Curated category
UEFA European Championship–winning players
- Horst-Dieter HöttgesHorst-Dieter Höttges was born on the 10th of September 1943 in the city of Mönchengladbach. He started playing football at local sides named Blau-Weiß Dahl…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- Sepp MaierSepp Maier spent his entire professional career with one club, making 709 appearances for Bayern Munich across seventeen seasons.
- Zinedine ZidaneZinedine Zidane scored two goals in the 1998 World Cup Final, both headers, both from corners, in front of the entire world.
- 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…
- 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…
- Jürgen KlinsmannJürgen Klinsmann scored sixteen goals in a single football match at the age of eight. He was playing for an amateur club in the small town of Gingen an der…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
- 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.