IN A CLASS OF HIS OWN

Zinedine Yazid Zidane
Birth date: June 23, 1972
Place of Birth:
France
Jersey number: 10 (France) and 5 (Real Madrid)
Position: midlfield
Nickname: "Zizou"
Teams: Cannes FC (Fra) 1988 - 1992, FC Girondins de Bordeaux (Fra) 1992 - 1996, Juventus (Ita) 1996 - 2001, Real Madrid (Spa) 2001 - 2006)
Current team: Retired
Titles won: French Young Footballer of the Year 1994,

European Super Cup 1996 (Juventus),

Intercontinental Cup 1996 (Juventus),
Calcio Tournament 1997 (Juventus),
Italian Super Cup 1997 (Juventus),
Calcio Tournament 1998 (Juventus),
Soccer World Cup 1998 (Fancia National Team),
European Footballer of the Year 1998,
FIFA World Player of the Year 1998,
World Soccer Player of the Year 1998,
French Footballer of the Year 1998,
European Cup 2000 (Fancia National Team),
FIFA World Player of the Year 2000,
UEFA European Football Championship MVP 2000,
European Super Cup 2002 (Real Madrid),
UEFA Champions League 2002 (Real Madrid),
Intercontinental Cup 2002 (Real Madrid),
French Footballer of the Year 2002,
UEFA Club Footballer of the Year 2002,
Spanish League 2003 (Real Madrid),
Spanish Super Cup 2003 (Real Madrid),
FIFA World Player of the Year 2003,
FIFA World Cup MVP 2006.


Career highlights:

Zinedine Zidane played 61 matches and scored 6 goals for Cannes FC. (1988 - 1992)
Zinedine Zidane played 140 matches and scored 28 goals for FC Bordeaux.1992-1996)
Zinedine Zidane played 191 matches and scored 28 goals for Juventus. (1996 - 2001)
Zinedine Zidane played 155 matches and scored 37 goals for Real Madrid. (2001 - Present)Zinedine Zidane played 106 matches and scored 29 goals for France National Team.


Greatest moments: 1996 - Moves to Juventus, helping the club win two Serie A titles in his first two full seasons. Wins the European Super Cup and the World Club Cup.1998 - Heads two first-half goals to help France win their first World Cup with a 3-0 victory over Brazil.

He has been elected three times as FIFA World Player of the Year (1998, 2000, 2003)In 2001 he transferred from Italian team Juventus to Spanish club side Real Madrid in a four-year deal worth US $64.45 million, making him the most expensive player in football history.

Zidane has been rated as one of the most oustanding touch in the planet. His intelligence is above many players of the game. This perfect attacking midfielder has wonderful dribbling skills, a superb passing range, an eye for goal, a sublime touch, aerial ability and is a major threat from free-kicks.
Zidane has won almost everything on the field of play, He belonged to the list of exclusive players that won the european cup,the world cup,MVP awards at the world cup,, MVP award at the european cup as well as MVP at the champions league.

Zidane was among the exclusive list of players that won world footballer of the year three times, also among those that won EUROPEAN,WORLD and FRENCH footballer of the year in the same year, narrowly missing out on george weah' s four in a single year.
he also won the intercontinental,world club cup and super cups amongst several honours.

IRISH BEST

Name: George Best,
Nicknames: The Fifth Beatle, The Belfast Boy, El Beatle.
Nationality: Northern Irish,
Date and Place of Birth and Death:
Date of birth: May 22, 1946 in Belfast, Northern Ireland
Date of death: November 25, 2005 in London, England

Career Appearances and Goals:
1963-1974 Manchester United - 361 apps, 137 goals.
1975 Stockport County - 3 apps, 2 goals.
1975-1976 Cork Celtic - 3 apps, 0 goals.
1976,1977,1978 Los Angeles Aztecs - 61 apps, 29 goals.
1976-1977 Fulham - 47 apps, 10 goals.
1979,1980 Fort Lauderdale Strikers - 33 apps, 7 goals.
1979-1980 Hibernian - 22 apps, 3 goals.
1979,1980,1981 San Jose Earthquakes - 86 apps, 34 goals.
1983 Bournemouth - 5 apps, 0 goals.
1983 Brisbane Lions - 4 apps, 0 goals.
1984 Tobermore United - 1 app, 0 goals.

International Career:
1964-1978 Northern Ireland - 37 apps, 9 goals.

Playing Honours:
Manchester United,
Football League Championship winners medal - 1965 & 1967, European Cup winners medal - 1968,
Personal Honours,
European Footballer of the Year - 1968, Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year - 1968,
George Best - The Early Days: Bursting onto the English football stage at the age of only 17 for Manchester United, George Best was to go onto become one of the most glorious players of any generation and the poster boy for a divine talent cruelly wasted. Plucked from the obscurity of the backstreets of Belfast in Northern Ireland, Best established himself as one of the front runners of a new breed of Busby Babe at Old Trafford as Manchester United finally recovered from the devastation of the 1958 Munich Air Disaster and manager Matt Busby fashioned a free flowing attacking side to bring the glory so cruelly snatched from his previous charges.

George Best - Speed, Power, Skill and Courage, El Beatle: George Best was a prodigious talent, skilful with either foot, slight in build yet strong under the attention of some vicious challenges from opposition defenders intent on kicking him out of games and with a devastating eye for goal from long range, short range and in the air. He won an English league title with Manchester United in his second season in the first team and was christened "El Beatle" in 1966 for his matchwinning performance against European maestros Benfica on their Portuguese hometurf.

George Best - Football's First Major Celebrity:
Best's good looks and charisma off the field were in as much demand as his enigmatic talents on the pitch and he was to become the first of a new breed of footballer who transcended the barriers between sport and 1960s pop culture celebrity. Best's penchant for beautiful women and nightclubs was to become as important a part of his persona as his goals for Manchester United but a predilection for alcohol was to become the ruin of his career and ultimately his life.

