Curated playlist
UEFA Champions League–winning 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Gerd MüllerGerd Müller scored 68 goals in 62 international appearances for West Germany. That is not a misprint. Most top-level strikers celebrate if they average a goal every two games. Müller averaged more than one per game, across an entire…
- Davor ŠukerDavor Šuker scored the goal that silenced a World Cup semi-final. It was the summer of 1998, in France, and Croatia had never played at a World Cup before. Šuker struck first against the host nation, giving his country a lead they would…
- 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.…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Paolo RossiPaolo Rossi was born on the 23rd of September 1956 in Prato, Tuscany, in the area of Santa Lucia. Twenty-six years later, he stood at the centre of one of the most improbable recoveries in World Cup history. The question that summer in…
- Manuel AmorosManuel Amoros was born on the 1st of February 1962, in Nîmes, in the Gard department of southern France. His parents were Spanish, and they had left Spain to escape the regime of Francisco Franco. The boy grew up to wear the shirt of some…
- 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.…
- 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…
- Franco BaresiFranco Baresi made his Serie A debut on the 23rd of April 1978, stepping onto the pitch for AC Milan at age 17. He had arrived at the club only because Inter Milan turned him away, choosing his older brother Giuseppe instead. What followed…
- James RodríguezJames David Rodríguez Rubio was born on the 12th of July 1991 in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, and grew up in the city of Ibagué, Tolima. He made his professional debut on the 21st of May 2006 at the age of 14, becoming the second youngest…
- Oliver KahnOliver Kahn won the Golden Ball at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the award for the tournament's best individual performer, despite having fumbled a shot directly to Ronaldo's feet to concede Germany's first goal in the final. No goalkeeper in…
- 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…
- Hristo StoichkovHristo Stoichkov was born on the 8th of February 1966 in Plovdiv, a city in southern Bulgaria, and he would grow up to be named by Pele himself as one of the hundred greatest living footballers on earth. That honor came in 2004, a decade…
- 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…
- 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…
- Antonio CabriniAntonio Cabrini stepped onto the pitch for his country's opening match of the 1978 FIFA World Cup without a single senior international cap to his name. He had been called into Italy's squad of twenty despite being entirely uncapped at…
- Fabien BarthezFabien Barthez let a teammate kiss the top of his shaved head before kickoff, a ritual meant to bring good luck to France's goalkeeper. Nicknamed Le Divin Chauve, "The Divine Bald One," Barthez turned that bare scalp into one of the most…
- 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…