Rio Ferdinand Fact File

Rio Gavin Ferdinand was born 7 November 1978 and is an English footballer. He plays at centre back defense for Manchester United in the Premier League and in his international team England. He has achieved 70 caps for the English national team.

Career

Ferdinand began his football career playing for many youth teams, finally settling at West Ham United. While at West Ham he played for the youth team working his way to the first team. He finally made it professionally in 1996 with West Ham and he was a fan favorite. In 2000 Ferdinand joined Leeds United for a fee of £18 million where he settled in well and became a key part of the Leeds team. After spending two years with Leeds united Ferdinand then joined premier league side Manchester United in 2002 for a fee of about £33 million. Since Ferdinand has been at united he has appeared 108 times and has scored six premier league goals. He currently wears the number 5 shirt.

International Career

At the age of 19 Rio Ferdinand made his full first team England debut in 1997 which made him the youngest defender to play for England at that time. Ferdinand has been apart of ten world cups for England and has made a significant impact when playing.

Family and Personal Life

Rio Ferdinand grew up in a council estate in Peckham. He has two brothers and four sisiters. Ferdinand's girlfriend Rebecca Ellison in 2006 gave birth to their son Lorenz. While on holiday in Las Vegas in 2007 Ferdinand proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted. The couple had their second child a boy named Tate in 2008.

Honours

Since becoming a professional footballer Rio Ferdinand has received many honours such as premier league player of the month and premier league team of the year.

Rio Ferdinand is well-known for his strength and composure on the ball which makes him a key player to both Manchester United and the England team.

Javier Hernandez Balcazar-The Little Pea

Javier Hernandez Balcazar, was born on June 1, 1988 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, better known as "Chicharito" (little pea) is a Mexican Soccer player who plays as a striker and is one of the great promises of Mexican soccer.

The nickname "Chicharito" was given by his father, Javier Hernndez Gutirrez, was nicknamed "pea", due to its low stature and green eyes; and thus "Chicharito" is the "little pea." Hernndez Gutirrez, participated in the World Cup 1986 in Mexico. Chicharitos maternal grandfather is the great player Tomas Balcazar, who scored in the 1954 World Cup against France and led his team Chivas del Guadalajara to 8 Championships in 10 years. Chicharito joined in the youth squad of Guadalajara at only 9 years old. Chicharito has been playing with the youth squad of Chivas, through subsidiaries such as Chivas Coras de Tepic in 2005 and the Sports Club Tapatio.

Chicharito made his professional debut on September 9, 2006 in a 4-0 Chivas Necaxa game, scoring the last goal in the 83rd minute; he only played 5 minutes that game. That was his only goal in 8 games between 2006 and 2007. He also played 6 games between 2007 and 2008 with Chivas, without scoring.

In 2008, Javier played 7 games, without any goal, however in the Clausura 2009 season Chicharito scored 4 goals in 15 games with Chivas. It was not until the Apertura 2009 when the "Chicharito" began to excel for Chivas, finishing as the third top scorer, having scored 11 goals in 17 games, becoming a permanent starter.

In the Bicentennial 2010 season, Javier became the star striker for Chivas. Javier started the tournament scoring 2 goals in each of the first 3 games of the tournament, to Toluca, to Tigers, and to Estudiantes (formally Club Tecos). The latter was one of the best games of Chicharito for Guadalajara; Chivas was losing 2-0 with 20 minutes left in the game, Chicharito gave an assist for a goal and went on to score 2 goals himself.

After having scored goals against Queretaro and Atlante, Chicharito did not score a goal for 5 games, although still the top scorer of the tournament, with 8 goals. It was not until game 11 when he scored again, scoring a goal in his team's defeat 2-1 at Monterrey.

Heir to the glories of Thomas Balcazar and Javier Hernandez, former stars in Guadalajara and Mexico. "Chicharito" is the Mexican soccer star that the Mexicans fans have been waiting for. His great performance with Guadalajara drew the attention of several European clubs, including PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, VfL Wolfsburg in Germany and Valencia CF in Spain. However, on April 8, 2010, Javier signed a 5 year contract with Manchester United of England.

The official Manchester United website announced the news on the hiring of Hernandez and manager Alex Ferguson spoke about: "I am delighted to reach an agreement with Chivas to take the young striker who so far has a prolific career for both club and country. He will be a great addition to our team and look forward to welcoming our Mexican player for the first time in the summer.

We are also excited to play our first game in Mexico, opening the new stadium's Chivas in July," he said.

For now, Hernandez Balcazar would become the third-best priced Mexican player in Europe. According to the company Transfermark, responsible for reviewing the movements of players and their market value, the top valued are: Rafael Mrquez (Barcelona), Andres Guardado (Deportivo Coruna), worth 12 million euros (16 million dollars.)

