Why is Thuram so underrated?

Whenever i talk to a casual fan about the defensive greats of the last 20 years, he rarely gets mentioned. I always get Nesta, Cannavaro, Vidic, Ayala, Lucio, Rio Ferdinand, Stam, etc...

Not that some of those guys aren't deserving. But to me, Thuram was all the way at the top with Nesta and Ayala. Why do you think he's been forgotten? Won lot of trophies and played on top clubs too.

For me, Thuram is better than everyone except Nesta on that list. I think the reason Thuram is often underlooked is because he never was in a bright spotlight. Nesta had a controversial transfer to Milan along with a huge fee, Ferdinand is still the most expensive defender of all time, Cannavaro gave an amazing performance at the World Cup and won Balon D Or, Stam was the defensive lynchpin of Man Utd's treble winning team and had a notorious falling out with while Vidic and Lucio's best performances are fairly recent and so is fresh on everyone's memories. Thuram was amazing, he played his football quietly and had a legendary career. Respect to him.

Thuram is one of my fav player ever. you're right about him being underrated by casuals fans and M99 gave the reasons imo.

I don't think he is underrated . In Italy nobody does it ...

p.s. Ayala? lol  change him with W.Samuel

I think part of the reason was the amount of time he spent dominating the rightback position just as much as the centerback position later on in his career.

From that list, only Cannavaro and Nesta have a claim for being better than Thuram. I dont think anyone who knows italian football will ever underrate Thuram. Unbelieveable defender that was also a very good right back. Hes definitely an all time great, up there with the absolute best defenders ever such as Beckenbauer, Baresi, Maldini, Nesta, Cannavaro, Scirea, etc.

juventus101 wrote:From that list, only Cannavaro and Nesta have a claim for being better than Thuram. I dont think anyone who knows italian football will ever underrate Thuram. Unbelieveable defender that was also a very good right back. Hes definitely an all time great, up there with the absolute best defenders ever such as Beckenbauer, Baresi, Maldini, Nesta, Cannavaro, Scirea, etc.

i second that. Was up there with Cafu as the best RB in the world for best part of a decade and became an awesome CB after that.

btw, if you're talking about the the best CBs of the past 10-20 years, you're forgetting Desailly and Blanc from the list. Would probably rate them just behind Nesta and Cannavaro (only because i didn't see much of them ).

Desailly moved to CB once he got older and lost his elite speed and mobility, but even at that stage, he was better than Cannavero in my book.

Beh  I preferred Thuram ( to Cannavaro) , and I am Italian .

Thuram scored the epic 2 goals in WC semis though... never scored before or again for NT. You'd think people would at least remember that lol.

98 Nt defense was ridiculous

Thuram-Blanc-Dessailly-Lizerazu

Barthez as keeper and Deschamps-Petit in front. Nobody scored on that lol.

sportsczy wrote:Thuram scored the epic 2 goals in WC semis though... never scored before or again for NT.  You'd think people would at least remember that lol.

Yeah but France was supposed to be 10 scrubs + Zidane. Or so they say.

sportsczy wrote:98 Nt defense was ridiculous

Thuram-Blanc-Dessailly-Lizerazu

Barthez as keeper and Deschamps-Petit in front.  Nobody scored on that lol.

Ridicolous ? Are you serious?

Robespierre wrote:

sportsczy wrote:98 Nt defense was ridiculous

Thuram-Blanc-Dessailly-Lizerazu

Barthez as keeper and Deschamps-Petit in front.  Nobody scored on that lol.

Ridicolous ? Are you serious?

He means ridiculous in a good way (as in the defence was so great it is laughable) rather than what I would say is the only correct meaning of the word - to describe something worthy of ridicule.

For me it's always been Nesta, Thuram, and Maldini as the top 3 defenders of the past 20 years. It wasn't even up for debate really.

McAgger wrote:For me it's always been Nesta, Thuram, and Maldini as the top 3 defenders of the past 20 years. It wasn't even up for debate really.

Baresi says hello.

futbol wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Thuram scored the epic 2 goals in WC semis though... never scored before or again for NT.  You'd think people would at least remember that lol.

Yeah but France was supposed to be 10 scrubs + Zidane. Or so they say.

On the attack, pretty much. Zidane got a red card in pool and ended up missing 2 games though. Came up with an epic final, which is all anyone's going to remember. But the defense not only conceded just 1 goal the entire tournament... they also scored 4 lol.

sportsczy wrote:

futbol wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Thuram scored the epic 2 goals in WC semis though... never scored before or again for NT.  You'd think people would at least remember that lol.

Yeah but France was supposed to be 10 scrubs + Zidane. Or so they say.

 On the attack, pretty much.  Zidane got a red card in pool and ended up missing 2 games though.  Came up with an epic final, which is all anyone's going to remember.  But the defense not only conceded just 1 goal the entire tournament... they also scored 4 lol.

best defence in wc history iirc. joint top with spain in 10 i think

sportsczy wrote:

futbol wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Thuram scored the epic 2 goals in WC semis though... never scored before or again for NT.  You'd think people would at least remember that lol.

Yeah but France was supposed to be 10 scrubs + Zidane. Or so they say.

 On the attack, pretty much.  Zidane got a red card in pool and ended up missing 2 games though.  Came up with an epic final, which is all anyone's going to remember.  But the defense not only conceded just 1 goal the entire tournament... they also scored 4 lol.

yes, that was a "team victory" , while on the contrary if the Brazil won  it would have been a " one man show " victory, the Brazil exclusively depended on Ronaldo , dominant player as anyone that year .
Zidane was fantastic in final , but in the whole competition he had a " good " performance , not so superior to the rest of the team essentially .
You remember, rightly, Thuram .. but I remember also the Golden Goal scored by Laurent Blanc against Paraguay ( Round of 16) ... in quarter finals France tied 0-0 against Italy and it won "only" after penalties , and yes I remember well... then Thuram in semi-finals against Croatia... and " only" in final Zidane

While in Germany 2006 France was totally  a Zidane -centric team , nothing to say about

Forza wrote:

Robespierre wrote:

sportsczy wrote:98 Nt defense was ridiculous

Thuram-Blanc-Dessailly-Lizerazu

Barthez as keeper and Deschamps-Petit in front.  Nobody scored on that lol.

Ridicolous ? Are you serious?

He means ridiculous in a good way (as in the defence was so great it is laughable) rather than what I would say is the only correct meaning of the word - to describe something worthy of ridicule.

ah ok , I thought he belittled those three defenders so as to enhance Thuram : D

Actually, because you had Thuram, Dessailly with Deschamps covering... Blanc attacked a ton in that WC. Scored big goals. Lizerazu bombed the attack with little worry too.