Antonín Panenka

A single penalty can turn a name into a verb, but Antonín Panenka was much more than that beautiful act of football insolence. Before the famous chip in the Euro 1976 final, he had already been a clever attacking midfielder with vision, technical calm and a delicate right foot, capable of giving Czechoslovakia rhythm between midfield and attack. He was not a sprinter, not a physical dominator and not the kind of player who overwhelmed matches through volume. His value lived in imagination, timing, set pieces and the nerve to choose elegance when pressure demanded obedience. At Bohemians Prague he became a true club symbol, while that penalty against West Germany gave him immortality. Panenka was a creator with courage, a player remembered for one gesture because that gesture revealed the whole personality.