in 1982 johan krief came off the pitch as iax led by two against nec it would be substituted by a 16 year old striker who was making his professional debut and would score only a few minutes later he wouldn't play again that season but by the next one it would be an every contention to steal european golden boot winner wimp gift spots in the starting eleven by then ayax's fans would realize they would be yelling out his name a lot for the next few seasons that young boy was marco van basten as gift left van basten would fully take on the role as the main striker for the team and the 18 year old at the time would show himself to be not only fit for the job but extraordinary at it his numbers would rise like very few had before him that first season he would get 31 goals in 32 matches in all competitions scoring a goal every 18 minutes in the league one thing that i think is very interesting about his first season is how most of his goals came at the beginning and at the end of the season i understand this is a very peculiar stat to bring up but listen to me out of his 28 league goals 12 came in the first 7 matches and 9 out of his last 3 meaning that between these two amazing goal scoring streaks he only managed 7 goals in 16 matches don't really know what to take from all that although it was weird enough that it stood out to me the first thing i thought was that perhaps the draw was distributed in a way so that he would play the worst teams at the beginning and end of the season but that is quickly debunked as you noticed that he scored a hat-trick against feyenoord who were league champions that season that year despite van basten finishing as the highest goal scorer in the league by a large margin ayax would only finish third and not win any other competition as they were perhaps missing the great johannes crew who left the club the previous season the next season would be slightly different as despite van basten performing a bit worse at the individual level they would win the league and it would once again beat stop scorer i think the most impressive part of that season was that van basten despite being eliminated off the uefa cup on the second round would finish only two goals behind the top scorer of the competition this all becomes even more impressive as you realize that he only scored in one match which as you might imagine was a very unusual one as ayax after seeing both teams fail to score in the first leg against red boys differed dunge a team coming out of luxembourg would completely destroy them in a 14-0 win where marco van basten would score five this might have been the two most unbalanced legs in a ufo matchup of all time it's honestly hard to comprehend how this even happened the next season would be one of his most exceptional as he would score 37 goals in only 26 league matches scoring in 73 percent of them even scoring six against sparta rotterdam and only going two consecutive games without scoring in the league once all year this would award him his first and only european golden boots despite this once again iax would not win the league and be knocked out of the europa champions cup very early in what seems like too little to honor van basten for his incredible season ayax would at least win the dutch cup regardless at individual level this would mark another great milestone for van basten as by the end of the year it would be nominated for his first ever ballon d'or at the age of 22. the next season would be his last at iax but also his best with 43 goals in 43 matches van basten would lead ayax to their most successful season since the creep era as despite once again failing to win the league despite van basten's immense contribution of 30 league goals they will take part in the cup winners cup where van basten despite missing out on being the tournament top scorer to his teammate jon bosman would be very essential as he would score the only goal in the final one of the six he scored across the competition's nine matches but as coming clutch in one final wasn't enough for him it would also be immense in the dutch cup as ayax went into extra time he would score not once but twice spring trophy home as he totaled seven goals in six matches in the competition these amazing performances would earn him a transfer to what seemed to be the next big step in his career ac milan everyone was expecting van basten to dominate the league and after five matches he had already struck the net three times but then disaster struck as he would injure his ankle and have to go through surgery only coming back six months later after missing 24 matches regardless by the end of the season despite only managing nine goals the struggling striker would add the syria to his trophy cabinets by the end of the club season the euro will be played and despite his lasting problems with injury van basten will be called to represent the netherlands at the euro 1988. it would come onto the first match as a sub only taking part in 31 minutes of the match as he would watch his own nation lose against the soviet union on the second match it would be selected onto the starting eleven and despite not playing the full match once again it would score all three goals that day as they beat england after lackluster third match against ireland the netherlands were true to the final stages where they played germany after a penalty for each of the sides the game seemed to be going into extra time but then van basten scored two minutes before the end to get the netherlands to the final there they would face the soviet union the only team that had defeated them in the tournament so far nerves were on all-time highs but once again on the 32nd minute van basten would assist rip gullit and put them in front this lead would be increased by no other than van basten himself as he scored in the second half to ensure that they would be