Play Like Beckham: The Top 10 World Cup Players

2023 Author: Jessica James | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 04:20

The World Cup is a place where the best players of our time gather. Some of them have already gone home without winning a trophy. But this does not mean that they are deprived of the title of top scorer, defender or goalkeeper. "Stars" of the 2018 World Cup in our selection.

Cristiano Ronaldo

If you have heard the word "football" at least once, then the name of the top scorer in the history of Real Madrid is familiar to you. In an interview, Ronaldo admitted: "My dream is to score so many goals that I don't even know what this figure is called." And it seems that the father of many children is confidently approaching his goal - he hit the opponents' goal more than 600 times.

Cristiano was the fourth child in the family - he has two sisters and a brother. The boy was named after Ronald Reagan, whose devoted fan was his father (football coach, by the way). From the age of eight he entered the field, playing for the amateur Andorinha. The guy signed his first contract in 1995, and after the victory of the Nacional club he went to watch Sporting, from where he began to climb the stellar ladder.

Few people know that at the age of 15 the guy was diagnosed with tachycardia, with which the path to football was ordered. But he could not imagine his life without a green lawn. Ronaldo underwent a small operation, three days after which he had already started training.

Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi is an example of how you can achieve success "not because", but in spite of. Despite a serious illness (deficiency of growth hormone - "growth hormone") and lack of money in the family, since 2011 he owns the captain's armband of the Argentine national team and the title of one of the best football players in history.

Linel was born in 1987 to Jorge Horacio Messi, a factory worker, and Celia Maria Messi, a part-time cleaner. In his spare time, the father of the future star coached the local football team "Grandoli".

When the guy was 13, one of the shareholders of the Barcelona club became interested in him. And he became so interested that he sent two scouts to persuade his father to go through the screening (at that time the boy was playing for Newells Old Boys). Messi impressed everyone with his talent so much that Barça's sporting director Carles Rechak worked in front of the shareholders to pay for the Lionel family's move to Europe and his treatment (€ 90,000, by the way).

Scoring goals, Lionel often looks to the sky. By chance? No! He devotes every goal to his grandmother Celia - it was she who brought him to the first lesson and dreamed of seeing her grandson on the field.

Neymar

Neymar is the captain of the Brazilian national team, which became Olympic champion in 2016. The guy was born on February 5, 1992. His father was a jewelry dealer. The family lived more than modestly: he, his parents and sister Rafaela huddled in a tiny closet in his grandmother's house in the suburbs of San Vicente. This is probably why Neymar bought a huge apartment in a prestigious area from the first "astronomical" fee.

The footballer is a graduate of the Santos club, where he got into at the age of seven. Surprisingly, Neymar could not get into the main team for a long time. This did not stop the agents of Chelsea, Manchester City, Madrid, Arsenal and Milan from drawing attention to him.

They say that the shareholders of the club paid the Neymar family $ 1 million euros so that the guy continued his studies at this academy. The first official salary of a football player was 100,000 reais - and this is at 15 years old.

At the official presentation of Neymar in Barcelona, 56,499 spectators came to support him - here it is, people's love!

Denis Cheryshev

Denis Cheryshev is a "star" and very modest player in our team. At the beginning of his career, he won the championship in the youth league as part of the Real Madrid team. And in 2012 he became a colleague of the famous Cristiano Ronaldo, turning the idea of Russian football upside down. In the 2015-2016 season, Real Madrid won the Champions League.

In the first match of our team against Saudi Arabia, Denis became the author of the first, but not the only goal. “One is more beautiful than the other,” critics and fans described the goals of the midfielder.

In the quarterfinal match against Croatia, Denis scored the first goal. And how did he do it! Our team failed to defeat the Croats - the guys lost in the penalty shootout. But we are still proud of them.

Luis Suare

The childhood of the strongest striker Luis Suarez was spent in the city of Salto, located on the border with Argentina. In 2003, the guy got into the academy of the Nacional club, and two years later he became a member of the team. In the 2005-2006 season, Suarez scored 12 goals. In 2006 he accepted the invitation of the Groningen club, having played in 29 matches. Today its market value is $ 800 million.

Luis currently plays for the Spanish club Barcelona and the Uruguay national team. Football experts say: "Suarez is a very technical player, able to pass and score equally well." They say the guy is very impulsive - this often affects the style of the game.

David De Gea

David de Gea was born and raised in Madrid. His father is a professional footballer who defended the goals of the Getafe club, his mother is a housewife. David became the late and only child in the family. His parents provided him with a decent education (my mother always said that being a football player was not enough). As a child, the boy tried on different roles: he played in defense, was a striker and, of course, stood at the goal. But football was not David's only hobby. His height is 192 centimeters. For several years the guy was seriously involved in basketball.

At the age of 13, De Gea got into the academy of Atletico Madrid. In the same club, he made his debut as a goalkeeper in 2009. De Gea is the goalkeeper of Manchester United and the Spanish national team, which left the current championship, losing to the Russian national team in the 1/8 finals.

Robert Lewandowski

"Unpromising!" - such a verdict was passed many years ago to the forward of the club "Bavaria" and the captain of the national team of Poland František Smuda. At that time he was coaching Lech, which Robert, despite the pessimistic forecast, still ended up in.

Lewandowski grew up in a sports family. His father is the champion of Poland in judo, his mother played volleyball professionally. So the choice of a sports career did not come as a surprise to the parents - they were only glad.

Lewandowski is not only a great footballer, but also a person. In 2013 he joined the Polish Catholic Mission, and a year later he became UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Robert and his wife Anna are called the Polish "Beckham". But the footballer's wife became famous not at all for collections of clothes and participation in a pop group - a fragile and very pretty girl won the 2009 World Karate Championship. So it's better not to enter into polemics with Anna. Rumor has it that Lewandowski sometimes trains his spouse to improve his air play.

Toni Kroos

Toni Kroos is a German national football player (former reigning world champion who went home after the defeat of the Korean national team). The guy made his first "football" steps in the almost unknown team "Hansa". Everyone starts somewhere - there he was noticed by the agents of the best football clubs in Europe. All the doors opened for the guy: they were waiting for him with open arms at Chelsea and Werder Bremen. But the young talent went to the Bayern team.

Kroos played 42 matches with the German national team, in which he scored 5 goals. In the qualifier for the 2014 World Cup, Tony scored three goals against the Brazilian national team, confirming his skill (although no one doubted him anyway).

Artem Dzyuba

The Russian national team forward was born and raised in Moscow. His parents had nothing to do with football - his father served in law enforcement, his mother worked in trade. Artyom became interested in football early - at the age of 8 he was already a graduate of the Spartak Academy, in which Dziuba joined the reserve team in 2005.

World Championship 2018 - Artyom's "finest hour". He plays as if he has been waiting for this moment all his life. In the match against the Egyptian national team, his goal was recognized as the best moment of the game. "Sharp-tongued" and wayward Artyom celebrated his accuracy with a military greeting to the head coach of the national team Stanislav Cherchesov. In the Russia - Spain match, he secured his team access to the quarterfinals by hitting the goal of David De Gea.

Sergio Ramos

Sergio is 32 years old. He already has a world title, received in 2010, and Ramos also became European champion twice. Since 2005 he has played for Spanish Real Madrid. At the 2018 World Cup, he defended the honor of the national team of his country in the status of captain. Of no less important achievements - Ramos meets with the Spanish TV presenter Pilar Rubio and has already become the father of three boys. Younger Alejandro was born two months ago.