The Players' Tribune: Dreams – A World Cup Companion

Julian Draxler tells the story of his journey from the factory towns of western Germany to stardom in the Bundesliga — and the joy he felt after winning the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Despite having been born in Sydney, Tomi Juric, whose family hails from Croatia, always felt like an outsider. He is nevertheless proud to be playing for Australia at this year’s World Cup.

Xherdan Shaqiri’s life story is one of survival and courage. He grew up in Switzerland, where his family struggled to make ends meet after immigrating from Kosovo. His love of football is surpassed only by his fierce determination to succeed — by any means necessary.

Ivan Rakitić has endured a lot on his journey to becoming a Croatian superstar, including fleeing from the Balkan War with his family as a child in the 1990s. Rakitić grew up in Switzerland, but — at the urging of a football legend — decided to play as an international for the team from his family’s homeland.

At 6 years old, Romelu Lukaku watched as his mother watered down the milk before serving it to him. His family was officially broke. Over the next 10 years he would share shoes with his dad and shower with warm water poured from a cup. All the while he never forgot about the milk. For Romelu Lukaku, that experience signaled the moment he met his destiny. This is the story of how a poor kid became the leading goal scorer in Belgium National Team history.

When Bernardo Silva was coming up in the Benfica youth system, he was small, underweight and not as fast as some of his teammates. But he was really gifted technical player with an undying love for football; traits that in most cases don't prove to be enough to propel a player to the world stage. Bernardo's story starts with the most amazing birthday gift and ends with Pep Guardiola.

How does a country of only 350,000 make it not only to the Euro tournament, but to the World Cup? Aron Gunnarson shares his role in one of the most unlikely stories of the World Cup -- Iceland.

How do you go from delivering mail in a very small town in Belgium to becoming a star right back and winger for the Belgian national team in 3 years? This is the story of Thomas Meunier. We all know about the superstars of the World Cup but some of the players participating in the 2018 tournament truly come from nowhere.