1) Diego Maradona

Diego Maradona is one of the most famous Argentines to ever walk the earth.

But who was this man?

He may be famous around the world but was he a hero or was he a villain?

Maradona began playing professional football in Argentina at the age of just 15.

Within only a few years he had scored 143 goals.

Famous Spanish club Barcelona then paid a world record £5,000,000 for him.

After winning 2 trophies in Spain, he then moved to Italy when Napoli paid another world record £7,000,000 for his services.

By the mid-eighties, almost everybody knew Maradona’sname.

He was widely seen as the greatest player in the world.

However, Maradona’s most famous contribution to football came when he was playing for Argentina against England at the 1986 World Cup.

Despite Maradona’s“Hand of God”, he was still considered to be the best player in the world at the time. After beating England, Argentina went on to win the World Cup.As captain, Maradonalifted the trophy and became a national hero.

In total, Diego Maradonaplayed in 4 World Cups but his final one was a disaster.

At the 1994 World Cup Maradona was found to have cheated after he failed a drugs test.He was banned from playing for Argentina again.

In 2008, Maradonabecame manager of the Argentine national team.

He helped them to qualify for the 2010 World Cup.

With Maradona in charge, Argentina played brilliantly at the World Cup but were eventually beaten by Germany.

2 – Lionel Messi

• Luis Lionel Andres (“Leo”) Messi is an Argentinian soccer player who plays forward for the FC Barcelona club and the Argentina national team. At the age of 13, Messi moved from Argentina to Spain after FC Barcelona agreed to pay for his medical treatments.

• There he earned renown as one of the greatest players in history, helping his club win more than two dozen league titles and tournaments. In 2012, he set a record for most goals in a calendar year, and in 2019, he was named Europe's Ballon d'Or winner for the sixth time.

Early Life

• Messi was born on June 24, 1987, in Rosario, Argentina. As a young boy, Messi tagged along when his two older brothers played soccer with their friends, unintimidated by the bigger boys. At the age of 8, he was recruited to join the youth system of Newell's Old Boys, a Rosario-based club.

• Recognizably smaller than most of the kids in his age group, Messi was eventually diagnosed by doctors as suffering from a hormone deficiency that restricted his growth. Messi's parents, Jorge and Ceclia, decided on a regimen of nightly growth-hormone injections for their son, though it soon proved impossible to pay several hundred dollars per month for the medication.

• So, at the age of 13, when Messi was offered the chance to train at soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, and have his medical bills covered by the team, Messi's family picked up and moved across the Atlantic to make a new home in Spain. Although he was often homesick in his new country, Messi moved quickly through the junior system ranks.

• Ultimately, Messi's short stature (5 feet, 7 inches), combined with his speed and relentless attacking style, has drawn comparisons to another famous Argentinian footballer, Diego Maradona.

3 - Ronaldinho

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, more commonly

known as Ronaldinho (born 21 March 1980

in Porto Alegre, Brazil) is a

retired Brazilian footballer. He last played

for Brasileiro Série A club Fluminense and

also for the Brazil national team. He was

known for his dribbling, passing, flair, skills,

and during his time playing for Barcelona. He

is F.C. Barcelona's current club ambassador,

for which he signed for in September 2016.

Ronaldinho was born Ronaldo de Assis Moreira on March 21, 1980, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. His father, João Moreira, was a former professional soccer player who also worked as a welder in a shipyard, and his mother, Miguelina de Assis, was a cosmetics saleswoman who later became a nurse. Ronaldinho's older brother, Roberto Assis, was also a professional soccer player; Ronaldinho was surrounded by soccer from the day he was born. "I come from a family where soccer has always been very present," he said. "My uncles, my father and my brother were all players. Living with that kind of background, I learned a great deal from them. I tried to devote myself to it more and more with the passage of time."

Growing up in a relatively poor, hardscrabble neighborhood, Ronaldinho's youth teams had to make do with makeshift playing fields. "The only grass on the field was in the corner," Ronaldinho remembers. "There was no grass in the middle! It was just sand." In addition to soccer, Ronaldinho also played futsal—an offshoot of soccer played indoors on a hard court surface and with only five players on each side. Ronaldinho's early experiences with futsal helped shape his unique playing style, marked by his remarkable touch and close control on the ball. "A lot of the moves I make originate from futsal," Ronaldinho once said, explaining, "It's played in a very small space, and the ball control is different in futsal. And to this day, my ball control is pretty similar to a futsal player's control."

