Philipp Lahm led Germany to its first World Cup win since its reunification since 1990.
Miroslav Klose was part of the Germany team that won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Roberto Carlos's only World Cup goal came in a 4-0 thumping of China in a Group B game in 2002.
Xavi was the fulcrum of the Spanish side, its talented conductor and the master of the slide rule pass.
Alessandro Del Piero's role was not that of the key striker, but a supportive one. Italian managers utilised this technically gifted and creative genius as a deep-lying forward. A feared dead ball specialist, Del Piero is often considered as one of the greatest players of his generation.
Puyol was a 2010 World Cup winner and his rock-solid performances earned him a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Dream Team.
Buffon has won the Italian Serie A title nine times, the Italian Cup five times, the Italian Super Cup six times and one UEFA Cup.
Playing in a star-studded Brazilian team that featured the likes of Ronaldo and Rivaldo - Ronaldinho scored 33 goals.
Fabio Cannavaro, to this day, remains the only defender to have won the FIFA World Player of the Year.
In 2002, Kahn became the first goalkeeper to win the Golden Ball Award, given to the best player at the FIFA World Cup.
It was under Luis Figo's leadership that Portugal reached the semis of the 2006 World Cup, the nation's best-ever finish in 40 years.
Thuram broke into the national squad in 1994 and made his first World Cup appearance in 1998 on home soil, which proved to be his most memorable outing.
Rivaldo was deceptively quick, superb at dribbling, often using sideways step overs and feints to fool defenders, and possessed the supreme ability to drill low, powerful shots from seemingly any distance with his left foot.
Widely regarded as the greatest defender to have played the game, Maldini was adept at playing as both a full-back and a centre-back.
Cafu played in four World Cups, from 1994 to 2006, and featured in three consecutive finals (1994, 1998 and 2002) - a record that's not about to be broken anytime soon.
He ticked pretty much every box an attacking player possibly could - speed, strength, technique, finishing, passing, dribbling, off-the-ball movement, whatever else one can think of.
Zinedine Zidane, in 2006, picked up an unwanted record of becoming only the second player to be sent off twice in World Cup games.
Having featured for Germany in three successive World Cups, Jurgen Klinsmann had this uncanny knack of being in the right place and at the right moment.
Fontaine's amazing finishing power was enhanced by his ability to remain cool, calm and collected in the heat of the moment.
Tomas Brolin’s ability to play as a striker, a central midfielder as well as winger was on full display in the USA.
Like the Argentine, Romania’s Gheorghe Hagi was an influential footballer who could turn matches on his own.
Temperamental and skillful, Hristo Stoichkov was Bulgaria's all-time great footballer and one of the best of his generation.
Romario made the '94 World Cup his own as he helped Brazil lift its fourth trophy, after a gap of 24 years.
Roberto Baggio was the star for Italy in the 1994 World Cup, but he missed a decisive penalty in the shoot-out in the final to give Brazil the title.
In the 1990 World Cup, Gascoigne's energetic presence lifted an English team which appeared incapable of doing anything spectacular beyond the league stage.
Matthaus was the far outpost of the West German defence, breaking up the opposing team's manoeuvres as they started, fighting for loose balls, conquering the vital centre of the field.
Maradona helped Argentina to 1986 World Cup title, when he scored five goals in the tournament, including two in the quarterfinal at the Estadio Azteca — the 'Hand of God' and the 'Goal of the Century'.
In modern football, no player of international class barring Diego Maradona has seen as many ups and downs as Rossi.
Consistency more than anything else, was the key factor which helped Dino Zoff of Italy to garner worldwide attention during his playing days.
It was his speed, control and the courage to run vertically through defences that made him such a fearful battering ram.
Breitner was a paradox but on the field, he was as clear-headed as any of his redoubtable colleagues including Gerd Muller and Beckenbauer.
He required astonishingly little space and time for his split-seconds finishes – a quick flick sufficed.
Neeskens, the hero of many a battle and with two World Cup silver medals in his bag, had a place in every Dutch heart.
Originally a midfielder, Beckenbauer dropped into defence at his peak, as coaches sought to utilise his unmatched organisational capacity at the back.
Holland's Johan Cruyff inspired 'Total football', which remains the style of play that the elite-level teams want to emulate.
Gordon Banks rivals Russian Lev Yashin as the greatest goalkeeper to have played in a World Cup.
Uwe Seeler, the short and stocky West German, played as an inside forward, but possessed a ferocious shot that could surprise the best of goalkeepers.
Deceptively quick for a big man, Geoff Hurst was known for his strength and sudden bursts.
One of the prime figures in shaping England's World Cup triumph in 1966 was the diminutive right-half Nobby Stiles.
