Forwards:
Shevchenko
Ronaldo (Brazil)
Recoba
van Nistelrooy
Batistuta
Salas
Totti
Attacking Midfield:
Rivaldo
Veron
Del Piero
Fiore
Ariel Ortega
Pirlo (pushed him further forward)
Side Midfield:
Babingida
Marc Overmars
Luis Figo
Robert Jarni
Defensive Midfield:
Redondo
Hierro
Davids
Full Backs:
Thuram
Roberto Carlos
Cafu
Willy Sagnol
Centre Backs:
Jaap Stam
Sol Campbell
Desailly
Maldini
Goalkeepers:
Schmeichel
Buffon
Barthez
Casillas
Kahn
Dudek
Van der Sar
Seaman
Toldo
Leo Franco
PES 6/PES 2008 (PS2)
Luis Saha (was unstoppable)
Master League Development:
Giuseppe Rossi
Rachmane Barry
Gerard Pique
I believe it was PES 3 where my friend, and I had unbelievable seasons with van Nistelrooy and Batistuta. Each trying to better the others goal tally for the season. Batistuta was unbelievable. All he needed was a yard of space to get a shot away and it would be in the back of the net before the goalkeeper had saw it leave his boot! And van Nistelrooy quite simply finished every single effort one would carve out for him. He would turn his marker and go through one on one; goal.
I have forgotton so many of the lessar known players who shone in the respective games from years gone by. I wish I could also remember which games saw the best years, so to speak, for the aforementioned players.
I remember Del Piero wrecking havoc as an Attacking Midfielder back in the day. He would often arrive late, unmarked in the box, when not jinking past two or three men to unleash a top corner bound effort. Then there was Pirlo in one version or another, where everything I attempted with him turned to gold; free kicks, corners, cross field passes, over the top through balls, long range strikes, lobs, etc. My friends took to snapping Pirlo in half at the first available opportunity, it was that ridiculous! And it only happened for me. When they played with Pirlo the magic was no more. It was great! Dudek was a thorn in my side on many an occasion when playing another mate, Ryan, in good ol' Liverpool against Manchester United games. Dudek would regularly pull off five, six, seven, jaw dropping stops, match winning saves on many occasion, too.
It's been years now since my friends and I have had good times on PES. It probably would've been PES 6. Two of us loved PES 2008 (on PS2) but on PS3 it was awful, and PES 2009, albeit better, was still a let down in many areas. So we're hoping 2010 is a return to form.