Inaugural ILF write-in poll: greatest player of the 00s: VOTING CLOSES 25 FEBRUARY

• pick your top TWENTY footballers from the last decade;
• put them in order;
• email to ismaelklata AT gmail DOT com;
• closing date next Friday 25 February.

There're no nominations, but try to be sensible about it - if your ballot is entirely goalkeepers, or from the League of Ireland, then you probably won't be affecting the results too much.

Let's see if we can make this work. Twenty or so ballots should be enough for a decent top twenty countdown, with any luck.

Oh, and let's not be too fussy about what's 00s and what's not. I'm happy to consider everything after that-night-in-Barcelona and the 99 Copa America, up to the 2010 World Cup Final, as part of the 00s.

nice

So, Kitson ftw?

Ha, never thought of that - block votes for him or Sturridge will not be censured but may attract a raised eyebrow.

I was torn between doing the 2000s, or going for a 'modern era' poll (say 1980-present). In the end I plumped for this because I don't have a clue what the right answer is.

ooh, this could take some time. Nice idea though Ismael.

This will end up as Kevin Phillips vs Thierry Henry, I fear.

No, you're thinking of the forthcoming 2010s poll

bashed out in tens mins and sent, to be regretted in leisure i fear

Great work. I'll try to acknowledge them as they come in, but I won't look at the content 'til I've worked out my own list.

Submissions by ilx webmail are fine too, btw - give me a prod if I don't acknowledge those though, as it's a mostly-dormant account.

fuckit, forgot lucio.

Yeah, without revealing your ballots, you can use this thread to remind us of forgotten gems - we don't need to hear about Zidane, but it'd be worthwhile remembering how good Redondo or Rooney were.

zidane didnt get enough of the decade i think. Might be wrong in that

bashed out in tens mins and sent

^ totally the way to do this imo - spent this evening being quite methodical about compiling a shortlist, with the result that tomorrow I've given myself the task of picking 20 from 115

zidane didnt get enough of the decade i think. Might be wrong in that

― Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Monday, 14 February 2011 12:49 (9 hours ago)

u gotta just vote for the best players who played at least some of their seasons in that time

otherwise u will give disproportionate emphasis to a player like henry whose prime was virtually 2000-2010, vs a player like vieri whose best years were roughly 96-04

plus Zidane's 00s include winning the European Championships, the Champions League with one of the best goals ever, probably a few leagues, and dragging his lads to the world cup final, so it's not exactly a sympathy vote

disagree with u nakh, pick within the time constraints given imo

then it's kinda arbitrary, cuz thierry henry prob was on average like 6th best player of the year during the 00s which would make him better than messi who did fuck all for years, just wandering round la masia like a shortarsed little cunt nobody cared about

pretty sure that imposing a 'who was best during this defined period' is less arbitrary than 'who's your favourite player that kicked a ball professionally at any stage in the 00's'

but it will all out in the poll. nobody checks that you made yr vote for the right reasons irl either i guess

there is no cardinal value to 00s footballers like x best films of 00s etc....yr just artificially favouring players who were born in the late 70s

let the late 60's set write to their fucking unions

n e wayz some random players for yall.........shevchenko, pirlo, rivaldo, seedorf, rui costa, vieri, zanetti, lúcio, cambiasso, eto'o, maicon, nedved, totti, de rossi, juan, valeron, crespo, makalélé, raul, aimar, riquelme, davids, adriano, zahovic, pires, lahm, deco, carvalho, luis enrique, ayala, okocha

ah ffs

there's way too many there that should have made my list but didn't get consideration

they will have wanted to be considered but at the end of the day it's about the big names -- zidane, ronaldinho, messi, gerrard, diouf, terry

forgot pele's potd dioufy

24 hours in and we're already at a mighty 2 (TWO) ballots. If we can keep this pace up then we'll be okay.

http://www.ghanasoccernet.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/PrinceBoatengAP_468x309.jpg

Quietly confident.

