Most top players say they want to be great, they want to make history, no no not Riquelme :  Riquelme says,

Roman revealed that Juande Ramos at Tottenham Hotspur had given him a call with a view to signing him, but he was also adamant that he'd only leave for Boca.

He wants to play for Boca Juniors.  Fine, no disrespect to Boca Juniors or Argentina football, but the best players in the World play in Europe ~ if you're the best, play among the best and prove what you  can do every saturday/sunday...anyway, as i said before, i expected him to go back to Boca Juniors.  Interestingly enough, he's talking about money again at the end of his stint

Romy is a man of his word, he once claimed that he would only play for Villareal or Boca Juniors and he has done so.

He isn't a mercenary like most players out there.

well...then the talk about him is pointless...Edmilson isn't a mercenary either, but he has loads of ambition.  Same goes for deco, iniesta...and lots of players out there.  This mercenary talk is overrated as far as I'm concerned, since the clubs & managers themselves are mercenaries. 

Mourinho, Capello, Benitez, Juande Ramos etc can be considered mercenaries

Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Chelsea, Ac Milan, etc can be considered mercenaries.

However, Riquelme's lack of ambition cannot be confused with him not being a mercenary.  Edmilson continuously repeats a tune from his days with Lyon that he wants to play on teams with ambition, teams that want to win and create history.  Somehow Riquelme just wants to "play football..."  No wonder he plays like he's not too excited about scoring goals and so on.

Furthermore, i often question whether being a man of your word is more important than making decisions that are wiser than you originally anticipated.  That is, why make stupid decisions if it turns out that you were wrong in the first place about something, aka stating obligation to a club who doesn't not show any loyalty in him ~ it seems silly.  Will God or whoever give him a medal for not going back on his word and playing for another team given things didn't turn out pleasant at all?  Suppose Boca Juniors refuse to or cannot sign him due to whatever reason?  Will he retire from football?  I would certainly be first to jump all over that story to highlight what i thought was his weakness all along....

Playing for the money and believing you should be duly paid for a service you believe is valuable are two different things.   Riquelme telling Villareal that he will make sure they pay him every last cent they owe him is not being a mercenary, neither is Ronaldinho or Kaka telling their teams that they should be paid more and negotiate a new contract if they are responsible for filling half the stadium every game.  John Terry's stance maybe considered mercenary, Zlatan might be considered a mercenary,  Togo players might be considered mercenaries, but then again they don't get thousands every week, do they? but so what ...everyone is different!

Riquelme not being a mercenary is an excuse for not showing enough ambition to put his skill against the best in the world every week...This brings me to believe that it was never a case of Riquelme being underrated, it was a case that he was not mentally strong enough to strive for better than just being a Boca Juniors legend.   It's like a genius in a class that decides to go and make furniture in a small town where he would make a decent living and not have too much hassles like competing in national competitions or turning up for international duties, but is as good as others around the world.  Waste of Talent!  He wouldn't even be considered a martyr or saint for his "humility" ...he'll probably receive the same treatment as the guy who took his one talent and buried it to keep it safe ~ take it away from him!

If Riquelme thinks that everyone is going to sit down and say, hey, i love football and i want to play for my national team and so on, but Riquelme should be #10 he's DEAD WRONG!  Good players will come up and say that your time is up, you wasted it ~ my turn!

Volrath:

Romy is a man of his word, he once claimed that he would only play for Villareal or Boca Juniors and he has done so.

He isn't a mercenary like most players out there.

he is truly a man of his word.

but i may not call him a mercenary......

It's good to see that this quality of Players is left..

the people not for Money..

the likes Of Riqi, Kaka, and others are great eg...

                            Roman starts his dream (by Ivar Matusevich)

Curious but real is that the whole Spanish football, with Villarreal has the exception, laments Juan Roman Riquelme's departure. Victor Franch, stated in 'Marca' diary, "La Liga loses a genius" and he sustained "the departure of juan Roman Riquelme (...) leaves the Spanish football orphan of one of the greatest talents that this sport has given in the last years". And he proceeds with the subtitule "Godbye to a myth". ¿Just frases?

