Roberto Carlos Born: Football's Unstoppable Left Foot

Roberto Carlos's free kick against France in the Tournoi de France on June 3, 1997, is still the subject of physics papers. The ball was struck from 35 meters, curved so far outside the post that a ball boy behind the goal flinched and ducked for cover, then bent back in and hit the inside of the net. Born on April 10, 1973, in Garça, a small city in São Paulo state, Carlos grew up playing football in the streets and joined the youth system at União São João before moving to Palmeiras and then to Real Madrid in 1996, where he would spend the next 11 years. He was a left back, a defensive position that he transformed into an attacking weapon. His combination of speed, power, and extraordinary technique allowed him to function as both a reliable defender and a devastating offensive threat. He scored some of the most spectacular goals in football history, all from outside the penalty area, all struck with a left foot that generated ball speeds exceeding 105 mph. The free kick against France was analyzed by physicists at the University of Lyon, who published a paper demonstrating that the ball's trajectory followed a turbulent-to-laminar transition, a phenomenon in which the airflow around a spinning ball changes behavior mid-flight, causing it to swerve unpredictably. Carlos said he hit it the way he always did. He won three Champions League titles with Real Madrid, a World Cup with Brazil in 2002, and was named to the FIFA 100 list of the greatest living players. His partnership with Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid during the Galácticos era produced some of the most entertaining football the club has ever played.