Football

LİONEL ANDRES MESSİ

Leo Messi is the best player in the world. Lethal in the one on one, this modest Argentinian has speed, dribbling and shooting skills. But despite so many individual virtues, he is also a remarkable team player.

This Argentinian striker’s footballing career started in 1995 at Newell’s Old Boys, where he played until the year 2000. At the age of 13, Lionel Messi crossed the Atlantic to try his luck in Barcelona, and joined the under 14s.

Messi made spectacular progress at each of the different age levels, climbing through the ranks of the different youth teams and then Barça C, followed by Barça B and the first team in record time.friendly with Porto that marked the opening of the new Dragao stadium. The following

. In the 2003-2004 season, when he was still only 16, Messi made his first team debut in a 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

With several first team players seriously injured, the services of several reserve team players were called upon, and Messi became a regular feature of Barça squads. On May 1, 2005, he became the youngest player ever to score a league goal for FC Barcelona – against Albacete when Messi was only 17 years, 10 months and 7 days old. That record would eventually be beaten by Bojan.

e may not be very tall, but his speed and physique enable him to cope with even the toughest of defenders. He is surprisingly strong, and can hold on to the ball in style, as if it were stuck to his feet. There is simply nobody like him anywhere else in the game. He is also a specialist at all dead ball situations, especially free kicks .




CRİSTİANO RONALDO

Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese footballer who currently plays for Real Madrid in Spain and represents Portugal at national level as the team’s captain.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, was born on the 5th of February 1985 in Funchal, Madeira (Portugal). He began his professional career with Sporting Lisbon in Portugal but his talent was soon recognised by many of Europe’s elite clubs all wanting to capture his signature

As a junior, Ronaldo played for Andorinha for two years and soon made a move to more competitive football when he was snapped up by CD Nacional. In 1997, his move to a much higher level was confirmed when Sporting Lisbon captured his signature. His progression with the Portuguese team was rapid and in 2003, Ronaldo’s rise to fame was meteoric. Sporting were opening a new stadium and to mark the event, hosted Manchester United in a friendly match. The players of Manchester United were reportedly so impressed by Cristiano’s talent, they urged manager Alex Ferguson to swoop for him.

This soon became a reality and Manchester United came to an agreement with the Portuguese side to lure their promising talent to England for 15 million EUROS, or 12.24 million pounds. Ronaldo was eased into English football, much more physical than in other European countries, and it wasn’t long before Ronaldo (or CR7 as he was known after taking David Beckham’s famous number 7 shirt) became a household name.

Ronaldo’s first honour with Manchester United was the FA Cup in his second season. Ronaldo’s career with Manchester United was sensational and his partnership with Wayne Rooney had other clubs in Europe fearing the prospect of facing the Red Devils.

Ronaldo’s personal highlight with Manchester United was being crowned as the Ballon d’Or in 2008, a title he has yet to re-capture after Lionel Messi won the accolade in 2009-2011. 

Cristiano made no secret of the fact that he wanted to play in Spain and soon his dream move would be realised after Real Madrid made their intentions to sign the world’s best player clear. The move happened in 2009 for a world-record transfer fee of 80 million pounds (94 million EUROS). 

Cristiano reportedly earns 12 million EUROS a year with the Spanish giants and has won several major personal and team accolades including the Golden Boot and La Liga.

Cristiano recently got his 100th cap for Portugal at senior level, becoming the third youngest player at 27 years of age to reach such a feat. He is also the first football player in the world to surpass 50 million likes on Facebook.com.

IKER CASILLAS
 

Iker Casillas Fernández (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈiker kaˈsiʎas ferˈnandeθ]; born 20 May 1981) is a Spanish football goalkeeper who plays for and captains both La Liga club Real Madrid and the Spanish national team. In 2008 he was the captain of the Spanish team that won their first European Championship in 44 years, the Spanish team that went on to win Spain's first World Cup (a tournament in which he won the Golden Glove and known as Yashin Award) and the 2012 European Championship.

Considered to be one of the finest goalkeepers of all time, Casillas was nominated for the European Footballer of the Year award in 2008, ranking fourth overall. At the end of 2012 he was voted into the UEFA Team of the Year for the sixth consecutive time. As of 2011 Casillas is one of a very select group of players who have won all major club and national championship titles. In 2010, he was awarded with the Sports Prince of Asturias Award. On 19 October 2010, Casillas became the goalkeeper with most appearances of all time in the UEFA Champions League and in November 2011, he became the most capped player of all time for the Spanish national team.