Javier Hernandez, with nearly 10 million dollars puts him over Carlos Vela (Arsenal), who is priced at five million euros.

On July 30, 2010 Manchester United play Chivas in the inauguration match for stadium Omnilife. Chicharito played the first half with Chivas and the second with Manchester. Chicharito scored the first ever goal in that stadium against Manchester United. The score remained 3-2 in favor of Guadalajara.

Jose Manuel Reina-legendary goal keeper of the Spain football

Jose Manuel Reina is the full name of the legendary goal keeper of the Spain football team. He is the most vital and hard core football player. He is well trained and also is very well versed in the game. He was born in the year 1982 and the date was August 31st. He initially started out as a Spanish football player and was very good and effective in that role itself. After that he went on to explore and experience the other forms and playing roles with the field of football was highly please with how much he liked goal keeping. Therefore, now he plays as the goal keeper.

He is known to be one of the most well versed and a devoted Spanish country man. He is also taken and admired as a very dedicated player with a very deep and passionate love for the game itself. He is the son of the famous and well known Barcelona player FC Manuel Reina and therefore the football is in his blood and it is not surprising that he is such a great player. He is also one to highly appreciate the distinct line that separates soccer and the usual word football. He does a lot of mental training as well unlike most players. He is not just the usual jock but a skilled and cultured player as well. He won the under 17 championship in the year 1999. He was also a part of the squad in 2006 when Spain participated in the world cup.

Pepe is a hard core player and is also known to be the type who would train around the clock. It is also interesting to learn that his number one spare time is known to be one in which he has fully incorporated training into his own daily routines in order to be up to the mark and also to remain fit. He is that kind of player who will also work out and make an effort to stay in good shape.

This is also a step that he takes often so as to maintain a good physical set up. In terms of being admired and over all popularity and likeness he is a heart throb for many people and is idolized by many others. People of all ages are familiar with him and he is a hot favorite amongst football fans. Pepe is a clean and fair player who has immense respect for the rules and regulations that go into playing the game in the proper manner. He has never had any bad behavior nor has ever exhibited any other kind of problem with abuse of any substance.

FIFA World Cup Player Portrait - Hat-Trick Honcho Higuain

After the match against South Korea, Maradona was cock-a-hoop. And with good reason. Not only had his team won 4-1, but barring a short spell in the second third, had stomped all over the Koreans.
And one man stood out. Gonzalo Gerardo "El Pipita" Higuaín etched his name in football history with the first hat-trick of FIFA World Cup 2010.
Coming from a family of footballers, Higuain's potential as first spotted by the manager of local club, River Plate, back home in Argentina. Real Madrid lost no time in signing him up for a multimillion dollar six and a half year contract, in 2006.
His career with Real Madrid has only justified the club's faith in Higuain's prodigious talent. His 64 goals and 21 assists in 139 appearances tell their story.
France-born Higuain was undecided about which country he wanted to represent. Both teams vied for his participation, but the player delayed his decision till he decided to go with Argentina in February 2008 for a pre-Olympic friendly against Guatemala, in which Higuain got 2 of the 5 goals his team scored. Maradona was widely criticized for not selecting Higuain earlier.
But it was not until October 2009, that Higuain got his first recognized international goal, against Peru in a World Cup qualifier. This was a crucial match for Argentina's qualification prospects, and without Higuain's contribution, the team may have missed the World Cup bus. He has since scored 4 more. And we saw 3 of those on Thursday.

Andres Iniesta-World Cup Victory 2010 With Spain

In the end it was kinda fitting that Spain won 1-0 with a goal from Andres Iniesta. For me he was their best player in the tournament and so deserved his moment of glory. The Dutch will whinge long and hard about the manner of the goal - the move started with a possible foul on winger Elia, and even more plausibly, the award of a goal kick instead of a corner when Sneijder's free kick took a deflection off Cesc Fabregas. But at the end of the day, their strong arm tactics, especially in the first half should have lead to them playing with a maximum of nine players, maybe even eight or seven. And of course they had their own chances to have won the game, such as Robben's when Casillas made a save with the merest of touches with the toe end of his boot.

There are all manner of new records now after the Spanish win. I'd just mention two if I may - Spain are now the lowest scoring winners of the World Cup - just eight from their seven games; and they are also the first team to go on and win the tournament after losing their first game. We also have our first new winners of the World Cup since France in 1998. All in all, I think that the final was symptomatic of the way that football has gone in recent years (or maybe as it has always been?) in that the less gifted team was able to achieve a certain parity by the use of some strong arm tactics. We saw several dreadful tackles, notably Nigel De Jong's which doubled as an impromptu audition for the next Karate Kid movie and quite how Van Bommel managed to stay on the pitch is beyond me - as is so often the case, the only red card that was delivered was so after a soft second booking - no matter what can be said about "well he did raise his hands", contact was minimal between John Heitinga and the eventual Spanish hero Iniesta. But who cares? Football won out in the end.

