Raúl González Blanco, usually referred to simply as Raúl, (born June 27, 1977) is a Spanish football forward. He has been playing for Real Madrid at senior level since 1994, where he is the team captain. He has played more than 100 games for the Spanish national team, and is its all-time leading goal scorer with 44 goals. He represented Spain in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and Euro 2004 tournaments.

Raúl is also currently 10th highest goalscorer in the history of Spain's top flight, with 180 goals in 400 games. All of these goals were for Real Madrid, making Raúl the club's third highest goalscorer of all time. This might improve as Raúl is still playing for the club.

When playing, he wears jersey number 7 for both club and country.

Raúl grew up in a modest neighbourhood of Madrid, in the suburb Marconi de San Cristóbal de los Ángeles. His father, don Pedro, was a fan of Atlético Madrid, the club where he started playing after a short period in San Cristóbal's team. Atlético Madrid coach didn't notice anything special about him because he was very thin and weak. Raul later turned to Real Madrid's C team and quickly made it to the first team in 1994/1995 season.

Raúl possesses a distinctive celebration, with each goal acclaimed by a kiss of his wedding ring, an acknowledgement to his wife Mamen Sanz. They have four sons: Jorge (February 25, 2000), who is named after Jorge Valdano, Hugo (November 20, 2002) and twins Héctor and Mateo (November 17, 2005). He likes reading, especially the books of Arturo Pérez Reverte, and listening to all sorts of Spanish music. He also enjoys hunting and watching bullfighting.

Fernando Morientes is a very close friend of Raul's. The two formed a very deadly striker partnership for Real Madrid and the Spanish national squad between 1998 and 2002, until Morientes was replaced by Ronaldo in the Real Madrid starting eleven. Morientes and Raul are still best friends, and Raul was often spotted at Anfield Road in the 2005/2006 English Premiership season while he was sidelined with an injury, watching Morientes play for Liverpool. Morientes and Raul have also gone on vacations together, with their families.

Raúl was born in the Madrid suburb of San Cristobal de Los Ángeles. After winning his spurs as a member of provincial amateur team San Cristobal de Los Angeles, his father signed him up for the Atlético Madrid youth team at the age of 13. Raúl rose through the ranks, winning the national title with the Under-15 youth team, and seemed destined to join the professional side when Atletico President Jesús Gil dissolved the club's entire youth scheme in an effort to save money.

Deprived of a team to play for, Raul turned to local rivals Real Madrid, where success was quickly forthcoming. He began the 1994-95 season in Real's "C" team, and scored 13 goals in the first seven games. In October 1994, head coach Jorge Valdano picked the gifted teenager in his first team. At just 17 years and four months, Raul became the youngest player ever to wear a Real Madrid shirt. In doing so, he nudged aside 1991 Pichichi Trophy winner Emilio Butragueño, and was soon well on the way to becoming Spain's new sensation. He scored nine times in his first season from 28 appearances, including one in his second game against Atletico, and won the Spanish La Liga championship. Raúl made his national team debut against the Czech Republic in October 1996. Raúl's performances for Spain have since mirrored the nation's fortunes, Spain being dubbed the "greatest underachievers" in international football.

Raúl was a key player in Real Madrid's six big titles from 1998 to 2003. With Real, he won three European UEFA Champions League trophies in 1998, 2000 and 2002, scoring the clinching goal in the 2000 Champions League final. On the domestic scene, he won three Spnaish La Liga championships in 1997, 2001 and 2003. After Fernando Hierro retired from the Spanish national team in 2002, Raúl became the captain for Real Madrid and Spain.

Ever since 2003, he has been under heavy criticism by the media and part of the supporters because of his poor performances in the last two years, in which Real Madrid struggled to win a title in Spain and in the European competitions, with no success in either of them. These struggles have seen Raúl relegated at times to the substitutes bench by both club and country, leaving questions as to how much he might have in the tank.

On 28 September 2005 against Greek power Olympiakos, his 97th UEFA Champions League match, he became the first player to score 50 goals in the history of the tournament, passing Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stéfano. When he led out the Spanish team against San Marino in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier on 12 October 2005, he surpassed his predecessor as Spain captain, Fernando Hierro, as the most-capped outfield player (i.e., not a goalkeeper) in Spanish history.

On June 19, with a goal against Tunisia, Raúl became the 18th player to score in 3 different editions of the FIFA World Cup. He has scored in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Playing style

Raúl is a striker who is able to link attack and midfield effectively.

At 1.80m in height and just over 68 kg, Raúl is very mobile and light on his feet, and likes to switch positions or go out wide. He can put his team-mates through into great positions, and create chances for himself even against the toughest markers. Originally an out-and-out striker, thanks to his versatility he has developed link-up play, allowing him to play in the hole behind the front men.

Francesco Totti (born September 27, 1976 in Rome) is an Italian football player, who currently plays for A.S. Roma in Serie A and for the Italian national team, who are the current world champions after winning the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Francesco Totti's position is that of a striker or an attacking midfielder, though he's best known for playing as the "trequartista", a compromise between the two positions where the player acts as a link between midfield and attack. He is also Roma's first choice to take free kicks, having scored a number of goals from dead-ball situations.

Totti is widely recognised as the symbol of Roma, having never left the team despite the possibility of playing in stronger and richer clubs, and being the number one goalscorer in the club's history.

Totti was born and raised in Rome, in the Porta Metronia city neighborhood. His parents are Enzo and Fiorella Totti. Unlike other children his age who preferred to watch cartoons, Totti was always more interested in watching football matches instead. Totti constantly played football with older boys. His mother refused a big deal for her son from A.C. Milan while waiting for a deal from his favourite club A.S. Roma. His mother intended to never let her son step foot out of the "Eternal City". Totti finally joined the A.S. Roma junior team in 1989.

Totti is married to Ilary Blasi, a former model, who currently works as commentator and host on several RAI TV programmes. The couple had their first baby, named Cristian, on November 6, 2005.

Totti also runs a football school, named Number Ten, and owns a motorcycle racing team called "Totti Top Sport".

His best friend is his brother, Riccardo. However, Totti always says that his brother was the better player when they were kids, but he was unlucky on his way. Riccardo now is Totti's agent.

He also had a bad relationship with his previous coach Fabio Capello, who is currently coach of Real Madrid. Totti accused Capello of being a traitor for leaving Roma suddenly without a warning, and left the Roman team in a very bad shape which had them almost relegated to the second division in 2004-2005 season. This rift started on Capello's last days with Roma: according to Totti, his behaviour to most of the players changed, and once advised the younger players not take Totti as their role model player, but to take Brazilian Emerson as an idol for his hard work. Several months later, Capello, Emerson and Frenchman Jonathan Zebina all left AS Roma for rivals Juventus suddenly.

