Rodri Completes Football's Grand Slam

Key takeaways

Rodri won the World Cup on Sunday to add to his 2023 Champions League, 2024 Euros and 2024 Ballon d'Or, completing football's unofficial grand slam.
Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller were the first to achieve the feat, completing the set on the same day in July 1974 – and Beckenbauer did it faster than anyone, within just two years.
Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi are the other members of the club, though Rivaldo and Ronaldinho each carry minor asterisks for being unused substitutes in certain finals.
Messi leads the all-time World Cup assists chart (from 1966 onwards) with 12, while Michael Olise set a new record for assists at a single tournament with seven for France at 2026.
The equivalent feat has not yet been achieved in the women's game, with the Ballon d'Or Féminin only seven editions old; Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmatí are the closest candidates but must wait until 2029.

Rodri joins a six-man club after World Cup triumph

With Spain lifting the World Cup trophy on Sunday, Rodri became only the sixth man in football history to win the World Cup, the European Championship, the Champions League and the Ballon d’Or – a feat some fans have taken to calling ‘completing football’. According to research published by The Guardian, only a select group of players can claim that full set.

The first were West Germans Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller, who completed the quartet on the very same day – 7 July 1974 – when West Germany defeated the Netherlands in the World Cup final. The pair had already won the European Cup with Bayern Munich and the European Championship with their national side, and both had previously claimed the Ballon d’Or. Remarkably, Beckenbauer completed the set in under two years, a pace nobody has since matched.

It was nearly three decades before Zinedine Zidane joined them, adding the 2002 Champions League to his 1998 World Cup, 1998 Ballon d’Or and 2000 European Championship. Rivaldo followed in 2003 and Ronaldinho in 2006, though both carry slight caveats – each was an unused substitute in a key final along the way, though both received winners’ medals.

Lionel Messi completed his own set with the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup, having long since banked the Champions League and multiple Ballon d’Or awards. And now Rodri, whose set reads: 2023 Champions League, 2024 Euros, 2024 Ballon d’Or, 2026 World Cup.

Olise and Messi rewrite the assist records

The 2026 tournament also produced fresh World Cup assist records. Michael Olise registered seven assists for France across the competition, surpassing Pelé’s tally of six set at the 1970 tournament and setting a new benchmark for a single edition. Meanwhile, Messi extended his all-time World Cup assists record to 12 – again, figures tracked reliably from 1966 onwards given a lack of footage from earlier tournaments.

For a closer look at how all 48 nations fared this summer, head to our World Cup 2026 hub or check the full live standings.

Most World Cup assists at a single tournament (from 1966)

7 – Michael Olise (France, 2026)
6 – Pelé (Brazil, 1970)
5 – Maradona (1986), Littbarski (1982), Gadocha (1974), Hässler (1994)

All-time World Cup assists leaders (from 1966)

12 – Lionel Messi
8 – Diego Maradona
7 – Grzegorz Lato, Pierre Littbarski, Michael Olise

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