Michael Owen - Liverpool FC Legend

Michael Owen signed for Liverpool at the age of thirteen, agreeing schoolboy terms that would see him stay with the Reds and sign a professional contract on his seventeenth birthday in 1996. Michael Owen went on to make 297 appearance for Liverpool and score 158 goals, and became one of only eleven Liverpool players to score over 100 league goals for the club.

From a very early age Owens' talent was obvious, he progressed rapidly through Liverpool's youth teams, helping them win the FA Youth Cup in 1996 and scoring a goal in the Final.

Owen made his first team debut in 1997 when he made a substitute appearance against Wimbledon. During the 1997-98 season he began to play regularly and became an instant Anfield hero with his prolific goal scoring. He scored 18 Premier league goals during his first full season and was awarded the Young Player of the Year award.

The following season was successful for Owen, but not Liverpool, as he scored 23 goals in 40 games, but Liverpool failed to win a trophy or seriously challenge for the League title; towards the end of the season Owen suffered a hamstring injury that would see him miss several games and although he didn't know at the time, it was to be the first of many injuries that would blight his career.

During the 1999-2000 season, Michael Owen was absent for many games due to recurrent injuries, but he still managed to play and score twelve goals during that season.

The 2001 season was a season to remember for both Owen and the Liverpool team as they went on to win a treble of trophies. Liverpool went on to win the League Cup beating Birmingham on penalties, and the FA Cup against Arsenal, a game for which Owen will always be remembered, with Arsenal leading 1-0 and with a few minutes remaining Owen produced two amazing moments by scoring two goals to give Liverpool a dramatic 2-1 victory. Liverpool went on to complete an amazing treble a few days later as they beat Alaves 5-4 in the UEFA Cup final. Michael Owen went onto to be awarded The European Footballer of the Year award for 2001.

Liverpool then went onto win the Charity Shield at the beginning of the following season against rivals Manchester United with Owen scoring the winning goal and he scored another goal in the UEFA Super Cup as Liverpool Bayern Munich. He went onto score 28 goals for Liverpool that season which also saw them beat Manchester United again, this time to win the League Cup.

The 2003-2004 season was another one that saw Owen miss many games through injury, but he still managed to score 19 goals, however Liverpool failed to win any trophies this year.

In August 2004 Owen signed for Real Madrid in an £8million deal, and he has since had spells at Newcastle United, and he broke Liverpool fans hearts in 2009 by signing for arch rivals Manchester United, but it is his time at Liverpool that will always make him a legend. From 1998 to the date he left, he was Liverpool's top scorer every season, and of the 158 goals he scored for Liverpool he also scored an amazing eight hat-tricks, he was possibly one of the best players ever to play for Liverpool Football Club.

Kaka -Controversy Taints Brazil Victory

At times Brazil wasstunning as they took on Côte d'Ivoire at Soccer City. Luis Fabiano opened the scoring in stunning fashion to score his first of two goals in the game when he blasted his shot into the top corner of the goal from a very acute angle to beat the Boubacar Barry in the Ivory Coast goal.

At 1-0 the game was still very much in the balance however Fabiano made it 2-0 after just five minutes of the second half with what first looked to be a piece of sublime skill, though after a replay was clearly a double handball. The referee actually asked the striker had he handled the ball which of course he denied and the goal was awarded.

12 minutes later Kaka linked up with Elano and the ex Manchester City star neatly tucked the Real Madrid stars cross in the bottom corner. At 3-0 Brazil were starting to turn on the style. This is when the game began to get messy as the tackle started to fly.

Moments after scoring, Elano went off injured after a very nasty looking 'studs to shin' tackle from Ismael Tiote left the Brazilian writhing in agony. His game was over and we await reports on the extent of his injury.

The introduction of Gervinho for the Ivory Coast injected new life into the African attack and it was energetic play from him that led to Didier Drogba getting a goal back from the Elephants.

Kaka was again to be involved in what will probably become the lasting memory of the game. Away from play Kaka seemed to raise his arm into the chest of Siaka Keita who hit the ground as though he had taken fire from a dart fired from a Vuvuzela. The Ivorian fell to the ground holding his face (with which Kaka made no contact). The referee despite clearly not seeing the incident gave Kaka a second yellow card followed by a Red. The Brazilian now faces missing the next match.