Rank the most talented WC squads of all time

Has NOTHING to do with how successful they were. Just pure talent and how stacked the teams were. Based on that, it makes sense to factor in the current WC as well.

For me:

France '98
Brazil 2006
England 2006
Spain 2010
Italy '94
Belgium '18
France '18


Some underrated teams for me would be Senegal in 2002, Ghana in 2010, South Korea in 2002, Bulgaria '94


These are all in my lifetime btw. Maybe some of you can point out squads from the 70's or 80's. They're either not in my lifetime or I was too young to know and I'm currently too lazy to look up how good every player on their teams were. The ones I listed I can remember from memory.

Italy 2002 was the best Italy squad of my lifetime

Luca wrote:Italy 2002 was the best Italy squad of my lifetime

How does it compare to 2006?

If we're not going by success, Brazil 82 has to be in. Remove England 06 and remove Italy 94 shouldn't even get a mention...that was primarily baggie. West Germany 86 and 90 was a beastly squad too. Also France in 02 has to be in, had epl top scorer in Henry serie a top scorer in trezegol and ligue un top scorer cisse on the bench....obviously we're not going by success

Italy 02 vs Italy 06 is tough. In 06 they were much deeper. In 02 they had more talented forwards in their primes. 06 is probably one of the deepest teams at the world cup alongside Spain in 2010

Socur Toxanarosa wrote:

Luca wrote:Italy 2002 was the best Italy squad of my lifetime

How does it compare to 2006?

Beyond stacked in attack and defense, weaker in midfield (basically just because of Pirlo).

Buffon, Toldo, Maldini, Zambrotta, Nesta, Cannavaro, Panucci, Iuliano, Materazzi, Zanetti, Di Biagio, Tommasi, Gattuso, Totti, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Vieri, Montella, etc.

The 06 in terms of talent was just as high, but some of the forwards were past their prime. The team played great as it was perfectly balanced with the addition of prime Pirlo and upcoming De Rossi, and managed by the GOAT.

Belgium 2018

argentina 1998

Carlos Roa (gk)
Germán Burgos (gk)
Pablo Cavallero (gk)

Roberto Ayala (df)
José Chamot (df)
Mauricio Pineda (df)
Roberto Néstor Sensini (df)
Pablo Paz (df)
Nelson Vivas (df)
Javier Zanetti (df)

Matías Almeyda (mf)
Diego Simeone (mf)
Ariel Ortega (mf)
Juan Sebastián Verón (mf)
Leonardo Astrada (mf)
Sergio Berti (mf)
Marcelo Gallardo (mf)

Gabriel Batistuta (fw)
Claudio López (fw)
Abel Balbo (fw)
Hernán Crespo (fw)
Marcelo Delgado (fw)

argentina 2002

Germán Burgos (gk)
Pablo Cavallero (gk)
Roberto Bonano (gk)

Roberto Ayala (df)
Juan Pablo Sorín (df)
Mauricio Pochettino (df)
Walter Samuel (df)
Javier Zanetti (df)
Diego Placente (df)
José Chamot (df)

Matías Almeyda (mf)
Ariel Ortega (mf)
Juan Sebastián Verón (mf)
Diego Simeone (mf)
Claudio Husaín (mf)
Pablo Aimar (mf)
Gustavo López (mf)
Kily González (mf)
Marcelo Gallardo (mf)

Claudio López (fw)
Gabriel Batistuta (fw)
Hernán Crespo (fw)
Claudio Caniggia (fw)

argentina 2006

Roberto Abbondanzieri (gk)
Leo Franco (gk)
Óscar Ustari (gk)

Roberto Ayala (df)
Juan Pablo Sorín (df)
Fabricio Coloccini (df)
Gabriel Heinze (df)
Lionel Scaloni (df)
Gabriel Milito (df)
Leandro Cufré (df)
Nicolás Burdisso (df)

Esteban Cambiasso (mf)
Javier Mascherano (mf)
Juan Román Riquelme (mf)
Pablo Aimar (mf)
Maxi Rodríguez (mf)
Lucho González (mf)

Javier Saviola (fw)
Hernán Crespo (fw)
Carlos Tevez (fw)
Rodrigo Palacio (fw)
Lionel Messi (fw)
Julio Cruz (fw)

Warrior wrote:Belgium 2018

Hazard, De Bruyne, Mertens, Lukaku, Dembele, Vertonghen, Courtois, etc isn't an insane crop of talent to you? Keep in mind a good number of these players are probably going to retire as greats.

