Players analysis, in distribution.

What month were most goalkeepers born? Do attackers cluster differently from defenders? Where do the GOATs (Pelé, Maradona, Cruyff, Messi, CR7, R9…) fall on the curve — on the modal month or as outliers?

Tournament (single-year)

1930 1934 1938 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026

Hemisphere filterteam country's hemisphere

All playersevery nation NorthernCONCACAF + UEFA + AFC + most CAF SouthernCONMEBOL + OFC + sub-Saharan

736

Players in window

Teams

23.0

Avg squad size

Tournaments

2002

Squads by position

Players in the selected window, split by role

GET /aggregates/players?years=2002

By confederation

Where the players come from

GET /aggregates/players?years=2002

Hemisphere split

Northern vs Southern hemisphere national teams

Northern598 (81.3%)

Southern138 (18.8%)

ApiTeam.country × hemisphere classification

Birth month, by position

One chart per role. GOAT pin-marks (gold dots above the bars) call out where iconic players sit. Look for the “relative-age effect” — many youth-academy systems privilege Q1 birthdays (Jan-Mar) for early physical development, and you sometimes see the same skew in elite squads.

Goalkeepers

Birth-month distribution + 1 GOAT marker

Lev Yashin· Oct

Modal month: Apr — 13 players (13.5%). Range: 3—13.

Defenders

Birth-month distribution + 2 GOAT markers

Franz Beckenbauer· Sep

Fabio Cannavaro· Sep

Modal month: Aug — 32 players (13.5%). Range: 12—32.

Midfielders

Birth-month distribution + 10 GOAT markers

Bobby Charlton· Oct

Diego Maradona· Oct

Michel Platini· Jun

Zico· Mar

Zinedine Zidane· Jun

Ronaldinho· Mar

Kaká· Apr

Andrés Iniesta· May

Xavi Hernández· Jan

Luka Modrić· Sep

Modal month: Apr — 27 players (10.8%). Range: 12—27.

Attackers

Birth-month distribution + 17 GOAT markers

Pelé· Oct

Garrincha· Oct

Eusébio· Jan

Gerd Müller· Nov

Johan Cruyff· Apr

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge· Sep

Paolo Rossi· Sep

Romário· Jan

Ronaldo (R9)· Sep

Cristiano Ronaldo· Feb

Lionel Messi· Jun

Kylian Mbappé· Dec

Neymar· Feb

Robert Lewandowski· Aug

Mohamed Salah· Jun

Karim Benzema· Dec

Vinícius Jr· Jul

Modal month: Aug — 20 players (13.0%). Range: 9—20.

All players

Every player from the 2002 squad. Search by name or filter by country, position, birth year or birth month. The C badge marks captains. Change the hemisphere filter in the hero above.

