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Lionel Messi
March 23, 2009
In the 2003-2004 season, when he was still only 16, Messi made his first team debut in a friendly with Porto that marked the opening of the new Dragao stadium. The following championship-winning season, Messi made his first appearance in an official match on October 16, 2004, in Barcelona’s derby win against Espanyol at the Olympic Stadium (0-1).
He was offered the chance to play for the Spain national football team, but declined, prefering to wait for the opportunity to play for the country of his birth. In June 2004 he got his chance, playing in a U-20 friendly match against Paraguay.
Messi picked up the Golden Boot as top scorer with 6 goals, and the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament. Despite his youth, Lionel has already drawn comparisons with Diego Maradona, arguably the best football player of all time.Owen Hargreaves
March 17, 2009Owen Lee Hargreaves (born 20 January 1981 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) is a professional footballer who plays predominantly in midfield, but has been known to fill in at right-back for Bayern Munich and England.
Background
Hargreaves is the youngest of three children born to Margaret and Colin Hargreaves who had emigrated to Canada at the start of the eighties from Great Britain. His father played football for the Bolton Wanderers youth side and also for the Calgary Kickers of the Canadian Soccer League. He has two brothers, Darren and Neil. His eldest brother, Darren, represented Canada at youth level.
FC Bayern Munich
Owen Hargreaves moved at the age of sixteen from Calgary Foothills to FC Bayern Munich on 1 July 1997. Hargreaves played in the Under-19 team for two and a half years before spending six months with the Amateur team. Whilst with the Under 19s the team reached the Final of the German Championship in 1998. They lost in the Final to Borussia Dortmund, but only after a penalty shoot-out in Dortmund’s Rote-Erde Stadium.
On August 12, 2000, Hargreaves played in his first Bundesliga match, making an appearance as a substitute for Carsten Jancker in the 83rd minute. His first start came against SpVgg Unterhaching on September 16 of the same year. That season proved to be a triumphant one for Bayern Munich; the club were Bundesliga champions and also claimed the Champions League crown. Hargreaves’s performances in the Champions League semi final against Real Madrid put him in the international spotlight as he showed he was capable of holding his own against the likes of Roberto Carlos and LuÃs Figo.
In the 2001/2002 season Hargreaves established himself as a first team regular, making 46 appearances in all. In spite of setbacks for the club in the form of a third place finish in the Bundesliga, a quarter final appearance in the Champions League and a Cup defeat by Schalke 04, the season proved to be a decisive one for Hargreaves as he emerged as a key player of the team.
2002/2003 saw Hargreaves celebrate another domestic success as Bayern won the Bundesliga title and the DFB Cup. On January 26, 2003, Hargreaves scored his first Bundesliga goal in the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Unfortunately, the season also saw him out injured on three separate occasions. In September he tore a thigh muscle, then in October a calf muscle. Towards the end of the season adductor problems meant he missed a further three weeks. He racked up 25 Bundesliga appearances, 4 Cup games and 3 matches in the Champions League.
The 2003/2004 season was Hargreaves’ first with Bayern without winning any silverware. After clinching the double the year before, the Munich side finished second in the Bundesliga, and were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid. Hargreaves made a total of 38 appearances for the club in this season.
In 2004/05 he picked up another German championship and DFB Cup. He had 27 appearances in the Bundesliga (1 goal), played in 3 Cup games (2 goals)and 8 Champions League games.
In the 2005/06 season, he added another Bundesliga and Cup title. He had 15 (1 goal) league, 4 (2) cup and 3 CL appearances. His Bundesliga goal was the first of the season.
In October 2005, he extended his contract at Bayern for another four years which will keep him at the club until 2010.
In the 2006/2007 Hargreaves was unfortunate enough to break his leg which has kept him out of most of Bayern Munich’s league campaign this term. But he recovered in time to help Bayern knock out Real Madrid in the Champions League with an aggregate score of 4-4, with Bayern going through on away goals thank to their 3-2 defeat in the first leg at Madrid’s Bernabéu.
Hargreaves was the subject of transfer speculation for much of the 2006/2007 season, with Manchester United leading the pack to acquire his signature. Hargreaves indicated a desire to return to England, but Bayern’s management felt he should honor his 4 year contract. However, in April 2007, Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer showed signs of relenting, stating “If it is right there is an offer of 25-30m euros (£17-20m), then I would seriously consider it.”
International career
Hargreaves was eligible to play international football for any one of the Home nations[1][2] or for Canada, and had he not accepted selection at the time he did, would soon have been eligible for Germany under residency rules. On August 31, 2000, the then England under-21 manager, Howard Wilkinson called the 19-year-old into his squad for the match against Georgia. The game, played at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, ended in a 6-1 win for the home team. Further appearances for the Under-21s followed in friendlies against Italy and Spain.
Hargreaves’s international commitment to England was sealed when he first played a full international game on August 15, 2001 against the Netherlands at White Hart Lane. Hargreaves was the only player plying his trade outside the Premier League to be selected for England’s 2002 FIFA World Cup squad. Hargreaves was injured after just fifteen minutes of England’s second Group game against Argentina and had to be substituted.
Although he had not usually been part of the first choice team, he was selected for the England squads at Euro 2004 in Portugal and the 2006 World Cup in Germany despite criticism from sections of the press and public. The generally negative perception of him by English fans had not been helped by his seeming to have an essence of “German-ness”,[3] exacerbated by his German / Canadian accent. His entry into England’s first match of the 2006 World Cup as a substitute prompted vocal abuse from a number of England fans. However, in a tournament in which England were generally regarded as having underachieved, he was, by the end of England’s participation, widely considered one of the few successes of the English squad, and he was named “Man of the Match” in the quarter final against Portugal, the game in which England were eliminated after a penalty shootout, Hargreaves having been the only successful English penalty taker.
He continued his rise in the eyes of English supporters in picking up the Man of the Match award in England’s 4-0 win over Greece on 18 August 2006, where he first took over the number seven shirt of former captain David Beckham. On 30 January 2007 he was voted England Player of the Year 2006, as voted for by visitors to the Official FA site
source
Wayen Rooney
March 17, 2009Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985 in Liverpool) is an English footballer. He currently plays for the English Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team. He normally played as a second striker to Ruud van Nistelrooy for his club team before van Nistelrooy’s move to Real Madrid, although during 2005-06, he showed his versatility as a player by shifting to the midfield and playing on both flanks. He wears number 8 for Manchester United and wears number 9 the English national team.
Rooney was brought up in an urban area of eastern Liverpool called Croxteth, where he and his two brothers attended the local De La Salle Catholic School.
