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Is Thiago Alcantara the world’s best playmaker?

By David Cambridge

Oct 23, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; General view of soccer balls prior to a game between the Philadelphia Union and the New York Red Bulls at Talen Energy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Derik Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 23, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; General view of soccer balls prior to a game between the Philadelphia Union and the New York Red Bulls at Talen Energy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Derik Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /
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Thiago Alcantara is an under appreciated star

After spending close to a decade at Barcelona – most of it note-taking in La Masia – Thiago Alcantara was brought to Bayern Munich by incoming coach Pep Guardiola, his first signing after joining the club in 2013 (and, significantly, one that he – not the Bayern board – would hand-pick).

On the face of it, it was a bold career move that saw the then 22-year-old depart his childhood team, to whom he was inexplicably surplus to requirements, for a club – and a country – of which he had no experience.

Acclimating to new surroundings, though, has seldom proved too challenging for Thiago, who was born in Italy and raised in Brazil before he headed off to Catalonia for a spot in Barcelona’s famed youth academy.

It is perhaps this varied football upbringing that has helped shape him into the midfielder he is today. Thiago certainly has the touch and flair of a street player in Brazil, but his temperament is that of a methodical Spanish metronome, the type from which he faces stiff competition for a starting spot in his national team.

Long-term fitness issues plagued his first couple of seasons in Bavaria, but having so far remained injury-free under Ancelotti, Thiago is at last beginning to blossom into the player many envisaged when he first broke into Barca’s senior side as a promising teenager.

While he’ll forever be Pep’s player, the 17-cap Spaniard (that number, incidentally, would be a lot higher were he always available for selection over the five-and-a-half years since his debut) is by no means wedded to the dogmatic style he learned to play at Barca.

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With Ancelotti in charge, Bayern are a markedly less structured team, and that means Thiago – who is effective in equal parts as a deep-lying or offensive midfielder – is accorded more opportunity to join his teammates in the final third.

He will probably always be a scorer of great goals rather than a great goal scorer – certainly, at least, while he plays for the German giants, where Muller, Robben and Lewandowski hit big numbers year on year – but, as a pure tempo-setting playmaker, there are only a handful of players in the world that compare to their number six.

With Andres Iniesta’s career, slowly but surely, starting to wind down, there’s soon to be a vacancy for position of football’s best playmaker, and it’s one that Thiago – 25, with a star-studded support cast at both club and national level – is more than capable of filling.

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