David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham was born on May 2, 1975, in Leytonstone, East London, England. His father Ted Beckham was a kitchen fitter and mother Sandra West, a hairdresser. He wears a tattoo written in Hebrew from the ‘Song of Songs’ in the Hebrew Bible, he didn’t practice any faith. He always uses to play long sleeve shirts that might others feel uncomfortable due to tattoos and any other religious belief.
Beckham is the most favorite athletes in the Britain and an elite global advertising brand. Beckham captained English national team from 2002-2006. He played for many clubs as midfield player in Manchester, England and Madrid, Spain. Last contract was with the Los Angeles Galaxy team for five year started at July 1, 2007.
Read MoreLilian Thuram
Ruddy Lilian Thuram-Ulien famous as Lillian Thuram was born on 1 January 1972 in Pointe-à-Pitre Guadeloupe. He is an ex-professional football defender and is the most capped player in the history of the France national team of all times.Most appearances also have been recorded by Thuram which is 16 times at European Championship.
He got the experience of working with different senior football clubs. In 1991 he joined AS Monaco of the French Ligue1, later started moving firstly, to Parama F.C. 1996-2001 and then Juventus for £25 million 2001 – 2006 and 2006 – 2008 to Barcelona. His Italian experience was with together with the Juventus. He earned 4 Italian Scudetti. Thuram announced his retirement from his professional Soccer career in 2008, when a heart defect took the life of his brother.
1998, winning the title of World Champion, he became an essential part of the France’s triumph at Euro 2000. It was Thuram’s efforts the team was ranked the number one by FIFA for the year of 2001-2002. He was a part of 2002 and 2006’s World Cup and Euro 1996, 2004 and 2008.
He is known as the best defender of all the time but he scored two international goals in the same game of the semi finals against Croatia in the 1998 World Cup. Thumas secured the Bronze Ball as the third most valuable player of the tournament.
Thomas played against the Romania in a group match on 9th June 2008 and he became the very first player who was giving his 15th appearance in the finals of the UEFA European Championship. 14 appearance record previously were having by Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Karel Poborsky. He played games and raised his appearances to 16.
“Thuram has written a book called “My Black Stars” that discussed inspirational people
of color who have inspired him. In recent comments published by the Milan sports daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Thuram painted Italian society in a pejorative light.”
“Racist Italy”
“In Italy there is racism. Italian society is racist” says Thuram to explain the racist chants hurled at Mario Balotelli of Inter Milan by supporters at many Italian grounds.
“It needs to be pointed out what the Juventus supporters said,” stated Thuram at a press conference. “That a black man can’t be Italian. The racism that is found in Italian football is the racism that is present in society.”
Read More19. Roberto Carlos
Roberto Carlos da Silva, born on April 10, 1973 in a niche Brazilian town of the Harz. He had three sisters, they use to sleep in a single room. His father was a truck driver and his mother take care of the children. Though they were suffering poor conditions but they all were happy. At the age of three, first ball was given to him and throughout his childhood he used to play in the yard with his friends.
Carlos played in the midfield at the age of 14, but at that time coach advised him you would like to utilize your speed in protecting rather than the midfield, since that day he is playing at the same place.
His first professional club appearance was for the “Unio Sao Paulo” and became a part of Brazilian Olympic team at the age of 18. Many were shock in his first match against the Sao Paulo he scored a fantastic goal in a distant nine. In 1995 World Cup held in America, team was lacking of Left-back position. Roberto Carlos was new at that time, it was a great opportunity for a famous team in a great cup, he played all the matches and later the World Cup known as the Super Star. Time showed some more talent of Robert, as the left-back along with the Rivaldo and Ronaldo at France 98.
Carlos also played for the Italian club, Inter Milan. Scored five goals in his first 30 games which was quite good as a defender. Later was Real Madrid paid less than five million dollars for him. He was the first Brazilian national team player, who wore the white T-shirt “Real” means he was lacking in Italy. Roberto showed exceptional qualities in the Spanish league matches on his position which considered best. Since Roberto Carlos’s first appearance at Madrid stadium “Santiago Bernabeu” fans “Royal Club” admitted his worth, and he became the most popular player of “Real”.