By his part the AS published a poll in wich 66% of the required focalized the blame of the actual situation on the castellonense club, meanwhile the Spanish footballing world laments that the 10 leaves La Liga.

The truth is that Roman bet for Atletico Madrid at some time, in my opinion a club done to his measures, -but the posibility never materialised, one can only question why-; By his part, the offers coming from England and Italy didn't satisfied the Argentinean goalscorer during the qualifiers.

It was either Spain or Boca. And it was Boca, a giant in South America -and beyond- that offers everything but tranquility. The pressure, the club's hierarchy and the fans demands, oblige players to deliver day in and day out in order to mantain the people's affection.

Patxi Alonso in his extraordinary articule "The Lone Wolf" said that Roman is "the man who defy the laws of physics demonstrating that in mind's competition, the one who wins is the one who runs slower".

The magic of Riquelme radicates exactly on that, in the sensation of slowness against the histeria imposed in the pitch, but let's not forget and I cite "that the first 10 meters are run in the mind", and in that respect, the Argentine is the fastest.

 Our interest is not defending Juan Roman Riquelme -his game does that-, but to clarify in this few lines that he's a different player, an anti-hero in times in wich physical attributes are the priority.

And Roman's football is purely significant, no traps or simulation. Everyone knows what he's going to do, but never when or where. And in that tanscurse that leaves to a decision, Roman takes the ball and protects it with his life until, paradoxicaly, he employs it to kill. Because in that final pass, the player convives with the most murderous instinct.

This humble guy from Don Torcuato is not leaving anyone indifferently. And the contaminated critics he received, never obtained an answer from any of his declarations or gestures, always calmed and indifferent towards those who aimed to kill.

But they couldn't kill him, in fact they gave him strenght to keep playing and making play. "I'm happy when I play", re-repites the number 10.

In this sense, Roman haves a goal. He declared that he wants to play every sunday in order to make it to the 2010 World Cup, and in that objective lays the last of his reivindications.

Compromised to the limits with his club and seleccion team-mates, Roman knows he haves the obligation of leading the albiceleste. He knows that challenge will probably be the last in his career, and he wants to achieve it.

That's why he wants to go back to Boca, it's not money or comodity -in Tottenham his salary would be much bigger-, therefore he has looked for the best habitat to organise his mundialist "vengance". Boca will give him the affection and competitiveness necesary to set foot on Mandela's land with champion posibilities.

Villarreal "soon a shadow you'll be" -in the life of the genius-, said Osvaldo Soriano. Now it doesn't matters what Roig or Pellegrini say to justify their decisions to the Spanish football world. Nobody cares anymore.

Simply, the least we can do (those who really love the game), is giving Juan Roman Riquelme a farewell and thank him for being among us. Now, with a long road awaiting, it's time to feed some other dreams. His dreams, Boca's dreams, and Argentina's.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A really good piece of work by  Ivar Matusevich, this articule is originally in Spanish - I tried to translated it to English the best I could.. But I think it's understandable. Hope to see Riquelme in the Club World Cup.

I'm very happy for Riquelme and the fact he's going to play every sunday, but to be honest I'm still a little dissapointed. It's a shame football fans never got to see Riquelme playing for Real Madrid or Inter, it's a shame Riquelme never had a chance with any European giant.. But nevertheless this is a good thing for football in general, one of his greatest genius is in the pitch once again, and the strong Boca Juniors is back again.. so it's all good.

Matt Le Tissier played his whole career with Southhampton, Batistuta played most of his career at Fiorentina, Maradona played most of his career for Napoli, Pele always played for Santos, and now Riquelme is back to his home-club. I hope other players follow that example, it's boring to see teams like Chelsea building their way through with money, it's destroying football. The business-man is tacking over the football-man, and that cannot be, it's destroying the game.. there are dream-teams all over the place; Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc, etc.. But what happens to the smaller teams? or better said what happens to the middle-of-the-table-clubs?? The EPL already haves two different competitions - the top four between Man. Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. And the below-the-top-four-competition between the remaining clubs - it would be as boring as s-h-i-t to see that happen globally.