Early life

Casillas was born on 20 May 1981 in Móstoles, Community of Madrid to José Luis Casillas, a civil servant in the Ministry of Education, and María del Carmen Fernández González, a hairdresser.Both his parents had moved from their home of Navalacruz, Ávila.When Iker was a child, he lived for some years in the Basque Country, but he has always considered Madrid to be his hometown.[citation needed] Casillas has a brother, seven years younger, named Unai, who used to play as a central midfielder for CD Móstoles.
One weekend as a young child, Casillas forgot to post his father's football predictions on the weekend his father had correctly predicted all 14 results. The family lost out on an estimated €1.2m (£1m).

Sponsorship

In January 2012, Casillas agreed a sponsorship deal with Adidas to wear their Response goalkeeping gloves and Predator football boots.The move to Adidas ended a long running association for Casillas with Reebok, which started in 2004. In February 2005, Casillas was the football face of Reebok's I Am What I Am global integrated advertising campaign that linked all the brand's marketing efforts under one umbrella.




ARJEN ROBBEN

Arjen Robben (born 23 January 1984) is a Dutch footballer who plays for the German Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. Though often classified as a forward, he usually plays behind the forwards (inside position) as a winger, and he is also known for his dribbling skills, speed, crossing ability and his accurate left foot long-range shot from the right wing. He is also a part of the Netherlands national team and has appeared at Euro 2004, the 2006 World Cup, Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

Robben first came to prominence with Groningen, for whom he was player of the year for the 2000–01 Eredivisie season. Two years later he signed for PSV, where he became the Netherlands' Young Player of the Year and won an Eredivisie title.The following season Robben's signature was pursued by leading English clubs, and after protracted transfer negotiations he joined Chelsea in the 2004 close season.

Robben's Chelsea debut was delayed through injury, but upon returning to fitness he helped Chelsea bring home two consecutive Premier League titles, and was the FA Premier League Player of the Month in November 2005.After a third season in England which was punctuated by injury, Robben moved to Spanish club Real Madrid for €35 million. In August 2009, Robben transferred to Bayern Munich for a fee of around €25 million,scoring two goals on his debut. In his first season in Munich, Bayern won the league title, Robben's fifth league title in eight years, and Robben scored the winning goal, also being Man of the Match, in the Champions League final. After his first season with the Bavarian club, the player was also named Footballer of the Year in Germany.




ZLATAN İBRAHİMOVİC

Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Swedish national team for which he is captain.

Ibrahimović started his career at Malmö FF in the late 1990s before being signed by Ajax, where made a name for himself under Ronald Koeman. He later signed with Juventus for €16 million, and gained fame in Serie A by benefiting from his strike partnership with David Trezeguet. In 2006, Ibrahimović signed with league rival Inter Milan, where he won individual awards such as the Italian Oscar del Calcio and the Swedish Guldbollen, and was named in the 2007 and 2009 UEFA Team of the Year, in addition to finishing as the league's highest scorer in 2008–09 while winning three straight Scudetti. In the summer of 2009, he transferred to Barcelona. His time at Barcelona was short-lived, however, moving back to Serie A football with A.C. Milan the following season, in a deal which made him one of the highest paid footballers in the world and cost the Italian club €24 million. He signed a three-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain in July 2012.

With his playing style compared to Dutch legend Marco van Basten, Ibrahimović is regarded to be one of the best footballers of his generation.His spectacular bicycle kick for Sweden against England won the 2013 FIFA Puskás Award for Goal of the Year.In December 2013, Ibrahimović was ranked by The Guardian as the third-best footballer in the world.

Early life

Ibrahimović was born in Sweden to a Bosniak father, Šefik Ibrahimović, who emigrated to Sweden in 1977, and a Croatian Catholic mother, Jurka Gravić,who had also emigrated to Sweden, where they first met. His father was born in Bijeljina and his mother was born in the village of Prkos near Škabrnja in Croatia's Zadar County.

After receiving a pair of football boots, Ibrahimović began playing at the age of six, alternating between local junior clubs Malmö BI and FBK Balkan.While in his early teens, he was a regular for his hometown club Malmö FF.At the age of 15, Ibrahimović was close to quitting his football career, in favour of working at the docks in Malmö, but his manager convinced him to continue playing.