How many countries in the world have a footballer as their best ever male sportsman?

[GNU_Linux]

3 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

Is Eritrea the one that withdrew from international competitions for a bit because their footballers kept claiming asylum?

Eswatini - this boy is the best I can find with a handful of African games medals in the marathon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mabuza

10 players granted asylum in Botswana after a WC qualifier in 2015.

12 players were granted asylum in Kenya in 2009. Eleven of the 12 wound in Australia with two of them Samuel Tesfagabr & Ambes Sium signing professional contracts with the now defunct Gold Coast United of the A-League.

 

[Marten]

3 hours ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

Is Eritrea the one that withdrew from international competitions for a bit because their footballers kept claiming asylum?

Not very surprising really as according to "Reporters without Borders" they rank bottom in their "Freedom index", making them the only country to be ranked below North Korea...

[Miguel Sanchez]

Faroe Islands aren't up to much, unsurprisingly. Fróði Benjaminsen - Wikipedia is their most-capped player and has won Faroese player of the year more times than anyone else with 4, so he wins.

Outside of football they don't compete in lots of sports because they're not always recognised as their own country. Helgi Dam Ziska - Wikipedia is the only Faroese chess grandmaster ever. Torkil Nielsen - Wikipedia is a former footballer and chess player, which is an interesting combo. I'm tempted to go for Ziska over Benjaminsen here, since I think the level he's reached in chess is more impressive.

Fiji have a few established footballers at international level, which is probably to be expected as one of the larger pacific islands. Roy Krishna - Wikipedia has the most caps, is very close to having the most goals and should have a few years left in his career to extend those.

Fiji's best ever sportsman is probably a rugby player, so I'll let someone who knows about rugby tell us who.

Finland's best ever footballer is Jari Litmanen - Wikipedia

I asked my Finnish web-pal to rank the Finnish men, and he gave me this order:

1. Paavo Nurmi - Wikipedia
2. Tommi Mäkinen - Wikipedia
3. Mika Häkkinen - Wikipedia
4. Litmanen
5. Jari Kurri - Wikipedia
6. Teemu Selänne - Wikipedia

Seems reasonable to me. 

France's best ever footballer is Zinedine Zidane - Wikipedia. Old people might argue Michel Platini - Wikipedia but Zidane gets my vote. 

France have one of the longest lists of success in other sports so I'm going to pick out what I think/can work out as the best for each. If anyone has any other suggestions or a preference, fire away.

Bernard Hinault - Wikipedia won 5 Tours de France, 3 Italian and 2 Spanish Tours de France.

Henri Cochet - Wikipedia won 4 French Opens, 2 Wimbledons and 1 US Open in tennis. René Lacoste - Wikipedia won 3 French, 2 Wimbledon and 2 US.

Serge Blanco - Wikipedia was called the Pele of rugby by French fans so... him?

Tony Parker - Wikipedia won 4 NBA titles, an assortment of individual awards and a European championship for France.

Alain Prost - Wikipedia won the Formula 1 world championship 4 times.

Sébastien Loeb - Wikipedia won the World Rally Championship 9 times, Sébastien Ogier - Wikipedia has won it 7 times.

Nikola Karabatić - Wikipedia was named world handball player of the year three times, and France is the most successful handball nation ever.

Jean-Claude Killy - Wikipedia won shitloads of medals and championships in skiing. 

Do any of them compare to Zidane or Platini?

[Brummie Clyde]

I think Valery Karpin is Estonian, but only played for Russia

[Marshmallo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hackenschmidt 

This guy is interesting for Estonia. Inventor of the squat, professional strongman and the first ever recognised pro wrestling world champion.

[DiegoDiego]

Karabatić is a match fixer.

[sparky88]

Seems to me that people discount other countries' most successful Olympians. With that in mind I would suggest Martin Fourcade for France - three time Olympic gold medal winner in biathlon. Still think Zidane beats his achievement but might not in a few more winter Olympics. 