Gregory:

 

 

well...then the talk about him is pointless...Edmilson isn't a mercenary either, but he has loads of ambition.  Same goes for deco, iniesta...and lots of players out there.  This mercenary talk is overrated as far as I'm concerned, since the clubs & managers themselves are mercenaries. 

Mourinho, Capello, Benitez, Juande Ramos etc can be considered mercenaries

Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Chelsea, Ac Milan, etc can be considered mercenaries.

However, Riquelme's lack of ambition cannot be confused with him not being a mercenary.  Edmilson continuously repeats a tune from his days with Lyon that he wants to play on teams with ambition, teams that want to win and create history.  Somehow Riquelme just wants to "play football..."  No wonder he plays like he's not too excited about scoring goals and so on.

Furthermore, i often question whether being a man of your word is more important than making decisions that are wiser than you originally anticipated.  That is, why make stupid decisions if it turns out that you were wrong in the first place about something, aka stating obligation to a club who doesn't not show any loyalty in him ~ it seems silly.  Will God or whoever give him a medal for not going back on his word and playing for another team given things didn't turn out pleasant at all?  Suppose Boca Juniors refuse to or cannot sign him due to whatever reason?  Will he retire from football?  I would certainly be first to jump all over that story to highlight what i thought was his weakness all along....

Playing for the money and believing you should be duly paid for a service you believe is valuable are two different things.   Riquelme telling Villareal that he will make sure they pay him every last cent they owe him is not being a mercenary, neither is Ronaldinho or Kaka telling their teams that they should be paid more and negotiate a new contract if they are responsible for filling half the stadium every game.  John Terry's stance maybe considered mercenary, Zlatan might be considered a mercenary,  Togo players might be considered mercenaries, but then again they don't get thousands every week, do they? but so what ...everyone is different!

Riquelme not being a mercenary is an excuse for not showing enough ambition to put his skill against the best in the world every week...This brings me to believe that it was never a case of Riquelme being underrated, it was a case that he was not mentally strong enough to strive for better than just being a Boca Juniors legend.   It's like a genius in a class that decides to go and make furniture in a small town where he would make a decent living and not have too much hassles like competing in national competitions or turning up for international duties, but is as good as others around the world.  Waste of Talent!  He wouldn't even be considered a martyr or saint for his "humility" ...he'll probably receive the same treatment as the guy who took his one talent and buried it to keep it safe ~ take it away from him!

If Riquelme thinks that everyone is going to sit down and say, hey, i love football and i want to play for my national team and so on, but Riquelme should be #10 he's DEAD WRONG!  Good players will come up and say that your time is up, you wasted it ~ my turn!

throughout your posts in this thread and in other forums you have demonstrated a clear and unequivical dislike of Juan Riquelme, come out with ignorant statements and arguments based on your silly conclusions only to 'demonstrate' he's incapable, he's good but not soo good, he's overrated, he's mentally weak. if Riquelme shows he's not interested in just making money, he lacks ambition. If he decides to go back to boca, he's mentally weak.

As far as Im concerned Riquelme did put his skills against the very best when he was playing at Villarreal, reaching the semi final of the CL, UEFA and winning intertoto cup, coming second with a team like Villareal in la liga- all these would be considered are achievements by any neutral person.. not you. As far as im concerned Riquelme came back from a set back (leaving barca) to excell with Villarreal, and now he's gone to Boca, where im sure he'll excell there too. He's doing better than Ronnie at the moment. Its enough that he scored with his FIRST 2 freekicks in a world cup qualifier, after not having a minute of playing time with villareal.

to me Riquelme is a person and his personality makes me respect him more; he just wants to play football, wants nothing more than play this game in a place where he feels liked and that is the reason why he decided to move back to Boca even though he'll get less money; he didnt move coz he lacked ambition, or that teams didnt want his services, or that he's mentally weak- he just wants to play in a club he feels loved at and it is as simple as that, REALLY.