At Real, Carlos was a part of 11 seasons, he scored 47 league goals in 370 matches. Roberto Carlos’s maximum goals on Free kicks, full on, power-up, straight through the wall shots. For the first few seasons he was only a free- kick taker but it just reduced when the the Frenchman Zidane and the Englishman Beckham came to the squad and were excellent in the free kicks.
A 35 meter free kick that went flying with a physics-defying curve to hit the post and go in the goal was voted the Free Kick of the Century and the other one goal which was famous , a volley taken from the corner flag that went straight in the back of the net, for whom you may not believe at the first sight.
Read More3. Maradona
Diego Armando Maradona was born on 30th October 1960 Villa Fiorito, near Buenos Aires, Argentina. He belongs to a poor family and was the first son after the three daughters. Two of his younger brother’s Hugo and Eduardo, both were also professional football players. They had very low budget even that they could buy a ball for their younger kids.
Luckily, some other street kids could afford one and invited Maradona to play with them, from that times he proved that he is enough talented to go ahead. He was offered a place in the youth squad of Argentinos Juniors at the age of 10 only.
He was shorter than most of his other teammates who was grew up. He could fire up short sprints and could control the ball in a very quick manner due to his strong legs. That made him debut to the Argentinos Junior in 1976 and played for more 5 years for the team before he moved to, Boca Juniors.
Maradona was called to the 1982’s world cup when constantly he was giving best for the Boca junior. He just put all them amaze, that a young Argentinean played 5 matches and scored twice against Hungary.
His unforgettable performance in 1982 World Cup gave him chance to play for the FC Barcelona, who eventually bought him from Boca. People were hoping for but he suffered a lot of injuries in that series. He moved to an Italian mediocre team, SSC Napoli. That was a place he just became at its highest point, he managed this mid-table team to win its first championship in 1986/87, then runners up for the next two seasons as well before winning the “Scudetto” again in 1989/1990.
In 1986, he remained one of the star of the World Cup. He captained the Argentinean National squad. He scored 5 goals and had 5 assists throughout the tournament. In quarter finals against England he scored a goal, viewed as “Goal of the century.”
As he was switching teams due to which he lost his spark, as moved from Napoli to FC Selvilla in 1992, then to Argentinean side Newell’s Old Boys in 1993 and then back to Boca Junior and played for two more years.
He captained his national side in Italy’s 1990 World Cup. Argentina was close to defend but an ankle injury did not allow him to perform his best and they lost final’s from West Germany 1-0. He played his last World Cup in 1994 help in the United States, he jus managed two games only and sent back to home after failing a controversial Drug test. He became a part of that group of people who was a there at every World Cup organized in 4 different Countries. In his career for Argentine he did 34 goals in 91 games during 1977 – 1994.
Read More2. Pele
It seems that God brought me to Earth with a mission to play soccer,
Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (Pele).
Edson Arantes Do Nascimento (known as Pele) is a living legend and the great soccer player. He was born on October 23, 1940 at Tres Coracos, Brazil, belongs to a very poor family his parents, Dondinho and Celeste Nascimento called Edson “Dico,” growing up.
Childhood: His father Dondinho, was a center forward player until he got a leg fractured. He learned his first game from his game. Pale started playing from a local minor club when he was a teenager. In his early age he shined shoes for pennies. Waldemar de Brito country’s premier player discovered him at the age of 11. He said “This boy will be the greatest soccer player in the world.”
Waldemar de Brito was right and Pele showed his talent on his first appearance for the team. He scored his first goal at the age of 16 against the Corinthians F.C.
International Career: Pele played four World Cups from the side of Brazil’s National Team. He just missed 1958’s World Cup in Sweden due to knee Injury. Pele scored six goals from which two was in the final game for the Brazil’s win over Sweden by 5-2. Pele was only 17, but a legend was born. After four years he was willing to play the finals in Chile but an injury made him disable to play for the Brazil to struggle for the win of second title.