France 2002 (the most talented and catastrophic squad of all time)

GK Ulrich Ramé
DF Vincent Candela
DF Bixente Lizarazu
MF Patrick Vieira
DF Philippe Christanval
MF Youri Djorkaeff
MF Claude Makélélé
DF Marcel Desailly (c)
FW Djibril Cissé
MF Zinedine Zidane
FW Sylvain Wiltord
FW Thierry Henry
DF Mikaël Silvestre
MF Alain Boghossian
DF Lilian Thuram
GK Fabien Barthez
MF Emmanuel Petit
DF Frank Leboeuf
DF Willy Sagnol
FW David Trezeguet
FW Christophe Dugarry
MF Johan Micoud
GK Grégory Coupet

Zidane was injured... but even then, believe it or not, this team didn't score single goal in the WC.... this after walking through the confed club a year earlier, being the title holding WC and Euro team AND having lost 1 game in 4 years all comps + friendlies.

It was an epic disaster lol.

The Netherlands of Cruyff and Van Basten both belong on there. Along with the Germany (West Germany back then) of Beckenbauer, the Brazil of Pele and the Italy team of Gianni Rivera.

Spain 2002 was actually really good despite the obvious collapse. I'm liking the Italy 2002/Italy 2006 comparison, yikes, checked out my WC book I have and totally forgot how good of a squad 2002 Italy was. No wonder brother Rincon, Lucas and fellow Madridista Robes depressed.

England 1990 was also pretty stacked with quality, see also Holland 98, quality all over in that squad too. Reading up on the Yugoslavia squad 1990 was legit nice, shame they lost to Argentina.

Italy and France 2002 were insane honestly. Filled with legends.

McLewis wrote:Italy and France 2002 were insane honestly. Filled with legends.

Can't believe I ommitted them. Especially France. Insane squad. Funny how the most stacked teams tend to underwhelm. Brazil should have won it in 2006 tbh. They had peak Adriano, Kaka and Ronaldinho.

Blue Barrett wrote:

Warrior wrote:Belgium 2018

Hazard, De Bruyne, Mertens, Lukaku, Dembele, Vertonghen, Courtois, etc isn't an insane crop of talent to you? Keep in mind a good number of these players are probably going to retire as greats.

Only Hazard and De Bruyne are world-class talents off that list. For the rest you can find players of the same caliber (if not better) in most top teams at this tournament such as Spain, Germany, Brazil, France

To me no it isn't a "insane" crop of talent but it sure is a decent one. Lacks the ninja tho.

Blue Barrett wrote:

McLewis wrote:Italy and France 2002 were insane honestly. Filled with legends.

Can't believe I ommitted them. Especially France. Insane squad. Funny how the most stacked teams tend to underwhelm. Brazil should have won it in 2006 tbh. They had peak Adriano, Kaka and Ronaldinho.

I wasn't even watching international football when the 02 WC was happening, but both France and Italy going out with arguably the largest assembly of legendary talent in the game's history makes me feel much better about that. My own country even got to the Semis and I still CBA at that time.

2006 Brazil was indeed a ridiculously great team. France beating them was quite the surprise. Zidane was on a mission though.

i don't think spain in 02 was all that, i mean they had some good players but nah, i wouldn't put them in. brazil in 06 , how could i forget, really tough squad. their second team on paper could handle some tough teams, i forgot about them, thanks mclewis. germany in 06 . all argentina squads since 98 onwards have been good (probably except this one) despite the narrative being thrown out there of late- especially from a forward standpoint. their 06 squad was deep

Winning is rarely about the most talented group of players though no? Its always been more important to have the balanced and effective team. I remember everyone rating Brazil 2006 and they were by far the favourites, but I always thought it was so imbalanced. Problem with France even through those dominating years was they werent able to score a lot. 98 they had an average striker, and on and off Henry, Anelka, Trezequet, etc. werent consistently producing goals for the NT.

Spain 2010 wasnt great at scoring but they had balance as well as talent. Xaviesta with Senna bossing the midfield. Young Silva roaming around, Torres doing the dirty work, with Villa being the scorer. The defense was good enough. Since Villa aged and left they struggled for goals. Just goes to show how important it is just to have one or two pieces missing from a perfect team.

Talent wise the current Belgium and France teams are very high, but they need to find the right effective balance.

1. Brazil 2002
.
.
.
2. Spain 2010.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
3. Others.

Belgium this year ain't nowhere near all time most talented. Not even the most talented squad in the tournament, let alone past squads from top countries.

Italy 94 to 06, Brazil 02-06, France 98-06 & 18, England 02-06, Spain 10-18... Croatia 18

rincon wrote:Belgium this year ain't nowhere near all time most talented. Not even the most talented squad in the tournament, let alone past squads from top countries.

Italy 94 to 06, Brazil 02-06, France 98-06 & 18, England 02-06, Spain 10-18... Croatia 18

No German team? Seems a little odd, let alone your inclusion of England & Croatia. If you are listing 2018, you have to include Brasil.

France 2002 was stacked as shit too.

I rated also this NT

@Firenze @Mole @RG @Jay @Unique