George Best - From Glory To A Premature Demise:
George Best's greatest footballing achievement came in 1968 as he helped Manchester United become the first English team to win the European Cup with a 4-1 win over old foes Benfica at Wembley Stadium. Things were never to reach those heights again in a footballing sense for George Best as his off-field activities began to eat into his footballing career and ultimately he drifted from top level football in the mid 1970s to numerous short lived spells at lower level British clubs and a new challenge in the United States as part of the burgeoning North American Soccer League. Best's love affair with the game was now bitter-sweet as his alcohol addiction began to take over his life and as he wasted the latter years of his playing career, his personal life was also in turmoil. A broken marriage to model Angela MacDonald-James was followed some years later by another broken marriage to Alex Pursey and despite lurid tabloid tales of Best bedding numerous Miss World's, the one time pin up idol of millions of screaming women found himself unable to defeat his alcoholism and rescue his personal relationships. George Best died in November 2005 of multiple organ failure at a London hospital following a short illness. His lifetime of alcohol abuse left him a tragic figure, robbed of his once brilliant athleticism and striking good looks and brought a sad end to what had at one time been life that brought a small piece of genius into the lives of thousands of football fans privileged enough to see George Best with a football at his magical feet.
courtesy of ALAN HYLANDS

MAGICAL PUSKAS

He belong to the Golden generation of footballers that score goals with sublime skill,thereby,making the art of goal scoring looks like an ordinary thing.
He was born april 2nd 1927 in Budapest, Hungary.
He won 5 league titles in hungary in 1949, 50, 52, 54 and 55, scoring an amazing 357 goals in 354 appearances between 1946-1956. a very rare feet in soccer history,scoring more goals than the number of matches played.

On the international scene his 84 goals in 85 matches was simply amazing, he was among the exclusive list of players that played in the final of the champions cup,olympic tournament and the world cup,winnig two gold medal and one silver, losing only at the world cup to the german machine in 1954 in berne switzerland in a match they were dubbed as the favourite.

Puskas wrote his name into the annals of footballing history by winning three European Cups in 1959, 1960 and 1966 with Real Madrid as well as five consecutive Spanish league titles between 1960 and 1965, coupled with the Pichichi Trophy (Spanish league's top goalscorer) in 1960, 1961, 1963 and 1964. He formed a deadly duo with alfredo di stefano at real madrid where he scored 324 goals in 372 matches.
He was Hungary most outstanding player of the past 50 years,

Playing Honours: Olympic Champions: 1 - 1952 'HUNGARIAN NATIONAL TEAM' Dr. Gerő Cup Winners: 1 - 1948/53, Honvéd* Hungarian League: 5 - 1949/50, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955. Real Madrid* Spanish Championship: 5 - 1960/61, 1961/62, 1962/63, 1963/64, 1964/65* Pichichi Trophy Winner: 4 - 1959/60, 1960/61, 1962/63, 1963/64* European Cup: 3 - 1958/59, 1959/60, 1965/66* Intercontinental Cup: 1 - 1960* Copa del Generalísimo: 1 - 1961/62.
He was a soccer giant,superstar and a legend.
He died november 17 2006 in budapest.

THE IDEAL ROLE MODEL

PELE, arguably the best footballer of all time,was born edson arantes do nascimento in october 23 1940 in BRAZIL, He was the only player to win 3 world cup titles even though he played in only 2 world cup final matches.
Pelé is renowned for his dribbling and passing technique as well as his exceptional ability to head the ball for a man of average height. He was a prolific goalscorer and liked to attempt the spectacular such as the “bicycle kick”.

Pele is widely appraised for his international career which began against Argentina on 7th July 1957 when he scored his first goal for Brazil. It was three months before his seventeenth birthday. In the 1958 World Cup he was the youngest player in the tournament and at that time the youngest player ever to take part in a World Cup. In the semi final against France Pele scored a hat trick becoming the youngest player ever in World Cup history to do so. On 19th June 1958 Pele played in the World Cup final becoming the youngest player ever to play in a World Cup final at 17 years and 248 days. He scored two goals as Brazil demolished Sweden 5-2. He had won a World Cup at just age seventeen.

In the 1962 World Cup Pele started the tournament well scoring a goal in the opening game against Mexico. However while attempting a long range shot against Czechoslovakia he injured himself and was out for the remainder of the World Cup. Despite the absence of Pele Brazil lifted their second World Cup trophy beating Czechoslovakia in the final,thanks to garrincha nicknamed the little bird and the other brazilian gladiators who ensure that pele won the 2nd gold medal in his second world cup tournament.

The 1970 Brazilian World Cup squad is widely regarded as one of the greatest football teams ever. Brazil faced Italy in the final and Pele scored the opening goal and made assists for the others. Brazil won the match 4-1 and were awarded the Jules Rimet Trophy forever.
He is a giant, a legend and role model,he scored over 1000 goals for both club and country,spectacular goals, alongside jairzinho,tostao and rivelinho formed a deadly quartet that gave the world more than enough at the 1970 world cup in mexico.

Career Appearances and Goals:
Club level 1956-1974 Santos FC - 605 appearances, 589 goals. 1975-1977 New York Cosmos - 64 appearances, 37 goals. International level 1956-1971 Brazil - 92 appearances, 77 goals.
Career Honours:
Campeonato Paulista champion, Torneio Rio-São Paulo champion, Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa (Taça de Prata) champion, Taça Brasil champion, Copa Libertadores champion, Intercontinental Cup, South-American Recopa,NASL champion, World Cup champion. Roca Cup, Copa O'Higgins,Copa Atlântica.