(Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Luis Suarez, Uruguay

As it turns out, inflicting mental anguish upon Ghana and challenging everyone's concept of "playing within the rules" in the 2010 World Cup by getting sent off for committing an intentional handball on the goal line that led to a missed penalty and Uruguay advancing to the semifinals has been one of the least controversial things Luis Suarez has done in the last four years. Since then, he's been banned for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, and he's bitten an opponent in an eruption of animalistic rage for the second time in his career. This amongst other handballs and dives and assorted acts of violence. The longstanding rumor that he blooded a referee with a headbutt when he was 15 years old even prompted an investigation by ESPN's Wright Thompson.

But since returning from his most recent ban for biting another human being while playing, Suarez has buried that past horribleness in an avalanche of goals, pushing Liverpool from seventh to second in the Premier League by scoring a record-matching 31 goals in just 33 appearances. He recently told Sports Illustrated that he's in the midst of trying to change his "bad boy image," but after weathering the painful emotions of narrowly missing out on the Premier League title last month and then being hobbled by a knee injury, can he remain in control under the intense pressure of the World Cup? Or will he score a hat trick against England and then literally eat someone?