 Riquelme the player and as a man is a person worthy of respect and admiration, but with ignorant people always interpret and portray his every move as a negative, your 'objectivity' in your so called 'analysis' are based on bias, nothing more.

What I think is wrong here is that Gregory and I DO respect Riquelme. We have said so countless times. We think he CAN be world class on his day and that he is a very good, sometimes exceptional player.....but just like we can knock Ronaldo for his silly club decisions which seem to be more motivated by money than anyhting else, Riquelme has made a WHOLE bunch of decisions that have done seemingly irreversible damage to his WHOLE CAREER. Thge other thing which you Riquelme fans are blind to is the fact that Kaka, Messi and CR7 and others are better as footballers OVERALL, despite their not being as mentally advanced as Roman.

Going back to Boca is probably the final straw....and if in the future he leaves them to got to another European club then I'll conclude that the whole "loyalty" thing is a huge pile of $#!T. As it seems it is a convenience and safety thing. Loyalty is Paolo Maldini who stuck with Milan through thin and think.

Like it or not...today's game is based on fitness and is beginning to rely heavily on speed and a mindless counterattacking game. CR7 isn't the brightest of players, no disrespect at all.....but Riquelme's mental genius makes him look like a toddler........However EVERY european manager would prefer him, Quaresma and even Nani to him because they are extremely fit and have speed...The three of them COMBINED probably aren't as smart as Juan Roman. The same goes for Kaka and Messi, although Kaka's intelligence is growing rapidly due to his association with Pirlo.  Nobody cares that Riquelme can pick out a striker from distance and make the game so much simpler anyway because the game is sadly evolving to a place where everyone is running around barging into eachother and no one has the time to think and create. Sometimes I think that the only time that he is actually noticed is when he takes one of his brilliant free kicks....because fans are becoming more americanised ans fancy footwork and scoring is brginning to take preference over managing a game the way Roman does.

It's a tiring exercise to explain certain features of football and highlight obvious aspects of players' choices, weaknesses and strengths etc.  This is not even a simple case of us having a difference of opinions, it is like explaining the weaknesses of Diego Maradona and being told i do not like him and that i'm biased, so if i said Maradona's weakness was that he had a poor work ethic, Teee and Entusiasta would say i don't like Argentines and i prefer the machine professionals like Ryan Giggs, but it is a fact he didn't do what the trainer told him many times....so we saw a player with a visible ponch instead of abs and a model athlete.

If i say that Ronaldo's lack of club success was because of him being a mercenary, you'd agree and say at last i've come to my senses.  If i say that Robinho's problem was/is that he retaliates when he doesn't need to and this hurts his game, you may say .....but it is the truth and clear for those who followed him or madrid to see.  If i say that Rooney will never be as good as Shearer because his personality is not as good, you might say i don't like Rooney and England.  If i say that Pirlo would never win the World Player of the Year because of his personality, you would say that i like those flashy, overrated brazilians and i'm bias, but good thing Pirlo understands and said it.

What both Teee and Entusiasta do not appreciate is that winners succeed because of the effectiveness of their game which includes:  the mental aspect, the skills acquired in training, their talent, their physical disposition{muscular, skinny, flexible, bo-footed, left or right or ambidextrous, etc), work ethic, personality/character, likability/charm/charisma and several other things which make them winners.  A particular combination can be detrimental or beneficial.

Riquelme's disposition is not attractive in many sphere's of performing arts.  I remember Milinda Dolittle came 3rd in the American Idol, not because she wasn't "good enough", but because the other two offered something that everyone else wanted more.  For example, Ronaldinho gave the world of football what they like to see in sport and football more than Riquelme by simply smiling and many of us miss that.  Riquelme brought what everyone else brings ~ a do your job mentality ~ and he was very good at it.  If Deco and Mourinho hadn't won the CL with Porto, do you think we would've taken much notice of either one?  No, because they were doing what every other professional was doing.  Riquelme doesn't bring anything distinctive to the game, he just does everything well, as you said, he's the classical #10 ~ totti said that's obsolete!  So nobody wants old news, it doesn't sell.  Why is Henry a better striker than Trezeguet?  no reason other than Henry played in England.  Your choices make or break you...Riquelme made bad choices, he's too slow and does not inspire teams the way that Maradona did, Ronaldinho did, Ronaldo did, CR7 did ~ he makes it look easy, so what...Pirlo, Xavi, Giggs and a hundred more very good players do that too and they've won more.  Riquelme's main success in his career came at Boca Juniors and Villareal doesn't count because he gained the same thing that Deportivo, Valencia, Alaves, Espanyol and other spanish teams did ~ good runs and no trophies in European competitions.  

