The incident took place on the evening of May 27

Police have launched a major incident public portal as part of their investigation after a man was “stabbed in the chest” in Carrickfergus.

Emergency services attended the Rodgers Quay area at around 7.30pm on Wednesday, May 27, after reports of a stabbing incident. A man was hospitalised after allegedly being stabbed in the chest during the incident, with a suspect reportedly fleeing the scene on a motorcycle.

A 37-year-old man was arrested on Monday, June 1, on suspicion of attempted murder and has since been released on bail to allow for further enquiries.

A 41-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on Saturday, May 30, and has since been released on bail.

Issuing a further appeal for information, police have launched a major incident public portal to allow the public to submit information directly.

A PSNI spokesperson said any photos or footage, including CCTV, mobile phone, or dash cam footage can be shared with police through the portal. This can be accessed by clicking here, or by scanning the QR code.

A spokesperson for the PSNI added: “Detectives investigating a stabbing incident in the Rodgers Quay area of Carrickfergus at around 7.30pm on Wednesday 27th May, continue to appeal for information.

“Information can also be shared with the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/.”

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

National Rail said a safety inspection of the track between Darlington, Yarm and York means that trains have to run at a reduced speed on the line towards the city.

Recommended reading:

A spokesperson for the train operator information group said as a result, trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 30 minutes or revised.

Meanwhile, York-based LNER is reporting that none of its services can depart south of York while a safety inspection is carried out between York and Doncaster.

⚠️#LNERUpdate There is disruption between #York and #Doncaster due to a safety inspection of the track.

Currently no services can depart south of York while the inspection is being carried out.

For the latest travel advice, please visit Travel Alerts: https://t.co/o0hAZZ3XYh pic.twitter.com/YM2TU3dHNt

— London North Eastern Railway (@LNER) June 3, 2026

Advertisement

The company is advising its passengers that tickets may be used on the following services at no extra cost:

• CrossCountry between York and Leeds
• Northern between York and Leeds
• TransPennine Express between York and Leeds

Passengers can then board the next LNER service to London Kings Cross up on arrival at Leeds.

Passengers can check before travel using National Rail’s real-time Journey Planner – www.nationalrail.co.uk/journey-planner.

The Press will update this story here with more information as we receive it.

The Former South Scotland MSP has been charged with drink-driving, excessive speed and causing a series of collisions on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.

Former Labour MSP Colin Smyth is expected to appear in court on charges of drink-driving and causing crashes on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

Smyth, who represented South Scotland before the last election, is due to appear at the city’s sheriff court on Wednesday.

He has been charged with driving at excessive speed when he mounted the pavement and narrowly missed a pedestrian on November 2, 2025.

Smyth is said to have collided with a parked car and electric bollards outside the city chambers on the same day.

The offences are alleged to have taken place on the High Street in Edinburgh last year.

He is further charged with being more than twice the legal alcohol limit.

Smyth, 53, was first elected as an MSP in 2016 and returned to Holyrood again at the 2021 election.

Scottish Labour withdrew the whip from him in August last year.

Get Daily Record Premium for just £1 per month in exclusive offer to celebrate the world cup. Click HERE.

Donald Trump has not been seen in public since May 27 as speculation mounts over the US President’s health, despite a medical report declaring him in ‘excellent health’

Advertisement

Questions are mounting regarding Donald Trump’s wellbeing after the US president hasn’t been spotted in public for six days.

On Tuesday, May 26, Trump had a medical check-up at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center – his fourth publicly acknowledged medical assessment at the facility since taking office. Presidents typically attend once annually.

Folk on social media have been questioning Trump’s health following his most recent public outing, reports the Express.

One social media user posted on X: “Trump has no public events on his schedule again today. The last time he was seen publicly for something other than a pre-taped interview was six days ago — Wednesday, May 27 — for his cabinet meeting. (He went to Walter Reed the day before.)”

Another remarked: “Regular citizens are expected to show up to their jobs every single day without excuses, so why should the President be any different?”

A third posted: “Six days between public appearances feels like a long time for a president. Wonder if something is up or if this is just how his schedule works now.”

Trump, though, apparently played golf on Sunday, May 31, two days after medical results from his Walter Reed appointment declared the 79 year old in “excellent health” and “fully fit”.

Trump’s doctor released a copy of the president’s most recent medical assessment late on Friday, May 30. The report from Dr Sean Barbabella stated: “President Trump remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function.

“His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements, and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being.

