World Cup Heroes
In preparation for Qatar 2022 the World Cup Heroes, here is a list of the top five World Cup players. Football is an excellent leveler. Not everyone attends a school that has a rugby field, and not everyone can afford a pony. However, you will find youngsters kicking a football around in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, Nairobi’s slums, and Monaco and Beverly Hills playgrounds. Perhaps the manner in which football players have often risen from poor beginnings to flourish in a sport that permits the very best to become icons on and off the field, and genuinely become national heroes.
Arguments about who is the greatest For decades, 5 World Cup heroes have kept friends discussing till the wee hours of the morning. Such debates will rage as long as football is played. But, before of the 2022 World Cup Heroes in Qatar, here are some of the best:
Zidane, Zinedine
Zidane, one of the game’s finest and most contentious players, led France to victory in the 1998 World Cup heroes, scoring twice in the final.
Injuries kept him out of France’s brief World Cup campaign in 2002, but he went on to win the tournament in 2006, despite the notorious head butt that sent him him in the final. When the squad came home, thousands of supporters lined the streets of Paris, singing Zidane’s name.
His talismanic leadership molded the national squad into something far better than the sum of its parts, having scored 31 goals in 108 appearances for France. He went on to manage Real Madrid to three Champions League victories and two La Liga crowns.
Jimmy Greaves
Even Bobby Moore, whose monument welcomes visitors to Wembley Stadium, was not as well-liked by ordinary English fans as Jimmy Greaves. Greaves, who was already a local celebrity, rose to worldwide prominence after rescuing a pitch-invading dog that had eluded the Brazilian greats during England’s 1962 World Cup heroes quarter-final. Greaves became renowned in Brazil as “Garrincha’s dog-catcher” after bringing the dog home.
Greaves was a member of England’s World Cup-winning side in 1966, but a horrific injury caused by France’s Joseph Bonnel that needed 14 stitches kept him out of the final. Greaves set a record by scoring six hat-tricks in England jerseys. Greaves became a broadcaster, welcomed into the nation’s living rooms for decades, and the 1966 campaign remains a focal point of English identity. Greaves was later presented with a World Cup winner’s medal by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009.
Ferenc Puskas
Puskas was the captain of Hungary’s golden squad, the Mighty Magyars, who thrived under the influence of Jimmy Hogan’s Total Football. He scored 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary and played four times for Spain. Hungary was so strong under Puskas that the 1954 World Cup heroes final was their sole defeat throughout the decade.
In 705 games, he scored 702 goals. The European footballing titan was a prominent supporter of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and deserted to Spain while on tour after the Soviet Army slaughtered 2,500 of his countrymen during the rebellion. He returned to Hungary following the fall of Communism and is still revered by Hungarians.
Lothar Matthaus
Matthaus, Germany’s most-capped player, scored 23 goals in 150 international appearances. He was a box-to-box midfielder who played in five World Cup heroes, helping his country win the 1990 tournament.
Matthaus, the only German to be voted FIFA World Player of the Year, maintains the record for most World Cup appearances (25). His natural leadership provided him a dominating presence on the field, and his technical brilliance mixed with tactical knowledge gave him unrivaled domination.
The optimistic Diego Maradona described him as the most difficult opponent he had ever faced.
Klose, Miroslav
It’s uncommon to get awards just for being a decent person, but Germany’s all-time leading scorer, the somersaulting Miroslav Klose, has a few at the World Cup heroes. With a career distinguished by fair play and decency – he famously refused to accept a penalty granted to him during a club match because he thought the referee had made a mistake – Klose scored in four world cups, eventually claiming the title in 2014.
His size belied his pace as a powerful powerhouse forward. In 137 appearances for Germany, he scored 71 goals. He also scored 16 goals in the World Cup heroes odds. Nobody has ever scored more points. He was both productive and a kind man.