Additional information

A goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, Totti published two self-effacing joke books in order to raise money for a children's charity. They were bestsellers for many months. Some of the jokes were filmed into short clips that were acted out by Totti ,himself, along with some of his teammates like Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon, Damiano Tommasi, Alessandro Nesta and Antonio Cassano.

Totti's idol player in his childhood was ex-Roma captain Giuseppe Giannini, whom he considers as his elder brother: he always wished to just shake hands with Giannini, and was one of his biggest fans. Several years after, Totti himself had the opportunity to play alongside Giannini on the pitch in the AS Roma kit.

Totti is famous for his chipping technique, called in Italian il cucchiaio (in English, "spoon" or in his Roman dialect (Romanesco), "er cucchiaio"). He has scored many beautiful goals using this technique. His famous early goals using this technique was in a shoot-out against Netherlands in the Euro 2000 semi-final when he scored against Netherlands keeper Edwin van der Sar, he also scored a second famous goal two years later against Lazio in the derby, which ended 5-1 to A.S. Roma. At the time, they played their best football. Consequently, his autobiography is entitled "Mo Je Faccio Er Cucchiaio", which is Roman dialect (Romanesco) for "Now I'm going to do the Chip Shot".

He was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations in March 2004.

National team

Very talented as a teenager, Totti scored in Italy's 4-1 defeat by Spain in the final of the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in July 1995. In the final of the Under-21 competition in 1996, Totti opened the scoring in a 1-1 draw against the Spanish before triumphing on penalties.

Totti made his senior Azzurri debut in the Euro 2000 qualifying victory against Switzerland on 10 October 1998. He played in the finals tournament and scored against Romania and Belgium and played in the final; losing to France. Although he was on the losing side, Totti was named Man of the Match in the final and described by many soccer legends, including Michael Platini (France), as the best player of the tournament.

Disappointment followed at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, with Totti failing to make a significant impact and then being sent off as Italy lost to the South Korea in the second round, when he controversially received a second yellow card for alleged penalty area diving by the referee Byron Moreno.

At Euro 2004, Totti garnered negative media attention when he spat at Christian Poulsen, a midfielder for Denmark. Totti was subsequently banned until the semi-finals, but did not play in the tournament again, as Italy failed to qualify for the next round. In defense of Totti, Poulsen has developed a reputation for a dirty player. The Danish defender was described as "a coward" by A.C. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti during the 05-06 season, for his continuous provocation of Kakà with the ball far away, Sporting Life.

Totti's participation in the 2006 FIFA World Cup was put at risk by the broken ankle he suffered a few months before the tournament. He recovered in time to join the national team, although he was not yet in his best shape. During the match with Australia, he scored from the penalty spot in the closing seconds of regular time to give Italy a 1-0 victory. This propelled Italy into the quarter finals. After the goal, he celebrated by sucking his thumb, in honor of his young son. Italy then went on to face Ukraine, a match in which Totti provided a valuable assist to striker Luca Toni. Italy went on to win the match 3-0 and moved on to the semifinals to face Germany. Totti started the game against Germany as well, and stayed on for 120 minutes, helping Italy defeat the Germans 2-0 in a sensational ending to the game. The Italians went on to face the French team in the finals. The score remained 1-1 through extra-time, after which the Italians won by a penalty shootout. For his work at this World Cup, Totti was selected for the 23-man Mastercard All-Star Team.

Totti is currently considering whether or not to continue playing for the national team after he had made it clear that his intention was to retire after the World Cup. When holding the world cup, he said that he was 50-50, if to retire, or to stay in international play. However, as soon as Roberto Donadoni took over a Italy's head coach, his first intention was to convince Totti to stay on the national team. Totti wanted to retire so he can spend more time with his family. Totti has made the decision to return to the national team next year, and only when he returns to his best form. However Italy's poor start to the Euro 2008 qualifiers has prompted Donadoni to try and persuade Totti to return earlier than planned.

Club

Francesco Totti was just 16 when he made his first appearance for AS Roma in a 2-0 away victory at Brescia Calcio on March 28, 1993. He scored four goals in twenty one outings in 1994-95 and over the ensuing seasons became a team regular. He was named Italy's Player of the Year in 2000 and in 2003. The following season (2000-01) he helped AS Roma secure their first league title since 1982-83, having scored thirteen Serie A goals. In the 2001-02 campaign Roma finished runners-up to Juventus, but Totti returned with a then personal-best of fourteen goals during the 2002-03 season.

• 2003-04: Playing in a more advanced role, Totti hit a career-high twenty goals as Roma finished second in Serie A behind A.C. Milan.
• 2004-05: A very disappointing season, the only bright side of which was Roma finishing second in the Italian Cup and thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In the 2004-05 season Roma had to replace four coaches. Despite all the problems, Totti scored twelve goals, and helped Vincenzo Montella score 21 with numerous assists. On December 19 2004, Totti broke A.S. Roma's goal scoring record when he scored against Parma. It was Totti's 107th goal for the club, a record previously held by Roberto Pruzzo.
• 2005-06: A strange season for Roma and Totti. On 19 February 2006, while playing in the Italian Championship against Empoli F.C., he suffered a fracture of his left fibula, and severed the interconnecting ligaments with the malleolus. He returned from his injury on 11 May 2006 as a substitute in Roma's 3-1 defeat to Inter Milan in the Coppa Italia. As in the 2004/05 season, A.S Roma came in second in the Italian Cup (again trailing to Inter Milan). In the Serie A they finished 5th, and only qualified for the UEFA Cup for the second season in a row. The team won eleven consecutive matches, breaking the all time record of 10 consecutive wins. The last match was won against rivals S.S Lazio, before a home draw with a late goal from Inter. Coach Luciano Spalletti turned the team's line up from a defensive one to an attacking one (despite playing without strikers for most of the season, and for the last 8 or so games playing without Totti), and the team moved from fifteenth to fifth by the end of the season. The team was spectacular in mid-season, with Totti scoring fifteen goals; an impressive number for a midfielder often playing out of position as a lone striker. He also provided many assists.

Celebration

Francesco Totti uses a variety of celebrations for special occasions. One of the more classic and remembered is the one where he took his shirt off and had a shirt under that said "6 (sei) Unica!" meaning you are unique, he flashed this to Ilary Blasi, his current wife. His most common celebrations are the one where he runs to the side , kissing his ring finger in honor of his wife and than pointing upwards with his finger, thanking god. When his son, Cristian, was born, he began sucking his thumb as a celebration to honour him.

