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Monday, December 20, 2010

Ronaldo

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (Portuguese pronunciation: [χoˈnawdu luˈiz naˈzaɾiu dʒi ˈlimɐ]; born 18 September 1976), commonly known as Ronaldo, is a Brazilian footballer who currently plays for Corinthians. Ronaldo was one of the most prolific scorers in the world in the 1990s and the early 2000s. He won his first Ballon d'Or as the European Footballer of the Year in 1997 (aged only 21) and again won the award in 2002 (26 years old). Additionally, he is one of only two men to have won the FIFA Player of the Year award three times, along with French footballer Zinedine Zidane. In 2007, he was named as one of the best starting eleven of all-time by France Football and was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest footballers compiled by fellow countryman Pelé. In 2010, he was voted Goal.com's 'Player of the Decade' in an online poll, gathering 43.63% of all votes[1] and was also included as Centre Forward in the 'Team of the Decade'.[2] On February 23, 2010, Ronaldo announced that he will retire after the 2011 season, signing a two-year contract extension with the Corinthians at the same time.[3] He is widely considered by experts and fans as one of the greatest players of all time.[4]

Ronaldo has played for Brazil in 97 international matches, amassing 62 goals. He was a part of the Brazilian squad that won the 1994 and 2002 World Cups. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo became the highest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup with his fifteenth goal, surpassing Gerd Müller's previous record of 14.

Ronaldo

javier saviola benfica International career

Saviola starred in the 2001 edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, held in Argentina. He was top scorer and was voted player of the tournament, as the national team won the competition; with 11 goals in seven games, he became the record goal-scorer in World Youth Cups history. His vintage performance earned himself many offers from European clubs but, surprisingly, he lost his place in the Argentina national football team squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup in favour of veteran Claudio Caniggia.

Two years later, Saviola played in the 2004 Olympic Games and won the gold medal. Under coach Marcelo Bielsa, he was given few playing opportunities for the senior team but, after Bielsa's resignation in 2004, new coach José Pekerman, who also coached the player at youth level, turned the tide in the player's favour.

Saviola was called up to represent Argentina at the 2006 World Cup. Luciano Figueroa and winger Luciano Galletti were also in contention for a place on the roster, but Saviola's excellent form for Sevilla secured his place in the squad. He made his presence felt at the tournament, as he scored a goal against Côte d'Ivoire in Argentina's opening game, and made two assists in the 6–0 victory against Serbia and Montenegro.

Saviola retired from international football on 5 December 2009, although not yet 28. He stated that he felt his career as an Argentina player had come to an end, and that he wanted to concentrate on club football.

javier saviola benfica

Javier Pedro Saviola Fernández (born 11 December 1981) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for S.L. Benfica in Portugal, as a striker.

Known for his speed and ability to score from almost any position, he represented both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid during his career (amongst others), and was named, as the youngest player, to Pelé's FIFA 100 list of the 125 greatest living footballers. Due to the many years spent in Spain, he also held Spanish nationality.

javier saviola benfica

Gabriel Batistuta International career

In 1991, Batistuta was selected to play for Argentina in the Copa América held in Chile, where he finished the tournament as top scorer with six goals as Argentina romped to victory.

In 1993, Batistuta played in his second Copa América, this time held in Ecuador, which Argentina again won. The 1994 World Cup, held in USA, was a disappointment: after a promising start Argentina were beaten by Romania in the last 16. The morale of the team was seriously affected by Diego Maradona's doping suspension. Despite the disappointing Argentine exit, Batistuta scored four goals in as many games, including a hat-trick in their opening game against Greece.

During the qualification matches for the 1998 World Cup (with former River Plate manager Daniel Passarella) Batistuta was left out of the majority of the games after falling out with the coach over team rules. The two eventually put the dispute aside and Batistuta was recalled for the tournament. In the game against Jamaica, he recorded the second hat trick of his World Cup career, becoming the 4th player to achieve this (the others were Sándor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, and Gerd Müller) and the first to score a hat trick in 2 World Cups. Unfortunately, Argentina were knocked out of the World Cup the Netherlands courtesy of a last-minute Dennis Bergkamp winner after the two sides had held out for a 1-1 draw for almost the entire match.

After a good series of performances by Argentina in the qualification matches for the 2002 World Cup, hopes were high that the South Americans - now managed by Marcelo Bielsa - could win the trophy, and Batistuta announced that he planned to quit the national team at the end of the tournament, which Argentina aimed to win. But Argentina's "group of death" saw the team fall at the first hurdle, only managing a victory against Nigeria. They later fell to England 1-0 and managed a mere 1-1 tie against Sweden. This meant that the team was knocked out in the opening round for the first time since 1962.

