The world’s finest World Cup footballers have been put in a new light by a Glasgow artist.

Cartoonist Chris Sommerville has drawn caricatures of stars such as Pele, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane, Ferenc Puskas and our own Kenny Dalglish for a new book.

All those in the book, from players to managers and referees, have taken part in the World Cup over the years.

“My passions are caricatures and football and I thought the book would allow me to combine the two,” said Chris.

“It was a labour of love to begin with, more than two years ago. But as the number of drawings increased I thought, ‘This will make a fantastic wee book’.”

The project continued with contributions from four of his colleagues – Tommy Sommer­ville, Derek Gray, Terry Anderson and Brian Flynn – at the Scottish Cartoon Art Studio in Mount Vernon, which Chris set up in 1999.

Chris also had to decide which World Cup would be the best starting point for the book. He knew there would be little point in going back to the first tournament in 1930.

“If you caricatured anyone from that era nobody today would know them. The earliest player in the book is Ferenc Puskas.” The Hungarian

legend starred in the 1954 competition and also netted four goals in Real Madrid’s 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup Final at Hampden.

“I picked 24 international teams who have featured in the World Cup between 1954 and 2010 and there are two star players from each team.”

Other big names featured include Eusebio (Portugal), Roberto Baggio (Italy), Michel Platini (France) and Archie Gemmill, for his stunning Scots goal against Holland in 1978.

The book will be launched at the end of September. To order, see www.blurb.co.uk. It’s £14.95 for a soft-cover version and £22.95 for the hardback.