Quiz time. How many players can you name that have played in consecutive World Cup finals? Ten? Come on now. Twenty? Now you’re trying. Any more? In fairness, to play in successive World Cup finals is not as unusual as some may think. In international football, teams have tended to dominate for a period of a few years and, in such times, many of their established stars will have seen their time in the side straddle two of the four-yearly tournaments, with the best hitting repeated finals.

The Italians did it in 1934 and 1938, for example, Brazil in 1958 and 1962 – plus in 1998 and 2002 – the Dutch in 1974 and 1978, Argentina in 1986 and 1990, before the Germans went one better and contested three successive finals between 1982 and 1990.