[Nightmare]

3 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Fiji's best ever sportsman is probably a rugby player, so I'll let someone who knows about rugby tell us who.

Vijay Singh, surely.

3 major wins and spent a decent amount of time at #1 in the world.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Faroe Islands aren't up to much, unsurprisingly. Fróði Benjaminsen - Wikipedia is their most-capped player and has won Faroese player of the year more times than anyone else with 4, so he wins.
Outside of football they don't compete in lots of sports because they're not always recognised as their own country. Helgi Dam Ziska - Wikipedia is the only Faroese chess grandmaster ever. Torkil Nielsen - Wikipedia is a former footballer and chess player, which is an interesting combo. I'm tempted to go for Ziska over Benjaminsen here, since I think the level he's reached in chess is more impressive.
Fiji have a few established footballers at international level, which is probably to be expected as one of the larger pacific islands. Roy Krishna - Wikipedia has the most caps, is very close to having the most goals and should have a few years left in his career to extend those.
Fiji's best ever sportsman is probably a rugby player, so I'll let someone who knows about rugby tell us who.
Finland's best ever footballer is Jari Litmanen - Wikipedia
I asked my Finnish web-pal to rank the Finnish men, and he gave me this order:
1. Paavo Nurmi - Wikipedia
2. Tommi Mäkinen - Wikipedia
3. Mika Häkkinen - Wikipedia
4. Litmanen
5. Jari Kurri - Wikipedia
6. Teemu Selänne - Wikipedia
Seems reasonable to me. 
France's best ever footballer is Zinedine Zidane - Wikipedia. Old people might argue Michel Platini - Wikipedia but Zidane gets my vote. 
France have one of the longest lists of success in other sports so I'm going to pick out what I think/can work out as the best for each. If anyone has any other suggestions or a preference, fire away.
Bernard Hinault - Wikipedia won 5 Tours de France, 3 Italian and 2 Spanish Tours de France.
Henri Cochet - Wikipedia won 4 French Opens, 2 Wimbledons and 1 US Open in tennis. René Lacoste - Wikipedia won 3 French, 2 Wimbledon and 2 US.
Serge Blanco - Wikipedia was called the Pele of rugby by French fans so... him?
Tony Parker - Wikipedia won 4 NBA titles, an assortment of individual awards and a European championship for France.
Alain Prost - Wikipedia won the Formula 1 world championship 4 times.
Sébastien Loeb - Wikipedia won the World Rally Championship 9 times, Sébastien Ogier - Wikipedia has won it 7 times.
Nikola Karabatić - Wikipedia was named world handball player of the year three times, and France is the most successful handball nation ever.
Jean-Claude Killy - Wikipedia won shitloads of medals and championships in skiing. 
Do any of them compare to Zidane or Platini?

I'm an old person.

Platini > Zidane

[DeeTillEhDeh]

France - for rugby there's a better option than Blanco - Jean-Pierre Rives - one of the greatest openside flankers of all time.

[Raidernation]

Fontaine > Platini > Zidane
But IMHO a multiple winner of Le Tour is ahead of them all.

[Guest TheJTS98]

12 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Do any of them compare to Zidane or Platini?

Not disputing their greatness, but it's interesting how relatively little both won at club level.

I say relatively, so hear me out.

Each of them only won three league titles in their career and one European Cup. Platini also won a Cup Winners' Cup, and Zidane was a UEFA Cup runner-up.

Obviously, compared to 99% of footballers in the world those are excellent careers, but it's not Ryan Giggs. It's not even Gary Neville.

As I said, I'm not disputing that either was incredible, just find it interesting how relatively little both won as club players. Both tremendous players for France, obviously.

Edited August 7, 2021 by TheJTS98

[sparky88]

13 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

I'm an old person.

Platini > Zidane

If this makes you feel worse I read a BBC article where, to paraphrase, they said 'many readers might just think of Zidane as a football manager, but he was actually at one point one of the best footballers in the world'. 

Zidane being the manager of Real Madrid is probably one of the least interesting things about his career.

