I suppose being famous could mean being known by the world as a good player but even if we consider it relative and just inside the country at the very least you would be a regular for the national team. There were some players that for the life of me I could not understand why they weren't any more famous than what they were and to me deserved much more recognition.
Alan Smith (England) - In my teenage years during the late 80s and early 90s I would hardly see an Arsenal game where he hadn't scored. Looking at his stats between the 1985-86 season and 1991-92 season he scored 19, 20, 16, 25, 13, 27 and 17 goals in each season respectively and was twice the league's top scorer. I was happy to see him in the headlines when he scored the winner in the Cup Winners Cup final against Parma but his regular goal scoring seemed to go unnoticed. In spite of this he only received a handful of England caps (13) in which he scored 2 goals.
Tulio (Brazil) - After the 1994 World Cup he seemed to be the player that Brazil's national team was built around. He scored 13 goals in 15 games for Brazil and while he was still banging in the goals at club level he suddenly was cut from Brazil's national team after the Copa America (while he scored 67 club goals that year).
Paolo Virdis (Italy) - He might have been unlucky enough to his his peak late (almost 30) but nevertheless he was part of the dominant AC Milan team in the late 80s and the Serie A top scorer in the 1986-87 season. He never got called to the Italian national team although I was happy to see him represent Italy in the 1988 Olympics (although I'm not sure how given that he wasn't an amateur player). In spite of scoring in double digits for AC Milan in 3 consecutive seasons he was gradually forgotten and cast aside. He made an appearance against Real Madrid in both legs of the 1988-89 European Cup semifinals and the Iranian commentator summed up his situation very accurately by referring to van Basten and Gullit and saying نو که اومد به بازار کهنه میشه دل آزار.
.jpg)
Alan Smith (England) - In my teenage years during the late 80s and early 90s I would hardly see an Arsenal game where he hadn't scored. Looking at his stats between the 1985-86 season and 1991-92 season he scored 19, 20, 16, 25, 13, 27 and 17 goals in each season respectively and was twice the league's top scorer. I was happy to see him in the headlines when he scored the winner in the Cup Winners Cup final against Parma but his regular goal scoring seemed to go unnoticed. In spite of this he only received a handful of England caps (13) in which he scored 2 goals.
Tulio (Brazil) - After the 1994 World Cup he seemed to be the player that Brazil's national team was built around. He scored 13 goals in 15 games for Brazil and while he was still banging in the goals at club level he suddenly was cut from Brazil's national team after the Copa America (while he scored 67 club goals that year).
Paolo Virdis (Italy) - He might have been unlucky enough to his his peak late (almost 30) but nevertheless he was part of the dominant AC Milan team in the late 80s and the Serie A top scorer in the 1986-87 season. He never got called to the Italian national team although I was happy to see him represent Italy in the 1988 Olympics (although I'm not sure how given that he wasn't an amateur player). In spite of scoring in double digits for AC Milan in 3 consecutive seasons he was gradually forgotten and cast aside. He made an appearance against Real Madrid in both legs of the 1988-89 European Cup semifinals and the Iranian commentator summed up his situation very accurately by referring to van Basten and Gullit and saying نو که اومد به بازار کهنه میشه دل آزار.
Comment