Would Federer be better than Messi if he chose to play football?

[sureshs]

Originally Posted by edmondsm

Sorry dude, there is no more difficult sport to succeed at then soccer/football. It has nothing to do with what you deem as being more difficult. It has everything to do with the size of the pool you have to contend with. Soccer is far and away the largest sport on the planet with nearly all of the 6 billion people on earth playing it at one time or another. No other sport even comes close.

Agreed. It is scary how good kids even in the poorest parts of the world are at soccer.

[Ronaldo]

Originally Posted by dominikk1985

tennis courts are rare in the hood too.

They are now but 25 yrs ago, we had over 200 courts in town, with dozens in all parts of town. In fact more tennis courts than basketball courts, even now.

[edmondsm]

Originally Posted by sureshs

Agreed. It is scary how good kids even in the poorest parts of the world are at soccer.

Yeah and lol at tennis taking more of a time commitment to achieve success. If you want to be a top footballer then you better be kicking the ball around for like 3+ hours a day starting when you learn to walk or you have no chance.

[sureshs]

And don't forget the risk of injuries in soccer caused to you by others. Tennis is much easier.

[forzamilan90]

Originally Posted by edmondsm

Not to bash the Swiss but a football prodigy in Switzerland is like a 3rd tier player in other countries.

Well no one was expecting a Swiss tennis prodigy tobecome the best ever but it happened

[Sabratha]

Originally Posted by edmondsm

Yeah and lol at tennis taking more of a time commitment to achieve success. If you want to be a top footballer then you better be kicking the ball around for like 3+ hours a day starting when you learn to walk or you have no chance.

Rios started playing tennis at age 12, and he managed to get to #1.

[Razoredge]

Federer might've been better than Messi, but to truly be the best he must first surpass Neymar.

[NatF]

Soccor is played on grass...What do you think

[sureshs]

Who would be better at soccer - Fed or Nadal? Keep it civilized.

[edmondsm]

Originally Posted by forzamilan90

Well no one was expecting a Swiss tennis prodigy tobecome the best ever but it happened

Much different. When you factor in the ability of the poorest nations to still produce top class footballers, the job for small, wealthy nations like Switzerland to produce world class players becomes much harder.

[edmondsm]

Originally Posted by Sabratha

Rios started playing tennis at age 12, and he managed to get to #1.

My God I did not realize that. That's incredible. I didn't think there were really any top 10 players out there that didn't start before at least the age of 10. Are there any others?

[helloworld]

Messi playing tennis would be good enough to be top 100, while Federer playing soccer would probably amount to nothing. The amount of kids playing soccer are much larger than the number of kids playing tennis.

[Gizo]

The French player Yoann Gourcuff excelled at both football and tennis when he was a kid, but ultimately chose a career in football instead.

He still plays tennis on a recreational basis nowadays, and attends tournaments in France whenever he can.

[dominikk1985]

Originally Posted by sureshs

Who would be better at soccer - Fed or Nadal? Keep it civilized.

Hard to say. the obvious choice would be nadal since his uncle was a world class player and his country is currently the best team in soccer while switzerland is a B class national team.

however there have been some good players from switzerland. so maybe fed maybe could have become as good as sforza or yakin but we don't know.

[dominikk1985]

Originally Posted by Gizo

The French player Yoann Gourcuff excelled at both football and tennis when he was a kid, but ultimately chose a career in football instead.

He still plays tennis on a recreational basis nowadays, and attends tournaments in France whenever he can.

there is also an english junior who is very good at tennis and basketball (I think national team in both). I don't know his name but he is a very athletic black dude with a little unorthodox tennis technique.

BTW I think ronaldo would be a better tennis prospect than messi. he is not as good in soccer but he is like 6"2 and very powerfull and strong.

[zam88]

Do you guys think federer would've been good in the porn industry if he'd applied himself to that also?

[zagor]

Hilariously stupid thread.

[Fedex]

Originally Posted by dominikk1985

snooker is also more difficult than soccer but that doesn't mean it is harder to reach the top.

the opposite is true: a more difficult sport means that the technical education plays a big role which eliminates a lot of talent from the talent pool because of mediocre coaching. who knows how good some soccer players would have been had he had exactly the same technical education that fed received.

the same is true in baseball. it is technically very difficult so a lot of guys "from the hood" will not make it while in football and to some extend basketball the most gifted athletes usually succeed.

Originally Posted by edmondsm

Sorry dude, there is no more difficult sport to succeed at then soccer/football. It has nothing to do with what you deem as being more difficult. It has everything to do with the size of the pool you have to contend with. Soccer is far and away the largest sport on the planet with nearly all of the 6 billion people on earth playing it at one time or another. No other sport even comes close.

It's not as simple as you think.
Nearly everyone has also played tennis.
Difference is if you are average at tennis and try it for the first time it stands out a mile because you're flunking all the shots. Not so football.
Someone who can pick up a racket and immediately hit very well will be spotted and nurtured straight away because it's so rare it's lke winning the lottery.
If you take snooker, when Stephen Hendry first picked up a cue at age 12 he was potting nearly everything and very quickly making centuries even though he could hardly reach the table! At the same time, millions of kids around Britain were trying their hand at snooker and Hendry was only amongst a handful who could do that. The other millions of kids got fed up with the difficulty of snooker and stuck with something else far easier like football.
Everyone (maybe excluding the USA) has tried their hand at snooker and tennis, and if we started potting and hitting everything in sight on our first few attempts it would be far more obvious there is a huge natural talent to be pursued.
On that basis I maintain the talent pool for tennis is as strong if not stronger because someone who is gifted here, stands out so greatly, they are very likely to be pushed into that sport.
Federer, Murray and Nadal were all gifted footballers (Murray was a signing target for Rangers) but they were all guided into tennis.
If any of the top footballers had shown a great natural ability for tennis, I believe, the chances are they would be playing tennis instead of football.
And I'm sure they have all tried their hand at tennis.

[Sumo]

Originally Posted by Fedex

If any of the top footballers had shown a great natural ability for tennis, I believe, the chances are they would be playing tennis instead of football.
And I'm sure they have all tried their hand at tennis.

You actually believe the kids all over the world playing barefooted in the streets or on dirt fields with a homemade ball also have access to tennis?

[Gonzo_style]

Of course he would be better than Messi, but the question is, would Federer be a better player than Michael Jordan if he chose basketball?