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The brilliance of Brazilian great and record three-time World Cup winner Pele. The England men’s team hoisting the trophy back in 1966. Lionel Messi following in Diego Maradona’s footsteps.

The Fifa 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 also from Julian Ridgway, managing archive editor at Getty Images, here is a visual look at players before the world knew what they would become – early archive shots of footballers who later defined the tournament.

Pele

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 became the iconic centre-piece 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 – when he found the net in the 1958 quarter-final against Wales aged 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 victory over France. He scored twice more in that year’s final against Sweden, leading Brazil to its first title. The Brazilians repeated as World Cup champions 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 for Brazil, Pelé led his country to its third title in 1970 with a further four goals; the last of those, which was also Brazil’s 100th goal at a World Cup – 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 the sport’s never-ending “GOAT’ (Greatest Of All Time) debate.

Sir Bobby Charlton

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 particularly pivotal goals to down Portugal in the semi-final and set-up a Wembley meeting with West Germany. He went on to win the Ballon d’Or the same year, becoming the first Englishman to do so after pipping Portugal’s Eusébio, and finished second in voting for the award in the two years that followed.

Charlton, who racked up a then-record 106 caps and 49 goals for his country, featured for England at three World Cups in total – 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.

Manchester United legend Charlton, who died aged 86 in 2023, is considered by many to be England’s greatest-ever player.

Sir Geoff Hurst

Charlton’s performances earned him the Ballon d’Or in 1966, but it was ultimately the goals of striker Geoff Hurst that saw England emerge victorious from that year’s World Cup final.

Hurst 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 84-year-old has so far seen just one man – Kylian Mbappe – repeat that feat.

An image from Getty’s archives, dated 11 February 1964, showed the former West Ham frontman studying tea leaves for a prediction of his side’s FA Cup tie against Swindon that month – a match which the Hammers went on to win, with Hurst scoring, en route to victory in the final of that competition with Hurst on the score sheet once again.

It would be another two years before Hurst 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

A key duel in the 1966 final pitted England’s Sir Bobby against Franz Beckenbauer of West Germany.

And that loss at Wembley was far from the end for der Kaiser (“the Emperor”), who scored to help send England home early from Mexico four years later. West Germany finished third at that 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.

Beckenbauer soon skippered his country to home World Cup glory in 1974 and later lifted the World Cup again with his country as a manager in 1990.

Regarded as one of football’s best and most influential players, Beckenbauer’s passing in 2024 at the age of 78 was met with an outpouring of tributes from fellow greats of the game.

Diego Maradona

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 new world record transfer fees twice with his moves to Barcelona and Napoli in the preceding years.

Still, that summer in Mexico saw el Pibe de Oro (“The Golden Boy”) reach another 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.

At the age of 13, Maradona was playing with the Buenos Aires club’s junior side, Los Cebollitas. There, Getty photographer Eduardo Comesana captured the above photograph – the youngest the agency has of the late footballer, who died aged 60 in 2020 – sitting with his then-teammates in 1973, less than a decade before soaring to superstardom.

Gary Lineker

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 the picture celebrating his hat-trick against Poland at Mexico 1986, Lineker is pictured during the 1983-84 season, his first as a regular First Division player, just two years before he announced himself on the world stage.

Ronaldo Nazario

Ronaldo Nazario. The original Ronaldo. R9.

Ronaldo 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

It is six World Cup finals appearances and out for Cristiano Ronaldo, we think, with the Portugal captain bowing out after their 2026 exit.

At 41, Ronaldo became the oldest ever 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 was able to win the trophy.

Could he make the 2030 World Cup, co-hosted by Portugal? Time will tell. He will be 45 by then.

Lionel Messi

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

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When England have been down, Jude Bellingham has come to the rescue.

That was already the case before this World Cup, but in North America he has seized this role as talisman and utterly thrived.

As vital to England as Lionel Messi is to semi-final opponents Argentina, Bellingham has six goals at this World Cup. No midfielder has ever scored more at one World Cup, while only Pele was younger when scoring two or more goals in successive knockout games.

Against Mexico and then Norway, Bellingham carried England into the last four, and the Real Madrid midfielder is not done yet.

Ahead of a semi-final for the ages, get to know the key influences behind the boy from Stourbridge who hopes to conquer the world.

Denise Bellingham, mother

Jude’s “queen” has been the voice in his ear throughout his career and at this World Cup. Denise repeatedly reminded her son he was on a yellow card ahead of the quarter-final against Norway, and so risked suspension for the semi-final.

