“Adding the World Cup to his résumé means Rodri has now won the World Cup, the European Championship, the Champions League, and the Ballon d’Or,” writes Owen Bagnall. “Has anyone else ‘completed football’ like this?”
They have but it’s a small, elite list.
Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller were the first to complete the set, doing so on the same day – 7 July 1974 – when West Germany beat the Netherlands to win the World Cup (Müller scoring the winner). The pair had come into that tournament on the back of a Bayern Munich’s 1974 European Cup-winning campaign and had both won the European Championship with Die Mannschaft two years earlier, Der Kaiser captaining all three sides and Der Bomber scoring in all three finals. Müller had won the Ballon d’Or in 1970 and Beckenbauer in 1972.
It was nearly 30 years before anyone would match those achievements, Zinedine Zidane doing so by winning the Champions League with Real Madrid (and scoring that goal) in 2002. That trophy went on the shelf with the 1998 World Cup, 1998 Ballon d’Or and 2000 European Championship.
Rivaldo joined the club the following year. Having won the Copa América with Brazil in 1999 and the Ballon d’Or the same year, the 2002 World Cup and the 2003 Champions League competed the set with the only caveat the fact that he was an unused substitute for Milan in that final against Juventus, though he had played throughout the competition.
Similarly, Ronaldinho’s claim carries a tiny asterisk, with the forward a member of the Brazil squad at the 1999 Copa América but an unused sub in the final. Still, he got the medal and went on to add the 2002 World Cup, the 2005 Ballon d’Or and the 2006 Champions League with Barcelona.
In very predictable news, Lionel Messi also has the full quartet, winning the Champions League for the first time in 2006 as a member of the Barcelona squad but playing a full role in their 2009 win in any case. The Ballon d’Or followed in 2009, then came the long wait for international honours, finally arriving with the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup.
And finally Rodri joined the club on Sunday, adding the World Cup to the 2023 Champions League, 2024 Euros and 2024 Ballon d’Or. Only Beckenbauer scooped all four quicker, with his set coming within the space of two years.
The full quartet is yet to be achieved in the women’s game, due in large part to the Ballon d’Or Féminin being just seven editions old. Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmatí have won five of those between them and both have a Champions League and a World Cup under their belts … but they will have to wait until the 2029 European Championship for another chance to complete the set. Megan Rapinoe, winner of the Ballon d’Or Féminin in 2019, also has a World Cup and a Concacaf W Championship to her name but a continental club championship eluded her (unsurprisingly, given Concacaf only set one up in 2024).
Can we assist you?
“Who has the most World Cup assists?” wonders Michael Ross.
This is one of those questions that should be straightforward but isn’t. The stats from the early days of the tournament don’t really exist in any meaningful way and the absence of TV footage means they are lost to history. So we can only be anywhere near accurate from 1966 onwards – and the upshot is the 2026 tournament (perhaps predictably given the number of games played by the final four) produced a new record for assists at an individual tournament by one player, while a new name (yes, the one you’d think) rose to the summit of the all-time list.
Most assists at one tournament (from 1966)
7 Michael Olise (France, 2026)
6 Pelé (Brazil, 1970)
5 Robert Gadocha (Poland, 1974), Pierre Littbarski (West Germany, 1982), Diego Maradona (Argentina, 1986), Thomas Hässler (West Germany, 1994)
4 Siggi Held (West Germany, 1966), Tostão (Brazil, 1970), Zico (Brazil, 1982), Igor Belanov (USSR, 1986), Michael Ballack (Germany, 2002), Francesco Totti (Italy, 2006), Juan Román Riquelme (Argentina, 2006), Juan Cuadrado (Colombia, 2014), Bruno Guimarães (Brazil, 2026), Brahim Díaz (Morocco, 2026), Lionel Messi (Argentina, 2026), Martin Ødegaard (Norway, 2026), Kylian Mbappé (France, 2026).
