to those who follow soccer regularly
 

were there any players who came out of the woodwork this World Cup? I'm curious because I really don't know who was well-known aside from the megastars (Messi, Suarez, etc). Did any lesser known player make a name for themselves/sign a huge contract following their World Cup performance?

@Witty @Orc @Certain @Eŋg


Eŋg change your name it's fucking irritating to @ you lol

Colombia's James Rodriguez was the biggest revelation as a potential superstar (or a flash-in-the-pan, since that can happen for scorers). Mexico keeper Memo Ochoa definitely earned himself some consideration, too, particularly for his performance against Brazil. Rodriguez and Ochoa both played in France last year.

Ligue 1 players in general did really well for themselves and probably brought some more respect to French clubs. France's Mathieu Valbuena gave the performance of his life, but he's 29 and probably won't draw much interest.

No one on Germany could be called a surprise star. I liked Marcos Rojo's performance for Argentina, but a lot of that was because he was playing with Martin Demichelis and Pablo Zabaleta on a way-underrated back line. Argentine keeper Sergio Romero showed that maybe he should be getting more action, too, though again he got to play behind a great back line.

Really, most of the European standouts were known commodities. Memphis Depay showed he has a nice future for the Netherlands, but he's 20 and a highly thought-of prospect already.

Certain you are an American sports writer I take it? I agree with most of what you say. However, James Rodriguez is the answer to this question, for me. He previously moved to Monaco for 45 million pound so big things were expected and he really delivered. The kid was the best player at this World Cup and was robbed of the Golden Ball by Lionel Messi.

It's hard for people to come out of the woodwork at World Cups or Euro's these days purely because to make the squad they will have already been well known and impressed at a decent club level. Columbia's Guadrado was also impressive and I personally didn't know of him beforehand so that was great.

So then, we good?

Messi deserves it within the context of what each player did for his team

Sure.

Split Eight, Messi did not deserve the player of the tournament award. It was the Lionel Messi award for being Lionel Messi. A farce.

Lionel Messi was Argentina's entire offense because of Angel Di Maria's injury, Maxi Rodriguez's age and, especially, Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain's general shittiness. But Argentina struggled on offense throughout the tournament.

My vote goes to Philipp Lahm. He played out of position and was the best player on the back line for the Germans. And he's Philipp Lahm. If you asked who the best player in the world was from 2004-2014 (as in, covering that entire stretch), Lahm's the answer. (I have a bias toward defensive players, but how many guys were in top form for that entire 10-year run?) Germany have all the offense they need from a dozen guys. Lahm held the defense together.

my vote goes to Beckerman, he has dreads.

i thought yepes was outstanding. wily veterans >

lahm is a lot better in his natural, fullback, position than as a defensive midfielder. but he's unequivocally an excellent player.

blind was pretty impressive.

i do think rodriguez deserved the golden ball.

and i like the latin letter in my name. thanks.

Paul pogba won best young player. I don't know the limitations for that award, but a 23 James should have won that along golden boot and player of tournament.

I'm sure after today even gotze will be a name people will remember, he's young to.

Ochoa will get a deal on Europe some where for sure, he was a beast for a very poor defensive team.

You're a farce. Poor coaching decisions, the coach restructured the entire Argentine offense to focus on freeing up Messi to do what he does as a playmaker/ trying to replicate Barca's style of play. It's ridiculous that Batista can't figure out how to exploit both Messi and Tevez's skillsets


EDIT: sabella not batista

Carlos Tevez wasn't on the roster. He's 30.

Insanity. Messi did not deserve that at all. Colombia has never gotten as far as they have this year. This was a break-out year for Colombia. For a lot of teams, Chile, Costa Rica. These teams are general first round knockout teams, if at all. James Rodriguez deserved the boot and the ball.

I'm on a lot of drugs

Correction...memo ochoa been playing in france.

Also bryan ruiz from crica should get a mention.

James top surprise tho.

Certain how in the fuck do you know so much about soccer without being latino or European

its unusual

James Rodriguez was easily the best player in the tournament and the biggest surprise imo...he deserved the award, Mascherano was more important to Argentina than Messi in the end.

Messi got Argentina through in the early stages but did very little in the bigger games.

maybe Certain is Messi?

Blind for The Netherlands was impressive too.