Date of birth: 20.06.1978

Country: England

Club: «Chelsea» (London, England)

Frank Lampard had been a promising player for a long time, many people considered him as a national England team’s hope, and only with coming of a Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, Frank became a real super-player. It was a Portuguese guru, who made a real leader of a young Englishman. Now all «Chelsea's» center game is based on this motor half-back.

West Ham’s pupil, Lampard, firslty played in Premiership in 1996, he was 18, and being 20 he already played in a main team, being 21 he was appointed a UK youth team captain, at the same time he was firstly invited to play for a main country team. A young half-back made his debut in a national England team on October, 10 1999 in a play-off with a Belgian team. However, for a long time this was the only game Lampard played for a national team.

Such player could not stay for a long in an average club, and in 2001 West Ham sold Lampard to Chelsea for 16 euro millions. Frank quickly adjusted to a new club and became a main team player. Playing centre half, Frank scored 5 goals and missed only one ball during his first season.

When Swede Ericsson became a coach of all-England team, Lampard’s position in a national team changed. He started playing in a team regularly, replacing Nike Batt. On Europe championship in Portugal Lampard became a real leader among Englishmen. Many people consider the quarter-final match his team lost to a host team one of the best matches in football history with good reasons.

2004 year became the best one in Lampard’s carrier, he was acknowledged the Best club’s player and took an honorary second place in “Footballer’s of The Year” rating in England. This season is also good for a leader. His Chelsea is close to triumph in England Championship and Champions League more than ever.

Being a leader, Lampard guides the team. He looks great both as a support and offensive half-back. Franks is physically strong, stable, at the same time has an excellent kick and tries to use this circumstance as often as he can. In general, constant aiming at gates – is one of his main advantages.

Ronaldinho was born into a family of football addicts, living in a wooden house in the heart of a favela. His father, Joao da Silva Moreira who played for an amateur club made ends meet by by working as a car park attendant at Gremio Football Club. His brother Roberto was a great hope for the club but then his career was unfortunately ended by a terrible knee injury.

At the age of 8, tregedy struck as Ronaldinho's father drowned in a swiming pool at a villa provided by Gremio for Roberto. Following in the footsteps of his brother Ronnie then joined the Gremio's footballing school and wowed everyone there. He made it into the first team in 1997 and was being heralded as one of the best young hopes in Brazilan football. Meanwhile, he was already making the breakthrough with the national squad, and his six goals were fundamental in Brazil's Copa America triumph in 1999.

In 2001, Ronaldinho moved on to PSG where he became a fan's favourite with his tremendous flair and excting style of football - also contributing tremendous amounts of goals. However his employer's still weren't happy with his atitude and looked ot get rid of him. Of course, he continued to shine in the international arena. His finest hour came at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea, where he was a key member of the side that won Brazil's record fifth world title - scoring in the quarter final and playing an integral role in midfield in the final.

Ronaldinho then moved to Barcelona - arguably the biggest club in the world - for what now seems a bargain at £21,000,000. When he arrived, he said that his desire was to bring as much success to the club as so many Brazilians had done before him, such as Evaristo, Ronaldo, Romario and Rivaldo. Having won the World Footballer of the Year title it seems he has now fulfilled that desire. ]]> http://mtmg.wordpress.com/?p=610 Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:34:21 +0000 james http://mtmg.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/john-thomson-and-the-history-of-football/ I hadn't known that it had been filmed: the shockingly violent moment when Sam English's knee caught Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson's head in a 1931 Old Firm derby. But there the whole terrible incident was, played out in front of a vast Ibrox crowd, and replayed now in commemoration of Thomson's entry into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. It's a fast, quick, clever Rangers attack - English and Thomson go for the same brilliant through ball - and you can feel the impact in your gut. Thomson is left lying still on the ground.

I hadn't seen the film before, but I was familiar with that press photo of the accident. It was in an hundred of those lavish 1970s histories of football. The picture's grainy to the point where Sam English is scarcely recognisable as a man, yet you can tell straightaway that something is badly wrong from the acute angle of Thomson's head. Thomson was rushed to the Victoria Hospital with a depressed fracture of the skull. A depressed fracture of the skull: hat's my injury, "picked up", as they say in the game, during a mugging in 1992. But I was very lucky. I was able to "run it off." Poor John Thomson died that evening. Perhaps he could have been saved nowadays, but we'll never know.

Of course, Thomson's commemoration does everything to justify the creation of "Halls of Fame" - he was already one of the great keepers when his life was cut so short. And that's what they exist for, isn't it? to keep alive the memory of players who might otherwise be forgotten as the people who watched them play themselves come to the end of their lives.

As I say, I was familiar only with that press photograph, but it was one that had shaken me thoroughly at the young age at which I came across it. I was what, eight, ten? taking a lunch break high up in the little library of Parkwood Middle School in Bedford. Thirty years ago, before Thatcher, but I can still see it clearly without effort, where it sat on the page.

I can't remember a time when I didn't get the idea of death. When I was a toddler, my grandmother's sisters were dying one by one of old age and related complaints, and there are a whole string of them who lived long lives in the twentieth century yet whom I've just one memory of, the same one each time, of an old, old lady making a great fuss of my baby blonde hair, shortly before I am told that they've died.

What I didn't really understand, and still struggle with now, is the nineteenth-century-and-earlier idea that death can come out of a clear blue sky at any age; that there are terrible things that can happen to anyone, and that they are real and take time. No fade-outs: no changes of scene while some kindly anaesthesia helps the doomed man over the line. A depressed fracture of the skull bloody hurts, let me tell you, but of course there's much worse out there.

John Thomson's accident told me that much. It can be you, it can be bad, you aren't excused because you're twenty and there's no warning and you don't get to say goodbye. "Lunar distances travelled beyond love" was Heaney's line in another context, perhaps the loneliest and most heartbreaking aspect of this kind of death where there is no time to find some last familiar affection.

Of course, by 1931, this kind of event was becoming unusual. In the last years of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth century, the top echelons of the game saw something of the sort most years. Archie Hunter, Aston Villa, 1890 (heart attack suffered during a game). James Dunlop, St Mirren 1892 (tetanus from a cut sustained during a game). Joseph Powell, Arsenal 1896 (infection following a badly broken arm). Di Jones, Manchester City, 1902 (gashed knee turning septic). Thomas Blackstock, Manchester United 1907 (seizure after being knocked unconscious heading a ball). James Milne, Hibs 1909 (internal injuries sustained during a game). Frank Levick, Sheffield United 1908, Bob Benson, guesting for Arsenal in 1916... and this is just soccer. Rugby and gridiron were far worse.

There would be others after Thomson, and other goalkeepers, but the intervals were already widening and now such instances are scarce and owing more to undiagnosed illness on the part of players than anything that happens on the pitch.

