Nine World Cup icons as you’ve never seen them before

The brilliance of Pele, Brazilian great and a record three-time World Cup winner. The England men’s team hoisting the trophy back in 1966. Lionel Messi following in Diego Maradona’s footsteps. The World Cup has given us many of history’s great sporting moments, and in turn a plethora of iconic photographs through which these moments live on. With commentary from Julian Ridgway, managing archive editor at Getty Images, here is a rare glimpse of players before the world knew what they would become – early archive shots of footballers who later defined the tournament. Pele Pele, posing in football kit at 10 years old in 1950, made World Cup history as Brazil’s teenage No 10 eight years later (Photo: Getty) He starred again as Brazil beat Italy in the 1970 final to win a third World Cup in four attempts (Photo: Getty) Where better to start than with the late, great Pele – the only man with three World Cup winners’ medals in the history of football. Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the boy who was to became the centrepiece of a star-studded Brazilian generation, was pictured in football kit aged 10 in Bauru, a municipality in Sao Paulo. Few may have predicted that eight years later, as a still-diminutive teenager, he would become the youngest player to both play and score at a World Cup, achieving the latter record – which he still holds – in the 1958 quarter-final against Wales. He was 17 years and 239 days old. Days later, Pele became the youngest scorer of a World Cup hat-trick when he bagged a treble in the space of just over 20 minutes during Brazil’s semi-final win over France. He scored twice more in that year’s final against Sweden, leading Brazil to its first title. Brazil repeated their feat in 1962, despite their trend-setting talisman suffering a tournament-ending injury in the second match after scoring and assisting in the first. Following a disappointing 1966 campaign, Pele led his country to its third title in 1970 with a further four goals; the last of those, also Brazil’s 100th goal at a World Cup – was celebrated with a leap of joy into the arms of teammate Jairzinho – came in the 4-1 demolition of Italy, alongside two of his six assists at the tournament. Pele died aged 82 in December 2022, his name firmly etched in football’s history books as well as in the sport’s never-ending “GOAT’ (Greatest of All Time) debate. Sir Bobby Charlton Charlton mucking about with teammates Tom Finney, Maurice Setters and Billy Wright in May 1958. He cemented his status as an England icon by winning the 1966 World Cup (Photos: Getty) Capitalisng on the biggest blip in Brazil’s Pele-era success, England battled to World Cup glory on home soil in 1966 – a triumph that remains the defining moment in footballing history for the nation’s men’s team. Playing a central role in that successful campaign was Sir Bobby Charlton, with England’s attacking midfield dynamo scoring two pivotal goals to down Portugal in the semi-final and set-up a Wembley meeting with West Germany. He won the Ballon d’Or, becoming the first Englishman to do so, after pipping Portugal’s Eusebio, and finished second in voting for the award in the two years that followed. The Manchester United legend racked up a then-record 106 caps and 49 goals for his country. He featured for England at three World Cups – 1962, 1966 and 1970 – after being an unused squad member in 1958, the year he made his debut. A few months before that tournament in Sweden, the 20-year-old from Northumberland was pictured having some light-hearted fun with England teammates during a training session at Roehampton. Eight years later, he was a world beater. Charlton died aged 86 in 2023, and is considered by many to be England’s greatest-ever player. Sir Geoff Hurst One wonders what Hurst saw in those tea leaves… right, the striker blasts a shot into the West German goal at the 1966 final (Photos: Getty) While Charlton won the Ballon d’Or in 1966, it was ultimately the goals of striker Geoff Hurst that saw England win the tournament. He scored three of them in total, marking the first-ever hat-trick in a World Cup final. In the six decades that have followed, the now 84-year-old has seen just one man – Kylian Mbappe – repeat that feat. The image on the right above, dated 11 February, 1964, shows the then West Ham frontman studying tea leaves for a prediction of his side’s FA Cup tie against Swindon – a match which the Hammers won, with Hurst scoring, en route to victory in the FA Cup final – with Hurst on the scoresheet once again. It would be another two years before he made his senior England debut, but could the slight smile he sports in that old snap suggest that he foresaw what was to come? Perhaps! Franz Beckenbauer Beckenbauer pictured in 1964 and during the early stages of the 1966 World Cup (Photos: Getty) After near misses at the two previous editions, he finally raised the trophy in 