Footballing Question of the Day

James Hamilton from the superb (if infuriatingly-often-on-hiatus) football blog More than Mind Games has a question that merits pondering:

If you had to name one player who, in your opinion, epitomised the history of English football (not necessarily its ethos or its greatest moment or its values), who would that be? He doesn’t have to be English, but he does have to exemplify the way the game has developed in England.

Good question! One that will take time to answer. In the same vein, then, using the same rules, which player could most reasonably be considered the epitomy of Scottish football? Or Italian?

Comments

[Kris]

Apologies for the cross-post, but I think the same way!

Gascoigne. There have been of course moments of great success (genius even), but more generally, he is hugely overrated, with a tendency to wallow in a self-indulgent focus on the past while the world has moved on.

Is that too cruel?

Not at all Kris - pretty much spot on.

[Nick R]

I would go for Pierre van Hooidjonk, going on strike at Forest and showing how powerless clubs would become in the face of player power.
For Scotland, maybe MoJo for starting the break with (overt) sectarianism.

[Thomas B]

I'd say David Beckham.

A great early career, culminating peaking at glory about half way through (1966 or the Treble year of 1999) then getting caught up in your own hype and allowing the culture of celebrity to detract from your football.

[dearieme]

Zola.

[Claudia Massie]

Alan Shearer is England - occasionally, briefly, effective, but mostly just a glossy, self satisfied journeyman who wins piss all, even when cheating enthusiastically (elbowing defenders in the neck in Shearer's case, for england read diving (M. Owen, J.Cole etc) and 'old fashioned' tackling- known as 'vicious fouling' in more cultured footballing arenas). But all along wallowing in an unquashable, righteous belief in his own hyped up, drooled-over-by-cretins brilliance. Look no further than Match of the Day for ultimate proof of his paper thin credentials.

[Thomas B]

Claudia,

You forgot to mention the fact Shearer's elbow was the key reason England got knocked out in 1998 - had he not elbowed the goalkeeper, Sol Campbell's goal would have stood.

Of course, it's much better for the media to blame a Manchester United player or a cheating foreigner for their exit (Beckham in 1998, Phil Neville in 2000, Urs Meier in 2004 - all their Christmas' came at once when it was Ronaldo in 2006).