Football is one of the most familiar and most consistent things in our lives. You can watch that 1931 Old Firm Derby, or the White Horse Final, or any of the many Mitchell and Kenyon films of Edwardian matches and understand what's going on immediately. And this is a very useful and underestimated thing in terms of social history: football's consistency and ever-present nature can be used as a measuring stick for change happening around it.

The impact of Edwardian footballing deaths on the other men on the pitch was every bit as bad as it would be today. There's no sign of their being hardened to that kind of thing: just shock, grief, horror, and attempts to inspire change. Blackstock's death played a part in the formation of the first players' union. But the further the distance from each incident, the more the weight of industrial accidents, injuries and deaths begins to tell, the more they fade amidst a welter of deaths from infectious disease or what would now be minor infections. Only as trade unionism, liberalism and technological advance reduce the numbers of industrial accidents, only as improved hygiene, better medical techniques and (it would appear) factors still unknown extend lifespans and change expectations do sporting deaths become the ghastly irruptions into fun and leisure that they are today. It was 1936 before the laws of the game prohibited your raising your foot to a goalkeeper.

And look beyond the pitch into the stands. What you'd see there changed relatively little between 1905 and 1955. But the '60s and '70s grounds were uglier, more violent places, bringing into acute focus the increase in socially-unaccepted violence that was taking hold across society. (I'm referring to violence of a kind that wasn't in-house to working and middle class people pre-1960, the kind the police were expected to keep out of). Football grounds now, especially at Premiership level, follow an aesthetic that demonstrates how British music/media and its aesthetic have permeated almost all levels of national life, taking the prevailing imperative and leeching people's faith in other forms. Live Aid was a concert, not a match.. But that's another argument for another day.

In 1930, John Thomson was injured playing against Airdrieonians. He damaged his collar bone, fractured a number of ribs, spat out a couple of teeth and, just for good measure, broke his jaw. The ball was there to be gone for, devil take the hindmost, he would have thought.

His mother, not for the first time, sought to persuade Thomson to retire from the game. She'd been troubled, for a long time, by premonitions of his death.

Life offers us some truly close choices at times when it comes to figuring out what’s best; Pepsi or Cola? Puppies or kittens? Pele or Maradona? All of these pairs have several common factors that make them great, but they’re also unique in their own way and that’s exactly the case with the Pele and Maradona comparison, a comparison that sparked enormous and passionate debates throughout modern history.

In the 1970s, Pele had already established himself as a huge name in soccer and was already being considered the greatest player to have ever lived. No one even came close to his glory, until a short, stuffed Argentinean player called Maradona walked on the soccer field for the first time.

Maradona was born in a poor family, but as with all Argentinean families of that time, soccer was a central part of their lives. Maradona and his two younger brothers started up playing soccer from an early age and he was spotted as a great talent around age 11, when he was taken to the youth squad of Buenos Aires’ Argentinos Juniors, where he would amuse spectators with his juggling tricks during halftimes in the senior squad’s games.

Soon enough, Maradona established himself in the senior squad at age 16, being called for the national team around the same time. He played his first World Cup in 1982, scoring twice in 5 matches but also receiving a red card for a vicious foul. With Argentina beaten by Italy in the second round, Maradona had to wait another 4 years to get a chance at the shiny trophy and when he got that chance, he grabbed it with both hands.

The 1986 World Cup is deemed by many as the most spectacular one in the history of soccer and Maradona has a lot to do with that. He scored 5 goals throughout the Cup and also made 5 assists, but it would be the quarter-final against England that will remain in history. Maradona scored two goals that would cement his legend as both an outstanding and a tricky player.

His first goal of the match was scored with the hand, but the referee allowed it. Highly controversial, this goal later became known as the “Maradona hand of God goal”. The second goal of the match, scored just 4 minutes after the Hand of God, is still widely known as the “Goal of the Century”. Maradona picked up the ball close to his own penalty box and started a sprint that would end up in the English goal, 15 seconds, 70 meters, 5 defenders and a goalkeeper later.

Although his career was garnished with controversy, ranging from pitch-brawling to cocaine abuse, Maradona remains one of the most important figures in modern sports and together with Pele and Johan Crujff, forms the golden trio of all time soccer. ]]> http://soccerlegends.wordpress.com/?p=7 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:15:33 +0000 soccertips4u http://soccerlegends.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/history-and-biography-of-pele/

Biography of Pele

Pele was the greatest soccer player ever, scoring over 1200 goals in a glittering career that also brought World Cup and World Club Championships. The biography of Pele is a tough act to follow for any modern world cup players !

When soccer fans talk about the greatest player of all time you will debate the skills of Pele, Maradona, Best and some other soccer legends but can anyone match the amazing biography of Pele ? Pele scored an amazing 1281 goals in a career that covered 1360 games ! That is nearly an average of one goal per game !

History of Pele

Pele was a nickname from childhood as the Brazilian soccer star's real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the nickname originated from school . Pele was the youngest player ever to win a soccer world cup winners medal when Brazil won the 1958 world cup as a 17 year old. Pele scored 2 goals in the world cup final at the age of 17 , an achivement that is unlikely to be matched ever in world cup history.

Pele was brought up in a poor part of Brazil and was guided by his father who was also a professional soccer player, his father once scored five headed goals in the one match ! . Pele played for Santos of Brazil and was part of the winning 1962 and 1963 Inter Continential championship winning squad ( World Club Championship ) .

Pele was also part of the 1962 world cup winning squad but injury hampered his appearances and this was also the case in the 1966 England world cup as some brutal tactics put him out of the tournament and Brazil also failed to retain their trophy.

Brazil 1970 World Cup winners

However the 1970 world cup in Mexico will always be a special memory for Pele fans as he inspired Brazil to a famous victory. The 1970 world cup was a festival of football with a Brazil team that was a joy to watch. Even many years on you will still see the famous Pele video clips and goals as he sold the keeper that famous " dummy" and also scored with a brilliant header in the 1970 world cup final against Italy. Pele later went on to confirm that this was a special goal as it was also Brazil's 100th world cup goal.

Pele retired from international football but made a comeback to sign a money spinning contract with the New York Cosmos in the American soccer league. Pele was part of the 1977 championship winning side and the average crowds increased by over 80% in the few years that he graced the American soccer scene.

If you study the biography of Pele and watch Pele video clips and goals you will no doubt agree that he was a soccer genius, he could play with either foot and could spring in the air to score headers despite his small size compared to defenders. pele was quick, strong and one of the very best goalscorers.

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography – Foreword

There aren't a lot of soccer players in the world today that can honestly state they are more popular than Cristiano Ronaldo. Except for a few already established super stars such as Ronaldinho or David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo is probably the most popular rising star on the pitch.