I dont even know what Teee and Entusiasta in particular expect, because they argue what is an ancient phenomena in this world.  For centuries the persons who did their jobs well were overlooked for the persons with clearly distinguishing features.  Most popular evidence of that is Sherlock holmes and his side kick.  I'm not even saying that Ronaldinho is not a very good player, but he ALSO brings something that inspires persons to dream and appeal to something that makes people truly happy playing football even if they don't know a thing about football.  Riquelme on the other hand is not even a Nelson Madela kind of leader.  And to be honest, it is not good enough to be great at your job anymore, you also have to bring something to the table.  It's like certain scholarships, what seperates 10 all A students?  It could be personality, character or simply the extras.  Wake up!  You overrate Riquelme...

it is best for riqi to go to Boca and stay there and retire there..

there are some players that dont succeed in European Teams(that doesnt mean they are not good)

maybe with another club he may had a chance,

but its too late..

he shouldnt take another risk

drucurl:

 

What I think is wrong here is that Gregory and I DO respect Riquelme. We have said so countless times. We think he CAN be world class on his day and that he is a very good, sometimes exceptional player.....but just like we can knock Ronaldo for his silly club decisions which seem to be more motivated by money than anyhting else, Riquelme has made a WHOLE bunch of decisions that have done seemingly irreversible damage to his WHOLE CAREER. Thge other thing which you Riquelme fans are blind to is the fact that Kaka, Messi and CR7 and others are better as footballers OVERALL, despite their not being as mentally advanced as Roman.

Going back to Boca is probably the final straw....and if in the future he leaves them to got to another European club then I'll conclude that the whole "loyalty" thing is a huge pile of $#!T. As it seems it is a convenience and safety thing. Loyalty is Paolo Maldini who stuck with Milan through thin and think.

Like it or not...today's game is based on fitness and is beginning to rely heavily on speed and a mindless counterattacking game. CR7 isn't the brightest of players, no disrespect at all.....but Riquelme's mental genius makes him look like a toddler........However EVERY european manager would prefer him, Quaresma and even Nani to him because they are extremely fit and have speed...The three of them COMBINED probably aren't as smart as Juan Roman. The same goes for Kaka and Messi, although Kaka's intelligence is growing rapidly due to his association with Pirlo.  Nobody cares that Riquelme can pick out a striker from distance and make the game so much simpler anyway because the game is sadly evolving to a place where everyone is running around barging into eachother and no one has the time to think and create. Sometimes I think that the only time that he is actually noticed is when he takes one of his brilliant free kicks....because fans are becoming more americanised ans fancy footwork and scoring is brginning to take preference over managing a game the way Roman does.

i can see you got more respect for riquelme than gregory.. i dont know which thread you've been reading, but statements along the lines of (riquelme went missing in the world cup.. riquelme playing for argentina is intself strange since his parents originated from ukrane/russia. riquelme flopped in copa, riquelme's corner from which ayala scored against germany should not be regarded as an assist, riquelme has a mental weakness, riquelme barca career was more or less his fault since, if you're a world class player you should be able to play anywhere on the pitch, riquelme's copa successes were because boca are a big team.. and its not even much of a big deal anyway!! or Boca winning the last copa was not down to riquelme, when the man SINGLE HANDEDLY won it for them) do NOT reflect any respect whatsoever.

