What is a “surprising player”? It is a pretty vague term and could be used to describe pretty much anyone, from the big money players on their biggest stage yet, to the standout players who finally got out of relative anonymity. The players unknown to the world can surprise, as can the long-time workhorses who finally get back to their natural positions.
James Rodriguez was the World Cup’s most surprising player
James Rodriguez, Keylor Navas, Enner Valencia and Javier Mascherano, we knew you were good, but you weren’t supposed to be that good.
Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
So maybe “surprising player” doesn’t really have a definition, but for the 2014 World Cup, it is these five players, who surprised. And they did it in completely different ways.
James Rodriguez, Colombia
Last summer Monaco paid €45 million for James so he was hardly an unknown. Teams don’t drop that much money on hopes and wishes. After all, he won the Portuguese Liga Golden Ball at 20 years old and was a regular for the national team at the same time, but he wasn’t supposed to win the Golden Boot. He wasn’t. It wasn’t going to happen.
And yet he won the Golden Boot.
But James' brilliance in Brazil can't even be boiled down to the trophy he won, as amazing as the trophy is. He led the World Cup in goals, but more impressively, he did it without Radamel Falcao, whose absence was supposed to doom Colombia. Instead, James put the team on his back. He scored great goals -- his chest trap and volley against Uruguay will be in World Cup highlights for decades to come -- and made sublime passes. He smiled and he danced. He captured the hearts of the world, and Colombia made their way to the quarterfinals for the first time ever.
James wasn’t an unknown at the start of the World Cup. He was supposed to be the future of football, but the tournament made it abundantly clear that the future is now, and that the world has a new darling.
Keylor Navas, Costa Rica
If you watched Levante you knew that Navas was amazing. If you watched Costa Rica you knew that Navas was amazing. But here’s the thing: most people don’t watch either.
So the World Cup gave Navas a stage, a chance to show himself to the world, and did he ever capitalize.
The Costa Rican was masterful, sprawling left, right, up and down to make save after save. His team became the feel good story of the World Cup, playing their way into the quarterfinals, where only penalty kicks stopped them. Nobody imagined the Ticos could possibly go as far as they did and even Navas’ biggest fans didn’t think he was good enough to get them there. No goalkeeper was supposed to be that good, and yet he was.
Navas' dream tournament started early, with Diego Forlan firing a shot in the Ticos's first match that took a deflection and looked like a sure goal. There was no way Navas could possibly change direction to make the save, but he did. It was amazing, it was mind-biggling, and it was the world's introduction to the Costa Rican who would dazzle for the next three weeks.
Now the world knows who Navas is, and they may get the chance to see him much more often now. Levante won’t be able to hold onto him for long and as long as he doesn’t go somewhere like Bayern Munich -- seriously, if he goes to be a backup somewhere and keeps everyone from watching him let’s light everything on fire -- he’s going to be a regular part of our weekend football viewing.
Enner Valencia, Ecuador
Who knew that all Enner Valencia needed was to play forward? Once a winger, Valencia was merely pedestrian, but he got a crack at forward at the club level and his career took off. Then after Christian Benitez tragically died, Valencia was thrown up top for Ecuador and his career has been on the rise ever since.
Pachuca took a risk on Valencia in January, betting that his move to forward had made him truly great, and it paid off in spades. As soon as the Mexican club bought him, he started scoring goals. By the end of the Clausura, he was the Golden Boot winner, but Liga MX is off of most fans’ radars. The defending isn’t always great and he did it for five months. There were a lot of reasons to doubt Valencia.
And then the World Cup came around. He scored. And he scored again. And he scored again.
Valencia scored three goals in three matches, finishing as the only Ecuadorian to find the net in Brazil. He was good on the ball, smart with his runs and didn’t miss when he got in front of goal. Good teams couldn’t stop him, nor could bad ones, and the world was busy googling who he was. He looked the part of a great striker and while it was a mere three matches, he had given people another reason to believe.
West Ham sure believe, plopping down £12 million for the striker. It is the richest transfer in Liga MX history and now Valencia is off to prove he’s as good as his last seven months indicate he is.
Javier Mascherano, Argentina
We knew who Mascherano was and we knew he was good, but you are forgiven if you forgot he was that good.
Barcelona have used Mascherano almost exclusively at centerback, where he is fine enough, but he isn’t half as good as he is in the midfield. There, he is a destroyer, an organizer, a passer and, at times, an outright madman. Everything that is in a defensive midfielder’s job description, Mascherano does, and at the World Cup he did it better than anyone else.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi was tremendous, but he was only able to freelance and play in transition because of what Mascherano did behind him. Be it a tackle, winning a 50/50 ball, making an outlet pass or even taking a necessary foul, Mascherano did the work of an entire midfield all be himself. Argentina's defense was supposed to be a sieve, and Mascherano was most responsible for making sure it wasn't.
Barcelona have Sergio Busquets so Mascherano is never going to get any serious time in the midfield, but this tournament was a wonderful reminder of just how good he is in his natural position. We knew he was good there, but for seven matches, it was on full display again, and he was better than we could have even remembered him.
And if that wasn’t surprising, him tearing his anus was.
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