His boyhood team was always Everton; his love for his home town club was famously bore out when he wore a T-shirt reading “Once a blue, Always a blue”. However, he would end up playing just two seasons with Everton before demanding, and then executing, a transfer. This has left him on unfavourable terms with Everton fans, as they showed when he returned to Goodison Park and he was booed severely.
Although he has been under an intense media spotlight since first arriving on the scene in 2002, it was not until his performances at Euro 2004 that he gained a reputation on the world stage, as he spearheaded the English attack, scoring four goals. Rooney is also on the cover of the FIFA 07 video game in the United Kingdom.
Rooney has also been compared to George Best and Paul Gascoigne in terms of talent.[4]
Wayne Rooney in the Premiership
After excelling for Liverpool Schoolboys and The Dynamo Brownwings, Rooney was signed by Everton shortly before his 11th birthday. 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). 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 award. On 26 December 2002 he “achieved” the record of becoming the youngest player ever to be sent off in a Premiership game. This is also his only standing record in the Everton books.
National team career
He has also figured prominently in recent England international matches, after having become the youngest ever player to play for England, in a friendly against Australia, on 12 February 2003, aged 17 years, 111 days. This record has since been surpassed by Theo Walcott, who came off the bench to play in England’s friendly against Hungary on 30 May 2006. England’s youngest ever player previous to Rooney was James F. M. Prinsep of Clapham Rovers, who made his debut almost one and a quarter centuries before, on 5 April 1879, aged 17 years, 253 days. Rooney is also the youngest England scorer ever (17 years, 317 days).
His reputation as one of the world’s most exciting young players was further enhanced by his impressive performances for England at Euro 2004 in Portugal. At the tournament Rooney became the youngest player ever to score in the UEFA European Football Championships, when on 17 June 2004 he scored twice against Switzerland; although the Swiss player, Johan Vonlanthen, broke this record against France four days later. Unfortunately Rooney was injured early in the quarter final match against Portugal and England were subsequently knocked out on penalties.
World Cup 2006 – Wayne Rooney
There was concern for Rooney’s fitness ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup after the fourth metatarsal on his right foot was broken, possibly in several places, following a seemingly innocuous challenge from Paulo Ferreira during Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat away at Chelsea on 29 April 2006, putting him out of action for an estimated six weeks. This was also the first match he played in the re-branded Nike Total 90 ‘Supremacy’. The boot’s safety went under the spotlight after many considered it unsafe to wear.
A bone scan on 25 May 2006 suggested he would not be expected to return in time for the World Cup group ties, with a decision to be made on his return to training after these games had passed. Shortly afterwards his international manager confirmed he would travel with the squad to Germany, and would return to have another bone scan on 7 June. Ahead of this scan, Wayne claimed to be feeling fine and was “300% confident” of his own fitness. Rooney was reported to be back, doing light training on 2 June, working on kicking the ball and running.
On 7 June, Wayne Rooney had his second scan, with reports saying he would play in the World Cup as he boarded a flight to Baden-Baden to regroup with the England squad.
On 8 June, Sven-Göran Eriksson said that he was “injury free” and that “he just needs to get back his fitness before he can play”. Eriksson hinted at a possible involvement in the later group stage matches and almost certainly, should England progress, in the second round of the competition.
On 15 June, Sven-Göran Eriksson and FA doctors declared Rooney match fit in time for the match against Trinidad & Tobago. Prior to the match there was much speculation as to whether his health would be risked by playing him at this stage; the speculation was ended when he entered the match in the 58th minute, replacing Michael Owen. Although Rooney did not score, England’s fans were keen to see him running with pace (as if he was match fit many weeks before his medical clearance) and making his presence felt on the attack. On 18 June, Eriksson announced that Rooney would be starting England’s next game. Rooney’s rush into play was much to the dismay of his club team, Manchester United, who were concerned that a full recovery would be jeopardised.
On 20 June, Rooney started in the final group match, England against Sweden, helping England to a 2-2 draw.
On 25 June, Rooney once again started in England’s second round game (knock-out rounds) against Ecuador. Although he failed to score, he looked lively and appeared to be fully fit and definitely match fit.
On 1 July, Rooney was sent off in the quarter final against Portugal while fighting for possession with Chelsea and Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho. Rooney appeared to stamp down on Carvalho’s groin and was sent off by referee, Horacio Elizondo. Rooney later announced, through the serialisation of his biography in the Daily Mail, that the stamp on Ricardo Carvalho was unintentional. He became only the third English player to be sent off in a World Cup Finals. Due to his red card, he missed England’s opening Euro 2008 qualifiers against Andorra on 2 September and Macedonia on 6 September
Ryan Giggs
March 14, 2009Ryan Giggs biography
Welsh football player
Soccer player
career
Manchester United 503 (98)
Wales 62 (12)
Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of May 5, 2007.
National team caps and goals correct
as of April 17, 2007.
lonympics biography
Ryan Joseph Giggs
born Ryan Joseph Wilson on 29 November 1973 in Cardiff
Welsh football player. He chas played as a legend for for Man United in the English Premiership. He is one of very few players to have spent their career at the same club, clocking up over 700 appearances for Manchester United. No footballer has won more English Championship medals.
He was born in Wales to father Danny Wilson, noted Rugby League player, and mother Lynne Giggs, but was brought up in Pendlebury, England and speaks with a Mancunian accent. Danny Wilson was of mixed race and Ryan Giggs has always expressed pride at mixed heritage. Wilson’s father is an immigrant from Sierra Leone. His younger brother Rhodri Giggs, also a winger, plays for FC United of Manchester, the non league club set up by disaffected Man United fans after Malcolm Glazer’s takeover of United.
Giggs is Manchester United’s longest serving current player, having made his first appearance for the club during the 1990-91 season and been a regular player since the 1991-92 season. He has played the second highest number of competitive games for the club (second only to Bobby Charlton), and holds the club record of team trophies won by a player (23). Since 1992, he collected nine Premier League winner’s medals, four FA Cup winner’s medals, two League Cup winner’s medals and one Champions League winner’s medal. He also has runners up medals from two FA Cup finals and two League Cup finals, as well as being part of four United teams who have finished second in the league.
Giggs captained England Schoolboys (which all schoolboys in England are eligible to play for, regardless of nationality), but plays for the Welsh national team as an adult. At the time of his debut in 1991, Giggs, still only 17 at the time, was the youngest player to represent his nation at the highest level. He was appointed captain of Wales in 2004.
He also won the PFA Young Player of the Year award twice (1992 and 1993), making the first player to win the award in consecutive years, a feat matched only by Robbie Fowler and current team mate Wayne Rooney. Giggs holds many other records, including that of the top all time scorer in the FA Premier League not to play regularly in the position of striker, and holds the record for scoring Man United’s fastest goal (15 seconds), set in November 1995 against Southampton, and is one of only two players to have scored in every Premiership campaign (Gary Speed being the other). Also, having scored his first European goal of the season in United’s 3-1 victory over Benfica, Giggs became the first player in Champions League history to score in 12 successive seasons.