throughout his posts he basically argued that whatever success he had, it was down to the team rather than Riquelme, and whatever losses his teams suffered it was because of riquelme! yet you didnt se that. Why do i need to talk to defend this player, when Diego Forlan himself stated, openly, that he discovered his form because of Riquelme's vision and passing? when i asked him why did zidane give riquelme his shirt at the end of his last club game, he simply said it was because he felt 'sorry' for riquelme.. when in that game riquelme set up 2 goals!!

all these statements above show complete lack of respect for this player, the last player on the planet today with the passing to go with his incredibly high game intelligence.

as for your point on modern football, yes i understand that completely. yet it does not mean to say that football does not need players who have the intelligence to play AND EXCELin a modern game that increasingly resemble athleticism without possessing the qualities you mentioned (power, athleticism) But he's not argentina's number 1 play maker maker for no reason, just a shame European football never gave him the chance he deserved.

as for his choices, who could reject a move to barca? but when a manager does not like you, there is no way on earth you can force him to, so when he left only Villareal were willing to take a gamble on him, and look what happened in the 3 seasons he was with them. As for his final decision to go back to boca, Riquelme wanted to play for a team where he felt loved, and unfortunately for me, he's regarded as a living legend in Boca after the huge success he had there so it was difficult for him to say no.

as for messi c,ronaldo, kaka... your opinion is your opinion, but for me Riquelme is the best player on the planet today.

ah come on man, let's be real...Let me reiterate that Riquelme is a very good player.  Drucurl notably disagreed to agree with you guys that he's a genius...fine ~ small detail perhaps.

The point was and remains to be that you guys are overrating Riquelme a bit by exhonerating these forums and making Riquelme appear to be some God-like footballer who shows his majesty where ever he lays his boots ~ that is clearly not accurate.  You say he's the best and most of the World, not only disagree with you, but didn't even initially include him in the list of top 30 best players in the World.   Maradonna, who sometimes really talks too much, himself indicated that he didn't think that Kaka was indeed the best player on the planet and said that Rooney was better than Kaka...hmm { maybe the drugs are creeping back into his system}  However, what is more important is that he didn't regard Riquelme , either, as highly as you do where he'd put this player as the best on the planet.  Actually,  he might've come to his sense a bit and said that Ronaldinho still deserves to be up there.  Clearly he doesn't like Kaka stating that Kaka did nothing of note to help Milan in the league ~  drugs again since Milan clearly never were concerned with winning the league.

Nonetheless, although I don't put Riquelme on a pedestal and poster him as the best playmaker, and i quote," perhaps of all time", i will give him the respect i think he duly deserves and that is that he is a very good player, surely one of the best around, BUT not THE best based on his exploits at that giant south american club.

Only a few players in the world can be considered good enough to improve every squad around the world if the club needs improvement and I would put Riquelme in that category, BUT, not always a starter because clubs like Barcelona, Ac Milan, Inter Milan, Arsenal and one or two others do not exactly NEED him.   However, players like Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Messi, Nesta and so on can and should improve any side in the world as a starter even now Ronaldinho is not starting.   So how much respect you want me to give Riquelme is another story, but many of those statements were clearly said out of frustration with certain myopic views that you will choose to pick out in isolation, but that's life.

Here's something funny.....there's this Argentine engineering form that is currently doing work for the company that I work for....I go to meet the head project manager Hernan. A pretty decent guy.....I asked him what he thought of Riquelme .....He stretched out his hand and said with disgust  "Riquelme has no blood in his body " I laughed my @$$ off and asked him who do the argentine people love more between him and EL Batigol.....to which he screamed with delight "BATISTUTA!!!" If I didn't post that I wouldn't be drucurl

That's normal (River Plate fans hate Riquelme, wich means that almost a 38% of Argentines hate Riquelme), Argentineans have a divided opinion about Riquelme, some of them love Riquelme and the rest of them have plain dislike towards him. Nevertheless, Argentina plays much better when they have Riquelme, and that is something very clear on the pitch and on Argentina's performances - Argentines will never forget the 6-0 trashing Riquelme organised in the world cup, or the spectacular collective play Argentina displayed at the Copa America..