1974 (Photo: Getty) A key duel in the 1966 final pitted England’s Sir Bobby against Franz Beckenbauer of West Germany. That loss at Wembley was far from the end for Der Kaiser, whose goal helped send England home early from Mexico four years later. West Germany finished third in the 1970 World Cup but, with Beckenbauer named captain, went on to clinch the 1972 European Championship, as the man himself won his first of two Ballon d’Ors. He skippered his country to home World Cup glory in 1974, and lifted the trophy again as manager in 1990. Regarded as one of football’s most influential players – his play as a centre-back is credited with changing the game – Beckenbauer’s death in 2024, at the age of 78, was met with an outpouring of tributes from fellow greats of the game. Diego Maradona The peerless Maradona started out in Buenos Aires with Los Cebollitas, the youth team of Argentinos Juniors, making his professional debut for Argentinos aged 15 (Photos: Getty) Maradona won the Golden Ball after captaining Argentina to World Cup glory in Mexico in 1986 (Photo: Getty) Diego Maradona was far from an unknown name by the time of his victorious 1986 World Cup campaign with Argentina, having already become the first player to command world-record transfer fees twice, with his moves to Barcelona and Napoli. Still, that summer in Mexico saw el Pibe de Oro (“The Golden Boy”) reach the stratosphere, scoring five goals – including the now infamous “Hand of God” – and assisting five more to claim the Golden Ball for best player at the tournament. Aged 13, Maradona was playing for the youth team of Argentinos Juniors, named Los Cebollitas, in Buenos Aires. There, Getty photographer Eduardo Comesana captured the above photograph – the youngest the agency has of Maradona, who died aged 60 in 2020. He is seen sitting with his then-teammates in 1973, less than a decade before soaring to superstardom. Gary Lineker Lineker pictured circa 1980 in Leicester City kit, and in action in 1983 (Photos: Getty) After netting a hat-trick against Poland at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico (Photo: Mike King/Allsport/Hulton Archive/Getty) One member of the 1986 England squad on the wrong side Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal was Gary Lineker, who still managed to clinch the tournament’s Golden Boot award for top scorer with six goals despite going home after a quarter-final defeat to Argentina. Above is the picture celebrating his hat-trick against Poland at Mexico 1986. The photo on top right shows him during the 1983-84 season, his first as a regular First Division player, just two years before he announced himself on the world stage. Brazil’s Ronaldo Ronaldo and the rest of the Brazilian team collecting their winners’ medals at the final of the 1994 World Cup (Photo: David Caban/Getty) He was central to Brazil’s 2022 triumph (Photo: Getty) Ronaldo Nazario. The original Ronaldo. R9. He collected his first World Cup winners’ medal before he had played a single minute in the tournament. As a 17-year-old he was part of Brazil’s victorious 1994 squad and would go on to win the competition again in 2002, finishing his World Cup career with 15 goals. In 2002, he was the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals, helping Brazil win their fifth and most recent title with both goals in the 2-0 win over Germany. Cristiano Ronaldo As a young boy in 1987, and training with the U17 national team (Photos: Getty) In action during the 2026 World Cup (Photo: Getty) It is six World Cup finals appearances and out for Cristiano Ronaldo – we think – after the Portugal captain announced his retirement following their 2026 exit. At 41, Ronaldo became the oldest player to appear in a World Cup knockout match and the second oldest to score in a World Cup game. He has also scored and played in every edition (six) since the World Cup, although he has been unable to win the trophy. (He did help Portugal become European champions for the first time ever in 2016.) Could he make the 2030 World Cup, co-hosted by Portugal? Time will tell. He will be 45 by then. Lionel Messi Messi with a classmate at Escuela General Las Heras in Rosario, Argentina, in about 1992; and as a Barcelona player in 2003 (Photos: Getty) Lionel Messi with the World Cup trophy in 2022 (Photo: Getty) Qatar 2022 finally gave Lionel Messi the one prize that had eluded him. The Argentina captain scored seven goals during the tournament as his country won the World Cup for the first time since 1986. Messi’s World Cup journey has spanned six tournaments. Along the way he became Argentina’s all-time leading World Cup appearance holder, the first player to win the Golden Ball award twice, and the World Cup’s leading scorer in history. The boy from Rosario became many people’s GOAT. Read more Daniel Storey: Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly Daniel Storey: I couldn’t care less if magical Kylian Mbappe has one flaw