7 Greatest Centre-Backs Since 2000

Phil Jones's ball-winning ballplayers, sweepers and

centre

-

backs

come in different shapes and sizes and are the foundations on which all great teams are built - the famous Liverpool team of the 1980s in which Alan Hanson and Martin lawrenson could rely on Claudio Gentile's 1982 Italian World Cup winners Giuseppe bagomi and Gaetano sharaya and that Evelyn's Euro 88 winners were blessed with a fantastic partnership, a guard of Frank Wright and Ronald Coleman forget about those old beans for now, although we've already covered them in a series similar to this one on the seven best players at all positions of all time now we turn our attention to the last 23 years, although since the turn of the millennium in the third video of this series you could be forgiven for thinking that I had forgotten about this series given that It's been two and a half months since the last video on right

backs

, but the reality is that these videos don't get as many views as the usual ones and I don't know yes you may have noticed, but inflation is absolutely through the roof, as always, feel free to start with the goalkeepers 7 if you haven't seen it yet, where I explain the criteria in more detail, but all candidates and inclusions are based on the quality and quantity of the performances of each player only since January 1.

2000

, obviously with a lot of subjectivity, since it's just me interpreting those two data points.

Lauren Blanc, for example, was still a very good center in

2000

, but she was past her prime and retired in 2003. She didn't even make my shortlist, while Kim Minjai was among the best center backs in Europe. last season, but it was also his first season playing in a top European league, meaning it's too early to even consider it. Hopefully it all makes sense, so without further ado, who was a striker of course, here are, in my opinion and in my opinion, only the seven best center backs in the world since 2000. The seventh Fabio Canavaro, the only center back since 2000 who he is a Ballon d'Or winner and one of only three defenders to have won the prestigious award, although there will inevitably be someone in the comments claiming that means he should come first;

That's not the criteria, of course, I promise you there will still be someone. but cannavaro was indeed a magnificent

centre

-back, the shortest inclusion in these seven cannavaro was only five feet nine inches tall and I suppose he still does, but what he lacked in height he more than made up for in terms of his strength and intelligence deceptively. The quick Canavaro was studious at researching his opponents, brilliant at disrupting a striker's flow and a master at reading the game. There is no doubt that the 2000-0006 World Cup was his Magnum departure, where he inspired an immensely talented but largely unattractive Italy team that followed Caltropolis.

Scandal to his fourth world crown against Caltropolis Caravaro scandal after Juventus and before Napoli Palmer and Inter Milan followed Fabio Capello to Real Madrid three years later he returned to UVA and a year later he retired in the United Arab Emirates Cannavaro's immense peak, who was as impressive as almost anyone else in this Seven Twin with his Sublime all-round skill set, secured him a place in this Seven, but the fact that his first seven years of football were left out of our post-2000 mandate and the The fact that it withdrew in 2011 means it could only be our sixth of initial inclusion.

John Terry, one of the best centre-backs in terms of pure defensive fundamentals in the entire history of the sport. John Terry seemed to have been born with a defensive sixth. Sense and reading of the game, although most centre-backs are not fully perfected until they are in their 20s and 30s, if ever, which immediately made him a Starman for Chelsea just before the start of the 2000s, where he learned from one of the best in the business in the form of his central defender partner Marcel Desai When Desai left Chelsea in 2004, although Terry was still only 23, Chelsea's incoming manager José Mourinho , appointed him as the new captain of the club Terry Captain Chelsea for the next 13 years during On that occasion he lifted 16 trophies, sometimes even when he had not even played in the final, in addition to his masterful positioning and reading of the game, Terry was great, strong, formidable in the air in both areas and an inspiring figure to many in the Chelsea dressing room.

Although it would seem a stretch to call Terry a central defensive player, as it was off the ball where he really flourished. He was also more than capable of playing precise diagonal balls on both flanks. Terry became the Pro World 11 thief five times, which is the second most for any centre-back, and the fact that his career from 1998 to 2018 falls almost entirely within the jurisdiction of our time meant it was always likely that featuring his centre-back partnership with Ricardo Carvalho is probably the most defensive. solid in Premier League history and his Portuguese accomplice is also on the shortlist for these seven, but we'll get to the honorable mentions later in the fifth Rio Ferdinand Rio Ferdinand is an idiot, sorry but someone had to say it . so is John Terry, if we're being completely honest, but that doesn't change the fact that they were both extremely talented centre-backs.

