How many countries in the world have a footballer as their best ever male sportsman?

[Marshmallo]

On 31/07/2021 at 21:16, David W said:

I think Dominican Republic is the most common nationality in the MLB, outside of the obvious. Albert Pujols or Pedro Martinez... I would edge towards Martinez. He would be in the discussion for best pitcher of all time.

David Ortiz was the first person I'd thought of. Sammy Sosa too. Definitely a baseball player anyway. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

East Timor don't have much to show in any sport, not surprising given they've only been a country for twenty years and suffered decades of occupation and genocide just before that. Their best footballer could be any of their current squad, I'll pick the captain: Nataniel de Jesus Reis - Wikipedia

There's little better outside of football. Augusto Ramos Soares - Wikipedia is the top result when you google "best East Timor sportsmen" and I think this could well be a tie as well. Is running in an Olympic marathon better than captaining your country?

Ecuador have fewer top level options than I was expecting. Antonio Valencia - Wikipedia seem to have played at the highest level for longest, so he gets my vote.

Outside of football isn't a lot better. Jefferson Pérez - Wikipedia has a gold and silver in the Olympics for racewalking. Andrés Gómez - Wikipedia won the French Open singles title and the French & US Open doubles titles in tennis which is probably better, and I'm inclined to put him just ahead of Valencia for the overall win, but I'm open to suggestions.

Egypt are more interesting than you might think. Their top appearance makers and goal scorers are the brothers Ahmed Hassan (footballer, born 1975) - Wikipedia and Ahmed Hassan (footballer, born 1975) - Wikipedia, but their careers seem to have mostly been in African and Turkish football. The other obvious option is Mohamed Salah - Wikipedia, but am I over-estimating old guys because they're old?

Outside of football squash seems to be their biggest success, with Amr Shabana - Wikipedia and Ramy Ashour - Wikipedia being some of the best players ever. Any squash fans here? I feel like both of these guys are better at squash than Salah is at football, but Salah's football career is spectacular, so I don't know how to judge them.

El Salvador conveniently have a best player called Magico: Mágico González - Wikipedia

They don't seem to have much outside of football. Anyone got any ideas?

[Marshmallo]

It's obviously Salah for Egypt. Don't overthink it.

[David W]

Mohamed Aboutrika would be a good shout for best Egyptian player I reckon if it wasn't for Salah. It's clearly him though. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Surely El  Salvador have someone who’s played in the NFL or another of the American sports leagues? 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Surely El  Salvador have someone who’s played in the NFL or another of the American sports leagues? 

Carlos Hernandez was an IBF super featherweight champion - he beat David Santos and then retained the title against former IBF lightweight champion Steve Forbes, with an eleventh round technical decision.

[GNU_Linux]

Surely El  Salvador have someone who’s played in the NFL or another of the American sports leagues? 

Jose Cortez had an 8 year pro career as a placekicker in the NFL plus NFL Europe, XFL & Arena Football League. Cortez is one of two players to have played in all four leagues.

Henry Bonilla a RHP got as high as AAA (highest minor league level) plus spells in Venezuela & Italy. Coaching in the minor leagues currently.


Of Salvadorian heritage but wouldn't qualify under the threads criteria:


McLeod Bethel Thomspon a QB currently with the Argos in the CFL has Salvadorian heritage through his grandmother. Has had stints in the NFL & Arena Football League too.

Steve Rodriguez a 2B/SS had a single MLB season in 1995. Played for the US national team too. Has had a more distinguished career as a coach in NCAA with Pepperdine & currently Baylor.

[DiegoDiego]

Anyone can job about playing favourable minutes on shite teams, that part of his career wasn't comparable to the early years.

Not at 45 they can't.

Jagr was named by the Czechs as their top hockey player eleven times, Hašek three. I was a huge Hašek fan back in the day and there's not much between them in an apples/oranges comparison so I'm not particularly fussed but I do think Jagr edges it.

[HalfCutNinja]

10 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

It's obviously Salah for Egypt. Don't overthink it.

Hossam Hassam scored double Salah's number for Egp

[Michael W]

Salah has won the Champions League, Premier League and is a genuinely World Class player, none of which apply to Hassan Hassan despite his impressive scoring record and caps for his country. 

[Moomintroll]

1 hour ago, Michael W said:

Salah has won the Champions League, Premier League and is a genuinely World Class player, none of which apply to Hassan Hassan despite his impressive scoring record and caps for his country. 

He did score 4 goals in a game v Celtic though, which was funny and, makes him as good as Frank MacDougall.

