At the time, ‘Der Kaiser’, as he was known, was playing in central midfield but he would go on to create the modern sweeper or libero role, and play it with a style, elegance and effectiveness that still hasn’t been matched to this day. In his first two major tournaments as West Germany’s captain, he won both Euro 72 was followed by the 1974 World Cup when West Germany beat the ‘Total Football’ of Johan Cruyff and the Netherlands in the final. In total, Beckenbauer won five Bundesliga titles, four DFB-Pokals, three European Cups, one Cup Winners’ Cup and one Intercontinental Cup at club level. Individually, Beckenbauer won a vast array of honors, most notably two Ballon d’Ors, four German footballer of the year awards and he made the World Cup team of the tournament on three separate occasions. Beckenbauer added another World Cup, another Bundesliga and a UEFA Cup to his list of honors when he went into management.

It looks as though Steven Gerrard will draw the curtain on 28 years at An field this summer as he joins LA Galaxy, but he will surely be remembered as a cult figure at a club steeped in history. Gerrard has led the Liverpool team through an era which could politely be described a rough patch. Much like Bryan Robson at Manchester United, Gerrard was the man Liverpool looked to for inspiration for so many years, and more often than not, he would deliver.

Love him or hate him, and it’s probably the latter, John Terry has been an outstanding captain for Chelsea. Wayne Bridge may see it slightly differently, but Terry has been a tremendous servant at Chelsea, in both his leadership and general play. Terry has been at Chelsea for 17 years now and captained the side for 12 of them. He is the most successful captain in the club’s history, having won three Premier League titles, four FA Cup’s, three League Cup’s and a Champions League medal, and will most likely add another Premier League title this season.

Paolo Maldini captained Italy for eight years and AC Milan for 12, and was renowned for his leadership skills, earning him the nickname “Il Capitano”, or ‘The Captain’. At Milan, Maldini won the Champions League five times, seven Serie A titles, five Supercoppe Italiane, five European Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, one Coppa Italia and one FIFA Club World Cup title. Maldini spent his entire career, spanning a quarter of a century, at AC Milan, and even when he did retire at the age of 41 he had shown no obvious signs of decline.

I am Arjan Thethy and I play for London Tigers I can play as a defender or winger/striker but in my team I play left back. I don't really like this position because I have to defend all the time but when I attack I attack with all my speed. One time I even got my first hat trick for the club I scored a "rabona" its when you put one foot behind the other and you score I did it! in a game and all the older kids they all started shouting and screaming with amazement! I want to be a leader because of my dad he got me into the game football but my mum found me this amazing team. My dad trains me and one day I hope to be an amazing football player. The football player that I look up to is Steven Gerrad because he is a such a talented team player and also a good leader he has scored some vital goals for liverpool and turned games up side down! I feel very inspired by the legendary captains.