PARAGUAY 3-5 ARGENTINA, 2 March 1955
South American Championships, Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile
Scorers: Rolón, Martínez, Villalba (Paraguay); Micheli (4), Borrello (Argentina)

The 1955 South American Championships saw all of the games played in Chile over the course of a month. Paraguay became UFWC champs in April 1954, beating Uruguay 4-1 to prevent the 1950 World Cup winners from taking the UFWC title into the 1954 World Cup finals.

Neither Paraguay nor Argentina participated in those finals, so they both had plenty of time to prepare for this UFWC clash. And the resultant match was a classic.

Both sides had great forward lines, so this was never going to be nil-nil. Paraguay boasted Maximo Rolón, just 5′2″ tall, but top scorer in his domestic league with Libertad three seasons running. Argentina had the brilliant Rudolfo Micheli of Independiente, one of the greatest South American goalscorers of all time.

And it was Micheli who struck first – only for Rolón to grab an equaliser. Micheli then scored a penalty to give Argentina a 2-1 half-time lead. But within seconds of the start of the second half, Paraguay were also awarded a penalty. Hermes González’s spot kick hit the post, but Eulogio Martínez quickly stabbed in the equaliser. (Martínez would later play for Barcelona, scoring the first ever goal in the Nou Camp stadium, and, after gaining Spanish nationality, winning eight caps for Spain.)

The parity lasted less than 20 minutes. First Micheli netted his hat-trick goal, and then Boca Juniors forward Jose ‘Cucumber’ Borello added another to give Argentina a 4-2 lead. (The origin of Borello’s highly unusual nickname seems to have been lost to time.) Now Argentina were in control, and Micheli eventually scored his fourth – and Argentina’s fifth – in the 83rd minute. Paraguay never gave up, and Salvador Villalba pulled one back with a minute left to play.

But in the end Argentina, and Micheli in particular, were too strong. Argentina won 5-3 and, just as Brazil had done three years previously, they won the UFWC title at the first time of asking.

Argentina successfully held onto the title throughout the remainder of the South American Championships, coming up against Chile in the final decisive match. Yet another Micheli goal was enough to give Argentina the 1-0 victory that won them the 1955 South American Championships.

Gabriel Batistuta is Argentina’s greatest ever goalscorer, netting 56 times in 78 international games. He scored 18 goals in 23 UFWC games.

‘Batigol’ was born in 1969 as the son of a slaughterhouse worker. A promising basketball player, Batistuta turned his talents to football after being inspired by the 1978 Argentinean World Cup-winning team.

He scored 10 goals at three World Cup tournaments, but won only the 1993 Copa America with his country. At club level he scored 168 goals for Serie A side Fiorentina, and the city of Florence erected a bronze statue in his honour. He later won Serie A with Roma.

Batigol retired from football in 2005 aged 36. Something of a sex symbol, and once described by The Observer as a ’straightforward lust-monkey’, Batistuta won female hearts as an apparent footballing rarity – a family man dutifully faithful to his wife Irena.

ARGENTINA 2-1 MEXICO, 4 July 1993
Copa America final, Monumental, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Scorers: Batistuta (2) (Argentina); Galindo (pen) (Mexico)

UFWC champs Argentina played out the 1993 Copa America tournament without one Diego Armando Maradona, who had recently controversially walked out on his club side Sevilla after a disappointing season. Maradona had been dropped from the national side after being handed a 15-month ban for failing a drugs test in 1991. He would return to fail another drugs test at the 1994 World Cup, but in the meantime Argentina could rely upon other star names.

Sergio Goycochea was a formidable goalkeeper, Oscar Ruggeri kept things together at the back, Fernando Redondo and Diego Simone ran the midfield, and Gabriel Batistuta was a bona fide goal machine.

Mexico also had a celebrated goalkeeper in flamboyant free kick expert Jorge Campos. A fan of gaudy luminous kits, Campos managed to score more than 30 goals during his career as a net-minder. Ramon Ramirez was Mexico’s key defender, and Alberto Garcia Aspe was the star in midfield. Up front was a man widely regarded as the best Mexican footballer of all time, the great Hugo Sanchez, famous almost as much for his back-flipping celebrations as for his many goals.

Argentina had held the UFWC title for 12 straight games, having taken it from Australia. Mexico, with a poor UFWC record for such a famous footballing nation, had held the title only once, in 1962 – and then lost it to the Dutch Antilles.

Argentina reached the Copa America final by beating Brazil and Colombia in penalty shoot-outs in the quarter and semi-finals. Mexico, playing their first Copa America tournament, saw off Peru and hosts Ecuador.

The game was a tight one, and it only really came to life midway through the second half. Fiorentina striker Batistuta gave Argentina the lead in the 63rd minute. ‘Batigol’ finished the previous Copa America as top scorer, but this was only his second strike of this tournament.

Four minutes later Mexico were level, with Benjamin Galindo slotting a penalty past renowned spot kick-stopper Goycochea. But Batistuta restored Argentina’s advantage in the 74th minute, and his goal proved to be decisive. Argentina won the Copa America and retained the UFWC title.

Elegant midfielder Michel Platini was perhaps the best passer of the ball the beautiful game has ever seen. He was also a deadly free-kick specialist, and an incredibly prolific goalscorer. ‘He could thread the ball through the eye of a needle, as well as finish,’ remarked Bobby Charlton.

Born in 1955, Platini scored a remarkable 41 goals in 72 games from midfield for France, including 15 goals in just 18 UFWC games.

After skippering his country to European Championships and UFWC glory in 1984 he was appointed a Knight of the Legion of Honour. He was voted European Footballer of the Year three times in a row in 1983, 1984, and 1985, and World Player of the Year in 1984 and 1985. He later managed France, but failed to match his successes as a player.

Like many of football’s greatest players, Platini never won the World Cup but he can at least add the UFWC title to his impressive list of honours.