Golden Goal: Stories of Soccer Legends

Maradona is one of the forerunners in the discussion for greatest player of all time, and it’s easy to see why. His speed and brilliance on the field were legendary, as was his confidence and showmanship. It was his excess on the field that made his play so attractive, and it was also his excess off the field that became as legendary as his play on the field, and eventually resulted in his infamous exit from the 1994 World Cup, when his cocaine addiction caught up with him. And, few moments crystallize Maradona’s career as simply as one of soccer’s most infamous goals: The Hand of God.

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Imagine being a national hero, one of the greatest athletes to ever come around in the history of your entire sport. Imagine winning just about every single trophy you could possibly win over the course of a career that stretched almost twenty years. Now imagine that, at the end of it, one angry, ugly reaction became your most memorable legacy. That’s what happened to Zinedine Zidane. But the headbutt heard round the world wasn’t the end of his story, either.

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The 2007 Women’s World Cup was supposed to be a crash course between the defending champions, Germany, and the USA, whom the Germans had embarrassed in the semifinals of the previous World Cup. No one, however, told that to a 21-year-old, who turned the women’s game on its head by leading Brazil to a 4-0 victory over the USA, and announcing her arrival as the best female soccer the world had ever seen.

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Mohamed Salah was once considered a wash-out in English soccer, only managing 13 appearances for Chelsea. He had a bit more success in Italy with Roma, scoring 29 goals over two seasons. But, how did a good forward manage to turn himself into one of the world’s greatest stars, and break one of England’s toughest scoring records, the very next season?

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If you need to make a bet on where the next generation of soccer superstars will come from, you’d best take a look at Germany, and soccer’s premier finishing school for young talent: Borussia Dortmund. Sancho is a rising English star and the best player on Dortmund right now, Haaland has set an unprecedented goal-scoring rate, Reyna is a 17-year-old American who had a world class goal in one of his first professional appearances, and whose father is a former captain of the USA.

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Zlatan has long been known as one of soccer’s most eccentric and frustrating superstars. His inflated, egomaniacal branding presents a cartoonish version of what an athlete can be, and also ensured that he never stays with any one team for very long. But, he’ll always be in work, because sometimes he reminds us that he really can do the impossible. And no moment sums this up better than his 2012 30-yard bicycle kick goal against England.

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Sometimes, a great athlete’s career is so filled with moments that you couldn’t possibly choose one to sum the whole thing up. Megan Rapinoe, on the other hand, found a way. Even after a World Cup trophy and Olympic gold medals, with the eyes of the world watching her in Paris, Rapinoe stuck out her chin, propelled the USA through their French hosts, and created one of the game’s most iconic celebrations while doing it.

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For decades, if you knew one soccer player’s name, it was Pele’s. Even if you’re extent of soccer fandom is seeing “Kicking and Screaming” that one time, you’ve heard his name. And if you’ve dug into any footage or pictures of the man himself, you’ve undoubtedly seen him performing soccer’s most legendary move: the bicycle kick. Pelé didn’t invent the move; he didn’t even score an incredible amount of bicycle kicks in his career. So how did the maneuver become so entwined with him? Flawless technique, showed off one night in 1968, and a short-lived acting career alongside Michael Cain and Sylvester Stallone.

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In 2007, the two biggest soccer teams in the world met for another edition of one of soccer’s greatest rivalries: Barcelona vs Real Madrid, or El Clasico. Luckily for Barcelona, a certain tiny teenager in their starting XI took over the game and rescued the defending European champions, down a man, and out of time. How did Lionel Messi launch himself into soccer’s stratosphere, and how did he get there in the first place? Well, to put it simply: because he was so short.

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