World Cup Dream XI

To celebrate the start of the World Cup, I've picked through years of memories to give you the ultimate World Cup Dream Team

GK: Borislav ‘Bobby’ Mikhailov

The World Cup in the USA was the first one I remember vividly. I have some distant memories of Italia 90, but given I was five years old at the time, the finer intricacies passed me by. By 1994 however, I was fully embracing the World Cup experience (even if England weren’t it). I hadn’t heard of any of the players mind, but in a way that made it more exciting, and it was the unknowns (to me) from Bulgaria and Romania that captured the imagination.

One of these was Bobby Mikhailov, the Bulgarian No. 1. Now my childhood memory (and his place in this team) is less about his goalkeeping and more to do with what was happening on top of his head. USA 94 was a warm World Cup, a scorching World Cup, and in the New York sunshine Mikhailov’s hair appeared to be melting. There were rumours of a wig, there were rumours that he’d gone all Shane Warne and had implants. Whatever he had, it didn’t react to well to sunlight is all I’m saying.

He also gets into this team for the fact that in, 1995 he Became Reading’s record signing after apparently seeing the team play Bolton in the First Division Playoff Final that year at Wembley. As legend has it, he believed the 80,000 capacity stadium to be Reading's home ground...

RB: Carlos Alberto

Does this need any further explanation? For THAT goal, indeed for THE goal, for showing that right backs could be sexy to, for inspiring generations of attacking Brazilian fullbacks. For all those reasons, he just pips Danny Mills for the No. 2 shirt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZkR5Wb2KQs

LB: George Cohen

You’ve got to have one of the hero’s of 66 haven’t you? So why not, the personable left back who also starred for Fulham? An underrated member of the victorious squad who also gets in because my Dad’s met him, and said he was a thorough gentleman. Good enough to get him in I think.

CB: Mwepu Ilunga

You might not know the name, but you’ll know the incident. Way back in 1974, in a less globalised time, if you’d been watching a World Cup back in the middle of dreary England, chances were that you would never have seen anything like the Zaire team. Ilunga’s fame comes from the fact that in their game against Brazil he steamed out of the team’s defensive wall to boot away the Brazilian free kick before it had even been taken.

Myth and reality seem to have got caught up along the way, as Ilunga has always claimed that he did it because he wanted to make a point about what he perceived to be biased officiating going on. Despite that, the fact remains that the story is still pedalled that he and his team mates just didn’t know the rules, thus spawning ridiculously offensive clichés towards African players that exist to this day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1L5nLwNqQE

CB: Roque Junior

Given they’ve won the thing five times, I think it’s fair to say that a World Cup dream team can never have enough Brazilian’s in it, and who could forget the man who brought the spirit of Jogo Bonito to Yorkshire? ‘Inspired’ at the heart of Brazil’s three man central defence in 2002, big Roque emerged from the tournament with an inflated reputation and a winner’s medal around his neck, despite having, well, no discernable talent at all.

Incredibly he won 48 caps in all, and also has a Champions League medal to go with his World Cup one, so it was something of a coup when Peter Reid (yes) brought him to Elland Road in 2003. Well, seven games later, 24 goals conceded and a red card on his debut and the man was heading for the exit door. If nothing else he proved to everyone that Brazilian’s can supply rubbish footballers just like everyone else in the world, which is reassuring to know.

RM: Paul Gascoigne

There is the possibility that the reason I’m writing this or indeed the reason you may have the misfortune of reading this is because of Paul Gascoigne. Yes I know the invention of the Premier League helped to popularise the sport in this country again following years of neglect, hooliganism and ultimately tragedy but it was the exploits of England at Italia 90 that helped kick start the road to recovery. More specifically it was the exploits of Gazza that helped kick start the recovery.

If you go back and watch the tapes, Gascoigne’s form at the tournament was simply imperious, as he exploded into a global superstar. How many times has a young English player exploded onto the scene and captivated the whole world? Not many. His tears in the semi final became iconic, reaching out far wider than just football fans. At that point in his career he genuinely looked like he could become a Maradona type figure (Maradona anointed him his successor around this time). Ultimately the self-destructive story that followed is well known, but it’s hard to underestimate the impact that a young Geordie had on English football.

LM: Gheorghe Hagi

Remember what I was saying about USA 94 being the first World Cup I really remember in detail? It’s hardly surprising then to get so many nominations in this team from a tournament that most critics are rather sniffy about. For all of us , the memories you have as a child are the ones that stick with you, and after watching the World Cup from America, there was one player who stood out as being a genius, ‘the Maradona of the Carpathians’, Gheorghe Hagi.

At that tournament he scored some sensational goals, and inspired a Romanian team that became the neutrals choice as the tournament went on. The game they played against Argentina, when they beat them 3-2 still ranks 16 years later as one of the best games I’ve ever seen. Throughout the tournament, whenever Hagi waved his magic wand of a foot, you knew things were going to happen. A simply outstanding player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wqyusxqe5Y

CM: Marco Tardelli

Marco Tardelli is a phenomenal player, criminally underrated whenever people talk about the game’s greats. He deserves mention for the fact that not only did he win multiple Serie A titles, but also all three European competitions and the World Cup. Not a bad CV ay?

But the reason he’s here is because of a celebration. Sure, nowadays people can do cartwheels, dances, impressions or rubbish comedy (see Bullard, Jimmy) but nothing can beat a true outpouring of emotion, where any thoughts of a stupid choreographed somersault into shooting a gun (think we all know who I mean) goes out of your head as the gravity and enormity of the situation you’ve just found yourself in, grabs hold and takes you over. Go and watch Tardelli’s goal in the 1982 final, and embrace the celebration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8vrqAhJ7Wk

CM: Nicky Butt

It’s a World Cup dream team, of course it needs to have Nicky Butt in it – didn’t you get Pele’s memo? He was the (no giggles at the back please) ‘best player at the 2002 World Cup’. Along with the fine piece of punditry, here are some more wonderful nuggets from the great man himself:

Argentina and France to contest the 2002 final

Both exit in the first round, France without even scoring.

An African nation will win the World Cup before 2000

Twenty years on from this claim, not one has reached a semi-final.

Colombia to win USA 94

They lose their first two games and finish bottom of their group.

I think Romario sums it quite well: “When Pele’s quiet he’s a poet, but he just talks shit’. Quite.

ST: Saeed Al-Owairan

I think it would be fair to say that not many Saudi Arabian’s get anywhere near a World Cup dream team. Regular qualifiers for tournaments (although not this time round) they are usually something of the whipping boys (witness their epic 8-0 battering by a German team in 2002 that featured Carsten Jancker up front) but then that’s what makes the World Cup so special, the fact that an unheralded name on the world stage can do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8w89sl7Grc

ST: Ronaldo

Again, just for clarification, that’s the real one. I had him up front in my overall dream team that I created a few months back on the blog, and no, this is not just so I can rather lazily do a copy and paste job.

Ronaldo is the top scorer ever at World Cup finals with his exploits in 2002 being the ultimate tale of redemption. Four years after the murky goings on of the dressing room fit in Paris, where the weight of the world’s expectations crushed a young boys dreams, four years of virtual inactivity due to crippling knee injuries, and four years of having his reputation tarnished were all laid to rest during a four week spell when he proved, definitely, why he was the best striker of his generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcbHf3z3B2g