Curated playlist
2010 FIFA World Cup players
- Lionel MessiLionel Andrés Messi was born on the 24th of June 1987 in Rosario, a city in the Santa Fe Province of Argentina. By the time he was ten years old, doctors had told his family he would stop growing. His body could not produce enough growth…
- Philipp LahmPhilipp Lahm scored in the sixth minute of the 2006 FIFA World Cup's opening match, cutting inside the area and launching a right-foot shot into the top-right corner of the net. The venue was Munich. The opponent was Costa Rica. And the…
- Nicolás OtamendiNicolás Otamendi was born on the 12th of February 1988 in Buenos Aires, and by the time he lifted the FIFA World Cup in December 2022, he had done something almost no outfield player in the history of the tournament could claim: he had…
- Cristiano RonaldoCristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on the 5th of February 1985 in the São Pedro parish of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira. His mother, a cook and cleaning woman, wanted to abort him. Her doctor refused.…
- Andrés GuardadoJosé Andrés Guardado Hernández was born on the 28th of September 1986, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, to Andrés Manuel Guardado and Teresa Hernández. At seven years old, he joined the youth ranks of local club Atlas, the very academy that would…
- Manuel NeuerManuel Neuer made his Bundesliga debut with Schalke 04 on matchday two of the 2006, 07 season. He came on as a substitute for the injured Frank Rost during a 2, 2 draw against Bayern Munich. The twenty-year-old eventually secured the…
- Miroslav KloseMiroslav Klose scored 16 goals in the FIFA World Cup across four tournaments, a record no player has matched. He was born on the 9th of June 1978 in Opole, a Silesian city in Poland, and he arrived in West Germany as an eight-year-old in…
- Thomas MüllerThomas Müller was born on the 13th of September 1989 in Weilheim in Oberbayern, Bavaria, and grew up in the nearby village of Pähl. Fifty kilometres from home, a ten-year-old boy made a journey that would define the next quarter century of…
- Landon DonovanLandon Donovan scored the only goal of the match in the dying seconds against Algeria at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, off a rebound from a Clint Dempsey attempt, sending the United States to first place in their group for the first time since…
- Diego ForlánDiego Forlán Corazo was born on the 19th of May 1979 in the Carrasco neighborhood of Montevideo, Uruguay. His family history is deeply rooted in professional football. His father Pablo played for Peñarol and São Paulo while representing…
- Lukas PodolskiLukas Podolski scored a goal after just nine seconds in May 2013 against Ecuador. Not nine minutes. Nine seconds. It was the fastest goal in the history of the German national team, and the second fastest international goal on earth at…
- Gianluigi BuffonGianluigi Buffon was born on the 28th of January 1978 in Carrara, Tuscany, into a family that treated sport as a way of life. His mother was a discus thrower, his father a weightlifter, and both became physical education teachers after…
- Iker CasillasIker Casillas Fernández was born on the 20th of May 1981 in Móstoles, a town in the province of Madrid, to a civil servant and a hairdresser. His father, José Luis, spent his spare time filling out football prediction pools. On one…
- Rafael MárquezRafael Márquez Álvarez was born on the 13th of February 1979 in Mexico, and by the time he finished playing, he had done something no defender in the world had ever done before: appeared at five separate FIFA World Cups as captain. That is…