I mean, no one suggested Alfie do it, but you still called them idiots for no reason by having these two. So close together in these seven will inevitably lead to debate and some controversy in the comments, but I have no doubt at least that Rio Ferdinand was at least a more talented footballer than his long-time England team-mate and could well be I would push him to call him a comrade, in fact, despite being one of the most decorated English footballers of all time, I would go so far as to say that, with his talent, Ferdinand arguably should have been in the top three of these seven in his career defense. began in 1996 with his great campaign in the 1997-98 season, which are three full years of football that we are forced to ignore and they are three years, it must be said, between 18 and 21 years in which Ferdinand was already an absolute international with England.

Ferdinand was blessed in more ways than one, a tremendous athlete, he was big, strong and fast, the brilliant ones are organizing a defensive line, he was not impulsive and positionally he was rarely found on the ball, he was England's best centre-back In at least the last 30 years, able to come out of defence, beat players and pick out a pass, Ferdinand made more appearances in the PFA Team of the Year, six times more than any other Premier League centre-back, and I found it almost impossible to divide him and the man. I suspect in the next quarter, Tiago Silva, this might be a controversial view, partly due to recency bias, but I actually think Rio Ferdinand probably had a better sense of action than Thiago Silva if he could only take one of them at their absolute peak. he chose Ferdinand because there was practically nothing he couldn't do, the reason why Thiago's silver is one place ahead of Fernand and then in fourth place they are double.

Firstly, he is much younger, meaning his entire career falls within the relevant time period since 2000, and secondly, his longevity. All of the players in these seven had impressive longevity, otherwise they would not have appeared. , but none were as impressive at 38 years old as Thiago Silva is right now, just a month into next season he will turn 39 and it would take a brave man. betting against him playing until he was 40 notably Silvera actually retired from football in 2000 5 when he was 21 and almost died from a nasty bout of tuberculosis while contracted to Dinamo Moscow Silvera just had a failed season in the Porto and never played for Dinamo, but his mother convinced him to give football a second chance and the rest, as they say, is history.

Silva's career was reborn with Fluminense before returning to Europe with AC Milan in 2012 he joined PSG where he would spend the next eight seasons becoming one of the club's players. soldiers with all-time record appearances, they are a fairly new club when Chelsea signed Silva, who was already 30 years old in the summer of 2020, few could have anticipated Kia's role and how much football he would play for them and last season he won both . the Chelsea Player of the Year and the Chelsea players' Player of the Year awards, although you know, there wasn't much competition, an excellent silver player was once very fast and is still relatively fast, he is a remarkable athlete, tenacious in his defensive duties, a born leader and Incredibly composed on the ball, speaks to the caliber of the centre-backs, then only in fourth place, third, Alessandro Nesta, if we consider that Paolo Maldini is a left-back, which we are a the effects of this series and we recognize that Franco.

Barazi retired shortly after I was born. I would say that Alessandro Nesta is the most talented center back of my life. In fact, even including Barazi, I think that claim could still be made among the most aesthetically pure centre-backs who ever lived. I have played the game Nesta May defending seemed like it was second nature, he was fast and infernally strong having started as a defender but rarely required his athleticism to get out of trouble, instead Nestor dispossessed his opponents with all the subtlety of a teacher. He would sometimes pickpocket without even realizing what had really happened.

Nestor could be tenacious and aggressive in the tackle when he wanted to, formidable in the air, as graceful as a dancer with a ball at her feet and as precise as most playmakers in the past, in short then. There was nothing he couldn't do and there was virtually nothing he didn't win, be it Saria, the Champions League or the World Cup, so why doesn't Nestor rank well at the top? That's only because he started his career in 1994. So he had six years of football outside our realm and from the mid-2000s onwards he suffered from chronic injury problems.