NameCountryPositionBirth yearBirth monthHemisphereClub country

736 / 736

Player	Country	Position	DOB	Birth month	Club	Ht	WCs	Goals
Ronaldo	Brazil	Attacker	1976-09-18	Sep	Inter Milan	183cm	1	8
Miroslav Klose	Germany	Attacker	1978-06-09	Jun	1. FC Kaiserslautern	184cm	1	5
Rivaldo	Brazil	Midfielder	1972-04-19	Apr	Barcelona	187cm	1	5
Christian Vieri	Italy	Attacker	1973-07-12	Jul	Internazionale	185cm	1	4
Jon Dahl Tomasson	Denmark	Attacker	1976-08-29	Aug	Feyenoord	182cm	1	4
Fernando Morientes	Spain	Attacker	1976-04-05	Apr	Real Madrid	184cm	1	3
Henrik Larsson	Sweden	Attacker	1971-09-20	Sep	Celtic	177cm	1	3
İlhan Mansız	Turkey	Attacker	1975-08-10	Aug	Beşiktaş	184cm	1	3
Marc WilmotsC	Belgium	Attacker	1969-02-22	Feb	Schalke 04	184cm	1	3
Michael Ballack	Germany	Midfielder	1976-09-26	Sep	Bayer Leverkusen	188cm	1	3
Papa Bouba Diop	Senegal	Midfielder	1978-01-28	Jan	Lens	196cm	1	3
Pauleta	Portugal	Attacker	1973-04-28	Apr	Bordeaux	180cm	1	3
Raúl	Spain	Attacker	1977-06-27	Jun	Real Madrid	—	1	3
Robbie Keane	Republic of Ireland	Attacker	1980-07-08	Jul	Leeds United	176cm	1	3
Ahn Jung-hwan	South Korea	Attacker	1976-01-27	Jan	Perugia	177cm	1	2
Brian McBride	United States	Attacker	1972-06-19	Jun	Columbus Crew	183cm	1	2
Fernando HierroC	Spain	Defender	1968-03-23	Mar	Real Madrid	187cm	1	2
Hasan Şaş	Turkey	Attacker	1976-08-01	Aug	Galatasaray	177cm	1	2
Henri Camara	Senegal	Attacker	1977-05-10	May	Sedan	176cm	1	2
Jared Borgetti	Mexico	Attacker	1973-08-14	Aug	Santos Laguna	185cm	1	2
Junichi Inamoto	Japan	Midfielder	1979-09-18	Sep	Arsenal	181cm	1	2
Landon Donovan	United States	Attacker	1982-03-04	Mar	San Jose Earthquakes	173cm	1	2
Michael Owen	England	Attacker	1979-12-14	Dec	Liverpool	173cm	1	2
Nelson Cuevas	Paraguay	Attacker	1980-01-10	Jan	River Plate	172cm	1	2
Rónald Gómez	Costa Rica	Attacker	1975-01-24	Jan	OFI	183cm	1	2
Ronaldinho	Brazil	Midfielder	1980-03-21	Mar	Paris Saint-Germain	182cm	1	2
Ümit Davala	Turkey	Midfielder	1973-07-30	Jul	Milan	186cm	1	2
Agustín Delgado	Ecuador	Attacker	1974-12-23	Dec	Southampton	188cm	1	1
Alessandro Del Piero	Italy	Attacker	1974-11-09	Nov	Juventus	174cm	1	1
Álvaro Recoba	Uruguay	Midfielder	1976-03-17	Mar	Inter Milan	177cm	1	1
Anders Svensson	Sweden	Midfielder	1976-07-17	Jul	Southampton	177cm	1	1
Benni McCarthy	South Africa	Attacker	1977-11-12	Nov	Porto	183cm	1	1
Bernd Schneider	Germany	Midfielder	1973-11-17	Nov	Bayer Leverkusen	—	1	1
Beto	Portugal	Defender	1976-05-03	May	Sporting CP	—	1	1
Bülent Korkmaz	Turkey	Defender	1968-11-24	Nov	Galatasaray	180cm	1	1
Carles Puyol	Spain	Defender	1978-04-13	Apr	Barcelona	178cm	1	1
Carsten Jancker	Germany	Attacker	1974-08-28	Aug	Bayern Munich	193cm	1	1
Clint Mathis	United States	Attacker	1976-11-25	Nov	New York Red Bulls	178cm	1	1
Cuauhtémoc Blanco	Mexico	Attacker	1973-01-17	Jan	Valladolid	178cm	1	1
Damien Duff	Republic of Ireland	Midfielder	1979-03-02	Mar	Blackburn Rovers	178cm	1	1
Darío Rodríguez	Uruguay	Defender	1974-09-17	Sep	Peñarol	—	1	1
David BeckhamC	England	Midfielder	1975-05-02	May	Manchester United	183cm	1	1
Dennis Rommedahl	Denmark	Midfielder	1978-07-22	Jul	PSV Eindhoven	178cm	1	1
Diego Forlán	Uruguay	Attacker	1979-05-19	May	Manchester United	180cm	1	1
Dmitri Sychev	Russia	Attacker	1983-10-26	Oct	Spartak Moscow	176cm	1	1
Édison Méndez	Ecuador	Attacker	1979-03-16	Mar	Deportivo Quito	175cm	1	1
Edmílson	Brazil	Defender	1976-07-10	Jul	Lyon	186cm	1	1
Emile Heskey	England	Attacker	1978-01-11	Jan	Liverpool	188cm	1	1
Emmanuel Olisadebe	Poland	Attacker	1978-12-22	Dec	Panathinaikos	180cm	1	1