crowned champions of europe an amazing comeback in what seemed like a lost year after that injury but he would not stop here as he would come back to italy with all the strength needed to score 12 times for the club before the end of the year and secure an unimaginable first ballon d'or by the end of the year the remainder of the season would be equally impressive as he would score against every team they faced in the european champions cup including their only goal against weather bremen two goals against real madrid and two in the final against stawa bucharest as they would win it for the first time and would finish as a top scorer of the competition with an impressive 10 goals during the start of the next season it would constantly come clutch against some of the best teams in europe scoring against the likes of real madrid barcelona juventus intel and homer all in the span of a little more than a month as he would take on the european super cup and the intercontinental cup before making it out of the group stage of the champions league this spectacular start to the season would once again be enough to settle him as the best player in the world as he would win the ballon d'or for a second consecutive time the remainder of the season would be very similar to the previous one with ac milan missing on the league despite van basten being the top scorer but going on to win the champions league as he scored the goal against every team he faced in the competition except for being fika in the final as ac milan would win by a single goal by frank reichardt this year van basten would not even be nominated to the ballon d'or as the netherlands would get knocked out of the world cup in their first match something that would take the spotlight of his performances something which would only be made even worse by his shockingly poor performances over the next season which we now know where duty is falling out with manager arigosaki once this old mass was over it was time for van basten to get back on track and so he did scoring 25 times in 31 league matches at a point in the season even managing 20 goals in 20 consecutive matches these amazing performances would get the team back into the champions league as they would finally win the league again in the summer van basten would take part in the euro 1992 where they would defeat the reigning champions west germany in the group stage before being knocked out in the semi-finals by denmark despite van baster not scoring a single goal it would be part of the team of the tournament his start to the next season showed us a van boston that seemed to be a level above what we had seen from him until now scoring 19 goals in the first 14 matches of the season including four against napoli four in the champions league against gothenburg and three against pescada as it saved milan from dropping points securing a single goal advantage with his third goal by the end of the year it would be a worthy disturbed ballon d'or at the age of 28.
it seemed like the future held many more awards for van basten as he seemed to be in some of the best form of his career and had just tied grief and platini with tribal endorsed itch to be the player with the most of these awards by that period what i willingly left out was that as he was attending the ballon d'or ceremony he was also recovering from another ankle surgery as he had injured himself again just eight days before this time he would miss another 24 matches before coming back in time to fulfill his dream of playing another champions league final by the 86 minutes as ac milan were trailing one goal beyond marseille basil bali would tackle van basten brutally and one month after being back to playing football then boston would blow out his ankle once more it would spend an entire year on the sidelines watching ac milan win another champions league without him hopeful that he would be able to take part in the 1994 world cup when it came time to wear the orange shirt once again it was worn it would most likely end his career so he gave in and after another season on the sidelines he would announce to the fans at san siro that it was time to let go and end his career playing his last match at the age of 28 in a time where he was the current ballon d'or holder his coach fabio cappello would break down and cry as he watched his star player go down in the worst way possible who could have guessed that as van basten picked up his third ballon d'or we would only ever see him score once more elegant smart powerful agile the swan of utrecht will never be forgotten getting into our ranking system now when it comes to finishing it's very easy it was deadly from anywhere in any situation it's a 10 out of 10. secondly is positioning it was as opportunistic as they gets it's a 10 out of 10. for speed and physicality he gets another 9 out of 10 only missing out on the 10 due to his injury problems the fourth technical attribute to be taken into account is his first touch and ball control which falls just shy of the best of the best he gets an 8 out of 10 lastly his mentality not many players would spend two years on the sidelines working towards coming back to football he gets an 8 out of 10.
now taking into account the attributes that define a legacy the first one is consistency he was great at every level he played in despite not being the most consistent game to game it's a 9 out of 10. secondly flair not the most interesting player in this aspect but for a striker he was incredibly graceful despite also being so powerful he gets a 9 out of 10. his trophy cabinet is very memorable it earns him another 9 out of 10.
then longevity well it wasn't his fault of course but as he retired at 28 there's nothing i can do it's a 2 out of 10. then the icon factor it certainly hasn't maintained the same level of notoriety as patinee or grief so it gets an 8 out of 10.