Gabriel Batistuta International career

Gabriel Batistuta wallpapers

Gabriel Omar Batistuta (born 1 February 1969), nicknamed Batigol is a former professional footballer. The prolific Argentine striker played most of his club football at Fiorentina in Italy, and he is the ninth top scorer of all time in the Italian Serie A league, with 184 goals in 318 matches. On the international level, he is Argentina's all-time leading goal scorer, with 56 goals in 78 national team matches, and he represented his country at three World Cups. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the "125 Greatest Living Footballers".

When his club Fiorentina was relegated to Serie B in 1993, Batistuta stayed with the club and helped it return to the top-flight league a year later. A popular sporting figure in Florence, the Fiorentina fans erected a life-size bronze statue of him in 1996, in recognition of his performances for Fiorentina.[1] He never won the Italian league with Fiorentina, but when he moved to Roma in 2000, he finally won the Serie A championship to crown his career in Italy. He played his last professional season in Qatar with Al-Arabi before he retired in 2005.

Gabriel Batistuta

Saturday, December 18, 2010

spain national football team 2010

The 2010 World Cup draw, which took place on 4 December 2009, placed Spain in Group H, alongside Switzerland, Honduras, and Chile. Spain lost its first group stage match against Switzerland, 0–1. In their second match they defeated Honduras by 2 goals from David Villa. Their next match against Chile on 25 June was won 2–1. They advanced to the knock-out stage to defeat Portugal 1–0, reaching the quarter-finals, in which they defeated Paraguay 1-0, scoring off of a goal by David Villa who put the ball in the back of the net after struck the ball off the post, reaching the last four for the first time since 1950. They then advanced to the final for the first time ever by defeating Germany 1-0 via a headed goal from Carles Puyol.
Spanish players (Iker Casillas, Juan Mata and Javi Martínez) celebrate with the World Cup trophy.

In the second half of extra time during the World Cup final against the Netherlands, Andrés Iniesta scored a single goal from a pass given by Cesc Fabregas, winning the World Cup for Spain for the first time in their history. In this match Spain received 5 yellow cards, while the "Oranje" received 9. Spain won the World Cup by only scoring 8 goals and conceding 2, which is the lowest by any World Cup winner in both cases. Also, they are the only team not to have conceded a goal in the last four games of the tournament. Spain are the only team that has won the World Cup title after losing its opening game. Spain are only the second team to win a World Cup outside their own continent, following Brazil's wins in Sweden and Japan, which also makes Spain the first European team to win the World Cup outside of Europe. Spain and Brazil are also the only teams to never win the World Cup whilst hosting the event, Spain having been eliminated in the second round in 1982

The 2010 FIFA World Cup squad won the FIFA fair play award while some of its players also won awards.[21] Goalkeeper Iker Casillas won the golden glove for only conceding two goals during the tournament. David Villa won the bronze ball and silver boot with a total of 5 goals and 1 assist.

spain national football team 2010

zinedine zidane International career

Both France and Algeria consider Zidane a citizen, but he was ineligible to play for the Algerian national team. There was a rumour that coach Abdelhamid Kermali denied Zidane a position for the Algerian squad because he felt the young midfielder was not fast enough.[10] However, Zidane dismissed the rumor in a 2005 interview, saying that he would have been ineligible to play for Algeria because he had already played for France.[11]

He earned his first cap with France as a substitute in a friendly against the Czech Republic on 17 August 1994, which ended in a 2–2 draw after Zidane scored twice to help France erase a 2–0 deficit. After Éric Cantona was handed a year-long suspension in January 1995 for assaulting a fan, Zidane took over the playmaker position. France were eliminated in the Euro 96 semi-finals in a penalty shootout by the Czech Republic after the match ended 0–0 in extra time.

The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the first World Cup that Zidane participated in. It was held in his home country France. The French team won all three games in the group stage but Zidane was sent off in the second match against Saudi Arabia for a stamp on Fuad Anwar, becoming the first French player to receive a red card in a World Cup finals. Without their suspended playmaker France proceeded to win 1–0 in the last sixteen game against Paraguay and, on his return to the side, defeated Italy 4–3 on penalties after a goalless draw in the quarter finals. France then defeated Croatia 2–1 in the semi final. Zidane played a major role in the team's accomplishment, though he had yet to score a goal at the World Cup.

Zidane and France went on to play against defending champions and favourites Brazil at the Stade de France in the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final. France dominated Brazil from the kick-off, with Zidane scoring two identical goals, both headers from corner kicks taken by Emmanuel Petit and Youri Djorkaeff. Courtesy of Zidane's brace, France went into the break 2–0 up at half-time with one hand already on the World Cup trophy. Emmanuel Petit added a third goal deep in stoppage time to seal the 3–0 win and France's first ever World Cup. Zidane became an instant national hero and his image was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe.

Two years later France won Euro 2000, becoming the first team to hold both the World Cup and the European Championship since West Germany in 1974. Zidane finished with two goals, a memorable free kick against Spain in the quarter final and the golden goal in the semi final against Portugal, and was named player of the tournament by UEFA.