Football counts more iconic moments than likely any other sport in the world. UEFA Champions League drama, FIFA World Cup dreams, club legends, national saviours... Numerous players have carried this sport to the fantastic highs it has had to offer.
The same players have given us some of the most iconic moments in sports history. Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God', FC Barcelona's 'La Remontada', Pelé's three World Cups - uncountable moments of ecstasy, agony, shock, and melancholy.
Flashscore tested the dense waters of sports photography to find the 10 most iconic football photos of all time.
10: Iniesta takes in his final minutes at Camp Nou
FC Barcelona's golden age of the 2010s was built on the shoulders of some of the finest players in the sport's history. Lionel Messi, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Neymar, Luis Suarez, and Andres Iniesta were the architects of a brilliant Barcelona side. But to every good story comes an end, and sometimes, the goodbye lasts a lifetime.
We can bet that's what it felt like for the great Andres Iniesta, who played his final game for FC Barcelona on May 20, 2018. It was a mere 1-0 win over Real Sociedad, but it was more than enough for champions Barcelona, who finished 14 points ahead of the pack.
After everyone had left the stadium, it was just Iniesta and the hallowed grass and stands of Camp Nou, the stadium he had set alight for 15 years. An emotional moment captured perfectly by Getty Images' David Ramos.
9: Pelé's joy after his last dance
Before Lionel Messi, you had Diego Maradona. Before Diego Maradona, you had Pelé - the greatest footballer the great football nation of Brazil has ever lived to see. After triumphs in 1958 and 1962 - to this day the last time a nation won back-to-back FIFA World Cups - it was time for Pelé's swansong in 1970, when Mexico was the stage for the grandest stage in world football.
Brazil had a magical team. Carlos Alberto, Jairzinho, Tostao, Rivellino, Gerson, and, of course Pelé, were only some of the members of what's considered one of the greatest football teams of all time. Pelé, aptly nicknamed O Rei (The King), was involved in 10 of Brazil's 19 goals at the tournament and took centre stage in the final against Italy with a goal and two assists in the dominant 4-1 win.
It was the crown on the king's international career, which he would call an end to a year later. Captured by AP's Gianni Foggia after the final whistle, Pelé was hoisted in front of a jubilant crowd one last time and celebrated aptly after a wonderful, magical World Cup career.
8: Sir Bobby Moore lifts the World Cup for England
A country famed for inventing the game of football had not gotten a whiff of what it was like to be atop the world's game until 1966. There was hope, and more than that, when Manchester United dominated the late 1950s under Sir Matt Busby, but those hopes were shot to pieces by the 1958 Munich air disaster.
The game had returned home in 1966, and England's fairytale run brought them all the way to the final at Wembley. Like it couldn't be anyone else, West Germany were England's opponents in their first-ever World Cup final. After a scintillating and controversial final, England won 4-2 after Geoff Hurst's hat-trick in the most-watched British television event in history.
Led by the great Sir Bobby Moore, England received the Coupe Jules Rimet from Queen Elizabeth II and took to the pitch to celebrate with the 96,924 in attendance. This iconic photo of the hallowed England captain will live forever to tell the story of how football came home.
7: Lionel Messi celebrates 500th Barcelona goal in El Clasico
Lionel Messi's legacy had long been set in stone when he and FC Barcelona travelled to Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium in April 2017. It was a massive showdown, with Barcelona taking the top spot in LaLIga with a win.
Casemiro had opened the scoring for the hosts, who faced a difficult challenge after Messi and Ivan Rakitic had given Barcelona the lead. James Rodriguez looked to have stolen a late point for Real Madrid, but there was a man on a mission on the other team.
Messi's earlier goal had put him at 499 career goals for the Catalan giants. He needed but one more for that half-century of goals in the famed red-and-blue shirt. And just as his team needed him most, with 10 seconds remaining in extra time, the legendary Argentine put the ball in the back of the net and reminded Real Madrid fans who they were facing: the mercurial Lionel Messi, captured brilliantly by AFP's Oscar del Pozo.
6: Roberto Baggio, the man who died standing
Roberto Baggio, also known as 'the Divine Ponytail', had set the 1994 FIFA World Cup alight. The 1993 Ballon d'Or winner was the man who'd deliver Italy its fourth World Cup trophy when the Squadra Azzurra reached the final in Pasadena, CA. It was written in the stars.
The mighty Brazil held Italy and Baggio, who tweaked his hamstring in the semifinal against Bulgaria, to a 0-0 draw after 120 minutes, meaning the world champions would be crowned after a penalty shootout. After Milan striker Daniele Massaro missed his spot-kick, Baggio was Italy's last hope in the best-of-5 series. But the stars in which his fate was written were struck by the ball Baggio kicked, ending Italy's hopes.
Baggio was left all alone and stood eerily still for 8 minutes, staring at the ground in front of Claudio Taffarel's goal - an image perfectly captured by AFP's Omar Torres. Baggio was called "the man who died standing" and expressed his impressionable pain in a future interview with The Athletic: "If I had had a knife at that moment, I would have stabbed myself. If I had had a gun, I would have shot myself. At that moment, I wanted to die. That’s how it was."
