Which country...

[Avalon]

I'd still rate the Netherlands among the best. Their talent might not be as amazing as the 70s team, but how many teams can really say their team was as good as x? They've still produced plenty of talent over the last few years and there's currently a rise of players coming through. There's that Leroy Fer and Wijnaldum and some kids from the Feyenoord Academy are coming through whom are highly rated. We've got Rekik, which came through the Feyenoord ranks and seems to be a forum favourite, so there's a new batch of players slowly making their mark to replace the current team of van Persie, Robben, Sneijder, van der Vaart and the likes.

Louis van Gaal even played with a few youngsters in the recent qualifiers with good results.

Belgium is a team with great talent at the moment, but they haven't had a good team for a while. At the moment though, damn impressive. Same goes for Germany, but there's no surprise there. You know what to expect from the Germans.

[PeterParker]

This has a lot of ups and downs. I for instance, as a romanian, with 23 milion of people and not having a world class player for over 10 years now, since Hagi retired is beyond bollocks, but it all comes down to the youth systems that every nations has.

Holland is the best i think. For 3-4 mil and having year after year youths that come from behind, imho is a real argument for clubs to invest in young players. The Dutch league has the youngest age limit of players in Europe, while their national team under Van Gaal is full of noname players that took a shit on every team in their group, includin Romania.

However, the most talented are the players from the ex Yugoslavian Federation, but many of them get lost because of their extra sports behavior. Just look at Tosic who was considered the best young player in Europe, when he went to filth.

[Rag_hater]

Don't think a country with over 40 mill people i.e Spain,Argentina can be considered a small country.

[Nigels Tackle]

This has a lot of ups and downs. I for instance, as a romanian, with 23 milion of people and not having a world class player for over 10 years now, since Hagi retired is beyond bollocks, but it all comes down to the youth systems that every nations has.

Holland is the best i think. For 3-4 mil and having year after year youths that come from behind, imho is a real argument for clubs to invest in young players. The Dutch league has the youngest age limit of players in Europe, while their national team under Van Gaal is full of noname players that took a shit on every team in their group, includin Romania.

However, the most talented are the players from the ex Yugoslavian Federation, but many of them get lost because of their extra sports behavior. Just look at Tosic who was considered the best young player in Europe, when he went to filth.

the netherlands has a population of nearly 17m.... they also have a brilliant set up when it comes to local amateur sport. i grew up (from age 2-8) in a village/small town called halsteren in the south of holland. they had the most amazing local football club which ran teams from u5's right up to a first team that played at a decent regional level. the seniors play for fun not money and also coached the kids on sunday mornings. this set up was mirrored in towns and villages across the country. not seen anything like it in uk football really.... too many teams at a 'shit' level are paying average (old) players rather than investing in pitches, changing facilities and most importantly coaching...

[PeterParker]

This has a lot of ups and downs. I for instance, as a romanian, with 23 milion of people and not having a world class player for over 10 years now, since Hagi retired is beyond bollocks, but it all comes down to the youth systems that every nations has.

Holland is the best i think. For 3-4 mil and having year after year youths that come from behind, imho is a real argument for clubs to invest in young players. The Dutch league has the youngest age limit of players in Europe, while their national team under Van Gaal is full of noname players that took a shit on every team in their group, includin Romania.

However, the most talented are the players from the ex Yugoslavian Federation, but many of them get lost because of their extra sports behavior. Just look at Tosic who was considered the best young player in Europe, when he went to filth.

the netherlands has a population of nearly 17m.... they also have a brilliant set up when it comes to local amateur sport. i grew up (from age 2-8) in a village/small town called halsteren in the south of holland. they had the most amazing local football club which ran teams from u5's right up to a first team that played at a decent regional level. the seniors play for fun not money and also coached the kids on sunday mornings. this set up was mirrored in towns and villages across the country. not seen anything like it in uk football really.... too many teams at a 'shit' level are paying average (old) players rather than investing in pitches, changing facilities and most importantly coaching...

Mate, from i've remember, they have almost 6 mil in Holland. The census in 2006 had those statistics, but yes, the are using players from their ex colonies. Their system is a lot different from others, because they are better organised.

I, for instance, i was always surprised of how brazilians do it. Their country is a nightmare, favelas, drugs, you name it. Investments are low, players train on horrible pitches. If you win a game in front of someone you shouldn't, even if is a friendly, you could get shot and so on, but still they made it only with raw talent. Of course, 80 % of them have disciplinary problems, but this is a wonder for me, how they really do it.

