Juan Roman Riquelme – El Torero
Following his announcement to retire from the world of football at the age of 36, Juan Román Riquelme will be remembered as one of the sport’s greats. Riquelme, nicknamed El Torero, had a knack for being incredibly fun to watch.
Highly skilled and with an incredible ability to score great goals, Riquelme made over 300 appearances for Boca Juniors from the age of 18 after featuring in their youth ranks. He also spent five years in Spain with Barcelona and before returning to Argentina and finishing out his career with Boca and Argentinos Juniors, the club where it all began for him.
Riquelme featured for Argentina from the U-20 level on and played a big part in the WC, where he was given the number 10 shirt. He played in and won his side’s first two group stage matches before sitting out the third. Argentina met the hosts, Germany, in the quarterfinal, ultimately going out on penalties but not before Riquelme’s assist put his team ahead.