“My mum was telling me all week to watch my language, watch my tackles, watch my face, watch my emotions, so she drilled into me all week about being careful of that yellow card,” Jude said.

A former HR manager, Denise moved to Germany with Jude when he left boyhood club Birmingham City at 17, and like all good mothers she came to the rescue at Dortmund airport in 2023 when her son forgot his passport before a club trip to Marbella.

She then helped Jude settle in Madrid. “It is probably the biggest role of anyone, even probably more than my coaches and managers to be honest,” Jude wrote.

“Without my mum, sometimes I’d get too low with the lows or too high with the highs and I stay pretty humble because I’ve got her around. It’s also great to have her there because she’s a great laugh as well. We get on so well and we’re always doing stuff together.”

Mark Bellingham, father

A former footballer, Mark scored more than 700 non-league goals and played for almost as many clubs, going by the list on his Wikipedia: Catholic United, East Thurrock United, Chelmsford City, Halesowen Town, Cheltenham Town, Newport County, West Midlands Police, Sutton Coldfield Town, Bromsgrove Rovers, Stourbridge, Leamington, Hednesford Town, Causeway United, Daventry Town, Bedworth United, Wolverhampton Casuals, Hinckley, Bromsgrove Sporting, Cradley Town, Paget Rangers and Southam United.

Mark was born in Southend-on-Sea before swapping Essex for the West Midlands. He helped set up Stourbridge Juniors, Jude’s first club, and was a sergeant with West Midlands Police before fully focusing on his sons’ careers.

He became their agent and negotiated Jude’s £88.5m transfer to Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund in 2023, and dealt with Dortmund again when Jobe moved there from Sunderland in 2025.

There in Germany, Mark reportedly held an “emotional conversation” near the dressing room with Dortmund’s sporting director Sebastian Kehl after Jobe was subbed off at half-time on his Bundesliga debut. The club reviewed their access after this incident.

Mark’s influence is said to have stretched to Jude’s media duties when with England. Notably, the player has gone out of his way to speak more at this World Cup, but at previous tournaments he had avoided speaking beyond his obligations despite his increasing influence within the squad.

Jobe Bellingham, brother

Two school years separate Jude – born June 2003 – and brother Jobe (born September 2005), and the younger Bellingham is now forging a similar path.

The 20-year-old came through Birmingham’s academy and played for Sunderland for two years before signing for Dortmund in 2025.

Also a midfielder, Jobe wears his first name on the back of his shirts, and was keen to stress joining Dortmund was “not to follow in anyone’s footsteps”.

Former Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray said of Jobe in 2023: “He doesn’t want to live off the back of his brother’s name – he wants to be the footballer he is and show people what he can do. He’s trying to create his own identity.”

The obvious question is whether the brothers will ever represent England together, and the signs are promising, with Jobe clocking 11 appearances for the under-21s and now wearing the captain’s armband under boss Lee Carsley.

“He’s going in the right direction,” Carsley said in November. “He’s got really good leadership qualities. He’s a brilliant example on and off the pitch to the rest of the players.”

Ashlyn Castro, partner

Jude’s girlfriend Ashlyn Castro is Californian and has been in attendance for England’s World Cup matches.

The model and influencer, who has more than one million followers across Instagram and TikTok, was pictured with Jude at the Madrid Open in April and the pair have reportedly been dating since 2025.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly
• Richard Edwards: I was one of 9,000 people at Jude Bellingham’s debut – at 16, he was awe-inspiring

William Bellingham, grandfather

“I think about my grandad, who passed away just before my England debut,” Jude said after England’s World Cup opening win over Croatia.

“He was so patriotic. He was an Englishman through and through. He could give you every fact about every war, every battle, every king and queen. I do think about him when that moment is coming.”

William Bellingham, Mark’s father, died in 2020. He served in the Army in Berlin, taught French, and was a contestant on Mastermind in 1987. His specialist subject? Nigeria 1900-1966, showcasing his passion for both travel and history, according to The Telegraph.

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ATLANTA – It was four hours before kick-off in Houston and Lionel Messi fever already offered the impression of a religious festival. An enterprising local sold massive signs of the great man’s face. I chatted to a guy who has four Messi tattoos and it’s only the ones on his legs that I was interested in seeing. A flurry of Argentinean broadcasters conducted interviews at 8am and barked the name of their king a little louder than every other word.

