On second thought...

2008-09-10T07:16:33-04:00

2007-06-21T16:00:02-04:00

2008-09-10T06:40:27-04:00

2007-06-27T13:58:20-04:00

dlee

Glen Allen 44319

How can you have Sevilla behind Real Madrid. Fighting for the league, Copa Del Rey, and UEFA champions. Between slurping Chelsea and your love of Beckham how do you have the energy. Your an idiot. 32036

2007-06-25T09:22:41-04:00

ajNYHC

New York 42947

Wait are you retarded? Comparing Beckham and Riquelme? Honestly. First 2 different positions. One's pure class the other's a child of marketing. Riquelme carried Boca on his shoulders, dictated and created plays, and won the Libertadores. Beckham did not. He was NOT the catalyst. Reyes was - his final 2 goals proving to be decisive, and most of all Ruud Van was the key man. 2 assists from Beckham and one goal on his return is hardly inspirational. Please stop this madness. How do you dimwits get hired anyway? I wish I was a professional writer. 27503

2007-06-24T11:47:21-04:00

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the one

No City 41277

Dear mr. Freedman, Is that your motivation for putting Milan above Boca? Tv viewership and money??? I thought this was a football ranking. About the game not about what you mentioned. By using the standards you mentioned not a single SA or CA club team would be on this ranking. Not even some european clubs, as we know England has the richiest clubs on the planet and EPL is the most viewed domestic league on earth. But this is a ranking of clubs playing the beautiful game and "playing football" standards should be used according to that! At least i thought so. The reasons you mentioned people heard for so many times, that frankly we are getting borred of them. We want to hear something new. As worldwide "opnion leaders" you should be more objective when giving opinions or at least when considering that. As long the reasons you mentioned "money and tv viewership"can't change the numbers over a considerable period of 46 repititions (as you mentioned): SA has a 25 result gain against EU 21 on club basis, every objective reader will come to the conclusions that the reasons you used are pointless! Get the sportschannels i mentioned above. To be an "expert" on the manner, one has to consider all the available informations and not only rely on "hear says". 27355

2007-06-24T09:59:38-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/399/59/thumb/000028_calcio-generico.jpg 9 XX

Interista

No City 40139

Jonah I commented this last week but the final list confirms it, you only rate the last matches of the season. I'll not bleat on about how awful Milan have been all year or how they won the European Cup by only showing up for the last 4 matches, I draw your attention to your comments about my team Inter. In the last sentence of your explaination for putting them 6th: "Big disappointment in both the Champions League and the Coppa Italia" Inter's Champ Lg campaign was not great, but they did go out on away goals to a Pot 1 team. However disappointing in the Coppa Italia? Surely you mean disappointing in the first leg of the final, don't you? After all they hadn't conceded a goal in the tournament up until that point! They were unbeaten in the Coppa Italia for over 2 years till that point! I suggest you base your facts for an end of season list on the whole season, not just a few matches that happened at the end of a season. Your placing of Milan & Real above them is proof of how poorly you have judged this list. There is not one team on that list that deserves an A grade, because they have all had major flaws. Man U, very poor away record in Europe; Inter, didn't progress far enough in Europe; Chelsea, fell short in both big tourneys; Milan, absolutely terrible in Serie A, poor in Europe till the Bayern away leg; Real, poor in Europe, awful in La Liga but gifted title because Barca collapsed; Sevilla, great in a 2nd rate Euro cup and missed the best chance anyone will have to steal La Liga from the big 2 for a while; Roma, good year considering their cash but still not worthy of an A. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I think that yours maybe tainted by media hype. The Champions League is the most prestigious club football trophy but just cos Milan won it, it doesn't make them the best club in Europe or the World because their performances over the whole season show otherwise. I apologise again for not including the South Americans, but I don't get to see them so I won't judge on something I don't know about. 29035

2007-06-24T01:17:04-04:00

nervous

Boston 42413

This list is pointless. It's like putting together a list of F1, NASCAR, Indy, speed walking, and horse racing champions on the same list. As far as the resurgence of Requelme goes. I think there is a reason why Villareal have declined to take him back. He is finished................simply too slow. He has good ball skills and is capable of distributing the ball.....just not in Europe......once again, too slow. Talking about resurgence of Requelme is similar to discussing the resurgance of Juan Pablo Angel. He is right where he should be.....in an inferior league. As far as his call up back to the national team goes........they're just desperate. Did you watch the Algeria game or the Chile game? He'll be gone within a year. A question for ya. What do you think would happen if Stuttgart played Boca or Pachuca...lol...or Santos? 27116

2007-06-24T01:16:53-04:00

nervous

Boston 42413

2007-06-23T22:10:33-04:00

http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/297/57/thumb/jhawkins.jpg 293 SP

jhawkins

Sao Paulo 29829

I'd move chelsea and sevilla up one spot each, and drop pachuca for inter-porto alegre, but apart from that, solid list. maybe boca should be first, but that's debatable - in the end, both milan and boca had very shaky seasons up to the final stages of their continental competition runs. as for riquelme and beckham: nice comparision, but don't forget that while riquelme is the better player, beckham is the better leader. england needs beckham more than argentina needs riquelme - in fact, riquelme ALWAYS underperformed with the albiceleste shirt. 27161

