Quote Originally Posted by mountainballer
oh, almost missed this one.
first off, let's go back to the start of this little discussion. you claimed, that player of the decade should be either Zidane or Henry and your bias to Henry. right? right. so Henry is your player of the decade. my position is, that Henry deserves to be on a top 10 list, IMO somewhere between 6 and 10. that's not because I dislike him (in fact I have always been a fan of his game), it's because I don't want to make some ridiculous claims.
I mentioned a group of players, who all delivered comparable like Henry in this decade, if not better. you ridicule the naming of Raul, Rivaldo and Figo and almost act if if they had retired in 1990 well, sorry sir, but if you want to contest such a discussion, you should at least have some basic knowledge about soccer. last time I checked this decade was from 2000 to 2009.Los Galácticos
Let's lay out Henry's accomplishments and compare him to the people you mentioned and hopefully I can apply some basic soccer knowledge to this discussion.

Henry
273 goals this decade
4X Top Scorer in FA Premier League (1X 2nd place)
2X EPL League Champion (including undefeated season)
1X CL Champion (1X CL Finalist)
2X Runner-up for World Player of the Year

Quote Originally Posted by mountainballer
Raul?
well, his best years were 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003. hm, 4 of his best 5 seasons in this decade.....
he scored 197 of his 321 goals in this decade.
you make a case for Henry because of his scoring numbers and some les.
well, Raul has scored as well, won more les and is the all time scoring leader of either the Champions league, the Spanish national team and Real Madrid, the most successful club in the history of soccer.
again, this does not mean I think Raul would deserve player of the decade honors. this just means, if Henry is in any such discussion, Raul would need to be included either.
Raul
1X top scorer in La Liga
4X La Liga Champion
2x CL Champion
1X 3rd place World Player of the Year

All time scoring leader of either the Champions league? Sahres this honor with Filipo Inzaghi (who we both wouldn't consider in this debate), so I'm not sure how relevant that is to player of the decade. Nevertheless, still impressive. But, he's not above Henry this decade.

Most successful club in La Liga history? Irrelevant to player of the decade discussion.

It's also ironic you downplay Henry's achievements by claiming he was on a stacked team, then mention the years in which Raul played on Los Galácticos. Was he not a role player, then?
Figo?
why not? he won the Ballon d'Or 2000 and World Player of the Year in 2001.
2000 was his best year and 2001-2004 were as good or better as his Barca years in the 90s.
you can't leave him from a list, when you have Henry on the list.
(btw. in this decade he also has won 6 domestic league les in Spain and Italy. before 2000 he had won 2)
You seem to put heavy weight on winning player of the year, which is fine as it's your opinion. I'm surprised you didn't add Cannavaro to the list above Henry. The question isn't whether this guys would make my top 10, it's if I would put these guys over Henry. Personally, I would not. But Figo had some good years early this decade and a world player honor so this is your best case over Henry.

Rivaldo?
yes, his career really broke down after 2003 (some might say 2002) and yes, his likely best year was 1999 (scoringwise it was 2001), but still, if people include CR or Messi, who have 2 or 3 big years on their books, the 3 very strong seasons of Rivaldo (00, 01 and 02) should be considered either.(he was as important for the 2002 world championship as Ronaldo)
and btw. Rivaldo is a player I really don't like!
Yes, I don't agree with CR or Messi that high, so I see your point. However, I think both still are higher than Rivaldo for this decade. Even so, you chose all three to be above Henry this decade. I don't see how Rivaldo can go over Henry. 3 strong seasons? More like 1.5, 2 max. Pretty sure he had injury woes. Definitely not enough to be ranked over Henry.

I have no problem with these players being mentioned in the discussion. But I asked you who you would rank above Henry, and you said these three. I don't agree.