\n<\/p>\n
The World Cup doesn\u2019t just represent the pinnacle of football \u2013 it is the crowning jewel in the sporting world.<\/strong><\/p>\n But which players represent World Cup greatness more than any other? Today, that\u2019s what we\u2019ll aim to find out.<\/p>\n This XI will be based on World Cup performances alone. To be included, a player must have been part of a World Cup winning squad at least once \u2013 players like Johan Cruyff, Cristiano Ronaldo and Roberto Baggio will not be eligible.<\/p>\n Furthermore, we simply couldn\u2019t limit this XI to just 11 players. As such, we added in five substitutes \u2013 think of them as honourable mentions.<\/p>\n The most successful goalkeeper in World Cup history and a real pioneer for modern goalkeeping, Gilmar absolutely deserves his spot between the sticks.<\/p>\n No other goalkeeper has won two World Cups before or since \u2013 he made 94 appearances for Brazil during his 18-year professional career.<\/p>\n The best right-back of all time, Cafu played at four different World Cups for Brazil, winning two of them \u2013 he only failed to reach the final once, in 2006.<\/p>\n Cafu was the archetypal modern full-back. Defensively responsible and excellent going forwards, few players have been as effective at World Cup tournaments as Cafu was.<\/p>\n Known as \u2018Der Kaiser\u2019, Franz Beckenbauer is frequently cited as being one of the best \u2013 if not THE best \u2013 central defender of all time (despite predominantly playing as a sweeper).<\/p>\n Beckenbauer wasn\u2019t the tallest defender in the world, but he made up for his physical deficiencies with phenomenal timing, tenacity and an undying will to win.<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s World Cup performance in 2006 wasn\u2019t pretty, but it was certainly effective. The Italians bullied their way to the trophy, with Fabio Cannvaro at the heart of their efforts.<\/p>\n This was Cannavaro\u2019s coronation in football, but he also played at three other World Cups. His captain\u2019s display in 2006 will never be forgotten \u2013 seldom has a defender led such a perfect tournament.<\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The World Cup doesn\u2019t just represent the pinnacle of football \u2013 it is the crowning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}GK: Gilmar<\/h2>\n
RB: Cafu<\/h2>\n
CB: Franz Beckenbauer<\/h2>\n
CB: Fabio Cannavaro<\/h2>\n