Famous football players

9. Luka Modric (Real Madrid)

Ageless, timeless, majestic. Modric will never get old nor will he retire – we simply refuse to believe it. We are 20 years on from Modric's professional debut with Zrinjski Mostar in the Bosnian Premier League, more than 800 games into his career, and there are still few players you'd trust more to pull the strings in midfield.
Modric is silk personified. He never looks troubled or over-exerted, he is butter-smooth. A deft touch, a little drop of the shoulder to purchase space an unstoppable artful pass designed to slit through the lines. We've all seen it, the opponents he is facing have all seen it before too, but nobody can do anything about it.
The 37-year-old should be in decline, he should be losing his legs and unpredictability should be creeping in, but Madrid's management of his minutes has been sublime. He will be fit and fresh for those enormous Champions League nights. And he'll just keep running the show until his curtain call.

8. Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)

We promise this isn't just a Real Madrid XI, but it's an ominous sign for the rest of the football world that while the capital snake has shed some of its ageing skin in recent transfer windows, an equally venomous threat is slithering into the open, a team led by Vini Jr.
The 23-year-old has already racked up more than 200 appearances for the club in all competitions since 2018, and he is one of the few contenders who could, without a hint of delusion, claim to be sitting top of this list in several years time.
Vincius' pace is scorching, with dynamite acceleration able to propel himself from standing starts beyond petrified defenders at will. Most impressively, he harnesses that speed with quickness of feet and ball control to match any player in the world.

7. Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona)

Goals, goals, goals. In a decade of false nines, inside forwards, inverted thingamajigs, Lewandowski has relentlessly flown the flag for natural out-and-out strikers.
In many ways, Lewandowski is a no-nonsense entity. He knows where the ball will flow, he knows the positions to be in and when to be there, he knows all the measurements of the goal frame and will use every inch of it to ripple the net. If the ball falls to one player in a one-on-one situation in world football, Lewandowski is both the most likely player to be in that position and the man you'd want to be there.
Lewandowski is very able when it comes to building attacks and creating chances, but his movement and awareness as the target for others to find means he is at his most ruthless hovering around at the very top end of the pitch.