Of course most Argentines find Batistuta more appealing, the handsome guy who had his own trademarck celebration - And most importantly the guy who scored most of Argentina's Goals - as everybody knows, Goals are the best resource to make fans happy, Batistuta scored a lot of them - And consequently he became the Fan's Favourite. A handsome guy who scores a lot of goals will always be an appealing player for any fans. There are a lot of facts that make Batistuta one of Argentina's most beloved players. Nevertheless, What happened at the 2002 World Cup?? or in South American Football?

And I must make it plain and simple - Batistuta was never as entertaining to watch as Roman is. Riquelme can controll the pace of any match, He haves beautiful dribbling skills, he can score goals, free-kicks, or execute defense splitting passes - On the other hand, Batistuta didn't had that ability, Batistuta was the classic number 9; natural goal-scorer, tall, good headers, oportunist, etc, etc.. But Batistuta was never as nearly as talented as Riquelme - Batistuta was a goal-scorer, plain and simple, Batistuta could've scored 35 goals per season for Fiorentina - and Fiorentina would still not qualify for a Champions League. That's the big difference between players like Batistuta or Christian Vieri and players like Roman Riquelme or Zinedine Zidane - the best goal-scorers do not have the ability of inspiring or elevating the rest of the team, they can score a hat-trick - but they still won't make their team-mates play good football, or make their team-mates better. That's why Batistuta's Fiorentina never made it to a Champions League and that's why Riquelme's Villarreal made it to a Champions League Semi-Final. And that's why Ronaldinho was a flop at PSG and Maradona's the best player ever in Napoli's history, etc, etc..

Bottom line: Gabriel Batistuta is a more appealing or better fan's favourite than Riquelme will ever be. But Riquelme is unquestionably a far more gifted player.

I'm going to quote two of your posts where you said that Riquelme is a legend in Argentina:

entusiasta:

And yes drucurl in case you didn't knew it, Riquelme is bigger than Maradona in ' the Bombonera '.. Maradona was never successful in South American Football.. By the way Maradona played 8 years in South America, Riquelme has only played 4 1/2..

entusiasta:

 

I don't understand why 'some' just dislike Riquelme, is it because of his slow style of play, or becasue of his appearance, I don't know.. But Riquelme does his talking on the pitch, and I don't see why so many people come up with ridiculous statements "it is is temperament.. his attitude.. etc..", that's not it.. If it was his temperament do you think Pellegrini wouln't have used against Riquelme already?? When speculation surrounds a player, you can't believe a word of it.. Pellegrini has never complained about Riquelme's temperament or mentality.. and neither did Louis Van Gaal.. the rest of Riquelme's managers are full of praise towards him.. Look at the actual facts, stop reading what the media tells you - thats a load of shite, there's only negativity to sell..

Riquelme- better than Rivaldo, Batistuta, Kaká, etc.. and Zidane's equal. South American legend.. Has 1 more World Cup in him, let's wait and see.

Imagine I just asked a random argentine what he thought about Riquelme....I'm guessing that he was reasonably intelligent....he's a Civil Engineer like me....and he disliked Riquelme for pretty much the same reason I did....no passion...no excitement!!

Now Argentines are pretty passionate about their football.....they have the most passionate stadiums etc..etc...So i wouldn't be surprised if the Average Argentine didn't rate him that highly

In case you forgot or didn't knew - 'La Bombonera' is Boca Juniors's stadium and yes Riquelme is a living legend in La Bombonera. In fact, Riquelme is a living legend in South America not only Argentina, Riquelme's the guy who has won 3 Copa Libertadores, and he won the 3 of them in only 4 1/2 years. Imagine if Ronaldinho had won 3 Champions Leagues in the 5 years he's been playing for Barcelona - that's Riquelme in South America and in La Bombonera.

drucurl keep fooling yourself if you think Argentines don't rate him 'that highly'.. It turns out that some 40% of Argentines love Boca Juniors and some other 40% of Argentines love River Plate - wich makes a 40% of Riquelme-hating-Argentines. And I must point out that Riquelme shows passion and excitement in his own way - just like Zinedine Zidane and a few others.