Pedro Porro and our World Cup winners

Submitted by daniel on
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Outstanding all tournament, Pedro proudly held the famous trophy aloft after playing a huge part as Spain finally broke down Cristian Romero and Marcos Senesi's stubborn Argentina side in New York on Sunday.

Spain were dominant again, so much so that it took until the 117th minute for Argentina to register an effort at goal. By contrast, Spain had 20 with the decisive strike from Ferran Torres in the first half of extra time - set up by Pedro, whose cross was nodded back into Torres' path by Nico Williams.

The inaugural World Cup was in 1930, our first involvement was when Eddie Baily and Sir Alf Ramsey represented England in Brazil in 1950 and our list of winners begins with Jimmy Greaves in 1966...

Jimmy Greaves | 1966

As the country rejoiced England's 1966 World Cup triumph, the greatest striker of the era was almost the forgotten man. Jimmy Greaves was England's all-time record goalscorer (43 goals at the time) going into the tournament and still managed to score 16 goals in 31 appearances for us despite missing three months due to a bout of hepatitis in the 1965/66 season leading up to the finals. Greavsie started England's three group matches against Uruguay (0-0), Mexico (2-0) and France (2-0) but disaster struck against France when he sustained a nasty cut on his shin that required 14 stitches. Sir Alf Ramsey brought in Geoff Hurst, who hit the winner against Argentina in the quarter-final. Sir Alf stuck with a winning team and Hurst hit a hat-trick in the final against West Germany. Only the 11 players on the pitch at the end of the 4–2 win received medals and Greavsie was only capped another three times, scoring one more goal to take his tally to 44 goals in 57. Almost 43 years later in 2009, following a Football Association-led campaign to persuade FIFA to award medals to all the squad members, Greavsie was presented with his medal at 10 Downing Street.

Hugo Lloris | 2018

Hugo became the first Spur to lift the famous golden trophy as captain following France's thrilling 4-2 final win against Croatia in 2018. France's record cap with 145 senior international appearances, Hugo had been a Spur for six years when he led his country to Russia. Breaking the hearts of team-mates Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, Mousa Dembele as France beat Belgium in the semi-final, Les Bleus blasted into a 4-1 lead against England's conquerors Croatia in the pouring rain in Moscow before coming home 4-2.

Cristian Romero | 2022

One of the great finals, lit up by Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, we were destined to have the World Cup winner again as Cuti's Argentina lined up against Hugo Lloris' France. Could Hugo lift the trophy twice in succession? The answer was 'no', as Argentina led 2-0, France pulled back to 2-2, Messi hit his second from the penalty spot to restore Argentina's lead in the first half of extra time, only for Mbappe to complete his hat-trick from the spot two minutes from time for 3-3. Destiny was with Messi, however, as Argentina won the shoot-out 4-2 and Cuti became our third World Cup winner.

Pedro Porro | 2026