Lily Mayantar

Lily Mayantar is arguably the most famous name in West Ariddian sport; certainly, she was voted the Ariddians' favourite West Ariddian personality ever.

Mayantar is quite possibly the best football player her homeland has ever known. She was part of the West Ariddian national football team on the two occurrences when her country took part in the World Cup. In World Cup 8, West Ariddia failed to qualify, but in World Cup 9 the team scraped through... and was promptly thrashed, losing all three of its matches in Group G.

In World Cup 10, the Ariddian Isles presented a unified Ariddian team - officially, a team for Ariddia containing a few players from the other two Ariddian states. Mayantar was one of three West Ariddians to take part. The team qualified, topped Group D, and made it all the way to the semi-finals, before snatching the overall third place. Mayantar competed again in World Cup 11, as Lily Mayantar-Lejeune, having married in the meantime. At this point, she was no longer a substitute goalkeeper, but was instead entrusted with the post of main goalkeeper, much to her joy and that of her home nation. A West Ariddian holding such an important position in Ariddia's national team was a testimony not only to the good relations between the two enemy countries, but also to Mayantar's skill.

World Cup 11 saw Ariddia top its qualifying group, with no matches lost and only five goals conceded (in fourteen games), which only endeared Mayantar further to fans throughout the Ariddian Isles. The team then fell in the first round of the final stages.

With her glory days on the international scene over, Mayantar played and coached in West Ariddian teams for a while, then used the considerable wealth she had acquired throughout her career to fund charitable organisations to help the numerous poor in West Ariddia. She eventually bought a large, abandoned hospital in the town of Tliraj, and turned it into a welcoming centre for the poor. She gave them a feee roof over their heads, and payed for many people to be fed and given professional training.

Lily Mayantar was a fairly tall, dark-skinned woman with shoulder-length dark hair. She died at the age of 103, the year after World Cup 28, but she is still remembered with gratitude by thousands of fans... and all those she helped after her career as a football star.

Mayantar's Ariddian great-grandson, Cyril Lange, plays for Querzakhi United in Commerce Heights, and played for the Ariddian national team from World Cup 26 to World Cup 29 included.