Patrik Schick #10

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Schick’s goalscoring gift was obvious from a very young age. Playing for Vestec, a village near Prague, he didn’t celebrate his goals, said coaches, but would instead just pick the ball up, take it to the centre circle and ask for the game to be resumed. When he missed a big chance, he would cry and had to be substituted. Aged eight he was inspired by watching Wayne Rooney play for Manchester United at Sparta Prague. He recalled: “I thought that I want to do this – never get a normal job, and earn a living like him.” It worked out well. He played a grand total of 36 league minutes in Sparta Prague’s first team before Sampdoria decided they had seen enough, paying €4m for the gangly 20-year-old. He signed for Roma a year later in a move that could have been worth up to a club record €42m, but it didn’t really work out there: he ended up on the wing, was loaned to Leipzig, then was sold to Leverkusen in 2020 for €26.5m - which is where everything clicked. In April this year, he scored his 100th goal for them in all competitions. He helped Czechia qualify for the first time in 20 years via the playoffs. He was 10 when they last played at a World Cup. “I vividly remember the games. The Czech fans have waited a long time for this.”

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