7 hours ago, Raidernation said:

Fontaine > Platini > Zidane
But IMHO a multiple winner of Le Tour is ahead of them all.

This argument gets completely blown apart unless you argue that Chris Froome is the best sportsmen the UK (Kenya?) Has ever produced. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

9 hours ago, TheJTS98 said:

Not disputing their greatness, but it's interesting how relatively little both won at club level.

I say relatively, so hear me out.

Each of them only won three league titles in their career and one European Cup. Platini also won a Cup Winners' Cup, and Zidane was a UEFA Cup runner-up.

Obviously, compared to 99% of footballers in the world those are excellent careers, but it's not Ryan Giggs. It's not even Gary Neville.

As I said, I'm not disputing that either was incredible, just find it interesting how relatively little both won as club players. Both tremendous players for France, obviously.

I think the way top level European football's gone over the past 10-15 years makes their achievements seem a bit less impressive than they are. The consolidation of wealth and players in teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG... over the past decade or so means these elite players are going to be there for a few years, they're going to dominate a domestic league and probably win a few European trophies. I know ZIdane was at Madrid during the Galacticos era but even then, football wasn't really comparable to where it is now.

I am enjoying some quotes from Zidane's wikipedia page though:

Quote

In 1995, Blackburn Rovers manager Kenny Dalglish had expressed interest in signing both Zidane and Dugarry, to which club owner Jack Walker reportedly replied, "Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?"

Quote

Also towards the beginning of the 1996 season, according to football agent Barry Silkman, Zidane was offered to Newcastle United for £1.2 million, but the club turned down the offer after watching him, claiming that he was not good enough for the English First Division.

Quote

He lost in the 1997 UEFA Champions League Final 3–1 to Borussia Dortmund when he was unable to make an impression against the close marking of Paul Lambert.

 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Fontaine > Platini > Zidane
But IMHO a multiple winner of Le Tour is ahead of them all.

What about Bernard Hinault?

5 wins in the Tour de France.

3 wins in the Giro.

2 wins in the Vuelta.

42 stage wins in those e Grand Tours.

World Road Race Champion.

I could go on.

[Mark Connolly]

For Fiji, Waisale Serevi is still regarded as one of, if not the greatest 7s players of all time.

Vijay Singh won 3 Majors, but is also one of the greatest exponents of the magic pencil.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Gabon's best ever footballer is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - Wikipedia

Anthony Obame - Wikipedia won a world championship gold and Olympic silver in taekwondo, but it's an easy win for the footballer.

Gambia's best footballer seems to be Omar Colley - Wikipedia who currently plays for Sampdoria and has played for Genk in the past. After qualifying for the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 2021 their squad seems to mostly be playing at that middling sort of level in Europe, so it's better than some of the African offerings we've had lately.

Their best non-footballer now represents Norway in athletics, but with a bronze medal in the 100m in the 2004 African championships, step up Jaysuma Saidy Ndure - Wikipedia. Second to the footballer.

Georgia is a surprisingly close battle with an even more surprisingly Scottish influence. Is it Shota Arveladze - Wikipedia? Temur Ketsbaia - Wikipedia? Georgi Kinkladze - Wikipedia? Kakha Kaladze - Wikipedia? My vote is probably for Kaladze, since he played for Milan when they won several European trophies.

Their best non-footballer seems to be from the weightlifting or combat sport field, and Lasha Talakhadze - Wikipedia has absolutely dominated weightlifting in his career so far. This is a fairly close one imo, here we have someone who is considered the best weightlifter ever, and he's only 27. Is that more impressive than Kaladze's career? I think it might be.

Germany... oh for f**k sake. We've not even decided France yet. Schumacher beats Beckenbauer imo, but I'll let everyone argue about it for a few days.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Beckenbauer for me, easily. F1 is shite. 

[bluearmyfaction]

Schumacher ahead of Beckenbauer.

But, to the cognoscenti, Caracciola ahead of Schumacher.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Gerd Muller ahead of any of them IMO.