[Avalon]

Netherlands has 16m inhabitants, not 6m, lol.
It's a small country, but it's population is fairly big for it's size. Just check a satellite image of the Netherlands at night. It's nearly fully covered in lights.

As for using players from colonies. They do, but not many come through to the International stage. Same story for players that leave Dutch clubs too early.

[PeterParker]

Netherlands has 16m inhabitants, not 6m, lol.
It's a small country, but it's population is fairly big for it's size. Just check a satellite image of the Netherlands at night. It's nearly fully covered in lights.

As for using players from colonies. They do, but not many come through to the International stage. Same story for players that leave Dutch clubs too early.

Yeah, my mistake. I had those information about just Holland, not the full Netherlands.

[DoomMerchant]

if i owned a country of 1 million inhabitants i could field a world-class team that would beat England and Germany....i'd hire top top youth coaches and build a really insular system and enforce a Soviet-style dogma that creates a team spirit and culture within the same group of lads for > 10 years....

Having a large population with a lot of know-it-all cuntholes certainly hasn't helped England in the last 20 years, has it? it's like a room in a business meeting. The more people you have the dumber the room tends to get.

PM me if you have a country of 1M or so citizens which i could help overtake, rule and guide to footballing brilliance. I have none of my badges and won't be getting any either.

cheers

[Nigels Tackle]

if i owned a country of 1 million inhabitants i could field a world-class team that would beat England and Germany....i'd hire top top youth coaches and build a really insular system and enforce a Soviet-style dogma that creates a team spirit and culture within the same group of lads for > 10 years....

Having a large population with a lot of know-it-all cuntholes certainly hasn't helped England in the last 20 years, has it? it's like a room in a business meeting. The more people you have the dumber the room tends to get.

PM me if you have a country of 1M or so citizens which i could help overtake, rule and guide to footballing brilliance. I have none of my badges and won't be getting any either.

cheers

..... and lance armstrong would be your right hand man?

[DoomMerchant]

if i owned a country of 1 million inhabitants i could field a world-class team that would beat England and Germany....i'd hire top top youth coaches and build a really insular system and enforce a Soviet-style dogma that creates a team spirit and culture within the same group of lads for > 10 years....

Having a large population with a lot of know-it-all cuntholes certainly hasn't helped England in the last 20 years, has it? it's like a room in a business meeting. The more people you have the dumber the room tends to get.

PM me if you have a country of 1M or so citizens which i could help overtake, rule and guide to footballing brilliance. I have none of my badges and won't be getting any either.

cheers

..... and lance armstrong would be your right hand man?

i hate lance. So, no. Any other questions?

cheers

[mr_nool]

Interpreting the OP strictly, i.e. picking the best countries judging by the number of good player in relation to population, I would NOT go for the Scandinavian ones. It's true that they all have had some success in international tournaments (Norway not so much, but both Denmark and Sweden can be said to have been punching above their weight), but that's mostly down to good team efforts, not to outstanding players. None of the countries have produced a lot of top class football players, and not only do they lack an absolute top - the number of sub-top players isn't that high either. A telling fact is that all three national teams still field plenty of players that play in the domestic leagues.

Norway has had loads of run-of-the-mill top tier players in England, but very few can be considered "good" and I can't think of a single world class player (I guess Solskjaer and Carew some closest, which says a lot ...).

Denmark had a few world class players in the 80's to early 90's (Arnesen, Laudrup), but have since then not had a single one. Eriksen at Ajax is a promising player, but far from the finished product. Gronkjaer and Polusen had a few good seasons, but that's pretty much it.

Sweden had some top top class players n the 50's, but that's ancient history (sorry John). Since then we've had three world class players: Ibrahimovich, Larsson and Brolin (before going to England). I guess Ljungberg and Thern come fairly close. There have been quite a lot of good sub-top players, but looking at the current national squad almost all players can be considered to be run-of-the mill on an international standard.

Looking at smallish countries my choice would have to be the Netherlands, with Portugal as runner-up. Belgium has a golden generation thing going, but how many of them that will make it to the top level remains to be seen.

However, the OP didn't say anything about small countries. And looking just at the ratio number of good players / population, I would argue that Argentina, Spain, England and perhaps even Brazil are on par with the Dutch.

