The greatest world cup midfielders ever? Good luck surviving that argument. Some controlled matches like chess grandmasters, others played football as if basic tactical structure was a personal insult. Zidane takes top spot ahead of Iniesta and Xavi, though leaving out names like Michel Platini will absolutely cause outrage somewhere in France within the next five minutes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nMidfield is football\u2019s most impossible role to rank properly because midfielders are asked to do everything. Defend, create, control, dictate tempo, score and assist goals, rescue managers from their own terrible tactical ideas and occasionally cover for a right back who\u2019s wandered off spiritually sometime around the 60th minute.
Zinedine Zidane<\/h2>\n\n\n\n Some footballers dominate games physically. Zinedine Zidane dominated them spiritually. At his peak, time itself seemed to bend in his favour, matches slowing to accommodate his laconic style. Carlo Ancelotti believed him to be the most technically able footballer of all time. Players closed him down in desperation only to discover they had been pursuing a ghost, while Zidane moved on, carrying with him an ethereal air of quiet, almost weary superiority.
“Sometimes I don\u2019t know what takes me over during a game. Sometimes I just feel I have moved to a different place and I can make the pass, score the goal or go past my marker at will” – Nowhere was that clearer than the 2006 World Cup quarter-final against Brazil, a side boasting not only Ronaldo but Ronaldinho and Kak\u00e1 at their very peak. And yet it is a game remembered solely for Zizou operating on a different plane entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n