Michael Laudrup - Quotes On Laudrup

Quotes On Laudrup

• Romário: "The best player I have ever played with and the 4th best in the history of the game"
• Raúl: "The best I have ever played with."
• Zamorano: "Un genio!", "The reason why I make so many goals, is Laudrup."
• Cruyff: "One of the most difficult players I have worked with. When he gives 80–90% he is still by far the best, but I want 100%, and he rarely does that."
• Cruyff (After Real Madrid with Laudrup had won 5–0 over Cruyff's Barcelona): "When Michael plays like a dream, a magic illusion, determined to show his new team his extreme abilities, no one in the world comes anywhere near his level."
• Cruyff (Cruyff on Laudrup's lack of killer instinct during matches): "Had Michael been born in a poor ghetto in Brazil or Argentina with the ball being his only way out of poverty he would today be recognised as the biggest genius of the game ever. He had all the abilities to reach it but lacked this ghetto-instinct, which could have driven him there."
• Platini: "One of the biggest talents ever. The best in the world on the training pitch, but never used his talent to its full during matches.
• Platini: "Michael had everything except for one thing: he wasn't selfish enough."
• Guardiola: "The best player in the world, I can't believe he hasn't won the title as best player."
• Beckenbauer: "Pelé was the best in the 60s, Cruyff in the 70s, Maradona in the 80s and Laudrup in the 90s."
• Roberto Galia: "I have played against Maradona, Platini and Baggio. But the player I saw do the most indescribable things was Michael Laudrup."
• Clemente: "To me, Michael Laudrup is the most genius player the world has ever seen. He will always be my numero uno. Always."
• Bakero: "No one has given the club as much inspiration as Michael. We all look up to him. It is a privilege to have your day enriched by a genius."
• Koeman: "Michael was possibly the most skilful and elegant player I ever played with. Few could dribble like he could. He could sense when a game was ready to be seized and transformed by a moment of individual brilliance."
• Stoichkov: "One of the best European players I’ve ever seen. An elegant, old-fashioned playmaker, he did things few other footballers could do."
• Stoichkov: "From more than hundred goals that I scored I'm sure that over 50 were assisted by Michael. To play with him was extremely easy. We found each other by intuition on the field and found common football language. Look at Ivan Zamorano. Laudrup went there (Real) and Zamorano is a goalscorer. Sometimes I envy Ivan for the passes he receives. Passes on foot after you accelerated. Few people understand football like the Danish player. He can only be comprised with Maradona, Schuster or Roberto Baggio. They make things easy and find the right solutions. For them is simple, for the opponent - unthinkable. Phenomenal! His only problem is his character. He is emotional and terribly reserved. This affects him a lot, because he takes everything personally - no matter if someone tells him something or decision that he does not agree. His relations with Cruyff were delicate because he couldn't take the critics. I listen to him but I don't care that much. For Michael this was fatal. He couldn't take it anymore so he left without a word."
• Brian Laudrup: "My brother started as an attacker but became an elegant attacking midfielder, perhaps the most complete there has ever been. His vision, speed of thought and passing were on a different level; he always knew what was going to happen before anybody else did. If anyone had a ‘football brain’, it was him."
• Ferrer: "Few people made me enjoy the game as much as Michael. Maybe he didn’t get the media recognition he deserved, but he was so classy and a real thinker. A master of the blind pass and impossible through-balls and I will never forget his ‘spoon’ pass in a game against Osasuna. He lifted the ball right over the defence and Romario touched it in first time."
• Capello (After the 4–0 win of Milan against Barcelona in the 1994 CL final): "Laudrup was the guy I feared but Cruyff left him out, and that was his mistake."
• Figo: "I think maybe Laudrup was the best player I ever played against."
• Mourinho: "He was phenomenal in Barcelona. He was a fantastic player whom I would love to have on my team today."
• Stoichkov: "Laudrup was the greatest"
• Iniesta: "Who is the best player in history? Laudrup."
• Alan Tate: "He is still the best player in training at 48 years."
• Ian Rush: "He probably had the most individual skill I've seen. He was an incredible player."