It was a guy who has travelled from Guatemala who I remember most. We talked breezily about how many times he had seen Messi play and how watching him transported the man to a different place spiritually. And then he stopped smiling for a moment: “It might be the last time I see him play, you know”.

That’s something I have been thinking about a lot during this tournament, not least because my own route was pre-planned and offered no escape to sneak in some bonus Lionel time. I knew that in Houston I was probably watching him play for the last time.

And now here I am, back in Atlanta because England have made a World Cup semi-final. And now they will face Lionel Messi for their first time ever. Maybe this will be the last time. Scratch that: maybe I’m even hoping that this will be last time given what it means for England.

The day before the match in Houston, I got a message from my mum: “Am I right in thinking that you are going to see Messi play?” That has become an irregular theme of my last decade or so. That’s why I’ve been thinking about these being my last times.

My mum got me into football. By the time I was five, my parents had divorced and it was me and her. I have a vivid memory of her going to the 1991 FA Cup final to watch Nottingham Forest, I think because it was the last Forest match before I started going. At age five, I had my first season ticket and we went to every home game from then on.

Soppy tweet: My mum was the one who first took me to football. We always said we would go together to watch Lionel Messi play for Barcelona. Bucket list item ticked off (assuming no warm-up injury). pic.twitter.com/7DrM0MuUgE

— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) December 2, 2017

Life then got in the way, as life tends to with adolescent boys. I started going with mates, then away games from university and the Forest connection between me and my mum disappeared. It was entirely selfish on my part, in that accidental way that kids are guilty of.

Several years later (and it should not have taken me that long), I had a sudden realisation: my mum hadn’t attended a single Forest match since we stopped going together. I still think that’s true now.

She just stopped. Without that deep mother-son connection, Forest and football had less meaning. She liked football in a way, I suppose, but really she was going because it was me and her and because it was the thing I loved more than anything in the world. I should have realised that and I’m an idiot for not doing so.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Messi got my mum back into football, even if that sounds saccharine and too good to be true. I don’t know how it happened and it absolutely wasn’t my doing, but she fell in love with watching him for Barcelona under Pep Guardiola and it snowballed from there. I would get regular weekend night messages telling me that he had scored twice and that I needed to see the pass for Andres Iniesta’s goal.

In December 2017, my mum and I went to Barcelona to watch them play twice in two days: La Liga and Champions League, two bites at it. Midway through the first half of the first match Messi picked up the ball deep, dribbled forward, exchanged a pass and tucked the ball past the goalkeeper. You know what the finish looked like; you’ve seen it so many times before.

My mum was moved to tears. “He scored,” was all she said. I am lucky enough to have watched 1,000 football matches live, probably more. That goal ranks as my favourite football memory. It was none of my own work, and yet I could see a connection between my mum and football reformed. Messi literally succeeded where I had let us down. She will call me a soppy sod for writing that paragraph, and rightly so.

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That was nine years ago. A lot has changed since. With a permanent job that means watching lots of matches live, my mum and I speak more about general football and what I’m doing than we do about Messi. But obviously it sticks with us both. You add the greatest player of my lifetime with your parent’s favourite player and you create an inevitable bond.

This is unforgivably twee, but I feel lucky watching Messi because I know how much she would love to be watching him. And I think all of us who get paid to watch any football, let alone him play, should remind ourselves at least once a day that we have got a disgracefully good thing going on.

This is all amplified by the last age of Messi, as we are experiencing now. My mum doesn’t watch his Inter Miami performances and nor do I. The last time before this World Cup that I got a message from my mum about watching Messi was the last time I saw him in the flesh: the 2022 World Cup final.

With no disrespect intended, Messi made the move to leave European football – six months after the last World Cup – to prolong his international career and give him one more shot. Seeing him in MLS would be like seeing him in training: a lot of fun, but just not quite the same. And it’s the purest form of Messi I’m interested in.

I think that’s true for the vast majority of people, certainly outside of the US. There is a sense of occasion when Messi plays for Argentina that is almost overwhelming to observe live. Watch the people around you. See how they are here only for one person. They have travelled the world to see this man perform and he never lets them down because he has engineered his entire experience to peak on this stage.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Gianni Infantino is ruining the World Cup – one terrible idea at a time
• Kevin Garside: The referee conspiracy that kickstarted Argentina’s hatred of English football

The only caveat to Messi’s omnipotence is the power to halt time. There will be a last time eventually: for me, for every one of his disciples, for the man himself. It wasn’t Houston. Maybe it’s Atlanta, maybe it’s New Jersey. Maybe he has one more go in him.