Emre Belözoğlu	Turkey	Midfielder	1980-09-07	Sep	Inter Milan	170cm	1	1
Francisco Arce	Paraguay	Defender	1971-04-02	Apr	Palmeiras	179cm	1	1
Gabriel BatistutaC	Argentina	Attacker	1969-02-01	Feb	Roma	185cm	1	1
Gaizka Mendieta	Spain	Midfielder	1974-03-27	Mar	Lazio	173cm	1	1
Gary Breen	Republic of Ireland	Defender	1973-12-12	Dec	Coventry City	188cm	1	1
Gerardo Torrado	Mexico	Midfielder	1979-04-30	Apr	Sevilla	176cm	1	1
Hakan ŞükürC	Turkey	Attacker	1971-09-01	Sep	Parma	191cm	1	1
Hernán Crespo	Argentina	Attacker	1975-07-05	Jul	Lazio	185cm	1	1
Hidetoshi Nakata	Japan	Midfielder	1977-01-22	Jan	Parma	175cm	1	1
Hiroaki Morishima	Japan	Midfielder	1972-04-30	Apr	Cerezo Osaka	168cm	1	1
Hwang Sun-hong	South Korea	Attacker	1968-07-14	Jul	Kashiwa Reysol	183cm	1	1
Ivica Olić	Croatia	Attacker	1979-09-14	Sep	Zagreb	182cm	1	1
Jeff Agoos	United States	Defender	1968-05-02	May	San Jose Earthquakes	178cm	1	1
Johan Walem	Belgium	Midfielder	1972-02-01	Feb	Standard Liège	169cm	1	1
John O'Brien	United States	Midfielder	1977-08-29	Aug	Ajax	—	1	1
Jorge Campos	Mexico	Goalkeeper	1966-10-15	Oct	UNAM	170cm	1	1
Jorge Costa	Portugal	Defender	1971-10-14	Oct	Porto	188cm	1	1
Juan Carlos Valerón	Spain	Midfielder	1975-06-17	Jun	Deportivo La Coruña	180cm	1	1
Julius Aghahowa	Nigeria	Attacker	1982-02-12	Feb	Shakhtar Donetsk	178cm	1	1
Júnior	Brazil	Defender	1973-06-20	Jun	Parma	—	1	1
Khalilou Fadiga	Senegal	Midfielder	1974-12-30	Dec	Auxerre	188cm	1	1
Lee Eul-yong	South Korea	Midfielder	1975-09-08	Sep	Jeju United FC	176cm	1	1
Lucas RadebeC	South Africa	Defender	1969-04-12	Apr	Leeds United	180cm	1	1
Marcin Żewłakow	Poland	Attacker	1976-04-22	Apr	Mouscron	183cm	1	1
Marco Bode	Germany	Midfielder	1969-07-23	Jul	Werder Bremen	189cm	1	1
Matt Holland	Republic of Ireland	Midfielder	1974-04-11	Apr	Ipswich Town	175cm	1	1
Mauricio Wright	Costa Rica	Defender	1970-12-20	Dec	Herediano	187cm	1	1
Milan Rapaić	Croatia	Midfielder	1973-08-16	Aug	Fenerbahçe	183cm	1	1
Milenko Ačimovič	Slovenia	Attacker	1977-02-15	Feb	Red Star Belgrade	187cm	1	1
Niclas Alexandersson	Sweden	Midfielder	1971-12-29	Dec	Everton	181cm	1	1
Oliver Bierhoff	Germany	Attacker	1968-05-01	May	Monaco	191cm	1	1
Oliver Neuville	Germany	Attacker	1973-05-01	May	Bayer Leverkusen	171cm	1	1
Park Ji-sung	South Korea	Midfielder	1981-03-30	Mar	Kyoto Sanga FC	175cm	1	1
Patrick M'Boma	Cameroon	Attacker	1970-11-15	Nov	Sunderland	185cm	1	1
Paulo Wanchope	Costa Rica	Attacker	1976-07-31	Jul	Manchester City	189cm	1	1
Paweł Kryszałowicz	Poland	Attacker	1974-06-23	Jun	Eintracht Frankfurt	182cm	1	1
Peter Van der Heyden	Belgium	Defender	1976-07-16	Jul	Club Brugge	183cm	1	1
Quinton Fortune	South Africa	Midfielder	1977-05-21	May	Manchester United	180cm	1	1
Raouf Bouzaiene	Tunisia	Defender	1970-08-16	Aug	Genoa	174cm	1	1
Richard Morales	Uruguay	Attacker	1975-02-21	Feb	Nacional	196cm	1	1
Rio Ferdinand	England	Defender	1978-11-07	Nov	Leeds United	189cm	1	1
Roberto Carlos	Brazil	Defender	1973-04-10	Apr	Real Madrid	168cm	1	1
Roque Santa Cruz	Paraguay	Attacker	1981-08-16	Aug	Bayern Munich	193cm	1	1
Rui Costa	Portugal	Midfielder	1972-03-29	Mar	Milan	180cm	1	1
Salif Diao	Senegal	Midfielder	1977-02-10	Feb	Sedan	183cm	1	1
Samuel Eto'o	Cameroon	Attacker	1981-03-10	Mar	Mallorca	180cm	1	1
Sebastjan Cimirotič	Slovenia	Attacker	1974-09-14	Sep	Lecce	186cm	1	1
Seol Ki-hyeon	South Korea	Attacker	1979-01-08	Jan	Anderlecht	187cm	1	1
Siyabonga Nomvethe	South Africa	Attacker	1977-12-02	Dec	Udinese	178cm	1	1
Sol Campbell	England	Defender	1974-09-18	Sep	Arsenal	188cm	1	1
Song Chong-gug	South Korea	Midfielder	1979-02-20	Feb	Busan I'Cons	175cm	1	1

