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Monday, September 27, 2010
Lionel Messi Biography
Getting more and more match experience, he slowly earned a solid place in the first team and his pace, passing and goal scoring ability earned him standing ovations wherever he would play, especially a memorable one in a match against Udinese in the UEFA Champions League on Nou Camp, where Messi single-handedly won 
Biography of Pele – Early Career
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As it was not yet the era of Brazilian players running for European careers, Pele remained at Santos for almost 20 years, time in which he scored (read carefully) 1087 goals in 1120 matches. Even if you're not that good at maths, I'm sure you can acknowledge that as an astonishing goal per match ratio.
Biography of Pele – 1000th Goal
One of the milestones in the history of Pele was definitely his 1000th goal scored in all competitions. It was both a highly anticipated moment and an emotional one. On November 19th, 1969 Pele already had scored 999 goals in his career, either for Santos or Brazil's national team. Playing on the Maracana Stadium, Brazil's "cathedral of soccer", against arch-rivals Vasco Da Gama, Pele managed to score from a penalty kick and broke all records standing in front of him.
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Biography of Pele – National Team and Records -
>> He became the most prolific striker in Brazil's history, with 77 goals in 92 matches.
>> Pele, the footballer who used to shine shoes in order to raise money for a real soccer ball, scored 12 goals in different World Cup matches, being beaten only by Ronaldo.
>> He is considered by FIFA the most prolific scorer in soccer history, with 1281 goals in 1363 matches in all competitions.
>> He is one of the few players to achieve the performance of scoring in two different World Cup finals, sharing this record with Paul Breitner, Vava and Zinedine Zidane.
Cristiano Ronaldo Biography
Name Confusions - Usually, the name of Ronaldo, at least in soccer, was firmly tied to the Brazilian striker, as he was immensely renowned after winning almost anything a footballer could dream of winning.
However, entering a poorer period of his career at Real Madrid, Ronaldo slowly began to succumb and young Cristiano Ronaldo was there to grab the name for his own.
However, entering a poorer period of his career at Real Madrid, Ronaldo slowly began to succumb and young Cristiano Ronaldo was there to grab the name for his own.
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Cristiano Ronaldo Biography – Sporting
Receiving first-class instruction at Sporting's Alcochete youth academy, Cristiano Ronaldo's skills quickly drew the eyes of first squad manager Ladislau Boloni, who took him to the senior team at 17 years of age, together with his youth team colleagues, Ricardo Quaresma and Hugo Viana.
Cristiano Ronaldo Biography – Manchester United
As if the pressure of moving to such a big club as Manchester United, combined with the hardship of adapting to a new country, a new language and a new soccer style, Cristiano Ronaldo was also given the extra-pressure of having to wear the red number 7 shirt, formerly owned by Man U legends such as George Bet, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona or David Beckham.
Although his career is still at an early stage, Cristiano Ronaldo's skills on the wing already earned him a lot of fans throughout the World as he is widely considered the most technical player in the World at this point, in competition with FC Barcelona's Ronaldinho. However, he also attracted several boos and jeers across many stadiums, being considered a tricky player that tends to cheat and dive a lot.
Most notably, an incident at the 2006 World Cup in Germany almost ended his career at Manchester, when he encouraged the referee of the Portugal – England game to give a red card to his Man U colleague, Wayne Rooney, after an vicious foul from Rooney (Click here to play a funny online game dedicated to that incident).
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Zinedine Zidane headbutt
Although considered a talented player even since he was a youngster, no one thought of Zinedine Zidane as a serious contender to Michel Platini's position as the best player in France's history. Platini, who lead France in two World Cup semi-finals in 1982 and 1986 and won the European Championship in 1984, France's first trophy until recently. However, the World was up for a surprise, as Zinedine Zidane had an outburst of skill and managed to place a serious mark wherever he played, as well as leading France to winning their first World Cup in 1998, their second European Championship in 2000 and lead France to a new World Cup final recently, as they lost against Italy in 2006, a final marked by the famous "Zinedine Zidane headbutt" incident, that you probably saw on TV over and over again (but we'll talk about that in a bit).
Rooney With Team-mate
(born 24 October 1985 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English footballer who currently plays for English Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team. His transfer fee from Everton still stands as the highest ever paid for a teenager. He is regarded as one of the best young forwards in the world [1]
Biography
Rooney was brought up in Croxteth, Liverpool, with a working-class family and attended the De La Salle School from 1997 until 2002. He has two younger brothers who later attended the school. Rooney grew up supporting Everton, and his childhood hero was Scottish striker Duncan Ferguson. Rooney first appeared for Everton in the youth team, and during his time there, after scoring a wonder-goal in the FA Youth Cup, he revealed a T-shirt under his jersey that read "Once a blue, Always a blue". [2] However, he would end up playing just two seasons in the Everton first team before demanding, and then executing, a transfer. This has left him on unfavourable terms with Everton fans, and this showed when he returned to Goodison Park and was booed severely.[3]
Rooney has been under an intense media spotlight since first arriving on the scene in the autumn of 2002, particularly coming to the public's notice on 19 October 2002 when he scored a memorable goal against title-holders Arsenal, ending a run of 15 matches unbeaten (arsenal). Receiving the ball some 10 yards outside the 18-yard box, Rooney brought it down firing it into the top left-hand corner of the goal, beating England keeper David Seaman and giving Everton a late 2-1 victory at Goodison Park.[4] This goal provoked Clive Tyldesley, the match commentator, to exclaim "Remember the name: Wayne Rooney!". Rooney was five days short of his 17th birthday when he scored the goal, making him the youngest ever goalscorer in the Premiership at the time. Rooney gained a huge reputation on the world stage due to his performance at Euro 2004, as he spearheaded the English attack, scoring four goals in three group games.
