8 Unmatched World Cup Heroes Of All Time

Football has a remarkable capacity to bring people of all backgrounds together. No kid should have to choose between attending a school with a rugby field and being able to purchase a pony. The playgrounds of Monaco and Beverly Hills are no different from those in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro or the slums of Nairobi, and neither are they the only places where you'll see kids kicking a football around.
Possibly the fact that many football greats have started from modest means and yet have risen to become household names and even national heroes in a sport that rewards excellence with fame and fortune. Conflicts over what is the best There are eight World Cup players whose accomplishments have kept people up at night arguing for decades.

1. Zinedine Zidane

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He missed most of France's disappointing 2002 World Cup run due to injuries, but he was crowned tournament MVP in 2006 after getting sent off with a controversial headbutt. When the team finally made it back to France, thousands of fans lined the streets of Paris, singing Zidane's name. His talismanic leadership helped mold the French national squad into something better than the sum of its parts, and he scored 31 goals in 108 games for his country.

2. Ferenc Puskas

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When Hungary adopted Jimmy Hogan's Total Football system, the Mighty Magyars became a powerhouse with Puskas at the helm. He played four times for Spain and scored 84 in 85 games for Hungary. With Puskas at the helm, Hungary dominated the 1950s. The 1954 World Cup final was the only game they lost in that decade.
In 705 games, he scored 702 goals. After the Soviet Army massacred 2,500 of his compatriots while smashing the uprising in Hungary in 1956, the European footballing legend deserted to Spain during a tour.

3. Miroslav Klose

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Germany's all-time leading scorer, the somersaulting Miroslav Klose, has won several awards for his positive contributions to the sport. Klose scored in four world cups and won the trophy in 2014. His career was distinguished by fair play and decency, as evidenced by the time he famously refused to accept a penalty granted to him during a club match because he thought the referee was incorrect.
Despite his massive frame, he was surprisingly quick for a forward. In 137 games for Germany, he scored 71 times. In the World Cup, he netted 16 goals. A higher total has never been achieved. A good person, he also wrote a lot.

4. Ronaldo de Lima

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While playing for Brazil, "The Phenomenon" appeared in 98 games and scored 62 goals, redefining the striker's position. At age 17, he hoisted the World Cup trophy after his team won in 1994.
After leading Brazil to the final four years later, he was named Player of the Tournament but collapsed hours before the game. He already had six goals going into the last game of the 2002 World Cup, and he scored twice to help his team win the tournament. Ronaldo broke the World Cup record on his fourth try with his 15th goal.

5. Franz Beckenbauer

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Only Franz Beckenbauer, Didier Deschamps, and Mario Zagallo have won the World Cup as both a player and manager, therefore, any collection of World Cup heroes would be remiss without him. Beckenhauer captained the 1974 victorious West German national team and scored 14 goals despite playing defense. When West Germany lost the 1966 World Cup final to England, he scored a scorching goal four years later to eliminate the hosts and advance his team to the tournament's semifinals.

6. Johan Cruyff

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Three-time Ballon d'Or winner and a major figure in the Total Football movement introduced a new level of intricacy to the game. Cruyff saw football as an expression of simplicity and beauty, a fusion of intellect, body, and craft.
He was the orchestra's conductor, orchestrating brilliant plays for his player's thanks to his unparalleled grasp of the geometry of players' pitch positions. In games in which he scored, the Netherlands never lost. The number of goals he scored for his country was impressive: 33 in 48 games.

7. Diego Maradona

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The "Golden Boy," who played football while under the influence of drugs, is considered by many to be the best player in the sport's history. His 60-yard dribble past five England players in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal led to the "goal of the century," but its mastery came after the sport's most famous unpenalized handball, the goal that became known as "the hand of God."

8. Pele

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It's unlikely that anyone in 1958, when he scored his first World Cup goal (on a scuffed mishit that effectively ruined Wales' hopes of ever competing in the World Cup again) could have imagined the towering figure he would become.
Pele's ability to create miracles with either foot was a source of awe and wonder for many. One of the first genuinely worldwide Black sports celebrities off the field, his vocal support for bettering the lives of the impoverished made him a national hero.