The hard player: Peter Crouch
Born on 30 January 1981 in Macclesfield, Peter Crouch was a professional striker from 2000 to 2019. Stoke City was his spiritual home, where he made 261 appearances and scored 97 goals. He also turned out for Liverpool (134 appearances, 42 goals), Tottenham (93 appearances, 24 goals), Portsmouth (49 appearances, 16 goals) and Queens Park Rangers (47 appearances, 12 goals), building a rich career across English football.
With the England national team, he scored 22 goals in 42 caps and played at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. A career built club by club, year by year, that speaks for itself through the numbers alone.
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PlayThe medium player: Freddie Ljungberg
Born on 16 April 1977 in Vittsjö, Sweden, Fredrik Ljungberg – better known as Freddie – began his career at Halmstads BK before joining Arsenal in 1998. He spent nine years there, making 216 appearances and scoring 72 goals for the Gunners, establishing himself as one of the club’s key players at the turn of the millennium.
A right winger and attacking midfielder by trade, he went on to play for West Ham, Celtic and Seattle Sounders before hanging up his boots. With the Swedish national team, he earned 75 caps and scored 16 goals between 1998 and 2008, taking part in Euro 2000, Euro 2004, Euro 2008 and the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. He later moved into coaching.
The easy player: Kylian Mbappé
Born on 20 December 1998 in Paris, Kylian Mbappé grew up in Bondy and launched his professional career in 2015 at AS Monaco, where he won the Ligue 1 title in 2016-2017. At the end of that season, PSG snapped him up first on loan, then for 180 million euros – the second highest transfer fee in history behind Neymar. At PSG, he piled up domestic trophies – six Ligue 1 titles – and topped the French scoring charts six seasons in a row. The all-time top scorer in the club’s history, he joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2024 on a five-year deal, and finished his first Spanish season as La Liga’s top scorer and European Golden Boot winner.
With the French national team, his 2017 debut set the tone straight away. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, he became the second youngest player after Pelé to score a brace in the knockout stages, as France won the final 4-2 against Croatia. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he scored a hat-trick in the final – the first since Geoff Hurst in 1966 – and finished as the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals. After the competition, Didier Deschamps handed him the captain’s armband.