5: Zinedine Zidane headbutts Materazzi
July 9th, 2006, should've been the date of Zinedine Zidane's fairytale ending to a magical career. The French star made it all the way to the final of the FIFA World Cup, where Italy were the opponents in Berlin's Olympiastadion. None other than Zidane opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 7th minute, after which Italy defender Marco Materazzi levelled from a corner.
The two sides kept each other in check for the remainder of regular time, and it really kicked off in extra time. Zidane and Materazzi, the two protagonists from earlier, were involved in a scuffle that ended in truly shocking fashion. Zinedine Zidane head-butted Materazzi in the chest, which earned him a red card and officially ended his career.
The incident was captured by AFP's John MacDougall, who caught the exact point of impact and the moment Zidane's career came to a dark end.
It wasn't the only iconic photo from this incident, with Roberto Schmidt, also from AFP, capturing the moment as Zidane walked past the World Cup trophy, which would elude him after Italy won the final on penalties. It was an incredibly picturesque ending, but for Zidane, a nightmare chapter that ended his fairytale career.
4: Rui Costa and Marco Materazzi watch derby fireworks
Paolo Maldini, Ronaldo, Andrea Pirlo, Javier Zanetti, Cafu, Gennaro Gattuso, Luis Figo, Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf... The biggest names in world football once played when Milan and Inter met in the Derby della Madonnina. Always in San Siro, always spectacular, and always fireworks.
In 2005, Inter fans took that last comment a little too seriously. Referee Marcus Merx cancelled Esteban Cambiasso's 1-1 for Inter midway through the second half, after which Inter tifosi bombarded the pitch with fireworks. Goalkeeper Dida took the brunt of it, but while the pink and red fireworks were just lying around, Inter defender Marco Materazzi and Milan midfielder Rui Costa took a moment to admire the view.
It resulted in an iconic photo that outlived the match, which was not resumed and ruled an automatic 3-0 win for Milan.
3: Sepp Blatter gets a money rain
The governing body of world football, FIFA, had lived in infamy for years. People from the outside viewed the organisation as a shady business, which had been openly called corrupt for years on end. But when the bomb burst in 2015, and a month after announcing his departure, even FIFA President Sepp Blatter could not escape the scrutiny in person.
Months after the FBI had raided a Swiss hotel famously used by FIFA and rounded up 15 high-profile FIFA officials following an extensive corruption investigation, Sepp Blatter was surprised by British comedian Simon Brodkin during a press conference at the FIFA headquarters. Brodkin came up to the stage with two large wads of fake cash and was heard saying, "Sepp, this is for North Korea 2026" before throwing one wad into the air as he was taken away by security.
AFP's Fabrico Coffrini perfectly caught the surprised Blatter in the middle of the money rain
2: Diego Maradona scores with the 'Hand of God'
There is no moment more infamous, more notorious, or more controversial than Diego Maradona's opening goal in the quarter-final of the 1986 FIFA World Cup against England. The Argentine maestro was the star of the tournament, but really wrote headlines in the second half on June 22nd in Mexico City.
With six minutes having passed following the break, Maradona stood on the receiving end of a flick-up from striker Jorge Valdano. In an aerial duel with England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, the 1.65-metre-tall Maradona didn't (couldn't?) use his head and instead opted for the illegal route: Maradona fooled Shilton and the referee with what he later called the "hand of God".
Brilliantly captured by the photographers behind the England goal, Maradona's unpunished crime lived to be remembered in infamy. Not by the man himself, however, who said this in his 2000 autobiography: "Now I can say what I couldn't at that moment, what I defined at that time as The Hand of God. What hand of God? It was the hand of Diego!"
1: Lionel Messi celebrates La Remontada
It's one of the most famous and unbelievable comebacks of all time: FC Barcelona's 'La Remontada' against Paris Saint-Germain in March 2017. PSG took to Camp Nou with a 4-0 lead in the bag and were sitting pretty when Barcelona were up 'just' 3-1 in the 87th minute, leaving them with little to no time to bag at least two more goals.
That's exactly when the magic started working. Neymar put things in motion with a free-kick in the 88th minute, three minutes before burying a penalty and levelling the score. Momentum was now all but on Barcelona's side, and in a raucous, sold-out Camp Nou, Sergi Roberto made history by scoring the goal that sealed perhaps the greatest comeback in the sport's history.
The magic and magnitude of the moment was captured perfectly by then-club photographer Santiago Garces (IG/@snapkiller), who caught Lionel Messi standing on top of the advertising boards following Roberto's goal. All alone, basking in the moment with the thousands at Camp Nou.
“The most incredible part of the whole story of the photo is that, in a stadium with 90,000 people, 300 media outlets accredited, 90 professional photographers from all over the world, there was just one person who had that moment in the camera,” Garces later told The Athletic.
