Nearly a century on from the inaugural World Cup, the quadrennial gathering of football's great and good continues to produce moments of life-changing significance for its players - and of incalculable joy or sorrow for fans.
While 22 tournaments have brought so many brilliant goals and wonderful games, it is sometimes the events that do not result in spectacular strikes or classic matches that live longest in the memory.
Attempting to distill such a mammoth array of moments down to one simple top 10 is therefore no easy feat.
Yet, Sports Mole takes on that task and considers which slivers of time remain upmost in the collective conscience.
10. The Cruyff Turn (1974)
Few footballers ever have particular skills named after them - penalty pioneer Antonin Panenka is another one of a select club - but the lead architect of 'Total Football' certainly left his mark in an indelible moment at the 1974 World Cup finals.
In a match between his bewitching Netherlands team and Sweden, Johan Cruyff sent Jan Olsson reeling with a spine-bending dummy that was to become the mercurial maestro's signature move.
Cruyff had his back to goal at Dortmund's Westfalenstadion, and was closely marked, but managed to slip away from his man by seamlessly dropping a shoulder and flicking the ball between his own legs, leaving Olsson trailing helplessly behind.
9. Miroslav Klose becomes all-time top scorer (2014)
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Having earlier become only the third player to score in four World Cups and joined Brazil's Ronaldo on a record mark of 15 finals goals overall, Miroslav Klose went on to establish himself as undisputed top dog on an incredible evening in Belo Horizonte.
Germany's 7-1 hiding of their Brazilian hosts in the semi-final will not only live long in the memory due to its sheer shock value and the scale of the Selecao's implosion, but the veteran striker also secured his place in history by becoming the World Cup's all-time leading scorer.
Klose's record-breaker was the Germans' second of the match, and when he turned home the rebound after Julio Cesar had saved his initial shot, his 16th goal on the game's grandest stage set a new bar for others to reach in the future.
8. The 'Save of the Century' (1970)
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With one physics-defying save from perhaps the greatest player of all time, Gordon Banks built on his legacy as a 1966 World Cup winner by etching a scarcely believable vision into the memories of football fans everywhere.
During the group stage of the 1970 finals, amid the heat of Guadalajara, Pele leapt high to power a perfectly-directed header at the bottom corner of England's goal, but Banks turned in mid-air and stretched the very tips of his right hand to somehow scoop the ball away, upwards and over the bar.
As it travelled goalwards, the Brazilian striker called out 'Goal!', but his opponent's incredible acrobatics resulted in a superb save Pele later said he "didn't think possible". Banks only knew he had kept the ball out when he heard the crowd's roar and his stunned teammates showed their appreciation.
7. Gotze wins the World Cup (2014)
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Still deadlocked deep into extra time, the 2014 final was a tense affair, which required a rare moment of magic to decide the destiny of FIFA's iconic trophy.
Turning to his bench in the 88th minute, Germany coach Joachim Low had told 22-year-old Mario Gotze he would be the man to make the difference, and the prophetic Bundestrainer was soon proved right in spectacular circumstances.
With just seven minutes left on the clock, Andre Schurrle sprinted down the wing and spotted Gotze's burst into the Argentina area. When the ball arrived in the box, in one magnificent movement, Gotze took the ball on his chest then volleyed unerringly into the net - the Maracana erupted and Germany had both hands on their fourth World Cup.
6. Rossi stuns Brazil (1982)
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Widely regarded as a Brazil team to match, in terms of talent, their lauded predecessors of 12 years earlier, the 1982 Selecao were white-hot favourites to win the World Cup finals in Spain.
However, three moments of mastery from eventual champions Italy eliminated them after a classic encounter in Barcelona, where inferior goal difference meant they had to ditch a defensive game plan and win to reach the semi-finals.
Thanks to a player previously banned for his involvement in a major betting scandal back at home, the Azzurri stunned both Brazil and their worldwide army of admirers, as a clinical hat-trick from Paolo Rossi - who had yet to score in the tournament - gave them the lead on three separate occasions.
Each time the Brazilians equalised, via superb strikes from Socrates and Falcao, the predatory Rossi - later awarded the tournament's Golden Boot - was on hand to defy perhaps the greatest team never to win the World Cup.