[Mark Connolly]

On 30/07/2021 at 16:41, Miguel Sanchez said:

 

Cuba are an interesting one. They reached the World Cup quarter finals in 1938 but there's very little information on any of the players from then. Onel Hernández - Wikipedia was born in Cuba and represents them, currently playing at Norwich and apparently a big fan of Argos. I honestly think he wins this, the high appearance and goal numbers from Cubans are mostly guys playing in their domestic league which I'm guessing isn't great. 

Outside of football Javier Sotomayor - Wikipedia is the current world record holder in the high jump and has Olympic and world championship golds. Iván Pedroso - Wikipedia Had an even more dominant long jump career. Félix Savón - Wikipedia won three Olympic golds in boxing and is considered one of the best amateur boxers of all time, so is Teófilo Stevenson - Wikipedia. Mijaín López - Wikipedia has multiple world and Olympic championships in Greco-Roman wrestling. Pedro Luis Lazo - Wikipedia is a multiple Olympic and world cup champion in baseball. Pretty much any of these guys are more impressive than their footballers, but if anyone has a preference then go for it.

 

On this point, Mijain Lopez today became the first man ever to win 4 Olympic Golds in wrestling. Hard to argue against that

[Raidernation]

For Cuba you also have Alberto Juantorena only man to win both 400 & 800m gold at the same Olympic Games, 1976.

[Miguel Sanchez]

I've updated the list in the OP.

Equatorial Guinea don't have much to offer. Iván Zarandona - Wikipedia is their most capped player and played in Spain mostly. Emilio Nsue - Wikipedia is their leading scorer in a very short amount of games and has played in Spain and England for longer, so he wins this one. A lot of their best players are naturalised and Nsue is too, but it still counts imo.

Their most famous non-footballer is Eric Moussambani - Wikipedia who you might know better as Eric the Eel.

Eritrea have one of my favourite names so far, with their most-capped and joint top scorer being Yidnekachew Shimangus - Wikipedia. I'm not sure if I should count Henok Goitom - Wikipedia who was Swedish-born but eventually represented the country of his parents.

I'm going to pick the guy with the name, but he's finishing behind Zersenay Tadese - Wikipedia with numerous successes in the world half-marathon championships, as well as Olympic and world championship medals in the 10,000 metres. Ghirmay Ghebreslassie - Wikipedia won the marathon in the 2015 world championship but that's his only medal, putting him in second for me. It's worth looking at the picture on his wikipedia and judging if his listed age is accurate, though. 

Estonia have quite a few experienced footballers near the top of their numbers, but most of them are from domestic and similar levels. Wikipedia tells me that Ragnar Klavan - Wikipedia has won the Estonian Footballer of the Year award a record seven times, so he seems an easy choice. 

Outside of football they struggle a bit since they were Estonia pre-1940 and post-1991, so the Soviet Union era has taken away a lot of their options. Ott Tänak - Wikipedia was 2019 World Rally Champion. Erki Nool - Wikipedia won the decathlon at the 2000 Olympics, Gerd Kanter - Wikipedia is a world and Olympic champion in the discus, Andrus Veerpalu - Wikipedia is a multiple world and Olympic champion in cross-country skiing. I think all four of these guys beat Klavan, and I'm going to pick Veerpalu because he won more over a longer period of time. 

Eswatini have a lot of domestic options with nobody really playing at a high level. Tony Tsabedze - Wikipedia has more caps than anyone else, let's pick him. 

There's even less to go on outside of football, so if anyone has any Africa knowledge they're holding out on, fire away. 

Ethiopia are the same as Eswatini but a bit better. Getaneh Kebede - Wikipedia is their leading scorer and looks like he'll take the appearance record soon too. Ethiopia won the African Cup of Nations in 1962 and were captained by Luciano Vassallo - Wikipedia, who might be worth a shout.

This is all irrelevant of course, given Ethiopia's success in distance running. Your choices here are Haile Gebrselassie - Wikipedia or Kenenisa Bekele - Wikipedia. Gebrselassie was in the Great Scottish Run in 2013, the same as me, so he's getting my vote here and the overall win for his country. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Get your arguments ready for France. 

[Nightmare]

21 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Get your arguments ready for France. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

1 minute ago, Nightmare said:

Oh he's obviously winning, I meant for the non-footballers.

[Mr. Brightside]

Sebastien Loeb is an obvious one for France.

[GNU_Linux]

For Estonian football goalkeeper Mart Poom is worthy of mention. Played with Derby as a starter during their top flight days in the late 90's & early 00's.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Is Eritrea the one that withdrew from international competitions for a bit because their footballers kept claiming asylum?

Eswatini - this boy is the best I can find with a handful of African games medals in the marathon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mabuza