Michael Laudrup: the forgotten genius

I expect most of us on TSR are of the generation where Michael Laudrup is just a manager, and were vaguely aware he was regarded as a successful player.

I kind of had the idea in my head that he was a Bergkamp or Scholes type talent: one who would be up with the best of his generation, but not quite a player that transcends eras as one of the all time elite in the Pele, Maradona class....

Then in the Inverting the Pyramid book I read this quote from Johan Cruyff:

"Had Michael been born in a poor ghetto in Brazil or Argentina with the ball being his only way out of poverty he would today be recognised as the biggest genius of the game ever. He had all the abilities to reach it but lacked this ghetto-instinct, which could have driven him there."

And then saw a series of other quotes from various players:

Andres Iniesta: "Who is the best player in history? Laudrup."
Raul: "The best I have ever played with"
Romario: "The best player I have ever played with and the 4th best in the history of the game"
Franz Beckenbauer: "Pele was the best in the 60s, Cruyff in the 70s, Maradona in the 80s and Laudrup in the 90s"
Luis Figo: "I think maybe Laudrup was the best player I ever played against"

So I thought....wow, lets check this guy out.

I know there are lots of great players on youtube montages but I have to say **** me, the guy was an utter genius, he's like an even more higher level version of Bergkamp, just look at the complete ease he has on the ball, the vision of his passing and the way he is not afraid to take on defenders and walk past them.

Reply 1

FKLW

Turned off after watching 1:00 of the same trick. ****.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Manchester United

He reminds me of Januzaj

Reply 3

jam278

Original post by FKLW

Turned off after watching 1:00 of the same trick. ****.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Ditto, what was that bull****.

Reply 4

sr90

Volunteer Team

Original post by MagicNMedicine

I expect most of us on TSR are of the generation where Michael Laudrup is just a manager, and were vaguely aware he was regarded as a successful player.

That statement alone makes me feel old! Remember both the Laudrup's playing in France 98, and his brother Brian had quite a forgettable spell at Chelsea around that time. Pretty sure one of them played for Rangers as well.

Wish I was a few years older so I could have appreciated 90's football a bit more :sad:

Reply 5

MagicNMedicine

Original post by sr90

Brian Laudrup was at Rangers at the same time as Gascoigne, it was an era where Scottish football could still attract blue chip players. Henrik Larsson was probably the last genuine elite player in Scotland but if you go back to the 90s and especially 80s there were some class acts there - especially in the days when Scotland produced its own greats like Souness and Dalglish plus Alex McLeish who was a top defender. Alex Ferguson managed Aberdeen to the European Cup Winners Cup.

Original post by sr90

Wish I was a few years older so I could have appreciated 90's football a bit more :sad:

I'm old enough to remember 90s football, I loved the era and in those pre-internet days me and my mates at school lived for Match of the Day, ITV Big Match and Sportsnight and the radio phone ins that we would all listen to and talk about the next day at school.

There were some great players and great characters back in the 90s but the game overall was probably not quite as good as it is today. There were some flaky players in the Premier League even at big clubs back then that wouldn't have cut it in the modern Premier League.

There were two things that were better back then than now. One is the quality of English strikers. We could churn out superb strikers, always had a surplus of them: Shearer, Sheringham, Fowler, Cole, Ferdinand, Collymore, Dublin. Nowadays you look at the list of English strikers and the class just isn't anywhere near that.

The other was the quality of English goalkeepers. David Seaman was top class, and there were guys like Nigel Martyn and Tim Flowers that were a cut above James, Green, Robinson and the guys that came later.