Pele was blessed with all the things which a player should have, speed, great balance, excellent vision and the ability to control the ball in a superb way. He was having the ability to shoot accurately either with the foot or with the head. Government of Brazil declared him an official National treasure, so that they could keep him in their country rather he moves to somewhere else.
Mexico 1970’s, in the finals he scored a fantastic goal and wrote the history of winning a final match for 4-1. It was a third win of Brazil’s team and 100 World Cup goals to remember. Later Pele said I have a special kind of feelings about that he said “My father was a soccer player and once scored five goals in a game, all with his head. That was one record I was never able to break.”
Pele’s statistical analysis is amazing, he scored 1,280 in 1360 games. He is second from another Brazilian Arhtur Friedenreich, who recorded 1,329 goals. According to this average he scored in every international game he played. His statics are really amazing while comparing it to any good player of this time scoring 30 goals in a season.
In 1974 he retired from his international career, but at the same time he played from the North American League for two years for the worth of US$ 7 million. This contract just made him the highest paid soccer player of the North American Soccer League. His appearance in North American soccer League got the credit to people aware of the sports. He said “he came out of retirement, not for the money, but to “make soccer truly popular in the United States.”
Pelé was named second for the “Sportsman of the Century” award in 2000 as the legendary Muhammad Ali got the honors.
Read More1. Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane famous as (Zidane) was born June 23, 1972, in Marseille, France youngest one from five siblings. His parents Ismail and Malika were Algerian. His bringing-up was hard due to immigration. He is a retired French footballer but always regarded the best player of all the times all around the globe. Zidane became the symbolic person for the French football generation after winning the World cup of 1998 and European Championship of 2000.
He took retirement from his international career and came back to his national team again in 2005. He captained his team in 2006 World cup and nominated as the turnamets most out standing player and got the Golden ball title. He Real madrid is holding some other titles like La Liga and UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid. After 2006 world cup he took retirement from his professional career. These days he is acting as the Director of Football of Real Madrid where previously was Jorge Valdano.
Childhood: He was spotted by the a Cannes scout playing in a youth tournament at the age of 14 only. They invited him for a trail and were converted into a four years contract. He played his debut match as a 17 years old boy. 1991, 8th February was the best day of his life when he scored his goal and rewarded a car, because it helped the team to qualify for the Uefa Cup of that season.
In 1992, Zidane signed by the Bordeaux and win the Intertoto cup of 1995 and runners up of Uefa Cup 1995-1996.
A Move: Zidane moved to Juventus winners of UEFA Champions league in 1996 for a fee of £3.2 million. The team won the 1996 International Cup and 1996-1997 Series A but unfortunately lost the finals of Champions league. In the season he netted 7 goals in the league of 32 matches to help Juventus for the win of Series A 1997-1998. Zidane was banned in Champions’ League group stage for the head butting. He was named the “Series A Foreign Footballer if the Year” for the second time.
Real Madrid: Zidane moved to Real Madrid for US$64.6 million which made him the most expensive player of the football game at that time. It was a tough time for him but his performances overpower the Spanish supporters as he fitted into the new surroundings.
He did his life’s best goal in the Champions League final 2002 against the Bayer Laverkusen at Glasgow which is memorable all the time.
He picked up his third world player award after an out standing performance in 2003.
International Career:
Zidane helped France to the semi-finals of Euro 1996 which was a great effort. Zidane did well in 1998 World Cup; his two goals in the final against Brazil won Les Bleus the tournament on home turf.
Zidane would also help them to win Euro 2004 in the Netherlands and Belgium, but unfortunately will be remembered due to his head-butt on Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final against Italy.
Later on in the year, Materazzi revealed what he had said to provoke the head-butt and subsequent red card for Zidane. “I was tugging his shirt, he said to me ‘if you want my shirt so much I’ll give it to you afterwards,’ I answered that I’d prefer his sister,” he was quoted as saying on the BBC Sport website.
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