Nice Ismael. This coming off season, with its lack of a big international champs, i was thinking of running ILF GREATEST PLAYER EVER POLL and I was thinking 22 votes and 5 managers/other people involved (2 teams innit.)

Ok the more i think about this the harder it is. i've pretty much just been able to rule out lol cult players (as opposed to cult players who did something i.e. bullard keeping fulham up)

Yeah, the more I thought the more I found fabulous players who don't even get close. Get it over with fast I say.

Whittled it down to 20, working on a basis that some not included had a better 90s (and in one case, i'm not counting the 99-00 season to make it easier on myself even though it was poss my favourite season ever by a non arsenal player) or will have a better 00s. now just to order them

holy shit miscounted and i'm at 22. playmakers v. brick walls, discuss.

^ an example to you all

um, xp

Sent :) And already regretting names missed off but I dunno, I think I did as good as possible. lol in the past half hour didn't even think of 1 english player, let alone consider one (poor scholes and campbell i guess)

Got it, thanks. Three ballots in now, three guys with three votes.

*****, **** and ****** is my guess?

wash your mouth out young man

48 hours gone and we have FOUR sets of votes. Maintaining the pace nicely, time for another couple of you to step up now.

Also, one of our ever-presents has fallen: there are now only two guys to have scored on each ballot.

disgusting savages

At least ten of mine should make every list

didn't vote thudd, sorry

ginola? Modric? Berbatov?

Ginola played less than a hundred games and scored 11 goals during the period. Not sure his marketing work and fine wines are going to be enough to crack the top ten here I'm afraid.

I'm guessing the two ever-presents are Messi and Zizou.

I'd thought there'd be half-a-dozen or more automatic picks tbh. There are common threads for sure but it's a surprise how quickly it's broadened out. Early days though.

i think i screwed it up because i voted for my centre halves and left backs and keepers as well as yr wingers and strikers

eh, dunno what to say to that.

I'm pretty sure ilf posters have heard of defenders

I thought they'd be neglected because they always are in these lists but no, we're getting a good spread. I shouldn't say too much though, hopefully most of the voting is still to be done.

if there's a good spread i'll expect to see thudd there

Maybe :-)

I think 6 of my top 10 have played for Barca at one point...

5/20, 3 of which were deemed to be somewhere between "failure", "flop" and "just not as good as they hoped" at Barca

Ibra, then.

1 of :)

Got it ailsa, thanks a bunch. You weren't kidding about that tint either - was certainly a surprise to see Hleb dominating.

The rest of you, get voting. I mean it!

seriously

Would you accept lists from people not registered on ILX?

Hm. How many lists and why would such people want to contribute? The reason I'm sceptical is that we still only have a dozen ballots, so it would only take a few to overwhelm it and make the list 'not ours' iykwim. I guess I could accept one from a kindly wellwisher, seeing as it's you vouching for him.

Have now voted. Managed to get to 20 without typing "Nacho Novo", which was a bit of a struggle.

xp. Just incase you were desperate and needed more asap. I can see how it may make it 'not ours' though so no worries.

Thanks anyway, I'll just cut back the countdown if I have to.

(I don't have yours yet btw)

You don't? Strange - I emailed it last night at... (checks) 6:40pm. I'll try emailing it again...

Got it now thanks. If anyone else has sent and I haven't acknowledged here or by email, let me know asap because I won't have received it.

Bump. Voting closes tomorrow, y'all.

Nothing today as yet. Your chance to make a difference to the world.

heard the gaffer asking for the polls. Again. Pleading. Pathetic. No responses. Again. This board has lost its edge, I thought. No hunger. I remembered how different it had seemed to me when I joined. There were big characters, big men in the 'liverpool won't win....' threads. Now? Silence. They'd done it all, log out, go home to the supermodel wife and the mock tudor mansion.Nine fucking ballots, after all the years, the zings, the predictions of rafa out. Martin fucking Jol. Cheers Roy. Good luck.

You're just a piece of meat in this polling business.