His good looks combined with his awesome repertoire of Cristiano Ronaldo soccer tricks and a hint of trademarked Cristiano Ronaldo goals made him reach the level of fame on which he is basking in the spotlight sun today.

This Cristiano Ronaldo biography will try to take you through his career and although it's a rare case that a player who is still in his early 20s receives a biography, I'm sure you'll agree that a Cristiano Ronaldo profile is in order, considering his huge talent and fame.

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography – Youth Clubs

Born in Madeira to a family where soccer was cherished, Cristiano Ronaldo started playing for a local amateur youth team called Andorinha, where his father handled the equipment and acted as a kit man.

Cristiano was 8 when he joined Andorinha and by the time he was 10, he already sparked the curiosity of some of Portugal's biggest clubs. This led him to sign for the local first-division team CD Nacional, where he would join the youth club and immediately make an impact, helping his team win the youth championship the following year.

After just 1 year at Nacional, he was offered a youth contract by bigwigs Sporting Lisbon, who are internationally renowned for having one of the best youth training facilities in the World.

The young player fit right in at Sporting and started scoring regularly, although he was way too fond on his dribble at that point. Despite this short coming, he was taken in to various levels of the Portugal national youth squad, finally getting his big break at the UEFA under 17 Championship in 2001.

His great performance there drew the eyes of Liverpool's scouts, but Ronaldo was just 16 years old and the Liverpool officials decided he needs more time in the Portuguese league before they sign him.

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography – Sporting Lisbon

Being taken in the senior squad of Sporting meant the young player's first contact with professional football. Although he didn't play regularly, the few moments that he did get on the pitch were greeted with cheers from the Sporting fans, who loved Cristiano Ronaldo's soccer tricks. In 2 seasons with Sporting's senior squad, Ronaldo got to play 28 matches, scoring 3 times before he was picked up by Manchester United's scouts, at age 18.

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography – Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson, manager and coach of Manchester United desperately needed a quality right midfielder in 2003, as David Beckham had just left the club for Real Madrid.

Bringing an 18-year old Portuguese player to replace an international super-star like Beckham didn't seem like a good idea at first, but from his first season Cristiano Ronaldo's goals proved decisive and he quickly gained the love of the Red Devils' fans.

In his following seasons at Manchester, with more and more trust coming from Sir Alex Ferguson and the team's fans, Cristiano Ronaldo developed into an extraordinary player that is now feared by even the sturdiest defenders out there.

Despite the fact that he is just 22 years of age right now, Cristiano Ronaldo already has 208 professional matches and 53 goals (190 matches and 50 goals for Manchester, the others for Sporting) and 46 caps in the national squad, with a tally of 17 goals for Portugal. Impressive stats for such a youngster.

The best part is that with each passing year Cristiano Ronaldo improves his game even further, so don't be surprised if in a couple of years he steps up to become the greatest footballer in activity.

I really thought I knew everything there is about the midfielder, but reading a David Beckham biography I found out more about the man behind the superstar. That's why I decided to write my own biography of David Beckham, to share to you the player behind the million dollar endorsements.

David Beckham Biography – Manchester United

David Beckham's story starts out near London, where he was born to a family of Manchester United fans. Despite being so close to clubs like West Ham United, Arsenal or Chelsea, Beckham's aim was always the Red Devils club. As luck would have it, on his fourteenth birthday, he was taken in the Manchester youth program, and he even starred next to the senior team...as a mascot.

Just 4 years later, he went on to play for Sir Alex Ferguson's senior squad, but his performance still needed fine tuning, so he was loaned to Preston North End for a year, returning to Manchester with some match experience. He quickly gained his place in the squad, despite his young age and became one of Manchester's most preeminent players during the following decade.

His most successful season with Manchester is undoubtedly 1999, when the club achieved the Treble (League, Cup and Champions League in the same season) and with David Beckham playing soccer like never before.

It's around then that he "trademarked" his famous free kicks and crosses and seeing some footage of David Beckham in action during that period will shed all doubts as to whether or not his superstardom status has a solid basis in his playing style, or just his good looks.

David Beckham Biography – 1998 World Cup Incident

His career did have a few rough moments, the most notable one being in 1998 with the English national side, at that year's World Cup. In the Second Round, where England would play Argentina, Beckham was taunted by Argentinean midfielder Diego Simeone and he responded with a swing towards the player, which earned him a red card for bad behavior on the pitch.

With England losing the match and being knocked out of the tournament, all blame fell on David Beckham, as the English newspapers put him against the wall and fired up some poisonous articles. Any other player would have stayed low, or even quit soccer, but David Beckham's ambition brought him back to the top. His performance with Manchester the following year, earned him back the respect of his fans and the entire world.

David Beckham Biography – Real Madrid

By the time David Beckham moved to Real Madrid in 2003, he was already a well-known star on the international stage. In his four years with the Madrid club he managed to win the Spanish league once, but his performance was deemed poorer than what he was playing at Manchester.

Many attributed this loss of form due to the new system found at Real and the fact that at Madrid he wasn't the "star" of the team anymore, since he was playing next to other internationally famous soccer players like Zinedine Zidane, Raul or Roberto Carlos.

David Beckham Biography – Los Angeles Galaxy

Moving to play in the United States for the Los Angeles Galaxy as of 2007 earned him one of the biggest contracts in the history of soccer and it was an offer David couldn't have refused, despite the fact that the soccer level in the United States is not as high as the one practiced in Spain.

This is a rebuttal to Brad Warthen's post, "Go cold turkey, Nathan; just go cold turkey."

The State's editorial page editor, Brad Warthen, seems to think that quitting an intense addiction to football is a good thing. He counsels Rep. Nathan Ballentine, who is upset about the current state of USC's season, that it's better to quit and move on than nurse a devotion to a football program that upsets you on a yearly basis.

To this, Vierdsen says, "Fie!"

Warthen sites as his falling out with football when former Alabama star Joe Willie Namath and the New York Jets beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Of course, his entire reasoning is bullshit.

He says that, "Football builds depression. Lose one game, and you're chopped liver. That doesn't help young folks grow strong and get themselves on Wheaties boxes." Really? 'Cause last time Vierdsen checked, Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas was in the Hall of Fame. That's not chopped liver. That's having a great career and getting beat by a superior team late in said career.

The fact that everything comes down to one game, not a series, like in baseball or basketball, is one of the beauties of football. The fact that every week is a playoff is one of the beauties of college football. But, if you're not willing to take the slings and arrows, why be a fan anyway?

