| There are so many great players who have influenced soccer in such a big way. It would be difficult to have one single article dedicated to naming them, but, with great difficulty, I have managed to identify some of the greats who stand apart from the others:
1. Pele
Born ‘Edison Arantes do Nascimento’, Pele is one of the true ambassadors of soccer. He started his career with the club ‘Santos’ at the age of 15, and stayed with them for another 18 years (today’s soccer players would shudder at the thought of staying with one club for so many years). 1,281 goals in all forms of soccer clearly speaks for itself, though numbers could never do justice to this wonderful talent.
Pressurized by his team-mates, the national coaching staff included the 17 year – old Pele in the 1958 World Cup squad. Missing most of the tournament to injury, Pele played in the quarterfinal, semifinal and final, scoring 6 goals in all to lead his team to victory. His performance also gave Brazil another world – title in 1970. Voted the game’s greatest player along with Diego Maradona, his plays continue to inspire a new generation of players.
2. Diego Maradona
Soccer’s greatest talent will also remain soccer’s most famous controversy – courting player. Maradona will always be remembered for his 2 crazy goals against England in the quarterfinal of the 1986 World Cup. The first was courtesy of a punch of the ball to the goal (which went undetected by the referee), and the other one was by dodging 5 players to single handedly score the goal. He scored another 3 goals in the World Cup to earn the World Player of the year award.
Breaking world records with his 3 club transfers, his last one to Napoli will be most remembered as he took the side from near – obscurity to 2 Italian league titles and a UEFA cup in his 7 years with the club. Just to gauge how popular Maradona is, you’d have to go to Argentina (his native country), where they’d say, “there’s God, and just below him, there’s Diego Armando Maradona.” A regular drug – abuser, his career got cut short in 1994 after consuming ephedrine.
Whatever said and done, Maradona will always remain soccer’s most charismatic character.
3. Franz Beckenbauer
Franz “The Kaiser” Beckenbauer remains the only person to have ever been involved in a World cup winning squad as a player (1974) and as a manager (1990). Known as the original practitioner of the now common ‘attacking sweeper’ position, he led his club ‘Bayern Munich’ to many trophy wins and has also won the ‘European Footballer of the Year’ twice (in 1972 and 1976). He also has the distinct feat of being the first to achieve 100 caps for West Germany, and was also voted second place in the ‘European player of the century’, behind Johan Cruyff. He led Germany’s successful bid for the 2006 World Cup and chaired the organizing committee for it.
4. Lev Yashin
A guy who would appear in anyone’s ‘Football dream team’ as the goal-keeper, the former Soviet Union goalie is said to have saved over 150 penalty (spot) kicks in his career. Known for his superb athleticism, amazing reflexes, he is also credited with the invention of ‘goalkeeper sweeping’. Soccer nearly lost him to hockey, but an injury to the main goalkeeper paved the way for him. He holds the record for being the only goal-keeper to have won the ‘European Footballer of the year’ award (in 1963), and a testimonial match (1970) was played in front of nearly 100,000 fans |