I drove over a mod on the way out. Fuck him. Fuck them all.

just sent my mostly predictable, mildly trolling list

best kind of list imho

I'll try to get one done tonight. Can't work out how serious I am about Russell Latapy's contribution to world football - Dwight Yorke's wing-man on many a night out iirc.

sounds a bit 90s to me.

Aye, 90s footballer for me.

At his Hibs best in 99/00-00/01 when they came up from 1st div and finished 3rd in SPL (iirc), last T&T cap in 2009, played in 2006 World Cup. Stand-out in an otherwise ordinary Falkirk team in the mid 00s - felt like we'd never get the ball off them till he was subbed around 65 minutes every game then we'd score 3 or 4.

Fair point.

The Irishman's hit the spot alright. Makes me snort stuff out my nose for real. Was in a coughing fit at the time but still. He leans over and looks at what he's done. He likes it. Or not. That's it with them, you can never tell. How they like it. Just as well I only read the thread now. Just as well says I. If you'd caught me like this four hours ago. If you'd caught me like this when I was cornered.

Uhm ... by which I mean, have a lovely sleep everyone and submit your ballots by end tomorrow please.

PS sonderangerbot, there's an ambiguity in your ballot, check your email

shit, darraghmacs post reminds me i forgot Roy Keane. otoh.....fuck him!

eh......

That was hodgson actually

did keane play much in the 00s?

his best performances for Ireland were in the 00s as I recall

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/9923/encouragement.jpg

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/9923/encouragement.jpg

Just sent a very late entry, mainly so that Frank Lampard gets the recognition he deserves (ie I put him 20th as the token Englishman).

Haha, my token 20th place was a corker of an obscurity borne out of green-and-white tinted spec-wearing. I think Scholesy's my only Englisher.

Got it Pete, thanks - I'm sure he'll be relieved.

We're on sixteen ballots now, a little bit of a push in the last few hours and we might get near that magic 20 after all *brings out tray of oranges*

Okay I've voted. Two players I'm quite worried about being diddled here are Nedved and Riquelme so hopefully I'm not the only person to have gone for them.

Really agonised over where to put Messi considering he's undoubtedly up there but his peak is NOW really.

Also I couldn't decide who to put at the top so just voted Ledley King at #1 instead.

Yeah, I think I overrated current players and underrated past players because I'm a product of modern media consumption and have the memory of a goldfish.

nedved placed high on my list iirc.

I wrote mine in ten minutes and forgot everyone, inc Nedved and Riquelme.

couldn't decide if rui costa was 00 or 90 and left him out. might have been a mistake

you're gonna have regrets regardless, it's 20 players- only 2 a year.

Yeah, I think I overrated current players and underrated past players because I'm a product of modern media consumption and have the memory of a goldfish
Fairly sure I did the reverse of this because 2003 is the last year I was capable of forming new memories, for much the same reason.

Both received thanks. I haven't done even a preliminary count yet, so no idea who's diddled and who's fizzled.

Now, do we have two MEN amongst us to take it up to twenty?

lol

Ur fucked now

I think Lampard probably should have been in my twenty. Was a case of familiarity breeding contempt tbh. A player who probably didn't but I'm sick about leaving out anyway is Ludovic Giuly perhaps never as great as I thought he should be tho' pretty great regardless.

I included Nedved fwiw

one to go

sent. bish bash bosh, as some cunt many times said, ten minute job and already i can't remember who's on it.

I'm really chuffed to get to twenty, thanks to everyone who's voted.

There's still time for any stragglers (NV, I'm looking in your direction). All gratefully received. I'll be counting in the morning and guess I'll leave the deadline open 'til then.

am guessing that we'll get 150 or so different players out of twenty polls.

Voting's now closed. I got a 21st ballot late on which was a nice bonus. I'll get to counting now and maybe knock out a jpg or two if I have time - looking to countdown probably a top 20 on Monday or Tuesday (or both), work permitting.

Thanks to all for taking part.