Players
Di Stéfano, Puskás, Pelé, Best, Cruyff, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Messi, Ronaldo, Marta, the individuals the game organises its memory around, and the footage that survives of them.
Part of Football
19 moments in this segment.
- - Di Stefano at the Camp Nou, 1960 European Cup Semi-Final. Surviving second-half film of the European Cup semi-final second leg between Barcelona and Real Madrid on 27 April 1960, following Real Madrid's Alfredo Di Stefano. Real Madrid went through and went on to win the final at Hampden Park weeks later.
- - Pele arrives with Santos, 1966. Newsreel of Pele stepping off a plane with the Santos squad during one of the club's overseas tours, filmed in 1966. Santos toured relentlessly in this period, and the reception here shows what a global draw a Brazilian club side had become.
- - Manchester United Training at the Cliff, 1968. Short silent film of Bobby Charlton, George Best and their Manchester United team-mates training at the Cliff in 1968, the year the club won the European Cup a decade after Munich. Everyday training footage from this period is rare.
- - Pele's coaching film. The instructional film in which Pele demonstrates his own method, working through ball control, passing, dribbling, heading and conditioning. It is a period document of how the game's technique was taught at the height of his fame.
- - Jimmy Greaves on missing the 1966 final. Greaves speaking in 1982 about being left out of England's 1966 World Cup final side after injury. It is a candid first-hand account of the private cost of a day the country remembers as uncomplicated.
- - The goal of the century, called live. Maradona's second goal against England at the 1986 World Cup carried on Victor Hugo Morales's live Argentine radio commentary, one of the most quoted pieces of football broadcasting there is. The pairing of run and call is how much of Latin America remembers the goal.
- - Denis Law remembers George Best. Denis Law talking about his Manchester United team-mate, taken from a filmed biography of George Best. A first-hand account from someone who played alongside him rather than a later assessment.
- - Ronaldinho at Barcelona, 2004-05. Match footage of Ronaldinho through the 2004-05 season at Barcelona, the campaign that reintroduced the club as a force in Spain and made him the game's most watched player. The clips show the dribbling and passing that defined his peak years.
- - Ronaldinho applauded at the Bernabeu. Broadcast footage of the November 2005 Clasico in Madrid, when Ronaldinho's performance for Barcelona was applauded by sections of the home crowd. It is one of the rare occasions a visiting player was acknowledged that way at the Santiago Bernabeu.
- - Maradona on the Hand of God goal. Diego Maradona talks the BBC through his handled first goal against England at the 1986 World Cup, describing the moment from his own point of view. The interview lets the most disputed goal in World Cup history be argued by the man who scored it, rather than by the footage alone.
- - Garrincha and Pele. A documentary weighing Garrincha against Pele, and dealing with the fact that far less of Garrincha's football was ever filmed, so much of his reputation rests on memory rather than footage. It is a useful corrective on how the historical record of great players is shaped by what a camera happened to catch.
- - Best, Law and Charlton in their own words. Denis Law, George Best and Bobby Charlton talk about the Manchester United side they played in, recalling goals and matches and assessing each other frankly. First-hand testimony from three players who defined the club in the 1960s.
- - Johan Cruyff dies. Footage gathered after Johan Cruyff's death in March 2016, covering the Ajax and Netherlands sides he led and the style of play he came to stand for. His ideas ran from Total Football in the 1970s through to the Barcelona teams he coached and inspired.
- - Puskas in the 1960 final. Ferenc Puskas scoring four times for Real Madrid against Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup final, with the context of his move from Hungary after the 1956 uprising and his rebuilt career in Spain. He had arrived at Real Madrid in his thirties and well out of condition.
- - Ronaldo and Messi. An extract from the 2015 documentary Ronaldo dealing with Cristiano Ronaldo's relationship with Lionel Messi, told from inside Ronaldo's camp. The two dominated the individual awards for roughly a decade, and the film shows how that rivalry was experienced rather than argued.
- - Ronaldinho at Barcelona. Ronaldinho's Champions League goals for Barcelona between 2003 and 2008, from the broadcaster's archive. He arrived at a club in decline and was the player around whom the side that won the 2006 European title was rebuilt.
- - Messi and Ronaldo in a shared era. A short piece from European football's governing body framing the two players' overlapping careers as something to appreciate rather than to rank. It marks how completely the pair defined the competitive landscape of their period.
- - Pele: The First Global Football Star. A feature-length documentary on Pele's career, from his emergence as a teenager at the 1958 World Cup to his three World Cup wins with Brazil and his years making Santos a touring attraction around the world. It examines how his fame spread football far beyond the countries that already played it.
- - Messi and Ronaldo: Two Careers Compared. A feature-length documentary comparing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, their very different upbringings and routes into the professional game, and the fifteen years in which their rivalry structured how the sport was watched and sold.
