If Every 2022 World Cup Team Could Bring Back ONE Legend

From Vincent Kompany returning to fix Belgium's ageing centre-back issue to Samuel Eto'o providing Cameroon with an added spark up front, HITC Sevens ponders which legend every national team at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar would bring back if it were possible.

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[jonasfrohwitter]

love the bit where you show Deschamps while making the point that the best individual players are not always the solution to a teams problems :D

[simokojamesphiri]

Crazy that the guy you picked out as Moroccos weak link turned out to be arguably the best young player of the tournament 😅

[aaryank]

Loved when he said Ounahi as a weaklink shows how much he has proven everyone's expectations wrong

[milosilic]

I think you missed it with Serbia. We have a great front line and a good midfield and defence. But defence is where you could swap any player basically with either Nemanja Vidic or Branislav Ivanovic. Either would have a bigger influence on the team than Dzajic.

[Reorganiser]

Definetely a few players I could see being good alternatives to your picks are Beckenbauer for Germany, Puyol for Spain, Van der Sar for Netherlands and the already mentioned Zanetti for Argentina. Zanetti in particular would be excellent as the archievement of a World Cup win would mean so much more if Maradona wouldn't have to step in order to help Messi win his WC. Also I think for team chemistry reasons alone Zanetti would be the more reasonable and sensible decision ahead of Maradona

[miloradbabic]

I think that Serbia has more issues defending than attacking, so for us addition of Nemanja Vidic or Branislav Ivanovic, during their peak at Man U/Chelsea, would bring more value than adding Dzajic.

[theravingtimes]

For Canada, our center-back options are incredibly limited so I'd go with David Edgar who played in the Premier League for Newcastle and Burnley. Then again, if you want to go for another former big name we need then we could go for De Rosario to add more attacking midfield options to back up Osorio (though I think a prime Dero is better than Oso) since Wotherspoon just came back from an ACL tear and Kone played his first professional game less then a year ago.

[alexleston]

Jacques Songo’o was an incredible Cameroonian goalkeeper in the late 90s early 2000s. I’d love to see one more tournament from him

[mikelitorous]

I would have said R9 for Brazil. He was more of an out and out striker and deadly finisher compared to pele who was more of a creative forward, even tho he was a goal scoring machine. I feel like R9 would allow the flair players around him to boss the game more just with his presence and the ability of him to just power through defences

[brianglover]

Salivating at the thought of Messi and Maradona in the same squad

[daarom]

For France I'd take Vieira tbf. France isn't lacking in attacking output really, but their defensive midfield is a worry (with Kante/Pogba out).

[davidzhuleiva]

7:46, this is the kind of quality commentary that keeps bringing me back to Alfies videos, despite that I don’t really watch any football

[ColinKillick]

This was a great video Alfie! Billy Goncalves is an amazing historic pick for the U.S. (and is the pride of Massachusetts) although given what we saw from the U.S.--a great ability to create chances and little ability to finish them--I'd stick him up front. For a more recent center-forward I'd actually go for Taylor Twellman, who (despite being bizarrely snubbed for the 06 US squad) scored 98 goals in his first six MLS seasons before a career-ending concussion at just 29 years of age.

[dymdz]

Pointing out Tomori probably regretting not playing for Canada, maybe there’s a video of other such players who have similar regret? Surely there are other top players not being used in this way.

[Alfie_]

I think Mbeumo for Cameroon, to provide that spark, could generally be really helpful now that he has switched his international allegiance, Eto'o personally organised a meeting with him to convince him to join Cameroon.

[sithvsjedi]

Mad how you don't even give Peter Schmeichal an honourable mention for Denmark. He nearly single handedly won Euro 92 for the Danish Dynamite 👍🏼

[Alfie_]

Also, very surprised that Kyogo Furuhashi didn't get called up as a centre forward for Japan.

[antwan]

No doubt a prime Eusebio would be a massive upgrade to Portugal for this World Cup. But there's another hipothetical upgrade that would be as good or even better, and without bringing anyone in. That would be to rejuvenate Pepe and Cristiano 10 years, back to 2012 form, or even 5 years, back to 2017. That, I think would make Portugal nº1 favourites for Qatar 22.

[nicholasbrown]

For Brazil, I see your point but still think those full back positions need the most help. Have to boost that RB position esp with most likely Alberto or Cafu. Maicon and prime Dani are and upgrade to current options.

[Luigi-hnhu]

Pelé wasn't a center forward, he was a second striker/atacking midfilder, a classic number 10, playing behind the number 9, that is his ideal position