Social media challenges keeping football alive

Social media has found a way to keep these coronavirus times busy, despite a lack of actual live football or any of the news that goes along with it.

Former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher posted on Twitter with a challenge for his followers and football fans.

Name a team of players you have seen in your lifetime. It is the best possible 11 with only two rules - no two players from the same country and no two who have played for the same team. 

Carragher's team was good: Neville Southall, Philipp Lahm, Franco Baresi, Vincent Kompany, Roberto Carlos, Roy Keane, Steven Gerrard, Pavel Nedved, Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Kylian Mbappe.

The debate has raged, with many people choosing to ignore the rules and thereby earning the opprobrium of their fellow social media users.

The debate has been no less for those who followed the rules. So how do you do it?

To start with the best idea is to look at one-club men, thereby diminishing their overlap with fellow professionals of any nationality.

Goalkeepers

Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid: The Slovenian has been described this season as their team's Messi by his manager Diego Simeone and only played for Olimpija Llunjana in his homeland and in Portugal with Benfica and a number of smaller teams on loan before signing for the Madrid side in 2014.

If not Oblak, then why not German World Cup winner Manuel Neuer, who has only played for Schalke 04 in his homeland before signing for Bayern Munich, the five-time champions of Europe so we might need them again. This is hard. Let's assume we need another German and plump for Oblak.

Defenders

Vincent Kompany, latterly of Manchester City, won the Premier League on several occasions and is regarded as one of the best in his position. He is also Belgian and there are not many others to have played for so few elite clubs while still be in such rarefied air.

Germany's Lothar Matthaus who played for Inter Milan in Italy before returning to Germany with Bayern Munich, and taking them to the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Manchester United in Barcelona, could play alongside him - just as easily as he could play in midfield.

Either side of them, Sergio Ramos at right back, a role he made his own before moving from Sevilla to Real Madrid and becoming a central defender. He also played at full-back several times for Spain - a team that won the European Championships twice, with the 2010 FIFA World Cup sandwiched in between.

Similarly, Paolo Maldini, played at left back for AC Milan before becoming an unflappable central defender. The one-club man rules out any other AC Milan players but he is arguably worth it - especially as so many footballers in Italy have played for so many of the big clubs (and usually big clubs overseas too).

That's a traditional back four sorted, with the chance to switch to a back three thrown into the mix.

Midfielders

Roy Keane - Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Celtic - prevents his former teams as per the rules but the Republic of Ireland midfielder was also just named the greatest English Premier League import ahead of Thierry Henry by a panel of Ian Wright, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker, although Lineker argued the other way round.

He covered every blade of grass for the best part of a decade of success at Old Trafford, including a heroic performance against a Juventus side including Zinedine Zidane and Alessandro del Peiro in the semifinal of the 1998-99 Champions League.

Liverpool's Steven Gerrard was no stranger to covering ground nor influencing big games, not least the 2005 Champions League final comeback over AC Milan in Istanbul. Gerrard never won the Premier League but his record speaks for itself and warrants his inclusion over any other of Liverpool's greats - much like Keane for United - and Englishmen.

Pavel Nedved is best known for his time in Italy with Juventus and Lazio. He's also left-footed and warranted a first place vote in the Ballon d'Or in 2003. He completes a midfield three, where Gerrard could play right, or it could move to be a four with Matthaus capable of slotting in.

Forwards

The perceived problem of width is solved with the forwards.

Lionel Messi takes place of all other Barcelona players and Argentines but he might well be worth it. The Atomic Flea is a six-time Ballon d'Or winner and has a goal record only rivaled by Cristiano Ronaldo - who warrants inclusion but at the cost of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus comes at too high a cost.

Messi can play wherever he wants but presuming he is coming in from the right, that opens up a chance for Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe to come in from the left. The Frenchman is 21 but has already won the FIFA World Cup, doing so in 2018 in Russia. He has only played for Monaco otherwise but that is set to change in the future - and make this game yet more difficult - by being linked with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

To spearhead this all, a man who had the big game mentality: Cote d'Ivoire striker Didier Drogba. Best known for his time at Chelsea, he was a handful for defenders and is often cited by even the best as their most difficult opponent.

Drogba was a late starter and eventually played for a lot of teams: Le Mans, Guingamp, Marseille, Chelsea, Shanghai Shenhua, Galatasaray, Chelsea (again), Montreal Impact and Phoenix Rising.

Not a bad team and more importantly one that fulfills the rules set down. Do the tweaks make it better than Carragher's? Does it even matter?

It serves a much more important purpose of remembering the footballers that have delighted us and those long forgotten stops on their career paths - and the great teams where they played with others and who the clubs had before and since.

That's the fun of the debate, even if it is on your own in isolation. Time to make another one.
Newspaper headline: Fun and Games