Curated playlist
2022 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…
- Luka ModrićLuka Modrić scored the only goal against Chelsea on the 21st of March 2009, a composed finish that silenced those who had called him a lightweight unfit for English football. He was just twenty-three, playing out of position, still…
- Thibaut CourtoisThibaut Courtois made nine saves in the 2022 UEFA Champions League final, a record in the final since Opta began keeping records in 2003-04. Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 that evening, and Courtois was named player of the match. But that…
- 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…
- Tarek SalmanTarek Salman Suleiman Odeh was born on the 5th of December 1997, and started out in his hometown club, Al-Wakrah SC, playing as a striker. Today he lines up as a center-back for Al-Sadd in the Qatar Stars League and turns out for the Qatar…
- 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.…
- Kylian MbappéKylian Mbappé stood in a stadium of 80,000 people on the 16th of July 2024, wearing the number 9 shirt of Real Madrid. He was 25 years old. Just nine years earlier, he had been a teenager at Monaco's reserve team, brought on by coach…
- 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…
- 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…
- Moisés CaicedoMoisés Caicedo was born on the 2nd of November 2001 in Santo Domingo, Ecuador. In the Mujer Trabajadora neighbourhood where he grew up, football pitches were scrubland, and goals were marked out with piles of stones. He was the youngest of…
- Emiliano MartínezEmiliano Martínez stood in goal at the Lusail Stadium on the 18th of December 2022, with the FIFA World Cup final against France locked at 3-3 after extra time. In the seconds before the penalty shootout began, he was already working. He…
- Enzo FernándezEnzo Jeremías Fernández was born on the 17th of January 2001 in San Martín, Buenos Aires. His father Raúl chose his first name as a tribute to Enzo Francescoli. Francescoli was a Uruguayan who had represented River Plate and won the Copa…
- Harry KaneHarry Kane was born on the 28th of July 1993 at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, London, and he grew up fifteen minutes from Tottenham Hotspur's ground in a family of Spurs fans. When he was six years old, he joined a local…
- Jesús FerreiraJesús Ferreira came off the bench in the 71st minute for FC Dallas on the 3rd of June 2017, against Real Salt Lake. Eighteen minutes later, in the 89th minute of that 6-2 win, he scored his first professional goal. He had left Colombia…