Most assists overall (from 1966)
12 Lionel Messi (Argentina, 2006-26)
8 Diego Maradona (Argentina, 1982-94)
7 Grzegorz Lato (Poland, 1974-82), Pierre Littbarski (West Germany, 1982-90), Michael Olise (France, 2026)
6 Pelé (Brazil, 1966-70), Uwe Seeler (West Germany, 1966-70) Thomas Hässler (Germany, 1990-98), David Beckham (England, 1998-2006), Francesco Totti (Italy, 2002-06), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, 2006-14), Thomas Müller (Germany, 2010-22), Ivan Perisic (Croatia, 2014-26), Kylian Mbappé (France, 2018-26).
Most England assists
6 David Beckham
4 Harry Kane
3 Bukayo Saka, Anthony Gordon
2 Tommy Taylor, Bobby Moore, Keith Newton, Steve Hodge, Paul Gascoigne, Harry Maguire, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice.
Ballon d’Or winners with fewest caps
“When reading about King Kev at his sad passing this week, I was surprised to learn that he only had 63 caps,” writes Steve Richards. “That seems very low, especially for a two-time Ballon d’Or winner. Is his number of caps the lowest for a Ballon d’Or winner, especially a multi-winner?”
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International fixtures were simply fewer and further between back in the day, so plenty of early Ballon d’Or winners won fewer than 50 caps, including Luis Suárez (Spain, 32 caps), Igor Belanov (USSR, 33) and George Best (Northern Ireland, 37).
But the Ballon d’Or winner with the fewest caps is 1961 winner Omar Sívori, who picked up 19 for Argentina in the mid 1950s before moving to Italy and being exiled by La Albiceleste. He then made nine appearances for Italy in the 60s – including at the 1962 World Cup – for a grand total of 28 international appearances. Plenty of fascinating detail on his career can be found in his Guardian obituary, written by Brian Glanville in 2005.
Of the multiple winners, Alfredo Di Stéfano won the fewest caps with 41 for Spain, Colombia and Argentina to go along with his 1957 and 1959 Ballons d’Or. Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten, both three-time winners, won 48 and 58 caps respectively for the Netherlands.
Knowledge archive
“What happens to World Cup balls used throughout the tournament,” asked Jonathan Wilson (not that one) in 2014.
In total 3,240 balls were used throughout the 2014 World Cup, 20 for each match – all printed with matchday personalisation (teams, date and venue) and each team were also given 20 training balls on arrival at their training camp in Brazil. So where do they go? “The balls are used after a tournament for souvenirs for the teams and referees, host cities, Fifa partners and the Fifa museum,” a Fifa spokesperson told us. Specifically Adidas, manufacturer of the ball, says: “For this World Cup we opted for all used matchballs from the games to be given to the marketing teams in those countries involved in that particular game. However, not all markets opted to take up this option. Each local market team is then encouraged to run a giveaway through social media to allow fans the chance to win the balls.”
Can you help?
“In the aftermath of England’s semi-final exit we may have overlooked the real winner on the evening,” begins James Mackenzie. “Step forward Barcelona’s Anthony Gordon. Not only did he join the club of being a World Cup semi-final goal scorer for England he also bagged arguably the bigger award of a lifetime’s free access to Leeds Bradford airport’s VIP lounge! Are there any better example of a more ludicrous consolation prize in football?”
“I noticed that Irish Premier Division side Shelbourne recently appointed John Russell as the men’s team manager,” writes Alan Kinsella. “Their women’s team manager is Sean (Irish for John) Russell. They aren’t related. Is this a first having men’s and women’s team managers of the same name?”
“In August 1968, Plymouth Argyle hosted Exeter City in the first round of the League Cup. The match ended 0-0,” begins John Eales. “A week later, the two teams met in a replay at St James Park. After another goalless 90 minutes, extra time was played, but still the score remained 0-0. A few days later, a second replay took place, this time on neutral territory (Torquay United’s Plainmoor ground). After 90 minutes, you’ve guessed it, the score was 0-0. With a minute of extra time remaining, John Kirkham scored to give City a 1-0 win. I was wondering whether this is some sort of record? 329 minutes of a cup tie without a goal being scored …”