Football will lose a part of itself; that’s both sentimental hogwash and entirely true all at once. He defined a super team and a generation. He was not the fastest, biggest or most powerful, but he had the most talent and he connected more people than anyone else. Attend an Argentina game and tell me I’m wrong.

I don’t even really care that – or if – Messi is the best. He is my favourite and always will be, in the same way that your grandparents spoke in hushed tones about the mythical superstars of their own time. I don’t think my mum will love football in the same way again – I’m not even sure that she’s bothered about trying.

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France 0-2 Spain

Didier Deschamps will bow out as France manager in defeat, emphatically denied a third successive World Cup final by Spain. It is the European champions who will face England or Argentina in New Jersey on Sunday after one of the most extraordinary no-shows.

France, almost universally accepted as the favourites, went missing when it mattered, falling behind for the first time at this tournament inside 22 minutes and never recovering.

Just as they did 16 years ago, Spain will have the chance to hold both major international titles simultaneously. Luis de la Fuente’s plan worked perfectly, the full-backs playing a starring role on the road to the final. For the best defence of the summer, it was another clean sheet.

Yet the greater surprise is that France crashed out with such meekness that it became hard to remember why they were thought indomitable just days ago. Having brushed aside the likes of Norway, Morocco and Sweden, Kylian Mbappe had no service, drifting left and right in search of the ball.

His teammates began to crumble the moment Lucas Digne brought down Lamine Yamal inside the box, the penalty converted expertly by Mikel Oyarzabal. The VAR found little in handball claims against Yamal, who turned 19 this week.

From there, and without Arsenal’s William Saliba who withdrew through injury, the defending did not improve – in fact, in spells France did not even attempt it, the same ponderous attitude that raised its head in the group stages. As Dayot Upamecano floundered, Pedro Porro seized on the space to finish with the side of his foot past Mike Maignan for just his second international goal.

Any prospect of a French fightback did not materialise, Desire Doue squandering the opportunity when Unai Simon came soaring off his line. Rodri continued to set the tempo and Marc Cucurella excelled on the left in Spain’s most accomplished display yet.

France were champions in Russia in 2018 and runners-up in Qatar four years ago, when they were beaten by Argentina. If England do reach the final, it will be Spain – who beat them in the showpiece at Euro 2024 – who lie in wait.

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It’s not often you head to Fratton Park with anything other than a sense of impending doom.

Particularly in the Carabao Cup – a tournament that Portsmouth have reached the third round of just once since 2009-10. A sunny, warm August evening in 2019 was different.

Not because expectations were any higher than usual, but because Pompey were taking on Birmingham and a potential teenage superstar was in line to make his debut for the visitors.

A friend of mine had a son at the Birmingham academy and had messaged me the weekend to tell me to keep an eye out for a kid that had long been identified as rare and special at St Andrew’s.

A player who had played for the club’s under-18 side at the age of just 14. A youngster who had clubs across Europe tracking his every move.

A record-breaker

His name? Jude Bellingham.

That evening on the south coast, the then 16-year-old became the youngest player to be handed a senior debut by Birmingham since Trevor Francis.

Bellingham was 101 days younger than Francis, who had set the previous record in 1970.

A decent number of Birmingham fans had headed south, with a sighting of Bellingham the primary motivation. Just over a decade before, Portsmouth had played host to Ronaldinho in a Europa League tie with AC Milan.

That night was so loud, so raucous and so utterly unreal, that at times it felt the stands at the famous old ground would collapse in excitement, particularly after Pompey sprinted into a 2-0 lead.

The official attendance was 20,403 – the decibel levels were worthy of the Azteca last weekend.

Bellingham would have loved it. This August evening was a more modest occasion in every sense. A decent crowd of 9,913 were there to witness the first appearance of a player who looks set to be the defining player of his generation.

On Wednesday night, he’ll be the shirt that every Argentina player will want to add to their personal collection. Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez or Enzo Fernandez will be circling.

Bellingham was never going to stick around

It’s unlikely any shirt swapping when on that night at Fratton, but if it had, Bellingham could have exchanged his with the likes of Ellis Harrison – who scored twice on his home debut – or Ben Close (last seen on loan at Eastleigh).

On the pitch, just as he has shouldered England’s World Cup hopes in North America this summer, Bellingham wouldn’t have taken too long to realise that his bedding in process at Birmingham wasn’t going to be a gradual one.