He also has the honour of scoring Man United’s greatest goal as voted by the fans. The goal in question was scored in the semi final of the FA cup in 1999 against Arsenal where Giggs beat 4 defenders (Lee Dixon twice) to score. Giggs’s squad number for both Manchester United and Wales is 11. He is known affectionately as The Welsh Wizard to the United faithful.
Giggs is currently Vice-Captain at Man United, with Gary Neville the Club Captain.
Giggs began his football career at Man City, having been signed as a 14 year old by the club after being spotted on the streets of Manchester. His mazy dribbling skills would earn him comparisons to players such as George Best, Diego Maradona, and Johan Cruijff.
Giggs’ talent grew in reputation, and thus Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United, went to his house to urge him to sign for Manchester United instead of Manchester City. He persuaded Giggs by waiving YTS forms with the opportunity to turn professional in three years. Giggs ended up signing with Man United.
Similarly, England Under-21 coach Lawrie McMenemy checked to see whether he was eligible to play for the nation. Contrary to popular belief, Giggs could not have played for the full England national side. He was only eligible to play for the English Schools’ team because he went to school there.
In order to play for the England national football team, he would have had to have been born in England or have had English parents or grandparents. However, both his parents and all four grandparents are Welsh. Giggs has often been seen by England supporters as a dream solution to the lack of left-sided English talent for the national team during the 1990s.
A left-sided winger who occasionally plays as a supporting striker for United, Giggs shot to superstardom in Great Britain in 1992 as one of the most exciting talents in the history of the game when he was still a teenager. He earned the tag of Boy Wonder, and in one description by the tabloids, became The boy who converted a million innocent teenage hearts into United fans.
He was arguably the first poster boy to have garnered such attention since the likes of George Best, a player Giggs has been compared to, and who, alongside Bobby Charlton, personally went down to United’s training sessions at the Cliff to watch Giggs play. Giggs’ form in the years to come was impeccable, earning him two PFA Young Player of the Year awards and admirers world-wide. Other world-class players like Roberto Baggio described Giggs as the most exciting British footballer they had seen in years. He was, alongside Steve McManaman, regarded as the leader of a new breed of creative new wingers in the English game that was crucial to its new image.
Superstardom
In 1994, the BBC described Giggs as “one of the most photographed persons” in Great Britain. Giggs or “Giggsy” as he was known, was also hailed as one of the FA Premier League’s biggest stars and could often be found as the picturebook merchandising icon of the league’s early years. He (along with Jamie Redknapp and Lee Sharpe) was part of the league’s attempt to market itself globally, reforging its image after the hooliganism affected years of the 1980s.
Giggs turned professional on his 17th birthday in November 1990 and made his League debut against Everton FC at Old Trafford on 2 March 1991, as a sub for Denis Irwin. Giggs scored his first ever goal in a 1-0 win in a Manchester derby. He collected his first piece of silverware in April 1992 as Utd defeated Nottingham Forest in the League Cup Final, after Giggs had set up Brian McClair to score the only goal of the game.
By the start of the 1992-93 season, the first season of the newly formed FA Premier League, Giggs made the left wing position at United his own, and became known as one of British football’s most prodigious young players. His emergence, and the arrival of Éric Cantona, who later claimed that he had a telepathic understanding with/of Giggs, heralded a dominance of United in the Premier League. His manager was very protective of him, refusing to allow Giggs to be interviewed until he turned 20, eventually granting the first interview to the BBC’s Desmond Lynam for Match of the Day.
Giggs’ ability to consistently dribble past opposing players by using exceptional balance, pace, and skill to beat players he ran at became the most noticeable aspect of his game. Giggs was also renowned for pre meditating celebrations with team mates, such as Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis. He was afforded many opportunities which were not normally offered to footballers at his young age, such as hosting his own tv show, Ryan Giggs’ Soccer Skills, which was a hit with ITV and Granada in 1994.
Ryan Giggs chants often heard from the fans during the Manchester United games include:
“Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Running down the wing, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Can do anything, Feared by the Blues, Loved by the Reds, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs”
and:
“Giggs, Giggs will tear you apart, again”
His goals were constantly on shortlists for Goal of the Season and tended to be memorable, particularly ones against Queens Park Rangers in 1993, Tottenham Hotspur in 1994, Everton in 1995, Coventry City F.C. in 1996, and the most remarkable of all, his amazing solo-goal against Arsenal in the replay of the 1999 FA Cup semi final. During extra time, Giggs picked up possession after Patrick Vieira had given the ball away, then ran from the half way line, dribbling past the whole Arsenal backline, including Tony Adams and Martin Keown before launching his left footed strike just under David Seaman’s bar and beyond him. It has been hailed as one of the best goals ever scored in the competition.
By the late 1990s, with the retirement of Cantona and the emergence of Giggs’ fellow fledgling young colleagues like David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Philip Neville and Nicky Butt, Giggs’s popularity and fame gradually evened out and attention was paid to some of the younger stars, especially Beckham. His football skill was still marked genius, and he developed to a more mature senior player by the time Utd won their record breaking and unprecedented “Treble” in 1999. This achievement aided by Giggs’ form and key contributions in several tournaments. Memorable was his extra time goal in the FA Cup semi final against arch-rivals Arsenal to give United a 2-1 win, and his 90th minute equalizer in the home leg of the Champions League semi-final against Juventus FC.
Giggs set up the equalising goal scored by Teddy Sheringham in the UEFA Champions League final that set Utd on their way to the treble. Giggs was also the man of the match as United beat Palmeiras to claim the Intercontinental Cup that year. He is considered quite simply a Man Utd Legend.
In November 2003, Giggs was mentioned in an episode of The Simpsons, entitled “The Regina Monologues”, which takes place in England. In response to Marge complaining Homer replies, “That was over soccer results. Can you believe they gave Giggs a yellow card in the box?”. Giggs therefore has a distinction of being the only Premiership footballer to be mentioned in the show.
The later years
Giggs was one of United’s most experienced and senior players at Utd when Denis Irwin left, and he become a pivotal part of the club. According to a BBC Sport article in 2003, “the trajectory of Giggs’ United career follows that of a club almost exactly”, underlining his importance to United.
Giggs’s form in the years after the achievements of 1999 were reflective of Man United’s dominance of the English game up until 2003, with Giggs still relishing his left wing slot. Utd won the League title four times within those years, and had always made it to UEFA Champions League Quarter-Finals at the very least. He celebrated his 10-year anniversary at Old Trafford with a testimonial match against Glasgow Celtic at the start of the 2001-02 campaign. A year later, he bagged his 100th career goal in a draw with Chelsea F.C. at Stamford Bridge.
With the departure of David Beckham to Real Madrid before the 2003-04 season, many Utd fans were concerned the team would lose its world class set-piece threat which Beckham provided, at both shooting directly and also creating numerous chances from dead ball situations for his team-mates. On the opening day of the season, with Utd playing Bolton, Giggs had his first free-kick chance from 25 yards out. It should be noted Giggs was very much United’s first choice taker until Beckham emerged; indeed, Giggs’ first goal for Wales was a memorable free-kick itself, against Belgium in 1993. Giggs, out of Beckham’s shadow, curled a wonderfully hit free-kick which went in off the post leaving the goalkeeper helpless. The Utd fans saw irony and chanted ‘David who?’ to Giggs’ obvious amusement. Giggs also got the second in a comfortable 4-0 win.
He managed to win the FA Cup once more in 2004, making him one of only two players (the other being Roy Keane) to have won the trophy four times, while playing for Manchester United. He has also finished with a runners up medal twice.
His participation in the victory over Liverpool in September 2004 made him the third player to play 600 games for United, alongside Sir Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution to the English game. During the first half of the 2004-05 season, Giggs was linked in a transfer speculation with Newcastle United FC, a club his best-friend at United, Nicky Butt, had left for. No move was made before the transfer window closed on 31 January 2005. When given the chance, and together with the old guard of Paul Scholes, looked to be the epitome of the football saying ‘form is temporary, but class is permanent’.
After that season, Giggs signed a two-year contract extension with Man United when chairman David Gill relented on his normal policy of not signing players over 30 to contracts longer than one year. The extension, which runs through to July 2008, will most probably keep him at Old Trafford for the remainder of his playing career.
Giggs reinvented himself and continues to contribute positively to the Man United cause even after team mates like David Beckham and Roy Keane had left. He has become a role model to the latest batch of talents at the club like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. Giggs is used today as an example, alongside Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, as a model professional for young players with hot tempers to follow. Giggs has also benefitted from being largely injury free aside from some trouble with his hamstrings which, according to his autobiography, prevent him from running at full throttle to this day,
This is largely due to his upbringing by United manager Alex Ferguson, who has sheltered the player since developing him. It remains to be seen whether Giggs outstays his career mentor at the club or vice versa. His versatility has supplemented his raw skill and talent in recent years, and he has been called upon by his manager to play as a forward and a central midfielder for his team, roles in which he applied himself admirably. It is without question that Ryan Giggs will be ranked alongside the best players ever to grace the game of football.
Ryan Giggs made his 700th appearance for Manchester United on the 3 March 2007 in a Premier League match against Liverpool F.C. which Manchester United won 1-0. By the end of the 2007 season, he will be fewer than 60 games away from breaking Bobby Charlton’s appearance record for the club, set in 1973 – the year Giggs was born.
On 6th May 2007 with Chelsea drawing 1-1 with local rivals Arsenal, Man United became the league champions. In doing so Ryan Giggs set a record of nine league titles thus beating the previous record of eight held by Alan Hansen and Phil Neal.
International career
As of December 2006, Giggs has won 59 caps and scored 11 goals for the Welsh national football team. His international career has been nothing short of frustrating. As of 2006, he has not played a single match in either a European Championship or a World Cup, because Wales failed to qualify. Giggs has also received criticism for his reluctance to participate in friendly international matches. Since his debut in 1991 against West Germany, Giggs failed to attend a friendly international until some nine years later, missing a massive 18 consecutive friendly games. Officially he was injured for these games.
There was much comment during the 1990s in England that Ryan Giggs should have played for England; however, Giggs was born in Wales to Welsh parents and had no eligibility or desire to play for England. He represented England’s schoolboy team because he went to school in England.
Alfredo Di Stéfano, whose national side was Argentina, George Best from perennial minnow Northern Ireland, and Éric Cantona have also never played a World Cup finals match.
In September 2006, Giggs put in a dazzling performance in a friendly against Brazil at White Hart Lane. Such was his display that following the 2-0 win for Brazil, Brazil coach Dunga paid Giggs the ultimate compliment by stating he would not look out of place playing for the five-time world champions alongside stars such as Kaká and Ronaldinho.
Surprisingly, Giggs was also omitted from Pelé’s FIFA 100 list. Despite wide geographical spread of the selected players, Wales was not represented.
Personal life
In his autobiography, Giggs: The Autobiography, he revealed possible reasons for his aversion to attention, and accounted for his quiet and bashful demeanour.
The biography described Giggs’ difficult upbringing. He endured racial taunts as a child because he was the product of a mixed marriage. Although he admired his rugby-playing father’s sporting gifts (Giggs’ attributes his speed and balance to his father’s genes), he hated the impact his “bullying aggressive nature” had on his family.
In an infamous interview with the Daily Telegraph, Giggs described his father as a “real rogue”. He adopted his mother’s surname after his parents’ separation so that “the world would know I was my mother’s son”.
Giggs is considered by many as a player who, unlike Lee Sharpe and George Best, achieved considerable fame despite a relatively low profile overall as a celebrity. He has done ads for Reebok, Sovil Titus, Citizen Watch Co., Ltd, Givenchy, Fuji, Patek Phillipe, Quorn Burgers and Celcom, and has been used for video-mapping in computer game simulations like EA Sports’ FIFA 2003 series for which he also did a commercial.
According to an article by BBC Sport: “In the early 1990s, Giggs was David Beckham before Beckham was even holding down a place in the United first team. If you put his face on the cover of a football magazine, it guaranteed you the biggest sales of the year. Why? Men would buy it to read about ‘the new Best’ and girls bought it because they wanted his face all over their bedroom walls. Giggs had the million-pound boot deal (Reebok), the lucrative sponsorship deals in the Far East (Fuji) and the celebrity girlfriends (Dani Behr, Davinia Taylor).
Giggs is currently living with partner Stacey and their daughter Liberty and son Zach.
Campaigner
In recent years, Giggs has also become a UNICEF representative, launching a campaign to prevent landmines from killing children in 2002.
Giggs, who had visited UNICEF projects in Thailand, told the BBC: “As a footballer I can’t imagine life without the use of one of my legs…Sadly this is exactly what happens to thousands of children every year when they accidentally step on a landmine.” Giggs is an active campaigner in the fight against racism in football, alongside fellow players like Rio Ferdinand and Thierry Henry.
He told the Football Anti-Racism site ‘Stop the BNP’ the following in 2004: “A lot of people don’t know that my father is black. He was a professional rugby player in the area that I played as a youngster. So a lot of people who I went to school with knew who he was and knew that he was black. So I would get racist taunts in school.”
He also added in the French L’Equipe sports newspaper, “Looking at me from the outside, it is not very obvious, I know but half my family is black and I feel close to their culture and their colour. I am proud of my black roots and of the black blood that runs in my veins. I do not wish to hide my origins, nor do I seek to make it a subject of conversation. I am what I am.”
Giggs is also a patron of the Manchester based Five Star Scanner Appeal, a charity that aims to raise £1m to fund a new scanner at a new Manchester Children’s Hospital due to be built ready for 2009.
Honours
With Manchester United (1990 – present)
FA Premier League – Champions (9)- 1992-93, 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07 – A record for a player -
FA Premier League – Runners Up – 1994-95, 1997-98, 2005-06
FA Youth Cup Winner – 1992
FA Cup Winner (4) – 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004
FA Cup Runners Up- 1995, 2005
League Cup Winner (2) – 1992, 2006
League Cup Runners Up – 1994, 2003
UEFA Champions League Winner – 1998-99
Intercontinental Cup – 1999
UEFA Super Cup Winner – 1991
UEFA Super Cup Runner Up – 1999
Community Shield Winner (5) – 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003
Community Shield Runner Up – 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004
Individual honours
Barclays Premiership Player of the Month for August, 2006, February 2007.
Intercontinental Cup Man of the Match (1999)
Manchester United Players Player of the Year Award 2005/2006
U-21 European Footballer of the Year (1993)
Wales Player of the Year Award 1996, 2006
Inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame 2005
Inducted into the Premiership Team of the Decade 2003
Inducted into the FA Challenge Cup Team of the Century 2006
Honored with the greatest goal ever scored in the FA Challenge Cup 1999, 2005
Only Manchester United player to have played in all 9 Premiership title winning teams.
Only Manchester United player to have played in both League Cup winning teams.
More English league titles than any other player
Member of PFA Team of the Year 2007
Carlos Tevez
March 14, 2009
Carlos Alberto Tévez (born February 5, 1984 in Ciudadela, Buenos Aires Province) is an Argentine football striker who made his name with Argentine giant Boca Juniors and currently plays for Brazil’s Corinthians. He is currently regarded as one of the most promising prospects in the world. FourFourTwo labelled him as the new Diego Maradona.
He was born and raised in the humble neighbourhood of Ejército de Los Andes, known as “Fuerte Apache”, from where he got the nickname of Apache. Carlitos has a scar from the right ear to his chest, product of a burn with boiling water when he was a young boy. Carlos declined plastic surgery since he would have to be out of the playground for four months.
Carlos Tevez joined Boca at the age of thirteen and played his first professional match with Boca on October 21, 2001 against Talleres de Córdoba. He played for the team until the end of 2004. With Boca Juniors he won an Argentine Championship (2003), a Copa Libertadores (2003), an Intercontinental Cup (2003), and a Copa Sudamericana (2004). Because of the Intercontinental Cup of 2003, he didn’t participate in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with the Argentine team.
Tévez was a key part of Boca’s victory in the 2003 Copa Libertadores, but his greatest achievement was during the 2004 Olympic Games, where he won the gold medal with his team, and scored eight goals in six matches to be the top scorer of the competition. He also participated in the 2004 Copa América, helping Argentina to the runner-up spot.
The Argentine Football Writers chose him as Footballer of the Year in 2003 and 2004, and also Sportsman of the Year 2004. He was named Futbolista latinoamericano más destacado (“Most notable Latin American footballer”) in 2003 by Latin American Fox Sports, and in the same years was the world’s second Top Goal Scorer 2004 in international competitions (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) with 16 goals, one less than Ali Daei from Iran.
In December 2004, he transferred to Sport Club Corinthians Paulista for $20 million with a five year contract worth $10 million, following the Brazilian club’s deal with Media Sports Investment. The deal was the biggest transfer ever in South American football. Initially Tévez was not well received by the Corinthians fans – including Brazilian president Lula. However, Tévez has since become the captain and star of the team that won the 2005 Brazilian league, and the fans’ favourite player and was being linked to Chelsea FC as a result of Roman Abramovich’s link to MSI.
Chelsea manager José Mourinho saw Tévez in action against River Plate during the Copa Libertadores in 05/04/2006, but has played down the transfer speculation linking Tévez with Chelsea. However Chelsea would offer Corinthians a sum of between £12 million and £60 million, but Corinthians stuck a minimum release clause of about £68 million on Carlitos. Corinthians investor Kia Joorabchian has said Tévez is very happy at the club and he would be sold in 4-5 years time. It is alleged that he would prefer to join Manchester United if he were to move to England. This was confirmed when Tevez was spotted wearing a Manchester United shirt whilst training with Corinthians. There are many rumours saying Tevez will come to Manchester United as they are a club out for a striker with Ruud Van Nistelrooy gone to Real Madrid.
Tevez was selected by José Pekerman for Argentina for the 2006 World Cup. He started the first match against the Ivory Coast on the bench but came on as a substitute for the match against Serbia and Montenegro. He scored the fifth goal and assisted Lionel Messi’s sixth goal in Argentina’s 6-0 victory. In Argentina’s drawn final Group C match against Holland, Tevez played the entire duration and emerged man of the match.
Berbatov
March 14, 2009Dimitar Berbatov biography
Bulgarian football player
Place of birth: Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Blagoevgrad (Gorna Dzhumaya) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Province.
Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.89 m)
Playing position: Striker
Senior clubs
Years Club App (Gls)
CSKA Sofia 50 (25)
Bayer Leverkusen 152 (68)
Tottenham Hotspur 31 (11)
National team
Bulgaria 44 (31)
Senior club appearances and goalscounted for the domestic league only and correct as , 8 May 2007.
National team caps and goals correct as 23 April 2007.
Bulgarian Cup: 1999
Bulgarian Footballer of the Year: 2002, 2004, 2005
Bulgarian Fans’ Player of the Year: 2006
Has described former player Alan Shearer as role model.
Scored 2 goals in 2 minutes in his first match as a Tottenham player against Birmingham in a pre season friendly match.
Learned English language by watching Godfather films.
Lists his hobbies as drawing and basketball.
Berbatov was voted as one of the 10 Hottest Bulgarian Men of the Year, an award given by the Bulgarian NOVA TV tabloid show Goreshto (“Hot”)
Berbatov has been given the nickname of The Bulgarian Hitman for his deadly aim at goal.
Early life and career
Berbatov was born in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, near the border with Macedonia. His father was a pro footballer with local outfit Pirin Blagoevgrad, and his mother Margarita was a handball player. His career began at the same club, and continued until he was spotted by legendary scout and coach Dimitar Penev and, only 17, he moved to one of the most successful Bulgarian clubs CSKA Sofia following in the footsteps of his father, Ivan, who also played for the club as a left winger and later as a defender. He played for CSKA in the Bulgarian A PFG between 1998 and January 2001 making his debut as an 18 year old in the 1998-99 season. He started to make his name the following year when he scored 14 in 27 league games and won the Bulgarian National Cup in 1999. Berbatov did not enjoy a good relationship with the fans of the club. He was seen to have missed chances in crucial games, one example being in May 2000 when CSKA lost to arch rivals Levski and also lost the title, despite dominating the whole match.
Bayer Leverkusen
A run of nine goals in 11 games in 2000/01 was to persuade Bayer Leverkusen to sign Berbatov in January 2001. Berbatov had a slow start to his Leverkusen career with just 16 goals in his first 67 appearances for the club. He did play a crucial role in the Champions League during his first season with the club scoring a memorable solo effort against Lyon with an excellent bit of skill, as well as a goal against Liverpool in the quarter finals. He played a part in the Final against Real Madrid coming on as a substitute for Thomas Brdaric after 38 minutes.
In 2001-02 Leverkusen were runners up in the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal. During the 2002-03 Bundesliga season Berbatov established his place as the first choice forward at Bayer Leverkusen but it wasn’t until the 2003-04 season he really began to shine scoring 16 in 24 starts. The following two seasons saw him go from strength to strength, netting another 46 goals including 5 in the Champions League 2004-05 raising awareness of his talent and generating interest from teams through Europe.
Tottenham Hotspur FC
In May 2006, Berbatov joined English Premiership Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of €16m (£10.9 million), making him the most expensive Bulgarian player in history, more expensive than Valeri Bojinov (€13m) and Martin Petrov (€12m). After being granted a work permit, the transfer was completed, and Berbatov joined Tottenham on 1 July 2006.
Berbatov scored his first Tottenham Hotspur goal on a home debut in a Premiership game against Sheffield Utd at White Hart Lane. He built up a rewarding partnership with Robbie Keane in the UEFA Cup until Spurs’ departure to Seville in the quarter finals, and, despite Martin Jol’s rotation of his fellow strikers, Berbatov has firmly established himself as a first choice forward at the club. His experience in Europe is already reaping rewards for his new club. He scored five goals in four games during the group stage of the Uefa Cup, with his performances earning two man of the match awards in the group stages against Besiktas and Club Brugge. Despite good form in European competition, Berbatov took a while to adapt to the Premiership, however he soon began to regain the great league form he had shown at Leverkusen with an excellent performance against Wigan, scoring one and creating the other two in a 3 – 1 win. On December 9, 2006, Berbatov scored his first FA Barclays Premiership brace for Spurs in a 5-1 victory for his side against Charlton Athletic. Berbatov came on as a second half substitute against Fulham FC in the FA Cup to score his first two goals in the competition. Berbatov scored a first away goal in the Premiership at Goodison Park against Everton, a first time shot from around the penalty spot after an Aaron Lennon cross. Spurs won the match 2-1. On February 25 2007, Berbatov earned a Man Of The Match award in a 4 – 1 win against Bolton Wanderers after putting on a sensational performance which won him many plaudits, despite not scoring in the match. One remarkable factor about the match was Tottenham were reduced to 10 men after Robbie Keane was sent off in the first half, meaning Berbatov had to play the entire second half without a partner in attack, one of the few times he had been asked to do at Spurs. However he still managed one of his best Premier League performances yet, and in the month that followed began to firmly establish his reputation as one of the most skillful strikers in the Premiership.
Berbatov was also included in the FA Premier League’s PFA Team of the Season on April 21, 2007, one of only three players in the team not to play for league leaders Man Utd (the other two being Steven Gerrard and Didier Drogba).
Berbatov and Spurs team mate Robbie Keane where named joint winners of the FA Premier League Player of the Month award for April, the Spurs pair are the first players to share the award since Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp and Edu jointly claimed a award back in February 2004
He scored the 100th goal of Tottenham’s 2006/07 season with a first goal of a 2 – 0 victory over Charlton on May 7, 2007. This goal also helped condemned Charlton to relegation. Berbatov is also one of the few people to have two goals included in the BBC’s goal of the month competition shortlist, with efforts against Wigan Athletic and Middlesborough both recognised.
Misspell
Van Der Sar
March 14, 2009| Edwin van der Sar (born October 29, 1970 in Voorhout, Netherlands) is a Dutch football player who plays as a goalkeeper. He currently plays for Manchester United in the English Premier League.
Van der Sar began his career at FC Foreholte (Voorhout’s local football team), then moving to VV Noordwijk, where he was spotted for Ajax. For Ajax he was part of the team who won the UEFA Champions League in 1995. He went on to play for Juventus, and then in 2001 he moved to the English Premiership with Fulham. On June 5, 2005 he moved to rival club Manchester United in a transfer for an estimated sum in the region of 2 million pounds, signing a two year deal. The exact amount involved in the transfer was undisclosed. Van der Sar made his international debut in June 1995 against Belarus. He was the in goal during all of three of their recent defeats on penalties in major competitions: in Euro 96, the 1998 World Cup, and Euro 2000. In Euro 2004, during the penalty shootout at the end of the quarterfinal against Sweden, van der Sar saved a penalty from Olof Mellberg, giving Arjen Robben the decisive chance to end the shootout in the Dutch team’s first shootout win ever. Edwin van der Sar has represented the Dutch national team 105 times and following Holland’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup he could well break Frank de Boer’s Dutch record of 112 caps. |
| Edwin van der Sar (born October 29, 1970 in Voorhout, Netherlands) is a Dutch football player who plays as a goalkeeper. He currently plays for Manchester United in the English Premier League.
Van der Sar began his career at FC Foreholte (Voorhout’s local football team), then moving to VV Noordwijk, where he was spotted for Ajax. For Ajax he was part of the team who won the UEFA Champions League in 1995. He went on to play for Juventus, and then in 2001 he moved to the English Premiership with Fulham. On June 5, 2005 he moved to rival club Manchester United in a transfer for an estimated sum in the region of 2 million pounds, signing a two year deal. The exact amount involved in the transfer was undisclosed. Van der Sar made his international debut in June 1995 against Belarus. He was the in goal during all of three of their recent defeats on penalties in major competitions: in Euro 96, the 1998 World Cup, and Euro 2000. In Euro 2004, during the penalty shootout at the end of the quarterfinal against Sweden, van der Sar saved a penalty from Olof Mellberg, giving Arjen Robben the decisive chance to end the shootout in the Dutch team’s first shootout win ever. Edwin van der Sar has represented the Dutch national team 105 times and following Holland’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup he could well break Frank de Boer’s Dutch record of 112 caps. |
| Edwin van der Sar (born October 29, 1970 in Voorhout, Netherlands) is a Dutch football player who plays as a goalkeeper. He currently plays for Manchester United in the English Premier League.
Van der Sar began his career at FC Foreholte (Voorhout’s local football team), then moving to VV Noordwijk, where he was spotted for Ajax. For Ajax he was part of the team who won the UEFA Champions League in 1995. He went on to play for Juventus, and then in 2001 he moved to the English Premiership with Fulham. On June 5, 2005 he moved to rival club Manchester United in a transfer for an estimated sum in the region of 2 million pounds, signing a two year deal. The exact amount involved in the transfer was undisclosed. Van der Sar made his international debut in June 1995 against Belarus. He was the in goal during all of three of their recent defeats on penalties in major competitions: in Euro 96, the 1998 World Cup, and Euro 2000. In Euro 2004, during the penalty shootout at the end of the quarterfinal against Sweden, van der Sar saved a penalty from Olof Mellberg, giving Arjen Robben the decisive chance to end the shootout in the Dutch team’s first shootout win ever. Edwin van der Sar has represented the Dutch national team 105 times and following Holland’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup he could well break Frank de Boer’s Dutch record of 112 caps. |
Cristiano Ronaldo and his life
March 14, 2009
Cristiano, who grew up in the working-class district of Santo António, three miles inland and a world away from the grand hotels that adorn the rocky coast, has only been back to the island on holiday. Only the more inquisitive tourists venture to the area.His childhood home is perched on a hill overlooking a main road that winds through the island’s hilly interior. The back wall of the now deserted house is crumbling. The wooden slats that serve as windows, have holes in them and the corrugated iron roofs needs attention. It is typical of the other properties in the ‘bairro’ and worth less than £5,000.
Four brothers and sisters – Cristiano, Hugo, Elma and Katia – shared the humble abode with parents José Dinis and Maria Dolores. Cristiano first began kicking a ball on the patio when he was two or three. By the time he started at the local primary school in 1997, when he was six, his passion for the game was obvious.
Maria dos Santos, a teacher at the Escola Sao Joao, vividly remembers the distinguishing Characteristics of pupil number 587: “From the day he walked through the door, football was his preferred sport. He took part in other activities, learnt songs and did his work, but he liked to have time for himself, time for football.”
He would always find a way of playing football in the playground. I don’t know how he managed it.”
The mere mention of the former pupil’s name at the school these days send the kids into noisy delirium. They are excited to see a recent copy of United Magazine and hurriedly leaf through the pages to find a picture of their idol. “Look, it’s Cristiano Ronaldo,” announces one. “Cristiano Ronaldo!”
Unsurprisingly, Cristiano’s popularity has soared following his stellar performances on home soil at Euro 2004, where Portugal finished runners-up to Greece. He may have been able to walk around untroubled during the Sporting years, but not any more. Cristiano is now the closest thing Madeira has to a pop star and when he returns for a short holiday after the European Championship, he decides it would be more convenient to fend off journalists at a hotel in Funchal rather than the new family home. He is also to be spotted handing out presents to poor children at charity events and featuring in a photo shoot with Miss Portugal for the best-selling local newspaper, Diario de Noticias.
“All the kids wore a shirt with his name on it during the tournament,” Maria says.
“They know Cristiano went to school here and think of nothing else. They want to be the next Ronaldo. It would be fantastic if he came back to visit them one day.”
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Young Ronaldo
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The club youth director Alvaro Milho remembers going to fetch Ronaldo in his car from the camshackle house on the hill. Sometimes I would find him asleep and have to wake him up,” he smiles. “So when I saw him play at Euro 2004, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.”
Understandably, Andorinha officials are delighted to have been put on the map by the club’s former charge. The team were without a regular during Ronaldo’s era but now president Rui Santos enjoys an office to himself and the club boasts a full-size, all-weather astroturf pitch.
A footballer like Ronaldo does not surface every day,” Santos says.
“The first time I saw him, I knew he was out of the ordinary – he was more developed than the other players, different. But nobody ever thought he would achieve so much so soon.”
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Ronaldo in tears
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“Even then, he didn’t like to lose,” Santos says. “His will is to win. He’s pure spirit. He always used to cry when he lost. It wasn’t unusual.”
In Spain, the story of Jesus Gil allowing Raul, whose first club was Atletico Madrid, to slip through his fingers and sign for bitter rivals Real because he refused to pay for his bus pass is now legendary. A similar anecdote about Cristiano does the rounds in Madeira.
By 1995, word had spread that Ronaldo was an outstanding talent and the island’s top teams – Maritimo and Nacional – both declared an interest. In theory, Maritimo – the bigger side – should have snapped him up but events took a different course. The Maritimo youth boss at the time allegedly failed to turn up for a crucial meeting with Santos because his board refused to pay for the two sets of kit Andorinha wanted in return for Cristiano, who duly joined Nacional.
Fernao Sousa, Cristiano’s godfather and the man who DeFreitas says “deserves the credit for discovering Ronaldo”, disputes this. Sousa played for Nacional himself and argues that Ronaldo’s move to Nacional was always on the cards because of ‘family ties’. Current Maritimo president, Carlos Pereira, who now advises Cristiano on financial matters but also remembers his unrivalled skill for keeping tin cans in the air with his feet, maintains that the story is true. He reckons his club really did not want to pay for the kit – but stresses that the move worked out in Ronaldo’s best interest anyway.
“If we analyse it today it was a mistake as he was better than the other boys,” says Pereira. “Maritimo would not have let him go to Sporting as early as Nacional did; we hold on to out talent for longer. And from Sporting, he went to Manchester United. If he had stayed, he might not have the same opportunities.
Whatever the case, Cristiano came into his own in his one and only season in the black-and-white stripes of Nacional, captaining the side to the Under-12 regional youth championship for the first time in the club’s history and confirming Fernao’s opinion that Ronaldo was good enough to become a professional footballer.
Cristiano’s father certainly has fond recollections of those days. It was the last year he spent with his son before his boy, who everybody always told him was going to be special, went to Lisbon to begin a new chapter in his life.
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Playing for Nacional da Madeira
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“I watched every single one of his matches at Nacional,” Jose says.
“They are most treasured memories. Each time he played away, I had a place reserved for me on the bus or the plane. When the team lifted the title that year I remember drinking champagne with the directors at the Choupana [Nacional’s Stadium]. It was unforgettable.
“We speak on the phone but because of the way his career has gone, I have not spent so much time with him. But Madeira gave him his childhood, his family and friends. People like Marques de Freitas , his teachers at the school, the coaches at Andorinha and Nacional…”
“From there he has moved on. He cried like the rest of us when Portugal lost the final of the European Championship, but he will play more games with the national team and it was a good experience for him. He was angry to lose something that he shouldn’t have lost. That’s why he cried. It was the shock of it and the end of a dream. But he was still one of the best players on the pitch.”
After the title-winning campaign at Nacional, Fernao contacted De Freitas who arranged a three-day trial at Sporting. The Lisbon club know potential when they see it and agreed to pay off cash-strapped Nacional’s debts in exchange for the younger. Whereas Cristiano was able to express himself on the pitch at his new club, it was a different matter off it. In an unfamiliar environment, and a long way from his loved ones, he became homesick and struggled to adapt to his new surroundings.
Agostinho Silva, the deputy editor of Diario de Noticias, picks up the story: “Sporting specially asked for Ronaldo’s mother to go to Lisbon to be with him because they saw he needed support. Being goaded because of his pronunciation was a big shock. We heard stories from Lisbon that he turned into a bad boy but we didn’t know for sure what was going on. He’s calmed down now, but those were difficult times.”
Agostinho also explains how much Cristiano’s achievements have meant for his island. “The success he has had is much more important than it would have been in other areas of the country because of the social status here. Madeira has traditionally had an inferiority complex in relation to Lisbon. Lisbon has the political power but Madeira now has a player who is a key part of the national side and that’s a big feather in our cap.
“It ‘s much more important than football. He’s a phenomenon. It’s extraordinary. We’re quite a reserved people, but during Euro 2004 there were parties here everyday.
Cristiano was a fundamental piece of the team and he’s already at the biggest club in the world.”
De Freitas, who is also the Portuguese government’s Attorney General on Madeira, admits that at Sporting there were “some embarrassments”, but the arrival of Maria Dolores, who now lives in Manchester with Cristiano, Katia and Hugo. And he believes the 19-year-old winger’s determination that saw him surpass expectations to become one of United’s most important players last term was forged by adversity. “At 18, he already had the personality of an adult,” he says. “Now he is mature beyond his years. The difficulties he went through helped to form a player with great deal of resilience. They created his temperament and created a unique person. He is also hungry and football is his life, his passion, his pleasure.”
Of equal importance is that Sporting was the best place for Cristiano to develop his talent. De Freitas explains that the club’s academy – the Alocochete – is a veritable “football factory”, and the player received first-class instruction at the state-of-the-art institution, which is located on the southern outskirts of Lisbon, near the River Tagus, for a full seven years.
Former Nwcastle midfielder Hugo Viana, Porto’s Ricardo Quaresma and Nuno Valente, Fulham midfielder Luis Boa Morte, Benfica’s Miguel and Simao Sabrosa, and Real Madrid star Luís Figo were all groomed at the famed ‘Academia de Futebol.’ Every one of them was a member of Portugal’s Euro 2004 squad.
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Playing for Sporting Lisbon
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“At Sporting he was given special treatment,” De Freitas says. “ Cristiano is the product of a laboratory in the sense that he is the fruition of what is essentially a scientific process. Not many clubs use science the way Sporting do. For example, a study was done of the density of Ronaldo’s bones to see what sort of rate he was going to have.
“The doctors wanted to know how tall he was going to be as it is important for tall players not to play an excessive amount of football when they’re young. There were times when he was kept out of the team as a result of the tests. The analysis predicted he would be six foot two inches (189cm) tall and he’s not far off that now.”
Cristiano was preened in the rarefied confines of the Alcochete for six years before he played the first full 90 minutes of Portuguese Superliga football at the Alvalade in October 2002. Seventeen is assumed to be a young age to make a debut but he was ready by the time he set foot on the pitch.
“One of those goals was the best one he has scored,” De Freitas recalls.
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Young Ronaldo terrorising defenders
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“From midfield, he took the ball past three players and slotted it away. His mother watching in the stands and she almost fainted!”
Former Sporting coach Laszlo Boloni used the prodigy sparingly for the rest of the 2002/03 campaign, restricting him largely to a substitute role and allowing him only a further 10 full appearances. Despite the limited opportunities, Cristiano made a big impression and work of his special ability spread beyond the Alcochete.
With uncanny things, Manchester United signed a ‘development partnership with Sporting in May 2003, the month before the Portuguese campaign finished. And by another happy coincidence, one of the club’s most illustrious former coaches, Carlo Queoroz, was in his first spell as Sir Alex’s right-hand man.
Queiroz would have had the chapter and verse on the player and Ferguson was poised for a transfer coup. Three months later, Sporting faced United in the friendly to celebrate the inauguration of the new Alvalade stadium and the gaffer had a chance to see the player for himself. Cristiano seized the moment, conjuring one of his virtuoso displays in a 3-1 triumph.
De Freitas witnessed what proved to be the player’s last performance for Sporting from a seat by the tunnel: “I was in the stand and he was coming out at half-time. I Shouted “Cristiano’ when he passed below me. He looked up, grinned and gave me a big thumbs-up. A few days later, he was at United.”
Only Cristiano was prepared for the speed at which the £12.2m deal went through and the attention it generated. “When the rumors that he was going to Manchester started we didn’t know if they were true,” Katia says. “Then everything happened very quickly and the common kicked off in a big way during his first week in Manchester. He was on the front pages of the newspapers, on the TV. It was mad.
We couldn’t believe it, but Cristiano was calm because practically all his life people have talked about him.”
Everyone who is qualified to comment agrees that United is the ideal club for Ronaldo. The plan was for him to stay at Sporting for another season and then move to a big side. A raft of his peers who ventured outside Portugal – Quaresma and Simao (Barcelona), Heldr Postiga (Tottenham), Hugo spells abroad, yet Cristiano is settled in Manchester.
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Ronaldo signs for United
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“It was a disappointment for me, but probably the best for him,” Agostinho said. “Ferguson seems to be a disciplinarian and very demanding, but the policy works well. If Cristiano had gone to any other club he would be back in Portugal by now. United are a model side in terms of organization.”
De Freitas agrees that United have provided Cristiano with the perfect platform to fulfill his promise: “Sporting couldn’t refuse the kind of money offered last year, but United was the best club in the world he could have gone to. Real Madrid hardly give youth a chance and Barcelona take on young players but lack patience. The move has worked out well and United are not about to let Cristiano go anywhere now.
There isn’t a better young player than him in the world, not in South American, not anywhere. His ability is frightening and in the big games it looks like he’s enjoying himself rather than burdened by responsibility. He needs to score a few more goals, true, but the commentators in England will be jumping off their seats a lot more this season. Providing he continues to develop at the same rate, avoid injury and bad influences, he could be the best player in the world in three years time.”
