The hard player: Shaun Wright-Phillips
Shaun Wright-Phillips was born on 25 October 1981 in Greenwich, London. An electric attacking midfielder, he built his reputation primarily at Manchester City, where he made 181 appearances and scored 31 goals in his first stint. Chelsea then came calling, and he added 125 matches and 10 goals in blue before making his way back to Manchester City for another 94 games and 16 goals.
Towards the end of his career, he turned out for Queens Park Rangers (74 games, 2 goals) and Phoenix Rising (27 games, 3 goals). With England, he earned 36 caps and scored 6 goals. A solid career at the top of English football – yet one that clearly didn’t stick in every memory: only 34% of players managed to identify him.
Discovering Le Roi des Footix? Identify 3 football players a day, climb the leaderboard, become the Roi des Footix.
PlayThe medium player: Ruud van Nistelrooy
Ruud van Nistelrooy, born Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij on 1 July 1976 in Oss, Brabant, was a true penalty-box predator. He started his professional career at Den Bosch before making his name at PSV Eindhoven with 77 goals in 90 games. Manchester United then snapped him up, where he scored a staggering 150 goals in 219 appearances – a clinical record that still holds up.
After United, he moved to Real Madrid, adding 64 goals in 96 games, then Hamburger SV before hanging up his boots. With the Netherlands, he scored 35 goals in 70 caps. His unique distinction: being crowned both champion and top scorer in three different leagues – the Eredivisie, the Premier League and La Liga. After retiring, he turned to coaching and was called up as assistant to Guus Hiddink with the Dutch national team in August 2014.
The easy player: Rodri
Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, known as Rodri, was born on 22 June 1996 in Madrid. Developed at Villarreal, he spent a season at Atlético Madrid before joining Manchester City in 2019. A relentless midfield metronome, he claimed four consecutive Premier League titles from 2021 to 2024. In 2023, he scored the only goal of the Champions League final as part of a historic continental treble for City.
With Spain, Rodri made his international debut in 2018 and went on to win the Nations League in 2023 and Euro 2024, where he was named Player of the Tournament. The ultimate recognition came with the 2024 Ballon d’Or, making him the first Manchester City player ever to win the award and only the third Spaniard in history to do so, after Alfredo Di Stéfano and Luis Suárez.