Losing is what makes being a fan worthwhile. You have to deal with the bad times, testing your faith in the team, to enjoy the good. When John first started watching Alabama, the Tide went to the Sugar Bowl (L v. Miami, 1989), Fiesta Bowl (L v. Louisville, 1990), Blockbuster Bowl (W v. Colorado, 1991), Sugar Bowl (W v. Miami, 1992), Gator Bowl (W v. North Carolina, 1993) and Citrus Bowl (W v. Ohio State, 1994). That was until the probation year of 1995. Then was a win over Michigan in the Outback Bowl in '96. Over those years, Bama won the national championship, the SEC title twice, and came close to SEC and national titles two more times. Not a bad way to start out as a fan.

The next decade, 1997-2007, has been bad. There was an SEC championship in '99, and 10-win seasons in '99, '02 and '05, but the bad has been pretty damn bad. There were losing seasons in '97 (4-7), 2000 (3-8), 2003 (4-9) and 2006 (6-7). The Tide's currently dealing with an unprecedented six-game losing streak against Auburn. Bama's on it's fifth coach since Gene Stallings. It's been rough.

Did John pack it up, ever? No. There's always tomorrow, always a new season, and you never know what might happen. Right now, the Tide is No. 9 in the latest AP poll and things look good, so far.

This is all to say, yes, there will be ups, and yes, there will be downs. That's what's great. For a few weeks during the fall, you get to worry and care about something that you have absolutely no control over, which is, in its way, liberating. And, who doesn't like some liberty, especially when it comes with a sporting event, barbecue and booze?

Even if you eschew the pulled pork and alcohol, it's something not to be discounted. For years and years, football has bonded families in ways few other things have. For most of his teens (and 20s, for that matter), John and his dad couldn't communicate very well to each other, but they could always find common ground talking about happenings on the gridiron. And that's worth something, dammit.

Go cold turkey, Nathan; just go cold turkey [Brad Warthen's Blog]
“Next Year” never comes [Nathan's News]

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL AMOR
SI NUNCA TE HICISTE HINCHA DE UN CLUB.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL DOLOR
SI JAMÁS EL ZAGUERO TE ROMPIÓ LA TIBIA Y EL PERONÉ
Y ESTUVISTE EN UN BARRERA Y LA PELOTA TE PEGO JUSTO AHÍ.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL PLACER
SI NUNCA DISTE UNA VUELTA OLÍMPICA DE VISITANTE.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL CARIÑO
SI NUNCA LA ACARICIASTE DE CHANFLE ENTRÁNDOLE CON EL REVÉS DEL PIE
PARA DEJARLA JADEANDO BAJO LA RED.

ESCUCHAME... COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA SOLIDARIDAD
SI JAMÁS SALISTE A DAR LA CARA POR UN COMPAÑERO GOLPEADO DESDE ATRÁS.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA POESÍA
SI JAMÁS TIRASTE UNA GAMBETA.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA HUMILLACIÓN
SI JAMÁS TE METIERON UN CAÑO.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA AMISTAD
SI NUNCA DEVOLVISTE UNA PARED.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL PÁNICO.
SI NUNCA TE SORPRENDIERON MAL PARADO
EN UN CONTRAGOLPE.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES MORIR UN POCO
SI JAMÁS FUISTE A BUSCAR LA PELOTA ADENTRO DEL ARCO.

DECIME VIEJO... COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES
LA SOLEDAD
SI JAMÁS TE PARASTE BAJO LOS TRES PALOS
A 12 PASOS DE UNO QUE TE QUERÍA FUSILAR Y TERMINAR CON TUS ESPERANZAS.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL BARRO.
SI NUNCA TE TIRASTE A LOS PIES DE NADIE
PARA MANDAR UNA PELOTA SOBRE UN LATERAL.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL EGOÍSMO
SI NUNCA HICISTE UNA DE MAS
CANDO TENIAS QUE DÁRSELA AL 9 QUE ESTABA SOLO.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL ARTE
SI NUNCA, PERO NUNCA INVENTASTE UNA RABONA.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA MÚSICA
SI JAMÁS CANTASTE EN LA POPULAR.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA INJUSTICIA
SI NUNCA TE SACO TARJETA ROJA UNA REFERÍ LOCALISTA.

DECIME, COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES
EL INSOMNIO
SI JAMÁS TE FUISTE AL DESCENSO.

COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES EL ODIO
SI NUNCA HICISTE UN GOL EN CONTRA.

COMO, PERO COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LLORAR
SI LLORAR,
SI JAMÁS PERDISTE UNA FINAL EN UN MUNDIAL
SOBRE LA HORA CON UN PENAL DUDOSO.

COMO VAS A SABER, QUERIDO AMIGO,
COMO VAS A SABER LO QUE ES LA VIDA

SI NUNCA JAMÁS, JUGASTE AL FÚTBOL.

Quique Wolf.

"Nadie duda que Zidane es un jugador tremendo, pero lo que Zidane hace con una pelota, Maradona lo hace con un naranja" Michel Platini

"Al fútbol siempre debe jugarse de manera atractiva, debes jugar de manera ofensiva, debe ser un espectáculo" Johan Cruyff

So I wasn't expecting any great football revelations from the BBC series "The Thirties in Colour." Nor were there any, although what there was was quite jaw-dropping enough for anybody. Spoiled, yes, by the excessive use of talking heads, and spoiled too by the shrewish, nagging voiceover which couldn't contain itself about the ineradicable wealthiness of the filmmakers, or about said filmmakers' inexplicable inability to make Marxist forecasts about the future.

The first episode featured the (excellent) work of a woman who happened to be an aristocrat - colour film was expensive technology at that time - and in the first half of the programme, covering the late 1930s, she could do no right: "failing" to see that her world was about to fall apart, "not registering" the drums of war, to say nothing about all the usual guff about dilletantes and snobs and so forth.

When war does break out, our dilletante immediately seeks to put herself at the service of the country, and the country decides that the best thing she can do is use her skills with colour photography to record what is happening. She spends the Blitz wherever the danger was greatest. Those oft-repeated colour clips of blazing warehouses and offices that you've seen are all hers. Of this undoubted courage and determination the voiceover says nothing. Nor does it reflect that there may be something wrong with its earlier assessment of her as a Wodehouse female in an ivory tower. A shameful performance, and a tone that occurs in almost every part of every programme. Buy the DVD, but watch it with the sound off.

Despite all this, the series has helped me in forming some ideas about why there appears to be no colour footage of prewar football.

