Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos started out in Brazil as a forward, and in a sense he never stopped being one. He spent most of his career at left-back, yet in 2006 John Carlin of The New York Times called him the "most offensive-minded left-back in the history of the game". He was small, but his thick, powerful thighs let him burst away from opponents and hit a ball with frightening force, which earned him the name El Hombre Bala, "The Bullet Man". He left Inter after one season, unhappy that Roy Hodgson sometimes played him as a winger, where he was often caught out. At Real Madrid, Fabio Capello could hardly believe he was available and asked the chairman to go to Milan at once. He held the left-back spot there for eleven seasons, winning four league titles and three Champions Leagues, and was rated alongside Paolo Maldini as the best left-back in the world. The goals explain the nickname. Against France in 1997 he hit a free kick from about 40 yards that swerved so far wide a ball boy off to the right ducked, before it bent back in while Fabien Barthez stood still. It has been called the greatest free kick of all time. Against Tenerife in 1998 he bent a volley in from beside the touchline with the outside of his left boot, a goal described as "impossible". He even scored straight from a corner for Corinthians, and he set up Zinedine Zidane's winner in the 2002 Champions League final. Around the shooting was an athlete's game. He had the pace, stamina and energy to patrol the whole left flank, helping out at both ends. He dribbled well at speed, and his passing and crossing were precise. He was known as a hard tackler who still played cleanly. Goals with his head were rare, though: when he scored with a diving header for Fenerbahçe in 2007, it was just the third of his career. The doubts were usually about what happened behind him. At the 2006 World Cup he was blamed for not marking Thierry Henry on France's winning goal in the quarter-final, and he quit the national team straight after. In March 2007 he failed to control a backpass from kick-off against Bayern Munich and Roy Makaay scored after about ten seconds. Soon afterwards he announced he would leave Madrid. For Brazil he won 125 caps, played in the 1998 final and lifted the 2002 World Cup. As age took his pace, Anzhi used him as a defensive midfielder, and Guus Hiddink put it simply: "Roberto was a world class football player." When you judge him, the shooting power, the engine and the attacking drive are the easy part. The harder question is how reliable he was once the ball got past him.