Valentine's Day: Buffon tops list of most loved football stars in history

- Valentine's Day is celebrated in many parts of the world on February 14 as love is shown by people to themselves

- While footballers like Messi and Ronaldo are loved and hated by fans, some footballers are loved all round regardless of where or who they played for

- Legit.ng has compiled a list of these footballers

Happy Valentine's Day!

Keeping in the spirit of Valentine's Day, we take a look at a starting XI of the most loved footballers in history who were seen as heroes in the eyes of even their fieriest rivals.

While footballers like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are loved and hated by fans, these footballers are loved all round regardless of where or who they played for.

Let's take a look at a Valentine's first XI in a 4-3-3 formation.

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G: Gianluigi Buffon - This was a hard choice as we could have gone with Oliver Kahn or Iker Casillas but even those two admit that Buffon's longevity and sportsmanship transcends all.

The Juventus goalie is still going strong at 42 and despite playing 2 years at the top flight still has the passion of an 18-year-old. Regarded by many as the greatest in his position ever.

Right Back: Cafu - The Brazilian legend won the World Cup as captain in 2002 and has numerous other titles to his name. Regarded by some as the greatest right back ever.

Cafu still commands respect till this day despite retiring almost a decade ago.

Central back: Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta - There was a period in history when these two were considered the best in the world in their position with Maldini always a feature on all time greatest ever list.

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L: Roberto Carlos - Greatest left-back ever? Well he has Maldini to battle that for. Everyone loves his bending free-kicks.

Midfielders: Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, Zinedane Zidane - All three players have retired but they were really good during their playing days.

Lampard is probably the greatest goal scoring midfielder ever and the love even those who hate Chelsea was too much when he announced his retirement earlier this month.

Zidane is seen by many as one of the greatest if not the greatest midfielder ever. Who wasn't a fan of the Champions League winning coach as a child?

Attackers: Diego Maradona, Pele, Ronaldinho - Pele and Maradona are seen as the greatest footballers ever and rightly so. They are still big celebrities despite retiring decades ago.

Ronaldinho takes out left attacking berth. Is there a footballer more loved that the always smiling Samba star and Barcelona legend?

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What do you think about our list?

Honorable mentions: Iker Casillas, John Terry, Andres Iniesta, Kanu Nwankwo, Johann Cruyff, Pablo Cannavaro, Thierry Henry, Ronaldo (the Brazilian) and N'Golo Kante.

Earlier, Legit.ng reported about Abdul-Somod Ayomide Adeyemo who may be a young boxing prospect but for the 4-year-old Nigerian prodigy, the sky is the limit after he said that his dream is to become a world champion - a dream which is already manifested in him.

Dubbed as the new Floyd Mayweather because of his incredible punching power and natural boxing talent, everything about Ayomide clearly betrays his age.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, the boxing genius spoke broadly about his boxing journey saying he got to love the sport after his father set his feet on the line.

Ayomide, whose father claimed he practised for three hours every Saturday and Sunday of the week, said his dream is to become a world champion.

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"(I want to become boxing) champion,'' Ayomide said when asked what does he want to become when he grows up.

Ayomide also said he ''jogs and boxes around'' as part of his training routine, adding that he sometimes trains after school hours.

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