Hristo Stoichkov

Stoichkov's 1994 was the Ballon d'Or as national event: Bulgaria, a country that had never won a World Cup match, reached the semi-final in America, beating defending champion Germany on the way, with Stoichkov scoring six goals and sharing the tournament's golden boot. The left foot was a weapon of angles and fury — free kicks over walls, first-time finishes from nothing — and the temperament was pure accelerant, which the award's voters forgave entirely that summer.

He was the spearhead of Barcelona's Dream Team, the side Cruyff built for four league titles and the 1992 European Cup, with Stoichkov as its edge of chaos. Bulgaria has never had another winner; the 1994 semi-final remains its football's high-water mark; and Stoichkov remains, in a country of chess players and poets, the one piece that moved like a knife.