Stalwart Busquets joins elite World Cup club
AS Sergio Busquets trotted on to the turf of Qatar’s Al Thumama stadium against Costa Rica on Wednesday, he joined an exclusive FIFA World Cup club. The Spain midfielder became just the eighth player in the history of this tournament to lift the trophy and return to play at the finals fully 12 years later.
The 36-year-old, who continues to dummy and dictate at the base of La Roja’s engine room, joins some true legends in achieving this distinction.
Thierry Henry (France)
Until this week, France’s joint alltime record scorer was the most recent inductee into the club. A former team-mate of Busquets at Barcelona, Henry tasted World Cup glory with France on home soil back in 1998 – scoring three times as Les Bleus lifted the trophy.
He returned to the global stage in 2002 and 2006 before captaining
Raymond Domenech’s side in South Africa 2010 as France crashed out at the group stage.
Cafu & Ronaldo (Brazil)
When Brazil successfully hunted down their fourth World Cup in 1994, the likes of Romario, Bebeto and Dunga were joined by two emerging stars in the shape of Cafu and a 17-year-old Ronaldo.
The pair played supporting roles in the USA but starred in 1998 and 2002 as the South Americans reached three consecutive finals, winning the showpiece match in Japan/Korea thanks to a brace from O Fenômeno.
They returned for a last hurrah at Germany 2006, with Cafu captaining the side and Ronaldo leading the line, but were edged out by France in the quarter-finals.
The adidas Golden Boot was first awarded to the top goalscorer of the tournament in 1982 under the name Golden Shoe. It was renamed Golden
Boot in 2010. Runners-up are awarded the adidas Silver Boot and adidas Bronze Boot awards respectively.
Franco Baresi and Daniele Massaro (Italy)
Italy took a stellar squad to Spain ’82, headlined by veteran goalkeeper
Dino Zoff and master goal scorer Paolo Rossi. But among these established superstars were the fresh faces of Franco Baresi and Daniele Massaro.
Gli Azzurri defeated Germany in the showpiece match and the pair would enjoy trophy-laden careers with AC Milan thereafter before heading to USA ’94 as integral parts of another star-studded Italian side. But their national careers wouldn’t end as well as they began, with the pair both missing penalties in the shootout – along with Roberto Baggio – on that fateful day in Pasadena.
Pele (Brazil)
At Sweden 1958, the world witnessed its first glimpse of the supernatural teenager Edson Arantes do Nascimento – better known as Pele. The 17-year-old Brazilian scooped the Best Young Player award, as well as the Jules Rimet Trophy, after scoring a brace in the final.
Brazil repeated the feat in 1962, but Pele vowed never to play at the finals again after the Seleção crashed out of the 1966 tournament, only to change his mind ahead of Mexico 1970 and return for a final swansong. There, he claimed his third and final World Cup to become the first, and only, player to win the tournament three times - and twelve years apart.
William Martinez (Uruguay)
The club’s founding member was William Martinez, a Uruguayan defender who won trophies aplenty in his homeland and took that golden touch to the national side at Brazil 1950.
He may not have entered the field as La Celeste won their second World Cup, the first to be decided by a ‘round-robin’ format, but he took part in Chile 1962 as the wise head of Juan Corazzo’s squad, when the South Americans fell at the group stage.