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    Jari Litmanen

    He doesn't have a thread on this board. Now is as good a time as any, because I just found this YouTube clip of Ajax's goals in the 94/95 Champions League. Litmanen ran the show. He had it all: defence splitting passes, crosses, quick thinking assists at short range, headed goals, beating players with ease, the ability to break the net with both the left and right foot...

    The greatest Ajax player ever.

    #2
    Jari Litmanen

    Is he the first footballer to retire from club football in order to concentrate on his international career?

    Comment


      #3
      Jari Litmanen

      I watched the clip that Bryan posted, showing the Ajax destruction of Bayern in the 1995 CL semi. Football at it's very best, and Litmanen quite brilliant - unmarkable, I'd say.

      A wonderful footballer.

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        #4
        Jari Litmanen

        what a preposterously brilliant team ajax were at that time.

        i was happy to be there when litmanen scored his best goal for liverpool, a 25 yard shot in off the post to beat spurs 1-0 at anfield.

        he was clearly the best player on the pitch that day. shortly afterwards, houllier said he hadn't got the legs for the premiership and froze him out.

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          #5
          Jari Litmanen

          .

          (not about jl as such ...)

          How lovely are Ajax's colours!? And why are they so out of it now? And will they ever get back in it?

          .

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            #6
            Jari Litmanen

            Was 94-95 when they beat Real Madrid at the Bernebeu 2-0, but should have had about 8 goals?

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              #7
              Jari Litmanen

              Inca,

              Is this the match you were referring to? I believe it was the CL group stage in '95-'96. It was also the match that sealed my Ajax fandom. I was in school in A'dam at the time and, being the front runner that I am, got caught up in all the excitement during my first exposure to European club football.

              Comment


                #8
                Jari Litmanen

                That was right about the time when you could start to find at least a little bit of football on TV here in the States. Not 100 percent certain but I think the Ajax-Milan final was the first to be shown here on ESPN.

                Litmanen was great but what a team: Finidi, Rijkaard, Danny Blind, the deBoers, and the youngsters Overmars, Kanu, Seedorf, Davids, Kluivert, Reiziger. Some team.

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                  #9
                  Jari Litmanen

                  (I'm currently trying to sign Litmanen for Wolves on Football Manager 08.)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Jari Litmanen

                    Back in the day he played for Lahden Reipas, one half of Lahti's great footballing rivalry. His club was founded in Vyborg and, like Ilves Kissat in Tampere, moved wholesale to lahti when the peace treaty necessitated the evacuation of karelia.

                    The other club, FC Kuusysi, beat Zenit St Petersburg and FC Sarajevo in the 1986 European Cup before going out in the Quarter Finals to the eventual winners Steaua Bucharest. Kuusysi and Reipas merged to become FC Lahti, which gets smaller crowds than either club got before the merger.

                    As always in these situations, the junior clubs kept their identity and are the ones that coach the youth of Lahti. This gives them a 'presence' in thousands of Lahti families that FC Lahti cannot hope to achieve, and means that if they ever managed to resurrect themselves they'd have a ready-made fan base. At present Kuusysi's juniors set up a new club called 'city stars' so that they didn't have to stop playing at 18, and they are now in the third tier. Reipas have no senior side.

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                      #11
                      Jari Litmanen

                      (Mighty: don't!)

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                        #12
                        Jari Litmanen

                        Why not? He's only 36. Could definitely do a job as an 'impact' substitute when Karl Henry runs out of steam, I reckon.

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                          #13
                          Jari Litmanen

                          Without wanting to derail this thread into epic geekery, he just isn't very good.

                          Anyway, mid-90s Ajax, eh? I still get twinges of nostalgia for a good Ajax side, but I can't romanticise them too much seeing as they're just the Dutch equivalent of a BRC. I'd probably feel more positively disposed if they'd stayed at De Meer, instead of that horrible box they play in now.

                          Saying Litmanen is Ajax's best ever player would be.. controversial, surely?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Jari Litmanen

                            No, I think he was. He could defend as well. And at his peak he had pace as well.