“Cognitive and physical performance are excellent,” Barbabella noted.

“He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”

Ensure our latest stories always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.

In Backrooms, the latest horror film from production company A24, Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Clark – a failed architect who accidentally slips out of reality. He ends up trapped in an endless labyrinth of yellow-tinted rooms, humming fluorescent lights and eerie, disembodied sounds – the “Backrooms”.

The film is an adaptation of a popular internet horror concept and urban legend, about an impossibly large, alternate-reality maze of claustrophobic spaces with architecture that appears uncannily familiar but menacingly alien.

Yet the film also plays upon a deeper source of modern anxiety: the experience of trying to survive in an economy that fails to deliver on our vision for the future.

Movie audiences will (hopefully) never find themselves trapped in a nauseatingly jaundiced and never-ending labyrinth. But they may recognise Clark’s experience of living among failed promises, diminishing aspirations, precarity, social isolation and the growing fear of becoming obsolete.

À lire aussi :
Inside the Backrooms: the internet horror world built by its users

Many may also appreciate – if not fully empathise with – Clark’s creeping resentment, sense of entitlement and vitriolic blaming of others for his loneliness and stagnation. The film’s most profound insight emerges through the suggestion that the real nightmare began long before Clark entered the Backrooms.

Trapped before the Backrooms

Clark finds himself ever more adrift from the life he expected to lead. Instead of designing skyscrapers, he runs a struggling discount furniture store at a strip mall. His business is in terminal decline. Customers are scarce, bills are mounting and, unable to afford anything better, Clark sleeps on one of the display beds at his store, waking up to resume work ad nauseam. His life appears to become ever more closed and contracted.

For decades, education, hard work and ambition were upheld as routes to stable careers, a sense of purpose and upward mobility. Increasingly, however, scores of people find themselves highly qualified but underemployed, unable to afford accommodation and locked out of the professions they trained for.

Clark’s tragedy reflects a social experience described by the social theorist Steve Redhead as “claustropolitanism”. It’s the feeling of being “locked citizens” – hostage to circumstances that cannot be changed, dreams that are thwarted before they can be pursued and futures that appear even worse than the present.

Putting aside personal ambitions to take jobs that offer little fulfilment, and enduring difficult working conditions simply to make a living, are increasingly familiar realities in today’s crowded, high-pressure economy. For Redhead, such experiences are symptomatic of “a contemporary cultural condition where we are starting to feel ‘foreclosed’, almost claustrophobic, wanting to stop the planet so we can get off”.

Cut off from stable social ties, Clark’s growing resentment over his limited economic mobility further holds him back and creates tension between him and the people around him.

When exploring the mysterious Backrooms, Clark ropes his low-wage store employees into a dangerous situation, treating them as largely expendable. He resents his estranged wife’s desire to leave work in pursuit of higher education, a grievance that reveals a malignant sense of entitlement. He uses his therapist (Renate Reinsve), who is dealing with her own difficulties, as an emotional punching bag.

This reflects a significant feature of the claustropolitan experience. In today’s heightened state of economic insecurity, social atomisation and perceived loss of options, where everyday life is marked by existential uncertainty and a diminished sense of control, frustration is often redirected away from structural causes and projected onto vulnerable groups.

The biggest threat to Clark becomes his misplaced anger that attempts to devour anyone who tries to help him. As the world itself feels like it is closing in on him, Clark is revealed as both a victim and participant in this nightmare.

The real horror of the Backrooms

The Backrooms, as a concept, offers an important means of thinking about personal and economic anxieties as a tangible environment – anxieties that are reflected not only through enclosure, but by an irregular experience of movement and stasis. In the film, nobody stops moving through nightmarish monotony, yet nobody seems to really get anywhere either.

Characters drift with varying degrees of desperation through an endlessly expanding maze of corridors under the repetitive drone of overhead fluorescent lights. But they never find anything better. There is a primal urge to run away from it all but – just as all options are found to be foreclosed in a claustropolitan economy – all exits are blocked.

The Backrooms film, perhaps even more than the internet legend it’s based on, offers a cautionary reflection on what it feels like to move through a society hemmed in by insecurity, limited opportunities and shrinking possibilities. Its ultimate message is that perhaps the most frightening labyrinth is the one we already inhabit.

My kids tell me this is the BEST toad in the hole ever. They preferred it with cheddar sprinkled over the top rather than Stilton, but you could use either, or indeed any similar cheese (just not Parmesan types, that’s too hard).

