José María Giménez #2

Profile

When he was playing in Danubio’s academy at 17, his 14-year-old sister Agustina fell pregnant. ‘Josema’, his eyes filled with tears, told his parents that he would provide for the baby. He considered leaving football and finding a job but Danubio helped him to keep playing. At 18, he signed for Atlético Madrid and earned his first international cap, facing Colombia’s Radamel Falcao on his debut. “I would say things to distract him. For example, during an attack, I asked him: ‘Got a car in Madrid?’” Days later, Giménez inked the date of the game on his body. Now with over 100 caps and three World Cups under his belt, the centre-back goes into this summer as captain after the retirement of Diego Godín, his “partner of a thousand battles” and fellow La Liga winner at Atlético.

Key stats