My two pence :-)

[Rag_hater]

Interpreting the OP strictly, i.e. picking the best countries judging by the number of good player in relation to population, I would NOT go for the Scandinavian ones. It's true that they all have had some success in international tournaments (Norway not so much, but both Denmark and Sweden can be said to have been punching above their weight), but that's mostly down to good team efforts, not to outstanding players. None of the countries have produced a lot of top class football players, and not only do they lack an absolute top - the number of sub-top players isn't that high either. A telling fact is that all three national teams still field plenty of players that play in the domestic leagues.

Norway has had loads of run-of-the-mill top tier players in England, but very few can be considered "good" and I can't think of a single world class player (I guess Solskjaer and Carew some closest, which says a lot ...).

Denmark had a few world class players in the 80's to early 90's (Arnesen, Laudrup), but have since then not had a single one. Eriksen at Ajax is a promising player, but far from the finished product. Gronkjaer and Polusen had a few good seasons, but that's pretty much it.

Sweden had some top top class players n the 50's, but that's ancient history (sorry John). Since then we've had three world class players: Ibrahimovich, Larsson and Brolin (before going to England). I guess Ljungberg and Thern come fairly close. There have been quite a lot of good sub-top players, but looking at the current national squad almost all players can be considered to be run-of-the mill on an international standard.

Looking at smallish countries my choice would have to be the Netherlands, with Portugal as runner-up. Belgium has a golden generation thing going, but how many of them that will make it to the top level remains to be seen.

However, the OP didn't say anything about small countries. And looking just at the ratio number of good players / population, I would argue that Argentina, Spain, England and perhaps even Brazil are on par with the Dutch.

My two pence :-)

If you can justify some way of including Brazil then for me they are miles ahead of everybody.

[mr_nool]

Interpreting the OP strictly, i.e. picking the best countries judging by the number of good player in relation to population, I would NOT go for the Scandinavian ones. It's true that they all have had some success in international tournaments (Norway not so much, but both Denmark and Sweden can be said to have been punching above their weight), but that's mostly down to good team efforts, not to outstanding players. None of the countries have produced a lot of top class football players, and not only do they lack an absolute top - the number of sub-top players isn't that high either. A telling fact is that all three national teams still field plenty of players that play in the domestic leagues.

Norway has had loads of run-of-the-mill top tier players in England, but very few can be considered "good" and I can't think of a single world class player (I guess Solskjaer and Carew some closest, which says a lot ...).

Denmark had a few world class players in the 80's to early 90's (Arnesen, Laudrup), but have since then not had a single one. Eriksen at Ajax is a promising player, but far from the finished product. Gronkjaer and Polusen had a few good seasons, but that's pretty much it.

Sweden had some top top class players n the 50's, but that's ancient history (sorry John). Since then we've had three world class players: Ibrahimovich, Larsson and Brolin (before going to England). I guess Ljungberg and Thern come fairly close. There have been quite a lot of good sub-top players, but looking at the current national squad almost all players can be considered to be run-of-the mill on an international standard.

Looking at smallish countries my choice would have to be the Netherlands, with Portugal as runner-up. Belgium has a golden generation thing going, but how many of them that will make it to the top level remains to be seen.

However, the OP didn't say anything about small countries. And looking just at the ratio number of good players / population, I would argue that Argentina, Spain, England and perhaps even Brazil are on par with the Dutch.

My two pence :-)

If you can justify some way of including Brazil then for me they are miles ahead of everybody.

Well, they have about 20 times the population of Sweden, and in my humble opinion they easily have 20 times as many good players. Whether they have 17 times as many good players as the Dutch is harder to argue for, though.

[BlueinBosnia]

if i owned a country of 1 million inhabitants i could field a world-class team that would beat England and Germany....i'd hire top top youth coaches and build a really insular system and enforce a Soviet-style dogma that creates a team spirit and culture within the same group of lads for > 10 years....

Having a large population with a lot of know-it-all cuntholes certainly hasn't helped England in the last 20 years, has it? it's like a room in a business meeting. The more people you have the dumber the room tends to get.

PM me if you have a country of 1M or so citizens which i could help overtake, rule and guide to footballing brilliance. I have none of my badges and won't be getting any either.

cheers

..... and lance armstrong would be your right hand man?

i hate lance. So, no. Any other questions?

cheers

Would you lance men with your strong right arm and hand?

[tikatakamcfc]

Well, it could be Netherlands, indeed.

But I have to be fair and also say - Croatia. And its worth considering other Ex-Yu republics...

We cannot talk about spain because population in Spain is big enough to exclude them from this comparison.