I owe a lot to my family and my love for football is one of them. My brother Big Doz made sure I saw the U.S.A ’94 after convincing my mum who thought some of the games were too late for a Primary School kid. Thanks, Doz for stepping in, I probably wouldn’t have known Romario de Souza Faria who was the best player at the tourney. I have seen all World Cups from 1994 till 2018 (7 in all) and I can say U.S.A ’94 has been the best.
A lot of players have tickled my fancy at these 7 tourneys but 3 have stood out for me. I have fond memories of the U.S.A ’94 hence it being the best. It was also Nigeria’s first-ever participation at a Senior World Cup. Romario was my best player at this World Cup and despite playing in a Brazilian side that was destined to win the tournament, the diminutive striker blew me away with his overall ball play. So he ranks as my all time best player of the World Cup series.
Ronaldo De Lima comes in second, he could have easily been number one but I am so emotionally attached to the first World Cup I witnessed. Ronaldo is unarguably the best number 9 in football history if I say so myself. He was however part of 4 World Cup tourneys with Brazil though he played in 3 (1998, 2002 & 2006). He just made up the numbers in 1994 as an unused substitute. Ronaldo was top scorer at Korea/Japan 2002 with 8 goals. He is currently second overall top scorer in the World Cup series with 15 goals , just one goal short of German born Miroslav Klose.
In number three we have French Legend Zinedine Zidane aka Zizou. After a torrid start to the 1998 World Cup hosted by his home nation picking up a red card in France’s second game of the tourney he led them to glory that year scoring 2 goals in the 3:0 win against tournament favourites Brazil.
Romario de Souza, Ronaldo de Lima and Zinedine Zidane are 3 of my favourite footballers to have played in a World Cup.
CHEERS!!!
