The greatest footballers never to play in a World Cup - in pictures

That the Guernsey-born midfielder spent his entire career at unfashionable south coast club Southampton didn’t help his chances of selection for England.

There was interest in him from likes of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur and, in August 1995, Chelsea reportedly made a £10 million bid which would have made him the most expensive player in English football history at the time.

The return for his extravagant skills and eye for spectacular goals – he scored 25 for Saints in the Premier League in the 1993-94 season – was a miserly eight caps over three years.

He was picked by Terry Venables to start the friendlyagainst the Republic of Ireland at Lansdowne Road in 1995 before the match was abandoned after England fans started a riot.

In the run-up to the 1998 World Cup, Le Tissier scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 victory for England B against Russia B but he was controversially overlooked by manager Glenn Hoddle for the final squad. He never played for England again.

A stylish midfielder who scored 43 goals in 235 league games for Arsenal, winning the FA Cup in 1979, Brady went on to make his mark in Italian football at a time when few exports from the UK and Ireland succeeded in the major European leagues.

He played 76 games for Juventus, scoring 15 goals and winning two league titles in 1981 and ’82, before moving to Sampdoria, Inter Milan and Ascoli.

He was voted PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 1979. Brady made his international debut for Ireland in 1974 and scored his favourite international goal against Brazil in 1987.

He missed out on the European Championship finals in 1988 due to suspension and was overlooked by Jack Charlton for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

The flamboyant winger moved from Paris