Picked as one of nine changes to Pep Clotet’s side after a promising 1-0 win away at Brentford on the opening day of the Championship season, Bellingham was soon taking on the responsibility of dragging Birmingham back into the game after Pompey went 2-0 up in the first 40 minutes.

It wasn’t an overly auspicious bow by the teenage wonderkid, but you could already tell that his stay at Birmingham would be brief. It wasn’t so much the extra time he had on the ball every time he received it, as much as the way he drove his side forward.

He may have been 16, playing away night for the Championship side against hardened League One opponents but he spent the majority of his 80 minutes on the pitch cajoling and encouraging his teammates.

An ego? Almost certainly. But this was a young footballer who couldn’t have been less intimidated by either his opponents or the opportunity he had been handed at such a tender age.

In 2023, a scouting report from a Premier League club was leaked to The Daily Mail and described Bellingham’s immediate impact in a game that ended in a 3-0 defeat.

“Only 16 but awe-inspiring,” it read. That pretty much summed it up.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: Jude Bellingham has made some people look very silly
• Kat Lucas: My England XI to face Argentina – with three major changes

As we filed out of Fratton Park, I had the sense that we too had witnessed something extraordinary from a player who would find himself at Borussia Dortmund within ten months.

Few songs beyond Play up Pompey get much of an airing at this South Coast cathedral.

Had we known then what we know now, we would have gladly belted out Hey Jude in his honour.

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NEW YORK – Mask-clad, marauding down the left, Djed Spence was an unlikely hero to emerge from England’s World Cup summer.

Rarely has there been so late a scramble for plane tickets as when Thomas Tuchel announced his 26-man squad in May, Spence’s family quickly following him to the United States. Jordan Henderson aside, his was the least predictable name on the list.

In the absence of sufficient forward-thinking down the middle and the lack of the edge in the wide areas, debates over Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Adam Wharton will rage on. After the briefest of glitches in the set-to with DR Congo, it is telling that nobody is any longer hankering for Myles Lewis-Skelly or Lewis Hall. On the other side, there is little Spence could do that would ever wholly justify Trent Alexander-Arnold’s surprise exclusion.

Tuchel’s thinking, so impenetrable to a nation learning to trust him, was this. In the very early days at youth level in Peckham, south London, Spence started life as a winger. A right-back by trade, he has been forced onto the opposite flank more often than not at Spurs this season, through an injury crisis that wiped out Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie and an unfamiliar left-back in Souza, who played just four times.

The fluidity of the Tottenham Hotspur full-back is such that it makes him the ideal candidate for Norway, a quarter-final by the end of which you would be hard-pushed to explain who was playing where.

In the summer of 2025, before Thomas Frank’s project quickly disintegrated, Spence was even used in a front three. That flexibility is a double-edged sword, the typical criticism being that he is too right-footed to play on the left. Against Mexico it allowed him to slot into a back five when it was backs-to-the-wall time.

Certainly there is an argument that if Spence has been a late developer, he has been as much a victim of circumstance as anything else.

Released by Fulham just shy of his 18th birthday, an alternative path might have kept him at Middlesbrough for another year, had the relationship with Neil Warnock not broken down.

He was sent on loan to Nottingham Forest, almost immediately finding himself under another change of manager. On the bridge over the Trent outside the City Ground, a graffiti tag still reads: “Djed Spence, we miss you.” That should give a feeling of where Steve Cooper took him to.

In Antonio Conte he found no such an ally. Days after joining Tottenham, his manager used a press conference to dismiss him as a “club signing” rather than a player he wanted – by reply Spence said the revelation “shattered his confidence”. Conte awarded him a total of 43 minutes. Over his next full season at Spurs after loans at Rennes, Leeds and Genoa, he played an hour of football between August and mid-December 2024. He studied French and Italian but never fully settled.

In Yorkshire it was a knee ligament injury that sent him packing after seven appearances, in Italy the Serie A side’s refusal to stump up £8m to make the deal permanent. Daniel Farke would complain of his lateness to Leeds’ training sessions. It meant little prospect of a north London renaissance, where it would take him two-and-a-half years to start a game. Four years on, he has played under five Spurs managers.

Under Roberto De Zerbi he is still not guaranteed to start, with Udogie and Pedro Porro ahead of him on the left and right respectively. Andy Robertson has arrived too, while Micky van de Ven can yet play at full-back. The make-up of the squad is closer now to Spence’s age bracket and he has forged friendships – still his future is uncertain with Everton waiting in the wings.

