Basketball reference here, Tracy Mcgrady was the best scorer in the NBA, great player but he never made it out of the first round of the playoffs, oltough he was great player and troughtout his carrer he played in mostly bad teams, he's labelled as a choker because he couldn't make in the biggest stages ( playoffs ), same for Zingaro, he never made it in the biggest stages, he always goes missing in big games and wait for his teammates to save him. That's a choker for you.
Would be an unfair analogy if you compare the sport itself. You're talking about footie, the most spectated sport in the world. You're playing with double the variables in team size alone, making the individual even less significant. Can you imagine the kind of pressure it would take to be at your best all the time withh so much expectation? And for a large part all of these guys are at their best. It's unfair because they have e discipline to earn the salaries they're paid, they sacrifice and play with their hearts. Even a mercenary like Ibra if you like, when on the football pitch looks to bring his best game forward because he may not be loyal to the team he plays for, but he has pride in his ability. Tracy McGrady cannot be blamed, because his teams largely were shite. He was expected to carry the teams all the time, and it's almost impossible to do that on a consistent basis no matter how good or bad you are. Even Jordan couldn't have done it without Scotty. People call Sachin Tendulkar a choker, but 99.9% of the people who question him wouldn't be able to do half of what he's done on the pitch. He's playing at the age of fourty, in a high pressure sport and being asked to deliver. Sure, he is going to fail a bit more today but his body is older. Even earlier, he probably failed on big finals, but he did more than enough to get the team all the way there. The expectation was consistent in every game leading up to the final. That's not choking. It's having an off day. You can be temperamentally weak or strong, but if you're playing at this level, that in itself is an achievement.
Golf reference, Greg Norman was number one for so many years but he only won 2 majors, he lost in play-offs so many times, he is labelled a choker.
I love Norman. Always preferred him to Faldo. Although ive got to say you can call an individual a choker if you like even though it takes quite a bit to be number one and hold that position becaus you're constantly under pressure to deliver. But it's very hard for one man to choke a team of ten other players. The entire team can be chokers.