GOAT reference

Curated. Inclusion in this list isn't a championship ranking — it's a span of Ballon-d'Or winners + nominees + commonly-cited GOATs across eras, used for the overlay above.

NameCountryPositionBirth yearBirth month

30 / 30

Player	Country	Position	DOB	Birth month	Club	Ht	Goals
Pelé	Brazil	Attacker	1940-10-23	Oct	—	—	—
Garrincha	Brazil	Attacker	1933-10-28	Oct	—	—	—
Eusébio	Portugal	Attacker	1942-01-25	Jan	—	—	—
Bobby Charlton	England	Midfielder	1937-10-11	Oct	—	—	—
Lev Yashin	Soviet Union	Goalkeeper	1929-10-22	Oct	—	—	—
Gerd Müller	West Germany	Attacker	1945-11-03	Nov	—	—	—
Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	Attacker	1947-04-25	Apr	—	—	—
Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	Defender	1945-09-11	Sep	—	—	—
Diego Maradona	Argentina	Midfielder	1960-10-30	Oct	—	—	—
Michel Platini	France	Midfielder	1955-06-21	Jun	—	—	—
Zico	Brazil	Midfielder	1953-03-03	Mar	—	—	—
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	West Germany	Attacker	1955-09-25	Sep	—	—	—
Paolo Rossi	Italy	Attacker	1956-09-23	Sep	—	—	—
Romário	Brazil	Attacker	1966-01-29	Jan	—	—	—
Ronaldo (R9)	Brazil	Attacker	1976-09-22	Sep	—	—	—
Zinedine Zidane	France	Midfielder	1972-06-23	Jun	—	—	—
Ronaldinho	Brazil	Midfielder	1980-03-21	Mar	—	—	—
Kaká	Brazil	Midfielder	1982-04-22	Apr	—	—	—
Fabio Cannavaro	Italy	Defender	1973-09-13	Sep	—	—	—
Andrés Iniesta	Spain	Midfielder	1984-05-11	May	—	—	—
Xavi Hernández	Spain	Midfielder	1980-01-25	Jan	—	—	—
Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Attacker	1985-02-05	Feb	—	—	—
Lionel Messi	Argentina	Attacker	1987-06-24	Jun	—	—	—
Luka Modrić	Croatia	Midfielder	1985-09-09	Sep	—	—	—
Kylian Mbappé	France	Attacker	1998-12-20	Dec	—	—	—
Neymar	Brazil	Attacker	1992-02-05	Feb	—	—	—
Robert Lewandowski	Poland	Attacker	1988-08-21	Aug	—	—	—
Mohamed Salah	Egypt	Attacker	1992-06-15	Jun	—	—	—
Karim Benzema	France	Attacker	1987-12-19	Dec	—	—	—
Vinícius Jr	Brazil	Attacker	2000-07-12	Jul	—	—	—

Hat-tricks (3+ goals in a match)

Every individual 3+ goal performance in World Cup history. Oleg Salenko's 5-goal haul in 1994 v Cameroon is the all-time single-match record.

