Suarez, Oezil the early candidates to follow Maradona, Schillaci as World Cup stars

Suarez, Oezil early candidates as star of 2010

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Diego Maradona, Salvatore Schillaci, Zinedine Zidane. At almost every World Cup, there’s one man whose burst of outstanding play captivates the globe.

At this year’s competition in South Africa, the early candidates are Gonzalo Higuain of Argentina, Luis Suarez of Uruguay, Mesut Oezil of Germany and Spain’s David Villa. All four have led their teams so far, and could be the ones to push their teammates all the way.

It is what makes the World Cup so special. Within a month, players can burst from the fringes of popular consciousness to center stage.

Few people outside Italy knew of Schillaci before the 1990 World Cup but the reserve striker ended up as the leading scorer with six goals, dragging the host nation to just one penalty shootout from reaching the final in Rome.

The leading scorer in South Africa is Higuain, who has four goals, three in one game against South Korea. He’s benefited from the attention opponents have paid teammate Lionel Messi, the 2009 world player of the year. But he’s also been opportunistic.

Uruguay had not been to the quarterfinals of the World Cup since 1970, but Suarez led it there with his third goal of the tournament for a 2-1 win over South Korea.

“Fortunately, Suarez was able to score that spectacular winning goal,” coach Oscar Tabarez said.

On Tuesday in Cape Town, Portugal plays Spain.

With Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal and Fernando Torres, Xavi Hernandez and Villa available for Spain, the game will have plenty of potentially defining players. Villa has played well and scored spectacularly, but Ronaldo and Torres have yet to play at their peaks here.

“I’m still missing something. I notice I can’t give it all but it’s not easy to return from an operation,” said Torres, who is returning only to action after right knee surgery in April. “I need some time to be 100 percent.”

Ronaldo has less of an excuse and Portugal has been more impressive as a collective group than its star player has been as an individual.

At least, Ronaldo still has a shot at it. So many people expected Wayne Rooney to shine but after four bad games in a row for England, he is heading home after a 4-1 second-round loss to Germany. His performances were well below the form he showed for Manchester United this season.

Oezil, meanwhile, has played with vision and wisdom belying his 21 years for Germany. Together with Thomas Mueller, who scored twice on Sunday, they were responsible for England’s humiliation.

The World Cup was seemingly set up for Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o to shine. It was the first time Africa hosted football’s marquee tournament, and banners bore his likeness to market the event. Yet he was out when the first round was over.

“There’s no point blaming one person or another,” Eto’o said. Many, though, will remember his spat with former Cameroon great Roger Milla, who rebuked the striker for failing to reproduce his club form with the national team.

For at least another four years, Milla will continue to tower over Eto’o in the minds of fans for leading Cameroon to the quarterfinals in 1990 and putting Africa on the World Cup map.

Like Eto’o, Chelsea’s Didier Drogba also failed to shine until late for Ivory Coast, although the broken right arm he sustained just ahead of the World Cup is a big excuse.

But some players are living up to the hype.

Coming into the World Cup, Messi had been criticized for producing for Barcelona but not Argentina. Once in South Africa, though, failing to get on the scoresheet has been the only flaw in an otherwise impeccable performance.

“No one has played even at 40 percent of the level Messi played the other day,” coach Maradona said of Messi’s performance in the opening 1-0 win over Nigeria. “He needed a game like that, to be a charismatic leader with his teammates.”

Maradona knows what it takes in that role.

In 1986, he was at the peak of his talent and made the World Cup his own with some of the greatest goals in history against England and Belgium. He then set up the decider in the 3-2 final win against Germany.

The name of the Argentine great has been synonymous with that World Cup ever since.

In 1990, he led an inferior Argentina team but yet again had the presence to lead them to the final against all odds, losing to Germany on a belated penalty.

This year, the race for the defining figure in a World Cup full of surprises is still wide open. Ajax’s Suarez already has three goals and it will be tough to see a more thrilling one than his match-winner in the second round against South Korea.

He sidestepped two defenders in the driving rain and struck a right-foot shot from the edge of the area that curled just enough to beat the goalkeeper.

“Being young, I always dream of these types of moments,” the 23-year-old forward said. “These moments we’re experiencing are once in a lifetime.”