Nobody knew back then. There were lots of young players with enormous potential who wasted their careers or underperformed. In 2006 Messi was only one of those. A potential to be fulfilled. And no one expected that it will happen so well (with so few injuries).

Cruyff, Di Stefano or Zidane

That’s an excellent question. I still think it would be Spain. They simply had a playing style in 2010 that was too dominant and also had their golden generation and the confidence that came with that. Germany had improved since 2010 but I still think it might not be enough.

Football is a team sport. Names and clubs are important but never as important as the strength of an actual unit. You can have 11 Messi’s on the field but if you don’t know how to make a real team out of them, their potential will be wasted. If Norway had the talent of France or England they could just wing teams like Scotland with crappy team unity or bad tactics. But they only have really two good players. They need to have their team working well and they simply don’t.

They are still a very young team and their peak will come around WC 2026–EC 2028. Also, beyond really two good players, the rest of the team is very bland. Football is a team sport and you need a team to function as a unit above all. The 1-2 big names will not do it alone. Their time will come.

He is a great footballer but dull as it gets. He had maybe 10 percent the personality of Diego.

Yes, it’s been dead since about Zidane days…mainly because football has become a lot faster and 10 no longer has that time they use to. They become a tackling liability. However, football does evolve itself. It will be back in some form sooner or later.