You can make this in a roasting tin or ovenproof pan, and serve at the table straight from the vessel. Choose good-quality sausages for the best result.

Requires at least 30 minutes of resting time

A police interview with the second alleged victim in Jeffrey Donaldson’s sexual offences trial was played at Newry Crown Court, before she was cross-examined.

A woman who claims she was raped as a child by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has told a jury that the alleged incident will stay with her forever.

The complainant told a court of hearing the former DUP leader’s “heavy breathing” during the alleged sexual assault.

A police interview with the second alleged victim in Donaldson’s sexual offences trial was played at Newry Crown Court, before she was cross-examined.

The ex-MP, 63, has pleaded not guilty to 18 alleged offences.

The charges span a time period between 1985 and 2008 involving two alleged victims.

Eleanor Donaldson, from Dublinhill Road, Dromore, Co Down, denies several charges of aiding and abetting her husband’s alleged offending.

She is facing a trial of the facts.

Complainant B, one of the two alleged victims, was not in the courtroom, but appeared via a video link.

Her ABE (achieving best evidence) interview with police was played to the jury of seven men and five women on Tuesday morning.

Jeffrey Donaldson sat in the dock at the rear of the courtroom, while the interview, which was recorded in March 2024, was played.

Occasionally he shook his head during the evidence.

In the interview, the complainant said that growing up she was “sexually abused by an adult”.

She said she particularly remembered two incidents.

The woman frequently became emotional during the interview.

In the first, she claimed, Donaldson had put his hands down her underwear, pulled her legs apart and then sexually assaulted her.

She said the second incident occurred when she was slightly older when, she said, Donaldson “lifted up my top” and touched her breasts.

Asked by a police officer if there were other incidents, she said she remembered “his hands down my pants a lot”.

She said: “I remember I couldn’t tell anybody, I remember telling my imaginary friend.”

Asked by police for the name of her alleged abuser, she said “Jeffrey Donaldson MP”.

Asked about the first incident, she said it occurred when she was of primary school age.

She said: “I remember being really still and all I could hear was his breath.”

The complainant said she remembered Donaldson putting his hands down her pants and thinking “please, let this be it”.

The complainant said Donaldson put his feet between her feet and pulled her legs apart.

She said: “I kept thinking ‘it is OK, it will be over soon’ … I remember hearing his breathing.”

The complainant then said she felt “something different”.

She said: “First of all, I didn’t know what it was because I could still feel his hands.”

She then said he sexually assaulted her.

The complainant said: “I don’t know if it continued or if that was it.”

She added: “I just kept my eyes closed.”

She said: “I just remember hearing his heavy breathing.”

Complainant B said the second incident occurred when she was of secondary school age.

She said: “He lifted up my top and started playing with my breasts.”

She said Donaldson was standing “right in front” of her.

The complainant said that Eleanor Donaldson had witnessed part of the alleged incident and “walked away”.

Complainant B later told the jury that Donaldson had apologised to her at a meeting arranged at a Christian centre in Co Antrim years later.

“He apologised for what he had done to me in the past,” she said.

The witness was then cross-examined by Kieran Vaughan KC, barrister for Jeffrey Donaldson.

He referred to her claim that she had told her imaginary friend about the abuse while playing with a Christmas present she had received as a young child.

The barrister said: “It is a detail you have conjured up to make your account more plausible.”

She responded: “I disagree with you on that.”

The barrister pointed to an inconsistency in the age she told a counsellor the abuse had happened and what she later told police.

He said: “I am suggesting none of this happened.”

Complainant B said: “It is quite naive for you to say that.

“Everything I am saying is the truth … no matter how many questions people ask me it will never change that.”

He said: “I suggest you are in the position now that you just have to stick with the story you gave.”

She said: “Nothing will change what that man did to me.”

The barrister put it to her that she said she remembered two incidents of abuse “vividly”, but was “less certain” about the details of other events.

She said: “I know that they happened, I just don’t want to remember details.”

Turning to the alleged rape, he said her recollection of what had happened was “very poor”.

Complainant B responded: “My recollection is really vivid because I live with that every day.”

The barrister pointed out that she could not remember what age she was at the time of the alleged incident.

She said: “The actions that night I will never forget, what happened that night will live with me forever.”

She continued: “What did I do, what did I wear, what did I say to make that OK?”

Mr Vaughan suggested the incident “did not happen” and asked her why she did not tell anyone about it at the time.

She said: “It was my biggest mistake not telling anybody back then … I regret that every day.

