Fame originated with the baseball version, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which was founded in Cooprstown, NY (incorrectly believed by some at the time to be the birthplace of baseball) in 1939. It was basically an investment idea and a way to draw some tourists into Cooperstown; it wasn’t directly connected with the major leagues, and its success came as something of a surprise to everyone. So naturally, every sport in the American pantheon sought to imitate it. All “Hall of Fames” for major sports were created in an effort to imitate the baseball original. (Football in Canton, OH in 1962, basketball in Springfield, MA in 1959 and permanently housed in 1968, and so on.) The term “hall of fame” had existed prior to the baseball Hall being opened, but as a theoretical construct.
The Hockey Hall of Fame, as has been pointed out, is a Canadian institution, founded first in Kingston, Ontario (for essentially the same reason baseball’s Hall was founded in Cooperstown) and later moved to permanent digs in Toronto. However, it too got its inspiration from the baseball version.
So, the concept really IS American in origin - but more specifically, it’s baseballesque in origin.
The baseball version, at least, is a huge, and wonderful, museum. There’s a bazillion artifacts, displays, models, and items of every description; it’s about as good a museum as you will ever visit. What’s creepy about a museum?
It’s also the centre of the biggest library and archive of baseball records, books, and othe research materials in the world, and so serves as a great resource to baseball historians and researchers.
The Hockey Hall of Fame isn’t quite as impressive, to be honest, but serves the same function, and it’s fun as hell.
:smack: