Football quiz: can you match the players to the achievements on their CVs?

Nearly men George Weah, Kevin Phillips and Michael Ballack. Composite: Getty Images

1. All four of these players won the Ballon d’Or, but only one of them played at a World Cup. Which one?

   1. Denis Law

   2. George Best

   3. Alfredo Di Stéfano

   4. George Weah

2. All of these players won more than 50 caps for England, but only one of them won a top-flight league title. Which one?

   1. Stanley Matthews

   2. Bobby Moore

   3. David Platt

   4. Gary Lineker

3. Kevin Phillips scored 30 league goals in the 1999-2000 season, enough to win the Premier League golden boot and European Golden Shoe. How many goals did he score for England in his whole career?

   1. None

   2. Two

   3. Four

   4. Six

4. Which of these great strikers has scored at a World Cup?

   1. Marco van Basten

   2. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

   3. Jimmy Greaves

   4. Eric Cantona

5. Which of these players won league titles in four different European countries yet never won the Champions League?

   1. Ronaldo

   2. Dennis Bergkamp

   3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

   4. Gianluigi Buffon

6. Which of these players finished second in a domestic league, domestic cup, a European competition and a World Cup in the space of six weeks?

   1. Lionel Messi

   2. Thierry Henry

   3. Gonzalo Higuaín

   4. Michael Ballack

7. Which of these players has lost a World Cup final and a European Championship final?

   1. Paolo Maldini

   2. Olivier Giroud

   3. Thierry Henry

   4. Bastian Schweinsteiger

8. Ballack is not the only player to have lost Champions League and World Cup finals in the same year. Who did it in 2018?

   1. Luka Modric

   2. Ragnar Klavan

   3. Raphaël Varane

   4. Dejan Lovren

9. Which player has made the most appearances in the Premier League (469 for five different clubs) without ever earning a cap for his country?

   1. Kevin Nolan

   2. Sylvain Distin

   3. Kevin Davies

   4. Lee Bowyer

10. Only one of these players has won the World Cup, the Champions League and Premier League? Which one?

    1. Juan Mata

    2. Fernando Torres

    3. Xabi Alonso

    4. Fabien Barthez

Solutions

1:A - Law played for Scotland at the World Cup in 1974. It's hard to believe that Alfredo Di Stéfano never played a minute at a World Cup given that he won the Ballon d’Or twice, played for three international teams (Argentina, Colombia and Spain), won league titles in all three of those countries, and won five European Cups., 2:C - Platt played for Arsenal when they won the Premier League for the first time under Arsène Wenger in 1998., 3:A - It wasn't exactly his fault. Phillips never completed a full 90 minutes for his country and was never picked in a competitive game. He remains the only Englishman to have won the European golden shoe. , 4:C - Greaves famously missed out on the World Cup final in 1966, but he did score at the tournament in Chile four years earlier. He also got his hands on a pitch-invading dog at that World Cup but that's a different story., 5:C - In fact, none of these players won the Champions League., 6:D - In 2002, Ballack finished second in the Bundesliga and was a losing finalist in the German Cup, Champions League and World Cup. He had a similar run in 2008, when he finished second in the Premier League and was a losing finalist in the League Cup, Champions League and the Euros., 7:A - Maldini played in seven major international tournaments but did not win any of them. He reached the final of the 1994 World Cup and Euro 2000, as well as the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup and Euro 1988., 8:D - Lovren was in the Liverpool team that lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League final and the Croatia team that lost to France in the World Cup final., 9:B - In 2014, he jokingly tweeted: “I’m retiring from the France team. It was a wonderful experience and after a record of #0 caps it’s time to say goodbye and focus on my club.”, 10:D - He won the Champions League with Marseille in 1993, the World Cup with France in 1998 and the Premier League with Manchester United in 2001 and 2003.

Scores

1. 1 and above.

   Better luck next time.

2. 2 and above.

   Better luck next time.

3. 3 and above.

   Better luck next time.

4. 4 and above.

   Better luck next time.

5. 5 and above.

   A solid score.

6. 6 and above.

   A great performance but – like the players in this quiz – you've fallen short

7. 7 and above.

   A great performance but – like the players in this quiz – you've fallen short

8. 8 and above.

   A great performance but – like the players in this quiz – you've fallen short

9. 9 and above.

   A great performance but – like the players in this quiz – you've fallen short

10. 0 and above.

    Better luck next time.

11. 10 and above.

    Perfection.