Curated playlist
1966 FIFA World Cup players
- Horst-Dieter HöttgesThe nickname 'Eisenfuß,' iron foot, followed Horst-Dieter Höttges for most of his career as a defender in the West German Bundesliga. Höttges was a sweeper and right-back defined by physical aggression in the tackle rather than by finesse…
- Wolfgang OverathWolfgang Overath spent his entire professional career at 1. FC Köln between 1962 and 1977. He appeared in 765 matches for the club during that fifteen-year span. The player scored 287 goals while playing as an attacking midfielder. This…
- Djalma SantosDjalma Santos did not play a single minute of the 1958 World Cup until the final itself. Brazil's coach had dropped him in favour of a player named De Sordi. Santos watched from the bench as Brazil progressed through the tournament. Then…
- Jürgen GrabowskiJürgen Grabowski turned 30 on the 7th of July 1974. That same day, in Munich's Olympic Stadium, he and his Eintracht Frankfurt teammate Bernd Hölzenbein became world champions with West Germany. It was the high point of a career that…
- Sepp MaierSepp Maier spent his entire professional career with one club, making 709 appearances for Bayern Munich across seventeen seasons. He was born Josef Dieter Maier on the 28th of February 1944. He grew up to guard the goal for both Bayern and…
- Leonel SánchezLeonel Guillermo Sánchez Lineros was born on the 25th of April 1936 in Chile, the son of a professional boxer. That detail matters. It hints at something the numbers alone cannot quite capture: that this man played football the way a…
- Lev YashinLev Yashin won the Ballon d'Or in 1963 as a goalkeeper. That sentence alone deserves a pause. In the entire history of that award, given annually to the finest footballer in Europe, not one keeper before him had claimed it. Not one keeper…
- PeléEdson Arantes do Nascimento was born on the 23rd of October 1940 in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and he died on the 29th of December 2022 at the age of 82. The world knew him by one word: Pelé. He won three FIFA World Cup titles,…
- EusébioEusébio da Silva Ferreira grew up barefoot in the Mafalala neighbourhood of Lourenço Marques, kicking balls made of socks stuffed with newspapers rolled into spheres. By the time he walked off a Wembley pitch in 1966, tears streaming down…
- GarrinchaGarrincha was born with one leg six centimetres shorter than the other, with his left leg turning outwards and his right turning inwards. A doctor certified him as crippled in childhood. He grew up in Pau Grande, a district of Magé in the…
- Flórián AlbertFlórián Albert stood on a pitch in England in 1966, and made a crowd forget about Pelé. That is not a small claim. Hungary were facing Brazil in a must-win World Cup group match, and Albert, who had already claimed the Ballon d'Or the…
- Franz BeckenbauerFranz Beckenbauer lifted the World Cup trophy as a captain in 1974, then lifted it again as a manager in 1990. Only two other men in football history, Brazil's Mario Zagallo and France's Didier Deschamps, have ever done the same. The fans…
- Antonio CarbajalAntonio Félix Carbajal Rodríguez walked onto the pitch at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on the 24th of June 1950, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Mexico City facing the host nation of Brazil in front of one of the largest crowds…