Was Henrik World class ???

Yes he was world class, football is a team game, yet on many occasions he carried us, he's scored against every caliber of opposition he played against for clubs and country.

He was seen as a talisman by us and the Swedish national support.

We were lucky that he wanted to stay with us as long as he did because I honestly believe he could have played for any team in the world as his later appearances at Barca and Man U showed.

The term legend gets used way too often but Henrik most certainly is a legend imo.

 

Henrik was 'world class', not a shadow of doubt about it imo.
He scored goals & played superbly in World cups, European Championships and European cup/Champions league. These are the highest levels of football. What else could he have done? Not only was he a big game player but his levels of consistency was unreal.
I feel privileged to have watched him play for my team for 7 wonderful years.

 

well....world class means that u are good enough to play for any team in the world, so you better believe henke was indeed!

 

Without a doubt World Class cant take that away from him no one can.

Just glad i saw im play in my generation.

 

aye he was class:icon_mrgreen:

 

Well Peep's

Cheers for contributing, even the people who have hailed me a "Hun", people have came on stating its a terrible thread, yet still contributed etc etc...

It was simpy an opinion. As I stated at the start of the thread, "World Class" gets banded around far to much, and in every generation, there are 3-4 players who trully stand out, in Henkys days, Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and Henky was never on their planet.

Guys like this, for me are world class footballers. They play for the biggest clubs in the world, week in week out, play in the latter stages of the champs league, year in year out consintantly for the majority of their career, Henky never done this.

My argument was that:

Larsson played the majority, 7 years of his career in scotland, playing against defenders of far less quality that players in La Liga, EPL etc...

He never played at his peak, in the greatest leagues in the world for the greatest teams.

He never consistantly played in the latter stages of the champs league etc...

The argument that he came on and made the difference in the champs league, players do this every year, players have scored in European finals, world cups etc... year in year out, does this make them "world class"

He played at the latter stages of his career for both Barca and Man U, mostly from the bench, as a back up player.

He won the golden boot, but kevin phillips won it the following year in a much more dificult league to score goals.

in his finest season, 2003, he would not have got into a european or world 11, guys like ronaldo, henry, raul, van nistelroy, shevchenco ronaldinho etc etc... where all plying their trade at the time at bigger clubs in bigger leagues.

he was never ever recognised or placed in a european or world player of the year award.

I loved Larsson as much as any of you, watched him playing in spain when he left, he never started any of the big games. He cant be thought of as world class footballer, as I dont think in the past 20 years, anyone who played their career in the spl could be world class.

people name the uefa cup final, and the champs league final, but players like Derlie who scored against us, and won the champs league also, are they world class, there are many players like that.

For me a wonderful footballer, and a joy to watch, but not world class, never in the elite....

 

gOOd question! Depends what is the bottom level of world class (not sayin Henke is at the bottom of the pile) but if Beckham is world class then Henrik is def world class. If Zidane is the pOOrest of what is considered world class then no I don't think Henke is.

Ibrahimovic is one lucky *! He's nowhere near gOOd enough to have played for Inter and Barca.

 

Fair enough , people obviously have a different opinion on what world class means.

 

I just think it means the elite lads

I hate it when people (English media) lol start calling every England player "world class" its nonsense. It a title that it banded around far to much, and should only be preserved, for in my opinion, the very very best, i.e. messi, ronaldo etc...

Beckham was a great player, but was he ever in the band of Zidane, Ronaldiho, Ronaldo etc.... no way, the same as Henky wasnt. But the thing that beckham would have over larsson, was the he consitantly played, week in week out for the biggest clubs in the world, and done it against the best oposition week in week out in the best leagues, larsson never done this.

 

IMO world class means:you can get a game for any team in the world:from brechin to barca,from raith to real madrid,from celtic to boca juniors,if you are world class you can get a game for any team in the world in my opinion guys like messi,rooney,ronaldo, etc could play for any team in the world,

but henrik was class and i think anyteam in the world would have took him for his goal scoring capability

 

Its ok saying that mate, but he really never....

He went to Barce, and started something like 19 games in 2 seasons, that being against the lower sides in La Liga, not the real madrids etc....

He rarely started for man - ok he was in his mid 30's, that could be an argument, but in his peak, he never made the move to test himself on the biggest stage (Leagues) and latter stages of the champs league...

 

Neither did Pele.

 

Very true, but the exception dont you think, he played for a world class team for Santos back in the day, when times where different, and was the best player for arguably the best side ever to grace a football pitch (Brazil 70) side.

and many world cup finals did he score in...

Pele and Larsson are uncommparable.

 

To add a bit of weight to my argument and give you more food for thought...not ONE of the Lisbon Lions played for a team "bigger" than Celtic, does that mean that none of them were trully world class?...

You can be world class without being one of the greatest. I'm priviledged to support a football club that has so many players names etched into it's history who were world class in their prime yet never went onto one of the so called "elite" teams.

You're contradicting yourself by saying they are uncomparable as the basis for your argument and the reasoning of your opinion was that Larsson didn't play for any of the "big teams" during his peak and didn't make that "big move". As has been pointed out, neither did Pele. Pele didn't play in any european competition and only really showed his talents in europe at World Cups and exhibition matches**. So, without sounding too much like a *, your opinion has a huge, gaping flaw in it! lol

**Off topic, but just thought I'd share with you all that Pele's goal to game ratio is HUGELY exagerated as alot of them were scored during exhibition matches and if you're taking them into account, then Gerd Muller is the worlds greatest ever striker.

 

how can anyone say he wasn't.if you aren't world class barca wouldn't sign you at that age.or man utd for that matter.looked at the goals he scored in europe.well and truly world class

 

I think its time to lock this, the thread has ran its course, the answers to the original posters question are the same on Page 1 as they are on Page 22.

If there was a poll attached to this thread the answer would have been a resounding YES, Henrik was world class.

Locked.