2007-06-23T12:39:41-04:00

nfgii

Marysville 42217

AC Milan in first? Inter Milan 6th? How about reverse those two? You said it yourself, AC Milan "were left for dead all season long." Teams with such mixed results aren't number 1 in the world. Worse of all you are biased towards European (especially English but against German) teams/political correctness. You are ignorant of soccer in South America, or more accurately, soccer in general. All your "expert" comments appear to be surface level cliches you get from gleaning over mainly English media. Boca will handle AC Milan later this year, no surprise there for South America. The list would be of 20 not 10 if you weren't so lazy. Puny idiot. 28798

2007-06-23T07:03:04-04:00

kinase

No City 41758

Paolo. Your mistake is to think that Bayern was the best team last year. They finished 5th and play UEFA cup next year. Also, they blew up their team and overpaid for both Toni and Ribery. My point was that both german title winners Stuttgart and Nuremberg plus Bremen (at its best) can compete easily with Roma or other italian teams. But we won't know before next year. Can't wait for that UEFA cup draw! 27334

2007-06-22T14:13:03-04:00

Boquense del Norte

Plano 41795

Mr. Freedman, kudos on the Riquelme-Beckham comparison. Although I believe Riquelme to possess more game/tournament changing capacity, with Beckham being more of a superstar cog in a side vs. Riquelme's ability to serve as a match metronome, dictating the pace for his entire team, the two are fundamentally similar in style of play. Becks' brilliance, just like Riquelme's, is understated, subtle, but ever present, building pressure over the course of a match and a season.More to your point, though, both seem to have left systems (Riquelme with Boca early in the decade, and Becks at Manchester United) in which they thrived to pursue ventures which, had the new sides allowed the players to play their respective roles, could have yielded long-term results. Villarreal, like Boca, allowed Riquelme to impose his rythym on the other players, but Villa is ultimately deciding for a different personality. Odd, considering Villa's run while Riquelme set the pace for the side. With Becks, I thought he had a mystic path set for him at Old Trafford. He functioned as an extraordinary presence on the flank, fully complementary to stalwarts like Giggs, Neville, and the eventual arrival of Rooney and Ronaldo (imagine a Man U with Ronaldo on the left, Becks on the right, with Giggs' and Rooney's hustle in the front third?). Instead he left for Real Madrid, which demands too much of individual players and not enough of an entire side (disclaimer: I say that on the heels of the recent championship won by RM). RM, in my humble opinion, is a side where the value or the parts is greater than the value of the whole. 28727

<img src="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007_images/riquelme.jpg" height="200" align="right" alt="" width="150" />Technically, the season isn't quite over -- we've still got Spain's Copa del Rey final this weekend, and the Brazilian season keeps on going like Energizer -- but I posted one final <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jonah_freedman/06/21/rankings/index.html">World Power Rankings</a> for 2006-07 on Thursday to close up shop. Believe it or not, I don't have Fox Sports en Español at home, so I had to out to watch Boca Juniors smash Grêmio in the second leg of the Copa Libertadores final. And as I watched Juan Román Riquelme (at right) have his moment of glory, it occurred to me how similar his resurgence this season follows that of another certain soccer icon, David Beckham. Consider:• Both stepped down as captains following their national teams' disappointing bows out of the quarterfinals in last summer's World Cup and were essentially the poster boys for their squads' shortcomings.• Both were rejected by their clubs upon their returns from Germany: Beckham by Real Madrid, Riquelme by '05-06 Champions League semifinalist Villarreal. • As their clubs needed them more, they were called upon in crunch time (Riquelme was loaned to Boca, his first club, for the season). Both then became inspirational in helping their clubs win trophies that had eluded them for four years.• Both are now key figures again on their national teams.Beckham was left for dead by new head coach Steve McClaren; now he's being hailed as the tonic that will get England into the European Championship. Meanwhile, his recent resurgence has everyone bemoaning his move to Major League Soccer.Riquelme vowed he'd never play for Argentina again. On Thursday, he was summoned by new head coach Alfio Basile onto his country's <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/soccer/06/21/bc.soccer.latam.argentina.squad/index.html">Copa América roster</a> (which, by the way, if you're a U.S. fan, is a terrifying read). Meanwhile, Boca fans are screaming for club president Mauricio Macri to find the cash to hold onto their inspirational leader, and Villarreal has leverage in moving Riquelme for top dollar.And in case anyone's wondering, here's my final 10 for the year (remember, trophy-winners only):1. AC Milan2. Boca Juniors3. Manchester United4. Real Madrid5. Chelsea6. Inter Milan7. Sevilla8. Pachuca9. AS Roma10. Santos  2634 http://img.fannation.com/upload/user_profile/image/459/8/thumb/freedman_jonah.jpg 12 CA

Jonah Freedman

San Francisco 4618