                            If he hadn't gotten all those injuries he could have become the greatest player, ever, anywhere.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Jari Litmanen

                              I'm probably still going to buy him, for the reason Alex Ferguson bought Laurent Blanc despite the fact he could barely move.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Jari Litmanen

                                Litmanen was great but what a team: Finidi, Rijkaard, Danny Blind, the deBoers, and the youngsters Overmars, Kanu, Seedorf, Davids, Kluivert, Reiziger. Some team.

                                It was an amazing team.

                                Six of them ended up at Barcelona at various times afterwards. All flopped, with the arguable exception of Reiziger.

                                In fact, it was seven -- I forgot the great Bogarde . . .

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Jari Litmanen

                                  Litmanen is the greatest footballer I have ever seen with my own eyes, in 40 years of watching the game. Without his depressive illness he would have become the greatest footballer of all time, IMHO.

                                  Most young Ajax fans would have him as their best Ajacied ever, some older ones would go for Cruijff, Keyzer or Swaart, I suspect.

                                  **

                                  I missed that 0 -2 game against Real Madrid because I was in Detroit for some reason, but I read press reports, and the Spanish press were full of praise for Ajax, "We have seen the football of the 21st century" was one headline I remember.

                                  The game was also notable for a 22m Litmanen free-kick that went into the goal and came back out off a stantion, - the referee gave no goal.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Jari Litmanen

                                    Even when he came back to Ajax in 2002, almost crippled from years of injuries, he oozed class. He had that Paul McGrath like skill of appearing, almost out of nowhere, in the perfect position.

                                    Six of them ended up at Barcelona at various times afterwards. All flopped, with the arguable exception of Reiziger.
                                    Frank de Boer anchored the Barca defence for five seasons. Marc Overmars did very well at Barca.

                                    edit: Kluivert scored 90 league goals for Barca. Bogarde played two full seasons there before leaving when Van Gaal was sacked.

                                    Litmanen spent most of his time with the physio.

                                    So I'd say that out of the seven, only Ronald de Boer "flopped" at Barca, in that he couldn't hold down a first team place.

                                    And I just remembered the eighth: Edgar Davids. Went to Barca for half a year and turned their season around.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Jari Litmanen

                                      Marc Overmars did very well at Barca.

                                      What? No he didn't. He's one of the most expensive mistakes in their history.

                                      Some genius once worked out that all Patrick Kluivert's league goals for Barcelona had won the team something like 16 points.

                                      Bogarde played two full seasons there before leaving when Van Gaal was sacked.


                                      Yes, and he was dreadful. Frank de Boer routinely got killed in the Champions League while there as well. You're being extraordinarily generous to some of these players.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Jari Litmanen

                                        No I don't think he is, H.B.

                                        You need to look at your own prejudices.

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                                          #21
                                          Jari Litmanen

                                          I was going to defend Frank De Boer, notwithstanding his problems in Europe (which were not all his fault), but I wouldn't stand up for either Overmars or Kluivert as being other than relative flops.

                                          The Overmars/Petit transfer remains for me Exhibit A in support of the theory that Wenger is a master at knowing exactly when to sell players. Paddy Vieira is probably Exhibit B.

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                                            #22
                                            Jari Litmanen

                                            The Purple Cow wrote:
                                            No I don't think he is, H.B.

                                            You need to look at your own prejudices.
                                            Get off the stage, will you. You're the guy who thinks Winston Bogarde was a fantastic player.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Jari Litmanen

                                              I perhaps wonder if Johan Cruyff is in fact the greatest Ajax player ever. Either way, I always liked Litmanen. I think Liverpool criminally underused him during his time in England.

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                                                #24
                                                Jari Litmanen

                                                He's still in England. Or at least, getting paid by an English club.

                                                If he decides to sign for FC Lahti this summer I think I might well wet myself with excitement.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Jari Litmanen

                                                  dotmund wrote:
                                                  I perhaps wonder if Johan Cruyff is in fact the greatest Ajax player ever. Either way, I always liked Litmanen. I think Liverpool criminally underused him during his time in England.
                                                  I could be wrong, but the impression I've gotten from Ajax fans--mostly on here--is that Cruyff was never really loved as an Ajax player like Litmanen was.

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