briarfish wrote:I didn't say that Raul is not a good player, just not as great as Batigol.

Greatness is subjective, Batigol was ofcourse special and has a romantic vibe about him for football lovers but that does not mean he is a level above Raul, who is quite underrated nowadays, although him being quite poor for most of his last seasons in Spain is one of the major reason as younger generation dont remember the guy who was known as Raul Madrid. Raul at his peak(97-03) was a world class player, that was the period when Madrid won three champions leagues and few leagues and Raul was the man of that team. Talented, hard working, intelligent and a very consistent and clutch performer
the main lad of that team.
[/quote]I can image that Batigol could be chosen for something like "european team of the year" or "south american team of decade/all times" as a starter back in his prime, but I strongly doubt if Raul could be chosen for a list like that.

Please correct me if I'm wrong![/quote]
Raul would be in UCL team of all time with ease to start of and was in the team of Euro 2000 in real, and was in the team of the year list of many reputed magazines for few more years. Was Ballon Dor second in 2001, when he should have won over Owen.
And Bati himself would find it tough to find himself named in alltime South American teams when there were attackers like Rivelino, Sivori, Pedernera, Scarone, Erico, Jairzinho etc and I am not talking about big guys like Moreno, Zizzinho, Leonidas da Silva, Rivaldo, Pele, Maradona, Zico, Di Stefano, Messi, Romario, Ronaldo, Schaiffino.

Anyways if I had to choose one from the two name presented in this thread, I would go for Bati ofcourse!!!

There was a period were I thought it was Ronaldo & Batistuta were the best strikers in the world... there was another period were I thought likewise about Henry & Raul.

In other words, Raul & Batistuta at there best were as good as anyone in the world (for their position that is, Zidane was the best player of course)