• Ronaldinho quickly developed into one of Brazil's most talented youth soccer players. When he was 13 years old, he once scored a ridiculous 23 goals in a single game.

• Then, in 1997, a teenaged Ronaldinho won a call-up to Brazil's Under-17 national team. The squad won the FIFA Under-17 World Championship in Egypt, and Ronaldinho was selected as the tournament's best player.

4. RonaldoRonaldo, in full Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, (born September 22, 1976, Itaguai, Brazil), Brazilian football (soccer) player who led Brazil to a World Cup title in 2002 and who received three Player of the Year awards (1996–97 and 2002) from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

Ronaldo grew up in the poor Rio de Janeiro suburb of Bento Ribeiro. He began playing football as a junior for the neighbourhood Social Ramos Club at age 12 and two years later joined São Cristóvão in the Carioca League. By 1992 he was playing in the Brazilian championship for Cruzeiro. He was a member of Brazil’s under-17 South American championship team in 1991 before joining the national side in 1994.

Ronaldo was transferred in 1994 from Cruzeiro to PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, where he scored 55 goals in 56 games and won the 1995 league championship and the 1996 Dutch Cup. After switching to FC Barcelona of Spain for the 1996–97 season, he scored 34 goals in 37 appearances and helped his team capture the Spanish Super Cup. Because of his success, Ronaldo was paid $27 million by Inter Milan to play for the Italian club in 1997, a record at the time. At Inter his excellent dribbling skills and knack for scoring goals earned him the nickname “Il Fenomeno.” In 1997 Ronaldo became the first player to win FIFA’s Player of the Year award two years in a row. In 1999, however, he suffered a serious knee injury that left him unable to play for almost two years.

5. Pele

• Edison Arantes do Nascimento, more commonly known as just Pelè, was born 23 October 1940 in Três Corações.

• He is a former Brazilian football player. Pelé is the most successful league goal scorer in the world, with 541 league goals. In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 games, including unofficial friendlies and tour games, for which he was listed in the Guinness World Records for most career goals scored in the history of football.

• He was given the title "Football Player of the Century" by FIFA. Many believe that he is the best player in the history of football.

Fun Facts about Pele

• Pelé was named after the inventor of the lightbulb, Thomas Edison. The young Edson “Pelé” Arantes do Nascimento certainly showed plenty of invention in his career and lit up many a football pitch with his skills.

• Pelé signed for Santos at the tender age of 15 and proceeded to score four goals on his debut against FC Corinthians. That's one way to reward the scout's faith.

• The Brazil and Santos star wasn’t someone who was happy scoring just one goal. He scored 92 hat tricks, four goals on 31 occasions, five goals on six occasions and he once scored eight in a single match.

• Pelé is the only footballer to have been on three World Cup winning teams.

6. Neymar

• Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, known as Neymar or Neymar Jr. (born 5 February 1992 in Magi das Cruz's, Brazil), is a Brazilian footballer that can play as a left or right Winger or as a Striker. He plays for the French team Paris Saint-Germain. He plays for the Brazil national football team at international level.

• He has been compared to former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi and also to Cristiano Ronaldo and Pelé.

Neymar was born in São Paulo, Brazil. His

father was a former footballer. In 2003,

Neymar began playing for Portuguesa

Santista. Later that year, He and his family

moved to Santos, São Paulo, where he

joined Santos FC. He signed his first

professional contract at age 17.

After Neymar's performances for Brazil's

U-17 team at the 2009 U-17 World Cup, on

July 26 2010, Neymar was selected in the

squad for the Brazil national team by new

head coach Mano Menezes for a friendly

match against USA on August 10 2010. He

scored on his debut, in a 2–0 win for Brazil.

On March 27 2011, he scored twice in a 2–

0 win against Scotland at the Emirates

Stadium.

FC Barcelona

• In the summer of 2013, Neymar was bought by the Spanish club FC Barcelona for 57 million euros.

Paris Saint-Germain

• In August 2017, he was bought by the French club Paris Saint-Germain for a world record-breaking €222 million, making him the most expensive transfer of all time.