“I didn’t know the words, I knew it was wrong.”

Turning to the second incident, the barrister said the defence case was that Donaldson had not touched the complainant inappropriately.

Again, he asked her why she did not tell anybody.

She said: “I was this kid who had stuff done to her that shouldn’t have been done by an adult.

“I wish I could go back in time and shout and scream and do something. I have to live with that.

“I was a kid, I didn’t know what to do, so therefore that kid did nothing.”

The trial resumes on Wednesday.

Jeffrey Donaldson, a former long-standing MP for Lagan Valley, was arrested and charged at the end of March 2024.

He resigned as DUP leader and was suspended from the party after the allegations emerged.

Weeks before his arrest, he had led the DUP back into devolved government at Stormont after a two-year boycott of the powersharing institutions.

For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.

Gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh has shared his natural approach to June lawn care

Gardening enthusiasts know all too well that summer brings a mountain of jobs, from tending to flourishing plants in hanging baskets and borders to ensuring potted varieties grow tall enough to produce delicious fruit. While maintaining lawns is crucial year-round, it becomes even more important during spring and summer.

Despite the rising trend of ‘no-mow May’ aimed at boosting biodiversity through wildflowers, gardening legend Alan Titchmarsh chose not to embrace the movement.

He stated: “All gardens should have a bit of long grass, but it’s how you garden that matters. If you’re organic, as I have been for 40 years, and have a garden with lots of flowers, all types of wildlife will be happy.”

This philosophy also underpins his fuss-free lawn maintenance approach.

Advertisement

Writing for Country Life magazine, the celebrated British gardener revealed his straightforward lawn care routine, which he restricts to “weekly mowing and fortnightly edging in spring and summer”.

However, come June, he dedicates himself to one crucial task for encouraging healthy grass: a straightforward technique that anyone can follow.

Alan remarked: “I feed with the ubiquitous blood, fish and bone in April and again in June, and extract any large rosettes of plantain or dandelion with a daisy grubber.”

This specific fertiliser, fish, blood and bone, replenishes nutrients that have been lost, promoting vigorous grass growth and helping to create a healthier lawn. The nitrogen-rich nutrients present in organic lawn feed are gradually absorbed by plant roots, making it a superb fertiliser for leafy vegetation including grass, lettuce and brassicas.

Instructions for using organic lawn nourishment advise that for established lawns, a spreader should be used to apply it uniformly at 70g/m2 as a top dressing.

After application, it’s advisable to water the lawn immediately with a hose fitted with a gentle spray setting.

The product also works well for flowering plants, as specialists note. Prior to planting, Fish Blood and Bone Meal should be incorporated into flower bed soil at a rate of 140g/m2.

Alan, who also presents ‘Love Your Garden’, revealed he ditched chemical lawn feed and weed killers “years ago”, resulting in greater wildlife presence in his garden.

He describes his pleasure at watching blackbirds extracting worms from his chemical-free lawn to nourish their young, satisfied that no herbicides are involved.

Regarding weed management, deploying a daisy grubber can effortlessly extract large clumps without them looking conspicuous amongst the diverse plants flourishing in Alan’s own lawn.

Despite his preference for an organic lawn care approach, Alan still values the look of a striped lawn. Explaining his method, he commented: “My rotary mower has a rear roller that produces the stripes I love, but, mercifully, the botanic-garden mixture of close-mown plants that constitutes my lawn offends my sensibilities not one jot.”

The Scottish parliamentary election in May saw Reform UK return the same number of MSPs to Holyrood – 17 – as Scottish Labour. This remarkable result – effectively from a standing start – showed that the party is now a force to be reckoned with in Scotland just as in other parts of the UK. But where did it attract votes north of the border?

My analysis examines constituency-level patterns in support for Reform UK, compared with the other main parties. It focuses on three constituency characteristics: deprivation levels, whether it is classified as urban or rural, and centre–periphery location. The aim is to identify broad territorial patterns in party performance, rather than to draw firm conclusions about individual voters.

The figures discussed here are average vote shares across constituencies within each category. In other words, they show the average party result in, for example, more deprived constituencies compared with less deprived constituencies. This approach is useful for mapping the territorial profile of party support, but it should be complemented with individual-level data before drawing firm conclusions about voter motivations or social characteristics.

The first pattern concerns deprivation. Reform UK support appears to be higher in the most deprived third of constituencies than in the least deprived third. On this dimension, Reform looks closer to the SNP-Green and Labour pattern than to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, whose support is more concentrated in less deprived constituencies.

