5 Best Soccer players in Latin America

Soccer is an extremely popular sport around the world. It is even more popular in Latin America. There are several reasons for popularity of soccer in South American countries. Countries in Latin America have produced some of the best ever soccer players. Countries in South America have won the world cup titles multiple times. Soccer is popular in four nations of Latin America namely Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia.

In this article, we profile 5 best soccer players in Latin America of all time.

a) Pele: - Pele (birth name Edison) is undoubtedly the top soccer player on the planet which Latin America has produced. He was born in Brazil. His father was associated with a football club. Pele learnt soccer from his father and spent his childhood in Sao Paulo. Pele played his first international game when he was nearing 17 years of age. At that time, he became the youngest player to score a goal in a match of international status. He played in four football world cup tournaments starting 1958. He was given the title of Black Pearl. He was also the youngest player to score a hat-trick goal in 1958 world cup match against France. Even after retirement, Pele is associated with Soccer in many ways.

b) Diego Maradona: Maradona was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is undoubtedly the best soccer player Argentina has ever produced. He played his first professional match when he was less than 16 years of age. He played for Argentinos Juniors for first few years of his career. His first world cup was the Barcelona world cup in 1982. He won the golden boot award in two world cups. Argentina won the 1986 world cup under Maradona. He had some unpleasant experience at the 1994 world cup. But overall, he was one of the best soccer players ever.

c) Ronaldo- Ronaldo has been considered the best soccer player ever by many people around the world. He was born in Brazil in 1976 and was nicknamed as "The Phenomenon". He played his first international match in 1994 against Argentina. He is one of the few footballers to win the award Player of the year by FIFA. He played in three world cups starting 1998. Under him, Brazil won the cup in 2002.

d) Ronaldinho- Ronaldinho is another great soccer player from Brazil. He has won the player of the year title by FIFA two times. His father was associated with a local football club He started developing an interest in soccer by 8-9 years of age. He played the FIFA under 17 championship in 1997. He is regarded as a skillful player and is one of the best soccer players from Latin America.
e) Lionel Messi- Lionel Messi is an Argentine soccer player. He is the captain of the national team of Argentina. He began playing football in Barcelona, Spain. His first international match was against Hungary in 2005 when he was just 18 years old. He even got an opportunity to play for the Spanish National team. He has played in 2006 and 2010 world cup tournaments so far. His achievements in other football tournaments such as Copa America have been good.