Meet Paul Knight
Meet the Editor
NAME: Paul Knight
NATIONALITY: English
POSITION: Centre-back/Full-back
My current World XI:
| 1. Gianluigi Buffon 2. Gary Neville 3. Eric Abidal 4. Alessandro Nesta 5. Fabio Cannavaro 6. Mikael Essien 7. Juninho Pernambucano 8. Florent Malouda 9. Klaas Jan Huntelaar 10. Didier Drogba 11. Ronaldinho Subs: 12. Petr Cech 13. William Gallas 14. John Terry 15. Gianluca Zambrotta 16. Steven Gerrard 17. Patrick Vieira 18. Cristiano Ronaldo 19. Lionel Messi 20. Wayne Rooney 21. Ruud Van Nistelrooy 22. Thierry Henry |
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Teams I have seen play live:
| # | NATIONAL | ENGLISH | WORLD CLUB |
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 |
Andorra Argentina Austria Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Colombia Croatia Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia France Germany Italy Israel Jamaica Japan Liechtenstein Luxembourg Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Russia San Marino Scotland Sweden Switzerland USA Wales Yugoslavia |
Arsenal Aston Villa Barnet Barnsley Birmingham City Blackburn Rovers Blackpool Bolton Wanderers Bournemouth Bradford City Brentford Bristol City Bristol Rovers Burnley Cardiff City Charlton Athletic Chelsea Cheltenham Town Colchester United Crystal Palace Dagenham & Redbridge Derby County Everton Fulham Grimsby Town Hartlepool United Huddersfield Town Ipswich Town Leeds United Leicester City Leyton Orient Luton Town Manchester City Manchester United Middlesbrough Millwall Newcastle United Northampton Town Norwich City Nottingham Forest Oldham Athletic Oxford United Peterborough United Plymouth Argyle Port Vale Preston North End Queen's Park Rangers Reading Rotherham United Sheffield United Sheffield Wednesday Shrewsbury Town Southampton Southend United Stockport County Swindon Town Tottenham Hotspur Tranmere Rovers Watford West Bromwich Albion West Ham United Wigan Athletic Wimbledon Wolverhampton Wand. Wrexham Wycombe Wanderers York City |
Aberdeen AEK Athens Ajax Alaves Athletic Bilbao AS Monaco Auxerre Bastia Bayern Munich Benfica Besiktas Bordeaux Borussia Dortmund Borussia Monchengladbach Caen Dunfermline FC Haka FC Zurich Fiorentina Glasgow Rangers Guingamp Heerenveen Internazionale Inverness & Cally Thistle Juventus Kilmarnock Kyiv Dynamo Lausanne Lazio Le Havre Lens Lille Livingston Lorient Marseille Metz Montpellier Nancy Nantes Olympiakos Olympique Lyonnais Panathinaikos PAOK Thessaloniki Paris Saint Germain Parma PSV Eindhoven RC Strasbourg Saint Etienne Sedan Servette Genève Spartak Moscow Sparta Rotterdam Standard Liège SV Salzburg Toulouse Troyes Valencia VFB Stuttgart Vicenza Villareal Vitoria Guimaraes |
Countries I have visited:
| Austria | Belgium | Cuba | Denmark |
| England | France | Germany | Greece |
| Italy | Liechtenstein | Luxembourg | Monaco |
| Netherlands | Portugal | Republic of Ireland | Russia |
| San Marino | Scotland | Slovakia | Slovenia |
| Spain | Switzerland | Vatican City | Wales |
My all-time World XI:
| 1. Lev Yashin 2. Paul Breitner 3. Giacinto Facchetti 4. Franz Beckenbauer 5. Bobby Moore 6. Johan Neeskens 7. Diego Maradona 8. Johan Cruyff 9. Gerd Muller 10. Pele 11. Alfredo Di Stefano Subs: 12. Gordon Banks 13. Franco Baresi 14. Duncan Edwards 15. John Charles 16. Frank Rijkaard 17. Tom Finney 18. Ferenc Puskas 19. George Best 20. Stanley Matthews 21. Eusebio 22. Michel Platini 23. Dino Zoff |
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I know there's not much in the way of a midfield, but I suppose the world's greatest team wouldn't really need many ball-winners as they are unlikely to lose possession that frequently. Such a solid defence and goalkeeper wouldn't need much protection either.
The attackers are mainly goal creators as well as goal scorers so there should be no shortage of chances. Gerd Muller is the exception. I believe that every team needs one out and out goal-scorer to clinically finish off the chances and Gerd Muller was unrivalled in the art of putting the ball in the net from inside the box.
When in possession, Franz Beckenbauer will push up into midfield to support Neeskens and provide some extra creativity. Breitner also has the versatility to join the midfield, where he played for much of his career and Facchetti was no stranger to bursting forward down the wing. Di Stefano began his career as an outside-right so he should fell at home opposite Johan Cryuff, but the two will have the freedom to drift around the front line.
No world XI can possibly exclude Pele or Maradona so they'll have to play side by side behind Muller. Bobby Moore will be there to mop up at the back in the event that the opposition does get anywhere near my team's goal.
I had trouble choosing a second choice 'keeper so Banks and Zoff both get a place in the squad behind the Russian number one, Lev Yashin. I make no excuse for putting so many attacking players on the bench. Given the players available, it's hard not to pick the most exciting ones. I still don't know how I can justify leaving out Garrincha, Zico, Kubala, Hidegkuti, Koeman and Van Basten.
Personal Records
5,000m - 20min 43s (2007)
10,000m - 46min 53s (2006)