In the long history of the game, if one were to crystallise all the finer aspects of the game into one shape, the vision of Jairzinho flashes before the eye, making him "Mr. Football".
Before Cristiano Ronaldo came along, it was another Portugese footballer in the name of Eusebio, who blazed a trail on the wings.
Masopust appeared in 386 championship games and chalked up 79 goals for Dukla. He made his debut in the national squad in 1954, first entering the World Championship staged in Sweden in 1958 with games against Northern Ireland, Germany and Argentina.
In his heyday he was schemer, orchestrator and marksman in one: a player in a class of his own.
Bobby Moore remains the only English captain to lay hands on the World Cup.
Starting out on the left wing, Charlton moved to an inside-forward position and then spent his greatest years in the centre of midfield, going deeper in tune with his thinning hair.
Of all the names that comprised the haloed squads of Brazil, it was Garrincha who best symbolised the Selecao's free-spirited samba style.
The argument between Pelé's ability to rise above great contemporaries and Diego Maradona's relative one-man act in less gifted company will never be resolved.
A combination of power and dazzling skill in a stocky, borderline-overweight frame, enjoyed a longer reign in the eye of the West.
After finishing runner-up in 1930 World Cup with Argentina, Luis Monti won the World Cup in 1934 with Italy.
France's Lucien Laurent, fondly known as "Lulu", scored the first goal of the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay.
Mario Gotze, a second-half substitute in the final, was clinical in converting a half-chance in the 113th minute, securing Germany its fourth world title.
Heavily inspired by the tiki-taka football of Pep Guardiola-coached Barcelona, Spain benefited from its possession-based game as it stymied opponents, conceding just twice in the tournament.
Zinedine Zidane was enjoying the most wonderful of swansongs, guiding his team to another Cup final. There, too, he gave France the early lead, but Marco Materazzi had something else in mind for the master...
Guus Hiddink and his fiery South Koreans made World Cup history, becoming the first team from Asia to reach the semifinals of the tournament.
Ronaldo was believed to have suffered a fit just before the final. He was obviously out of sorts, and Zidane and Emanuel Petit had no problem in giving France its first World Cup title.
Diego Maradona was caught with strains of ephedrine in a random dope test after the Nigeria game. A 15-month suspension followed, ending Argentina’s World Cup dreams and also halting Maradona’s chequered but seditious career.
Cameroon surprised defending champion Argentina in the first match of Italia ’90, kicking off a wonderful run to the last eight stage of the World Cup.
Diego Maradona single-handedly delivered Argentina its second World Cup title, scoring five goals and setting up several others.
Striker Paolo Rossi, whose head was on the chopping block, back home, prior to the tournament, scored a hat-trick against Brazil to help Italy reach the final!
The tournament was marred by further corruption charges as Peru went down rather ingloriously to Argentina in its last league game, providing a safe passage for the host into the knockout phase.
Holland was to meet Germany in the final, and a major party was planned at the Dutch team hotel on the eve of the game, in anticipation of victory. The final next day was a fiasco, as Paul Breitner and Gerd Muller cancelled out Johan Neeskens’ early penalty and Germany clinched its second title.
England’s Gordon Banks pulled off one of his and the World Cup’s greatest saves in hot and humid Mexico in 1970 and it remains in the game’s folklore decades later.
Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick in the final to help England defeat West Germany and lift its only World Cup till date. But it was North Korea which captured the imagination of the world.
With Pele out of reckoning after two games of constant hacking by the opponents, Amarildo gelled well with Garrincha and delivered Brazil its second title.
The star of Brazil’s WC-winning show was the then unknown 17-year-old Pele who saw off Wales in the quarterfinals, scored a hat-trick in the semis and then announced himself to the world with a magical goal against the host in the final.
Now called the ‘Battle of Berne’, the quarterfinal game between Brazil and Hungary is regarded as the dirtiest match in World Cup history, a day when Brazil opted for brutality over beauty and Hungary was only too happy to join in. The result, a 4-2 victory for Hungary, is a barely remembered footnote.
Brazil, playing in white, unexpectedly lost to Uruguay in the final. So upset was the host that it forgot to give Uruguay the trophy. The national team refused to wear white ever again.
With war clouds hovering over Europe, the 1938 championship was awarded to France and only 15 teams competed after Austria pulled out in the last minute following its annexation by Germany.
Dictator Mussolini left no stone unturned to ensure victory for host Italy. Sending his message loud and clear, the dictator even sent a personal note to the team to “win or die”, and another to coach Pozzo that read “May God help you if you do not win”.
The football World Cup is just round the corner. Every edition of the previous cups has had its moments to remember. We start with the first-ever edition that was held in Uruguay in 1930.
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