This does not mean that Reform voters are necessarily more deprived at the individual level, as constituency-level data cannot show this. But the aggregate pattern is still important. It suggests that Reform is performing relatively better in places where socio-economic pressures are more visible, and where dissatisfaction with existing political options may be more pronounced.

Party support and socio-economic territorial divide

The urban-rural pattern points to a distinctive Reform geography. Reform appears to perform best in semi-urban constituencies, rather than in the most urban or most rural areas. This separates Reform from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, who perform more strongly in rural constituencies. It is also different from the SNP-Green vote, which is strongest in urban constituencies.

Semi-urban constituencies may be politically important because they often combine proximity to major cities with a feeling of distance from them culturally or socio-economically. These areas may therefore provide fertile ground for parties appealing to voters in places that are close to urban centres, but do not necessarily share fully in their economic opportunities, public investment or cultural politics.

Party support and urban–rural territorial divide

The centre-periphery divide adds another layer to this picture. Here, centre-periphery refers to three types of area: Edinburgh and Glasgow as the core of the central belt (Scotland’s main population corridor), other constituencies within the central belt but outside the two-city core, and areas beyond the central belt. Reform performs better immediately outside the Edinburgh-Glasgow political core than within it.

This pattern is again distinctive. The SNP-Green vote is more clearly concentrated in the core central belt, while the Conservatives are stronger in more peripheral constituencies. The Liberal Democrats display a U-shaped profile across the centre-periphery divide, performing relatively well both in core and more peripheral areas.

Reform’s profile is different: it is generally stronger in the periphery of the central belt than in the periphery of Scotland as a whole. In this sense, its geography is not simply one of rural or peripheral conservatism, but one of places within the central belt but outside its core. In other words, close to where political power is concentrated, but not fully part of it.

Party support and the centre-periphery divide

The contrast with the Conservatives is one of the most important findings. Reform UK’s pattern of support looks quite different from the Conservative map. While there may be overlap between the two electorates, Reform does not simply reproduce the traditional Conservative geography.

This matters because it challenges the idea that Reform’s support in Scotland can be understood simply as a Conservative splinter or replacement vote. Its territorial profile points to a potentially broader appeal, particularly in more deprived and semi-urban constituencies.

Overall, the results suggest that Scottish party competition is structured not only by ideology or national identity, but also by clear socio-economic and territorial divides. The SNP-Green and Labour vote is more urban and central, with some strength in deprived constituencies. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat vote is more rural, peripheral and less deprived.

Reform UK occupies a distinctive position: more deprived than the Conservative map, more semi-urban than rural, and stronger outside the core central belt without simply replicating the geography of established unionist parties.

These findings remain preliminary. Still, the constituency-level evidence suggests that any serious analysis of Reform UK’s performance in Scotland needs to take these territorial divides seriously.

A version of this article appears in the Scottish Election Analysis 2026.

Readers have been responding to The Independent’s ranking of the 50 greatest World Cup players by putting forward their own favourites, with the list prompting a wave of alternative selections and personal top 10s.

The ranking from our team of sports reporters focused strictly on World Cup performances – and many commenters responded by putting forward their own selections, nominating players they felt were overlooked or underrated.

At the very top, the consensus around the podium was mixed but passionate. Several readers backed Pele as undisputed No 1, with one insisting: “Pele without a doubt. Yes, Maradona at 2.”

Others were less convinced by the modern era’s place in the hierarchy, questioning whether Messi belongs in the same conversation. “Messi? Are you kidding?” one commenter wrote, while others simply rejected the framing altogether in favour of earlier generations of greats.

Away from the top three, much of the debate focused on players readers felt were left out or ranked too low, from Cruyff, Zidane and Beckenbauer to Baggio, Romario, Maldini and Moore. One commenter argued: “Platini, Xavi, Iniesta and Cruyff… are too far back,” while another lamented the omission of Kenny Dalglish.

Perhaps the loudest criticism was reserved for Cristiano Ronaldo’s absence from the top 50. One reader wrote that “CRO has to be there,” arguing that a player who has had such a profound impact on his country’s performances could not be overlooked, even in a World Cup-only ranking.

Here’s what you had to say:

German legends

From a German perspective, I expect Matthaus, Brehme, Klose, Gerd Muller and, of course, Beckenbauer, very far up, not to forget Seeler, Schnellinger, Podolski and Schweinsteiger. There are some more, but who knows where the author made the cut. Walter at 50 indicates some recency bias.