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The other contradiction lies in Tuchel himself, so often berating him from the sidelines in both the warm-ups and the group stages. Tuchel’s England reign will stand or fall on divisive decisions like Spence’s ticket to the US – so far they have been proven right. England are in the semi-finals for just the fourth time ever.

For now, the defender retains the role of cult figure, strapping holding together a broken jaw, unfortunate not to win a penalty against Norway. The refusal to shake hands with Thomas Partey against Ghana. He is the first Muslim to play for England at a World Cup and raises his hands in Du’a on the pitch – those close to him say his faith is central to his career.

England are being dragged towards history by the most obvious heroes in Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane. None have come from the peripheries quite like Spence to become quite so important.

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ATLANTA — Somewhere in the next life Antonio Ubaldo Rattin is throwing heavenly darts at England squad photos and tearing up pictures of the Union Jack.

The former Boca Juniors and national team captain, who died earlier this month aged 89, had come to symbolise in more innocent times the anti-English sentiment in Argentina.

The animus he felt was entirely football-related and rooted in the perceived bias against Argentina at the 1966 World Cup held in England. Sixty years on, his actions appear no less petulant than they did when he stubbornly refused to accept his sending off for dissent, initially declining to leave the pitch and then plonking himself on the red carpet in front of the Royal Box.

That moment defined his life, Rattin returning to it whenever the opportunity arose in interviews with English journalists. He had already been booked before ploughing into the back of Geoff Hurst.

Though this did not trigger his immediate exit, German referee Rudy Kreitlein acted following the resultant free-kick, offended by what he later described as Rattin’s repeated outbursts, which he interpreted as dissent despite having no Spanish. England won 1-0 en route to their only World Cup success.

Argentina were not alone in their negative interpretation of the officiating and overall running of the competition, seeing anti-Latin feeling on the pitch and under hotel beds.

This attitude would later acquire the political dimension that persists today when the leader of Argentina’s military government, General Leopoldo Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982, a desperate punt to legitimise his deeply unpopular regime via a unifying policy.

The junta came to power 10 years after Rattin’s storied World Cup quarter-final meltdown against England and was gone a year after the failed invasion. Rattin would later enter politics himself spending four years in government as a member of the Federalist Unity Party.

As Chairman of the Sports Committee his focus was elsewhere but by then the Falklands, or Las Malvinas, were established as a sacred political cause in Argentina, not that he needed any convincing of English hauteur.

Later, Argentina would gain their sporting revenge on Rattin’s behalf in 1986 via Diego Maradona’s notorious “Hand of God”.

In material terms Maradona cheated Argentina into a lead they never looked like surrendering. His quasi-religious framing trumped all controversy, and was received by the Argentinian people as an inalienable truth and justification for historic wrongs on the pitch and in the political arena.

Argentina’s anti-English position can thus be seen as a cultural staple built on the Rattin, Falklands and Maradona episodes, foundational pillars that are unlikely to shift whilst an archipelago 300 miles off the coast of Argentina remains under British sovereignty.

We can argue the toss about the validity of sovereign rule more than three centuries after a British sea captain first set foot on an uninhabited rock in the South Atlantic. Argentina claim they inherited the islands from colonialist power Spain after independence in 1818. Default ownership resulting from a prior colonial land grab hardly lands with moral force. But hey, that does not alter the way Argentina view the English, which manifests itself most readily when the countries meet on the sporting field.

David Beckham was a victim of the Argentinian dark arts when sent off for a theatrical flick of his heal whilst prone on the floor following yet another cynical challenge by Diego Simeone at the 1998 World Cup. England would lose on penalties and Beckham, the English totem of the day, would return home to effigies hanging from lamposts, an added bonus for the delectation of Argentina.

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Beckham would gain revenge of sorts, slotting the penalty in a 1-0 victory four years later that saw England progress to the knockout stages before falling to Brazil in the quarters.

The teams have not met since. Lionel Messi has never played a fixture against England. The semi-final here in Atlanta hardly needs extra sauce yet the Messi detail brings it, adding to the narrative power of an already seismic duel.

England touch down on Tuesday following a final morning training session at their Kansas base. By then downtown Atlanta will be flooded by supporters of both teams, some of whom will be seated side by side in the stands. Let us hope calm heads prevail, despite the celestial stirrings of a late departed hero.

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