However, Néstor did not retire until he was 38 years old. He had about 11 years old Football Post 2000 and his peak was as good as anyone's, so third is second Carlos Puyol, only a fool would say that Carlos Puyol was as talented as Alessandro Nesta, but there are several key factors in relation With this series that they have in his favor to begin with, he broke into the Barcelona first team. in the 1999-2000 season enjoying an excellent debut campaign right at the beginning of our relevant time period, then there is the fact that, unlike Nestor, he suffered very few serious injuries, the 2010-11 season was the campaign with more injuries to Puyol, save for his final season and He still played 27 times as Barcelona won the trip, the end result is that Puyol played a lot more football at the highest level after 2000 and, although he may not have been as classy as Alessandro Nesta, we are still talking about a generational defender primarily a center. -back, although he was no stranger to playing as a right back, Puyol was actually tested both as a goalkeeper and as a forward in Lamazia, as well as in midfield, he came out of that experience as a very complete footballer back then, but they were It was his leadership skills and work ethic that truly marked him as a future superstar.

It wasn't until he was 27 that Puyol won his first trophy at Basa, but he retired at 36, with 18 of them, including six La Liga titles and three. Champions League crowns into killers and winners, so Puyol was the captain and defensive lynchpin in the team that defined the post-2000s era. To date, he was heralded as a permanent centre-back who had great longevity and played almost all of his football within the relevant period, so you know it's enough to make it our runner-up zero Honorable Mansions, as always, there are too many great post-2000 powerhouses for me to mention them all, but I just wanted to recognize those who came closest to appearing before to get to first place, Lily and Soram.

Roberto Ayala and Yap Stam were world-class central defenders who featured on my shortlist, but they were largely lost because they played much of their best football before the turn of the millennium John Stones Raphael Moran Virgil Van dijk mats Hummels Pepe Diego Godin and Jerome Boateng were the only current players on my shortlist, and in theory a couple of them could overtake Canavaro if they had two or three more standout seasons, although it's pretty hard to see elsewhere. nemanjevich Ricardo Carvalho Lucio Sol Campbell Gerard PK Leonardo Bernucci and Vincent Companythey made my second shortlist, but the sensorback that was closest to Auto was Giorgio Chiolini, who now plays for lafc in major league soccer at the age of 38.

Keolini is probably the least technically talented player to ever make my short list, but there are only a couple who had better pure defensive fundamentals, born to defend. Keolini loved the battle with his center forward, a forward defender who was fearless, aggressive and brave, and attacked the ball with a nose to prove it. I think he is. It's incredibly unfortunate to miss my seven, but that's the nature of this series. Without further ado, here's your top spot first. Seria Ramos I suspect this one will divide opinion, especially since it divided my own opinion when I was deliberating the order. of my bottom seven, but ultimately I think Sergio Ramos has to take the top spots if he was as good a centre-back as Alessandro Nesta or even Rio Ferdinand, he wasn't at all or is as composed and positionally solid as Thiago Silva or John Terry .

It is very debatable, but what Ramos has been throughout his 20 years in football is absolutely relentless in terms of his mentality, commitment to the sport and determination to win every game and every competition. It is the largest record of these seven: seven League titles, four Champions Leagues, the World Cup and two Euros. Ramos has also maintained the highest level of charity throughout these 20 years. of which fall within our powers Ramos was signed by Real Madrid in 2005 after his outstanding campaign at Sever when he was 19 years old, becoming the first Spaniard signed by Real Madrid after the election of Florentino Pérez as president in 2000 and the Spanish teenager and most expensive defender ever to say he justified his enormous fee would be a tremendous understatement.

A fantastic athlete, a brilliant shepherd of the ball and one of the most disturbingly formidable players of the Millennium. Ramos went on to play 671 games for Los Blancos, captaining the club after Ikea. Casillas Ramos' departure ranks fourth on Real Madrid's all-time appearances list, first in Spain and sixth in international football history, and he made 11 Thief Pro World appearances, 11 which is more than double that any other central defender and places him in third place only behind Messi. and Ronaldo, no sensorback in all of world football, has played more games than Sergio Ramos since 2000, almost a thousand of them in case you were wondering, and every one of them has been at the elite level.

The facts are in his big-game credentials, which are the best of all in this seven are his leadership skills and his extraordinary longevity and consistency, given that the criterion is the quality and quantity of a player's appearances after 2000. and it seems only right that Ramos takes the top spot anyway, that's all for today's video. I'm sure you have a lot of disagreements with me, but hit the like button if you enjoyed it, let me know your thoughts and those disagreements Down in the comments, you know, try to be respectful, no death threats if you can avoid it and obviously, that's how it is.

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