• Purpose I was confused initially by the fact that monochrome film cameras had found there way into football grounds in a big way within months of cinema's invention. The first film of football dates from 1897, certainly no later than 1898 when the first documented match was filmed (Blackburn v WBA). Mitchell and Kenyon turned their lenses onto literally hundreds of Edwardian games. So why, when colour cinema came into existence, didn't this happen again? I think part of the answer lies in what the pioneers in each case were looking for. Remember that stills film capable of capturing fast movement appeared at the same time, give a year or two, as cinema. What the cine pioneers wanted, above all, was movement, action. Only five years earlier, they'd have wanted the opposite: stillness and time to make an exposure. Now, suddenly, they needed crowds, bustle, speed - and that meant cities and it meant street scenes and factory gates and it meant football, as novel and as unknown as cinematography itself. But when colour photography and film arrived, the novelty was in getting away from monochrome. Colour itself was what you wanted, and that meant nature, native costume, blue skies and crystal seas.
• Professionalism Most of that Victorian and Edwardian monochrome football footage was made by the people who were in the process of creating what by the mid-twenties had become the cinema industry. All of those Mitchell and Kenyon matches were merely part of the nascent industry finding its way, finding its audience. By the time colour arrived, the industry and the audience were mature; as with the arrival of sound, the new technology could join an existing stream. Most of the radical exploration of the new genre's possibilities would be done either by wealthy amateurs - who would seek out colourful, rather than movement-filled, scenes - or by young filmmakers at the start of their careers, the likes of Jack Cardiff, who'd go on to work with Powell and Pressburger.
• Cinema By the 1920s, football film coverage had found its level, at least for the pre-television time being. The likes of British Pathe would work a soccer clip into a cinema news bulletin. These clips were throwaway stuff in the sense that, although archived by the company, it was forseen that they'd be good only for one viewing. No more money would be spent on it than necessary - and these films would remain monochrome into the 1960s.

In short, football was an obvious target for film when both football and film itself were brand new. Latterly, it's been an obvious target because the cine camera has been compressed into mobile phones. But colour film's area of experiment wasn't movement and action, as was the case with the Lumieres, Edison, or Mitchell and Kenyon. It was colour itself - and, regrettably, that meant going not to interesting places like the Chapman/Allison Highbury or Jimmy Hogan's Aston Villa, but the hackneyed predictable tedium of India or Vesuvius erupting.

The maturity of the film industry of the 1930s put the job of random experimentation with colour film into the hands of the wealthy or the ambitious, which means that we have colour footage of polo - not a bad game, just an expensive one - but not soccer. Perhaps things would have been different if our major team sports had been more college-based as in the USA, where colour footage of college football goes back to 1940. But by the 1930s, British football had turned itself into a ghetto entertainment, run by the industrial lower middle classes at the expense of working men and women: the novelty and glamour that might have drawn the curious with colour film was long over.

When Alastair Cooke first went to America, he colour-filmed the place into the ground. Surely an American Alastair Cooke, over here, would have done the same, and he'd have had to have gone to a match. US troops in England during the Second World War certainly did: if any footage at all survives of the soccer of this period, I suspect it's in the basement of a US Army officer's great-grandchildren. I hope they don't just throw it away.

So this isn't a liveblogging of the 51 year old game, just thoughts.

Peter McParland can have had no idea of the significance his shoulder-charge of Manchester United keeper Ray Wood would have for future generations. As Ken Wolstenholme noted at the time, the Villa man's charge was perfectly within the rules, for all that it looks like plain assault to modern eyes. Wood's injury means that we only have about six minutes of film of the Busby Babes playing at their height against English opposition. For the rest of the game, they were effectively a man down, and we are denied a "typical" Babes performance (if such a thing could be seen at a Cup Final with all that was at stake, of course).

Furthermore the Babes responded to Wood's withdrawal by pulling Duncan Edwards back into the centre of defence. This had the effect of taking Edwards out of reach of the camera for long periods. It goes without saying that this is another significant loss: Edwards - along with about half of his colleagues from the '57 Final - would be dead within a year.

For those first six minutes, however, Manchester United were quite astonishingly good. They attacked with the ball kept on the ground, through the middle, and Villa scarcely touched the ball. Indeed, had Tommy Taylor, 25 at this point, and Bobby Charlton, a coltish 19, had a better mutual understanding, United would have scored twice in the opening period.

Charlton was bubbly, fast, able to beat men for speed, but seemed unaware of his colleague's movement around him. My notes of the match contain two phrases which repeat themselves over and over: "Charlton loses possession" is one of them. I'll come to the other later.

The first few minutes took place in what comes across as a marvellous, safe, friendly, fun atmosphere. No chanting, no banners, no football shirts on men old enough to know better. Just 100,000 people having a good day out. There was football-related violence in the 1950s, of course, but nothing on the scale that would come with the 1960s and 1970s. Most of it took place on trains, which could be stripped out by a contingent of fans then as now. In among the pleasant hum of conversation, the odd bell or rattle could be heard.

1957 Wembley was as neat as a pin. A picket fence ringed the pitch; when the ball went out of play, ball-boys got it back with an alacrity now more typical of Wimbledon. Throw-ins and free kicks were taken immediately - play hardly paused - and the defending team passed the ball to their opposition politely rather than using modern delaying tactics.

By comparison, the modern Wembley looks like the set of Bladerunner.

In 1957, there was no dissent shown to the referee.

After Ray Wood had been stretchered off, Bill Foulkes of United went on a one-man mission to exact revenge. The other comment that gets repeated in my notes is "Foulkes flattens Villa player" - usually McParland. Simple, straightforward, deliberate and repeated violence of the kind shown by Foulkes is gone, by and large, from the modern game, or at any rate its perpetrator doesn't stay on the pitch for very long.

On the day, McParland was the difference between the two sides. Even with United down to ten men, Villa found it hard to impose themselves. United had the ability to move players around total-football style, so that, for instance, Whelan and Coleman could take turns at the heavy lifting in central midfield, whilst never offering Villa the same problem twice. Likewise, David Pegg and Johnny Berry would swap wings.

So McParland's fantastic header in the second half was crucial to the result. United slumped quite clearly for about five minutes afterwards. At the end of those five, McParland scored again, and only then did United pull themselves together.

The catalyst for their revival was Ray Wood, who proved that Manchester United's goalkeeper, given a broken jaw, was a perfectly adequate inside forward, once Busby allowed him back on in the second half. At one point late on he executed a mirror-image near facsimile of the Ricky Villa goal from 1982, except of course in the essential point of scoring.

And, yes, famously so, Jackie Blanchflower was quite superb in goal. Wood went back between the sticks late on, allowing a relatively fresh Blanchflower to run at Aston Villa. Tommy Taylor's late looping header, an unsatisfactory and weak kind of goal, was followed by a siege on Villa's goal, but to no avail.