Career
Everton
After excelling for Liverpool Schoolboys and The Dynamo Brownwings, Rooney was signed by Everton shortly before his 11th birthday.[5] Rooney gained national prominence on the 19th of October 2002 when he became the youngest goal scorer in the history of the Premier League at 16 years and 360 days while playing for Everton (though this record has since been surpassed twice by James Milner and current record holder James Vaughan). His goal against then-champions Arsenal was a last-minute winner and brought to an end the London side's 30-match unbeaten run. At the end of 2002 he won the BBC Sports Young Personality of the Year.
Transfer
Before turning 17 and becoming eligible for a professional contract, he was playing for £80 a week and living with his family on one of the country's most troubled council estates. His salary has gradually soared and Rooney now earns more than £130,000 a week. Following intense media coverage of Rooney at Euro 2004, Everton claimed that they would not transfer his contract for less than £50 million. The club offered Rooney a new contract for £12,000 a week for three years. This, however, was turned down by Rooney's agent on the 27 August 2004, leaving Manchester United and Newcastle United to compete for his signature.
The Times newspaper reported that Newcastle were close to signing the young star for £18.5 million, a fact later confirmed by Rooney's agent. Manchester United, however, were the successful club in signing the young talent. Rooney handed in a transfer request to Everton and on the evening of 31 August 2004, Rooney signed for Manchester United after a deal worth around £31 million (£49 million including wages) was agreed. The deal was concluded just hours before the transfer deadline.
The initial fee of £23m was paid to Everton over two years; the rest of the money depends on appearances and/or success at Manchester United and/or England. It is realistic that the fee will reach the maximum £31m within the next 3 years. A final fee in the region of £30m plus costs is more likely. In the club's 2004-05 accounts, Rooney's contract is recorded as having a book cost of £25.066 million as at 30 June 2005, with contingent payables of £4 million, giving a maximum final fee of £29.066 million including costs.[6]
Rooney's transfer fee is the second highest for an exclusively British deal, with only his Manchester United team-mate Rio Ferdinand commanding a higher fee. Rooney does, however, have the honour of being the most expensive teenage footballer ever, being a few weeks short of his 19th birthday when Manchester United signed him.[7]
Manchester United
Rooney made his debut for Manchester United on 28 September 2004 in the UEFA Champions League against Fenerbahçe, scoring a hat-trick and also an assist (the match finished in a 6-2 win for United).[8] For the 2005-06 season, Rooney initially started playing in wider positions than his more favoured central role. Eventually, after Manchester United's poor run of form early in the season, Sir Alex Ferguson moved him back to his stronger position, playing behind Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy as a second striker. He got his first professional Winners Medal in the 2006 English League Cup. He was also named Man of the Match in the League Cup final against Wigan Athletic, after scoring two goals in the final (a 4-0 victory for United), en route to winning his first senior medal. He was also a member of the United side defeated in the 2005 FA Cup Final by Arsenal. He captained Manchester United for the first time in a home Champions League match against Copenhagen on 17 October 2006, becoming probably the youngest captain in the clubs' history.[9] On 26 November 2006 he signed a two-year extension to his contract, which will keep him at Old Trafford until at least 2012; the contract extension negotiations only took one month, which was interpreted as showing how keen both sides were to conclude the extension.
During the first half of the 2006-7 season, Rooney went 10 games without a goal before scoring a hat-trick against Bolton. Nevertheless, as of February 2007 he was the top English goalscorer in the Premiership, and had received significantly fewer bookings than in previous seasons. In the FA Cup tie against Portsmouth, Rooney came on as a substitute and scored two goals, one of which was a 25-yard chip over goalkeeper David James, and soon after scored two of United's four goals in the derby against Bolton. Rooney scored his first goal for two-and-a-half years in Europe in a 2-1 defeat to A.S. Roma on 4 April 2007 in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League. His scoring in the tournament continued in the quarter-final second leg against Roma and the semi-final first leg on, when he scored two goals in the 3-2 victory over A.C. Milan, the second a low first-time drive into the bottom right-hand corner.[10] By the end of April, Rooney had scored 23 goals for his team in all competitions, putting him level with team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of goals scored in all competitions in the 2006-07 season.
On 30 June 2007, it was announced that Rooney would take over the number 10 shirt vacated by Ruud van Nistelrooy when he left for Real Madrid just over a year earlier. He was formally presented with the shirt by former United and Scotland striker Denis Law, who famously wore the number during his prolific spell with the club.[11]
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