Curated playlist
Men's association football midfielders
- Wolfgang OverathWolfgang Overath was on the pitch in 1974 when West Germany beat the Netherlands 2-1 on home soil and claimed the World Cup. Two other medals already accompanied that one in his collection: a runner-up medal from 1966 and a third-place…
- Didier DeschampsDidier Deschamps was once called "the water-carrier" by a former teammate, and it was not a compliment. Eric Cantona, the flamboyant Manchester United star, used the phrase to suggest that Deschamps's only contribution to the French…
- 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…
- 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…
- Grzegorz LatoGrzegorz Lato arrived at Stal Mielec as a teenager in 1966, a boy from Malbork joining a club stuck in the Second Division. Few people in Poland could have predicted what came next. Over the following decade, Lato would drag that…
- 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…
- 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…
- Diego MaradonaDiego Armando Maradona was born on the 30th of October 1960 in a polyclinic hospital in Lanús, Buenos Aires Province, and raised in Villa Fiorito, a shantytown on the southern outskirts of the city. He died on the 25th of November 2020,…
- Zinedine ZidaneZinedine Zidane scored two goals in the 1998 World Cup Final, both headers, both from corners, in front of the entire world. France beat Brazil 3-0 that night at the Stade de France. More than one million people lined the Champs-Elysees…
- Marc OvermarsMarc Overmars grew up on a family farm in Emst, Gelderland, and potato harvest season meant unusual work each year. His family had no machines or tractors. They tied a rope around the boy's waist, connected it to a cart, and made him run.…
- Amir GhalenoeiAmir Ghalenoei's fans at Esteghlal called him "General," and the title stayed with him long after his playing days ended. He was born in Tehran on the 22nd of November 1963. His father worked as a taxi driver and died when Amir was…
- 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…
- Lothar MatthäusLothar Matthäus was born on the 21st of March 1961 in Erlangen, Bavaria, to a father who had fled across the Oder River in 1944 ahead of the Soviet advance. That backstory of escape and reinvention threads quietly through everything that…
- Michel PlatiniMichel Platini scored nine goals in five matches at the 1984 European Championship, a record that stood for 37 years. That tournament, played on home soil in France, became the defining image of a career built on intelligence rather than…
- Teófilo CubillasTeófilo Cubillas was born on the 8th of March 1949, in Peru, and by the time he was 20 years old, Pelé himself had declared him his successor. That is not a small thing. Pelé, still active and at the height of his powers after winning the…
- Vittorio PozzoVittorio Pozzo holds a record that no man in the history of men's international football has ever equalled. He coached Italy to the FIFA World Cup in 1934 and again in 1938, making him the only manager to lead a single national team to two…
- 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…
- Enzo ScifoEnzo Scifo was eighteen years old, and one hundred fifteen days, at the 1984 European Championship. He had just helped Belgium beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in the tournament's opening match. That made him the youngest player yet to appear in the…
- Paul PogbaPaul Labile Pogba was born on the 15th of March 1993 in Lagny-sur-Marne, France, to Guinean parents, and by his early twenties he had become the most expensive footballer on the planet. The number tells the story bluntly: €105 million, the…
- 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…
- Robert ProsinečkiRobert Prosinečki scored a hat-trick for Portsmouth against Barnsley on the 2nd of February 2002. The match finished 4-4. When someone offered him the customary match ball at full time, he turned it down. His team had not won, and the…