#	Player	Team	Opponent	Stage	Year	Goals
1	Oleg Salenko	Russia	Cameroon	Group	1994	5
2	Ernst Wilimowski	Poland	Brazil	Round of 16	1938	4
3	Ademir	Brazil	Sweden	Final round	1950	4
4	Sándor Kocsis	Hungary	West Germany	Group	1954	4
5	Eusébio	Portugal	North Korea	Quarter-final	1966	4
6	Emilio Butragueño	Spain	Denmark	Round of 16	1986	4
7	Bert Patenaude	United States	Paraguay	Group	1930	3
8	Pedro Cea	Uruguay	Yugoslavia	Semi-final	1930	3
9	Guillermo Stábile	Argentina	Mexico	Group	1930	3
10	Edmund Conen	Germany	Belgium	Round of 16	1934	3
11	Angelo Schiavio	Italy	United States	Round of 16	1934	3
12	Oldřich Nejedlý	Czechoslovakia	Germany	Semi-final	1934	3
13	Leônidas	Brazil	Poland	Round of 16	1938	3
14	Gyula Zsengellér	Hungary	Dutch East Indies	Round of 16	1938	3
15	Harry Andersson	Sweden	Cuba	Quarter-final	1938	3
16	Gustav Wetterström	Sweden	Cuba	Quarter-final	1938	3
17	Oscar Míguez	Uruguay	Bolivia	Group	1950	3
18	Estanislao Basora	Spain	Uruguay	Final round	1950	3
19	Sándor Kocsis	Hungary	South Korea	Group	1954	3
20	Erich Probst	Austria	Czechoslovakia	Group	1954	3
21	Carlos Borges	Uruguay	Scotland	Group	1954	3
22	Suat Mamat	Turkey	South Korea	Group	1954	3
23	Josef Hügi	Switzerland	Austria	Quarter-final	1954	3
24	Just Fontaine	France	Paraguay	Group	1958	3
25	Just Fontaine	France	West Germany	Third place	1958	3
26	Pelé	Brazil	France	Semi-final	1958	3
27	Florian Albert	Hungary	Bulgaria	Group	1962	3
28	Geoff Hurst	England	West Germany	Final	1966	3
29	Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	Switzerland	Group	1966	3
30	Helmut Haller	West Germany	Switzerland	Group	1966	3
31	Eusébio	Portugal	Brazil	Group	1966	3
32	Gerd Müller	West Germany	Bulgaria	Group	1970	3
33	Gerd Müller	West Germany	Peru	Quarter-final	1970	3
34	Andrzej Szarmach	Poland	Haiti	Group	1974	3
35	Dušan Bajević	Yugoslavia	Zaire	Group	1974	3
36	Robbie Rensenbrink	Netherlands	Iran	Group	1978	3
37	Teófilo Cubillas	Peru	Iran	Group	1978	3
38	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	West Germany	Chile	Group	1982	3
39	Zbigniew Boniek	Poland	Belgium	Second round	1982	3
40	László Kiss	Hungary	El Salvador	Group	1982	3
41	Paolo Rossi	Italy	Brazil	Second round	1982	3
42	Gary Lineker	England	Poland	Group	1986	3
43	Igor Belanov	Soviet Union	Belgium	Round of 16	1986	3
44	Tomáš Skuhravý	Czechoslovakia	Costa Rica	Round of 16	1990	3
45	Míchel	Spain	South Korea	Group	1990	3
46	Gabriel Batistuta	Argentina	Greece	Group	1994	3
47	Gabriel Batistuta	Argentina	Jamaica	Group	1998	3
48	Miroslav Klose	Germany	Saudi Arabia	Group	2002	3
49	Pauleta	Portugal	Poland	Group	2002	3
50	Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	South Korea	Group	2010	3
51	Thomas Müller	Germany	Portugal	Group	2014	3
52	Xherdan Shaqiri	Switzerland	Honduras	Group	2014	3
53	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Spain	Group	2018	3
54	Harry Kane	England	Panama	Group	2018	3
55	Gonçalo Ramos	Portugal	Switzerland	Round of 16	2022	3
56	Kylian Mbappé	France	Argentina	Final	2022	3

56 hat-tricks · 6with 4+ goals · Salenko's 5 (1994) is the only 5-goal haul on record