These lists are difficult anyway, so kudos for trying.

Perello

Jairzinho’s 1970 World Cup performance

Greatest and most consistent performance in a single World Cup has to be Jairzinho in 1970. It is so overlooked, but he scored at least one goal in every single game in 1970, a feat never replicated, though Klose, as his name implies, came close. He scored more than one as well and had a hand in others that Pele became famous for, but really he is long overdue for celebration of his amazing feat.

Europeans were loath to recognise Brazilian achievement and gave in by recognising Pele and the beautiful game after 1970, but Jairzinho was not playing in Europe and got overshadowed because it was Pele’s third and the team was loaded. But really it was Jairzinho who was responsible for ensuring victory in every game in 1970 for Brazil.

JairzinhoWasBetterThanMostRealize

Messi was an abject failure in 2016

Pele without a doubt. Yes, Maradona at 2, but Messi at 3? Come on. Five World Cups and one win, but more than that, an abject failure in 2016 with a hugely strong squad.

AmberArmy

Ronaldo missing

Ronaldo is missing from the list. He is one of the best Portuguese players and has not forgotten his background coming from a poor family.

TotiCalling

Like trying to pick your favourite song

Team player with individual talent, not greedy with the ball, can read the game, football brain, humble, doesn’t cheat, no dramatics, passionate about the game, the team, the fans.

Without the points, just thinking aloud and for now, in no particular order:

It’s like trying to pick your favourite song.

leafspot

All-time greats

The end.

mcareywilliams

Kenny Dalglish deserves recognition

I’d like to make a case for Kenny Dalglish, without doubt Scotland’s finest player.

His record as a player and player-manager is remarkable. I know it’s an impossible job to compare players from the 1930s against more recent ones, so it’s only a minor complaint.

BillyTheMountain

All-time XI selection

Who needs Pele or Maradona, just take a look at this top 11 squad:

Goalkeeper: Lev Yashin (Russia) Right-back: Cafu (Brazil) Centre-back: Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) Left-back: Paolo Maldini (Italy) Centre-mid: Xavi Hernandez (Spain) Centre-mid: Lothar Matthaus (Germany) Left-mid: Zinedine Zidane (France) Right-mid: Garrincha (Brazil) Right-wing: Lionel Messi (Argentina) Left-wing: Thierry Henry (France) Striker: Ronaldo (Brazil)

TheRedLion

Maradona ‘Goal of the Century’

Looking at the video of Maradona’s “goal of the century”, if this was played today then Peter Reid would have cynically fouled him at 10 seconds, got a yellow, and the resulting free kick would have seen players wrestling and diving in the six-yard box, and the ball would have been launched into the crowd. And we say football is better these days! I think not.

Anunaki

Messi, really?

Messi? Are you kidding? He did well in some ways in 2022, that’s all. With five trophies, there are at least five Brazilians in the top 10: Pele, Zagallo, Garrincha, Zico, Ronaldo. Zagallo is the only human being with four canecos!

JoaoPaulo

John Aldridge

John Aldridge has to be included, if only so that a Tranmere player appears.

Zint

A proposed top ten list

I’m not saying Martin Peters shouldn’t be on the list, but if so then surely Geoff Hurst should be included ahead of him?

My top ten in descending order:

Gerd Müller Garrincha Klose Zidane Mbappé Ronaldo (Brazil) Beckenbauer Messi Maradona Pele

rosston

Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo has to be there. I can’t understand why a footballer who has had a profound impact on his country’s performances is missing from the list.

Bolton67

Cruyff and other greats underrated

I was privileged to see Cruyff in his pomp twice. Like all great players, even when not involved in the game for a while, he suddenly created magic. The famous turn alone should have him in the top five.

BillyTheMountain

Platini, Xavi and Iniesta

Platini, Xavi, Iniesta and Cruyff, just to mention four, are too far back…

Nabokov

Omitted legends

There were also a lot of players who played for lesser teams and, as a result, never won anything, but they still did great things at the World Cup. Hristo Stoichkov comes to mind, as does Gheorghe Hagi.

LeatherFace

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

Want to share your views? Simply click ‘log in’ or ‘register’ in the top right corner to sign in or sign up. Once registered, you can comment on the day’s top stories for a chance to have your opinions showcased.

Want your voice to stand out? Independent Premium subscribers enjoy priority for featured comments. Subscribe here.

Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here. For a full guide on how to comment, click here.