5. A young prince is crowned 'King' (1958)
When 17-year-old Pele found the net against Wales in the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, he not only became the competition's youngest-ever scorer but also launched his name into newspapers and bulletins all around the globe.
Later labelling the strike as "the most important goal I've ever scored", the confidence gleaned from such a goal helped the teenager go on to record a hat-trick against France in the semis before bagging a brace in a 5-2 win over the hosts in the final - even in defeat, the Swedish fans applauded the newly-crowned 'King'.
As well as ultimately clearing the path for Brazil's first world title, Pele's strike versus Wales proved the launching pad for a spectacular career at World Cups and beyond.
4. Zizou heads France to a first World Cup (1998)
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Still yet to be crowned world champions when they hosted the finals for the second time in 1998, France assembled a multicultural team of all the talents in pursuit of their longed-for goal - the World Cup trophy.
At its apex was a midfield maestro of maximum intensity, and the sublimely-gifted Zinedine Zidane twice brought to bear his sheer force of will against many pundits' favourites, Brazil, in the final.
Leaping peerlessly into the Paris night, 'Zizou' bulleted home a pair unstoppable headers following corners, despite later claiming: "I've never been very good with my head".
His moments of magic put Les Bleus in a virtually unassailable position, and they went on to lift the trophy for the first time ever.
3. Tardelli's joy (1982)
In blurry images sent across the world, one man's joy - and that of his football-mad nation - was written all over Marco Tardelli's face after the Italy midfielder powered home an unstoppable shot to put his team two goals ahead in the 1982 final with just 20 minutes left to play.
Surely sealing victory over the teak-tough West Germans, the scorer's arms were splayed, eyes wide with disbelief, before his head shook incredulously and tears began to flow. Followed by his delirious teammates, Tardelli ran into the embrace of everyone waiting on the touchline, ultimately disappearing from view as a mass of bodies enveloped the man who had just won the World Cup.
Football, before all else, is a game of emotions, and never more so was that apparent than when Tardelli took flight at the Bernabeu.
Quite poetically, he later said: "After I scored, my whole life passed before me - the same feeling they say you have when you are about to die. The joy of scoring in a World Cup final was immense, something I dreamed about as a kid, and my celebration was a release after realising that dream. I was born with that scream inside me; that was just the moment it came out."
2. Maradona calls on a higher power (1986)
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La mano de Dios, 'The Hand of God'. Even the phrase alone conjures up images of a football genius resorting, quite brilliantly, to the dark arts, in order to aid his team's pursuit of glory.
In terms of sheer cunning and cojones, Diego Maradona's opening goal in Argentina's quarter-final clash with England stands above all others, given the prize at stake and ill feeling between the two recently-warring nations.
Some four minutes later, the diminutive playmaker would go on to score one of the great World Cup goals of all time, but it was his first strike which earned eternal notoriety and an almost villainous appeal.
Otherwise alone inside the England area, Maradona contested the ball with towering goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who measured eight inches taller, and did so with his left arm outstretched. His fist, raised close to his head, touched the ball first and sent it tumbling into the back of the net.
Mischievously, Maradona began to celebrate; glancing sideways at the referee and the linesman for confirmation. The goal was given, and history was made.
1. Sheer delightful football (1970)
One of the all-time great Brazilian teams - if not the very greatest - had made it through to their fourth World Cup final in some style, and were favourites to prevail against a strong Italian side.
The scintillating Selecao went ahead through Pele's early goal, then were hauled back by the Azzurri, before going into the final five minutes 3-1 ahead and on the cusp of sporting immortality.
If that was not enough, the architects of O Jogo Bonito ('The Beautiful Game') laid on a peerless team goal to seal the deal - captain Carlos Alberto gracefully arrowing in a precise finish after both Pele and Jairzinho played a part in the build-up.
Embodying all that is thrilling about the people's game, such fluid movement and apparently effortless intuition was worth more than a mere goal - surely the greatest moment to grace a World Cup final had seen all but one of the Brazilians take at least one touch throughout a mesmerising sequence.
At its conclusion, English commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme memorably exclaimed: "Oh, that was sheer delightful football!"
Jonathan O'Shea
