innovation and success on the pitch, " The Kaiser " is clearly in a class all his own.
No. 2: Diego Maradona Born in 1960 in a shack so rickety that when it rained it was wetter inside than out, raised in one room with seven siblings, Maradona became the only man to win a World Cup virtually by himself. More than that: his skill and personality dominated a generation of World Cups. Everyone saw the tiny left-footer coming. Maradona was ten when an Argentine newspaper ran a story about a prodigy named“ Caradona.” He made his professional debut at fifteen, travelling to the game in his only pair of trousers: turquoise corduroys. He used the match fee to buy another pair. At only 17, in 1978, he was very nearly picked for the World Cup in his own country.
His first World Cup came in 1982, but ended in disgrace when he was sent off for kicking the Brazilian Batista in the testicles. Mexico in 1986 was to be his zenith. Pele’ s great Brazilian generation won the World Cup of 1962 without him, Johan Cruijff’ s fellow Dutchmen reached the final of 1978 without him, but Maradona’ s mostly mediocre