Two things about the end of the game. One: McParland and Wood shook hands and went off together. Two: the United players applauded Villa off. No Chelsea-style Champions League Final antics for them.

I consider Villa's victory to be fortunate in the extreme - apart from their goalscoring spell, they were always very much second best to a United side perhaps young enough to run off the one-man disadvantage. United's close control - with the exception of Roger Byrne - was always superior.

But Wood was luckier than Villa. Lucky in that he only broke his jaw. Had his been a neck injury, the treatment he received on the pitch in 1957 might well have crippled or killed him, as Trautmann's so nearly had a year earlier.

The sadness is that there were so many players on the pitch that day that you'd want to see in full cry. Taylor, Colman, Edwards.. We get to see plenty of David Pegg, of Liam Whelan and Roger Byrne, which is something.

Overall, I'd rate the United side of 1957, on the inadequate basis of six minutes at the start of a cup final, as very similar in ability to the Keane-Giggs-Scholes-Beckham side of the late '90s. Neither of those teams had quite the attack that the 65-9 United had with Law, Charlton and Best. But the '57 team were three or four years away from their peak. I shudder to think what George Best might have won in the 1960s with colleagues of the '57 calibre.

Ken Wolstenholme complained in his commentary that the Wood injury would bring the whole substitution thing back onto the agenda. He wasn't wrong, was he?

Video Footage

The complete match I've watched is in monochrome. Here's a Pathe News excerpt in colour:

and, with sound, in monochrome:

Snippets of this material come and go on Youtube, caught up in the never-ending copyright battle that makes the site so unpredictable, fun and frustrating. But now the BFI themselves have thrown a decent amount up there themselves. Here's the best of what's there so far. (The rest of their Youtube collection is well worth exploring, as is the Mediatheque at their beautiful Southbank headquarters in London).

Sunderland v Leicester Fosse 1907

(There's an amusing drinking story around Leicester Fosse - look it up!)

Burnley v Manchester United 1902

Preston North End v Aston Villa 1905

Bolton v Burton United 1904/5

Preston North End v Wolverhampton Wanderers 1904

Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa 1904

Bradford City v Gainsborough Trinity 1903

Notts County v Middlesbrough 1902

Everton v Liverpool 1902

Rotherham Town v Thornhill 1902

Newcastle United v Liverpool 1901

(The outstanding film of this set - the only one truly worth watching just for the game)

Sheffield United v Bury 1901

(The United side who lost to John Cameron's Spurs in the Cup Final take on the Cupholders who defeated George Clawley's Southern League Southampton in the 1900 Final)

Salford v Batley 1901

Rugby League - with fascinating changing room shots and much "background" detail.

The Ban on Womens' Football

This is from 1921, and comments on the FA's impending ban. Eccentric and disastrous behaviour on the FA's part, even at the time. Genuine mysogyny I suspect, of the kind Rachel Heyhoe-Flint had to deal with at the other end of the century and Jackie Oatley's putting up with now.

This group, plus Jack Reynolds, William Townley and Jimmy Hogan, pioneered the teaching of football, and had to go abroad to do it. Of these, Fred Pentland (Spain), Jimmy Hogan (Hungary and Austria) and Jack Reynolds (Holland) were undeniably excellent coaches who had remarkable careers and left considerable legacies.

Three out of that group is quite a high proportion. It's worth bearing in mind that these men were self-selecting: not only did they have to regard teaching football as worthwhile, but they had to have the self-confidence and self-assurance to leave home for years on end, and, in most cases, to stay abroad even after the bitter experience of imprisonment during World War I.

That self-selection doesn't include any factor about ability to coach. British football was looked up to by Europe's small happy band of early adopters, and one suspects that any "name" from the Football League would have more than satisfied a club who were simply too far away to perform any kind of quality check upon their new gaffer.

It might be that outside of the great three of Pentland, Reynolds and Hogan, the others were pioneers merely by being where they were and doing what they were doing i.e. creating the idea of football as a sport to be learned and developed. Whether they were any good as coaches is impossible to tell - there are no contemporaries to compare them with, and hindsight is worthless given that they were breaking the ground for others.

But this brief film of Fred Spiksley coaching at Fulham in the early 1930s is interesting nonetheless. We are always being told, for instance, that street football taught skills that coaching cannot reach. Not much sign of that here. And then what of Spiksley himself? Is he any good?

Interesting to note that 1930s Fulham was also home to Jimmy Hogan for a while. They fired him, contemptuously, saying that professional footballers "didn't need to be coached", whilst Hogan was recuperating in hospital. For all that, to have both Spiksley and Hogan on board for part of the time hints at something important almost dawning on the club. Craven Cottage has always welcomed players of genuine skill and intelligence: was it close to taking the same attitude with its managers? Vic Buckingham, who discovered Johann Cruyff and almost won the double with West Brom in the 1950s, would be there later, and so would Bobby Robson. Fulham dealt both of them unusually unpleasant sackings too..

Here's the film. Clearly, the film makers have insisted on an easy-to-shoot scenario, and Spiksley is having to shout for the microphone. And are the players camera-shy? The whole thing is very artificial. What do you think?

Peter Jackson nominates two players, both of whom starred for Manchester City in their respective eras. First up, Billy Meredith:

Meredith is a fantastic nomination on a number of counts:

• Although he would have become a professional on joining City in 1894, like others who went "full time" on joining Football League clubs, he had played in non-professional league set-ups prior to that without hindrance from his amateur/semi-professional status. Professionalism was only in part about making the game accessible to the working class, and this aspect of the subject is heavily overplayed for class politics reasons in most, perhaps all, easily accessible football histories.
• Meredith was one of a large number of players of the day who would, in our own time, more than likely find himself playing his sport as an adjunct to his college or university studies. He wrote widely on the game, and later coached, using modern media to the full.
• He was also involved in the painful birth of the Professional Footballers' Association, which was the second attempt amongst League players to organize. The story of footballing trade unionism is an important part of the overall early struggle for union rights, and he was at the centre of it. He was also caught up in the flipside of the struggle for fair pay and proper treatment: corruption, in the form of the infamous City scandal of 1905.
• Meredith was Welsh, of course, and was one of the very large numbers of non-English players drawn into the English game by money and Edwardian football's arms race for players and spectators. When Meredith joined City in 1894, City were just one of dozens of clubs in the Manchester environs competing for public attention and the concomitant profits. By the time he returned to City in 1921, City and United were very much "the" Manchester clubs, owning huge stadia and attracting the bulk of local support between them. Their competitors were either gone altogether by this stage, or unable to break out of lower division football. Clubs that hadn't made the breakthrough to the top division by 1921 would never join the elite group. Some would win cups and titles, but since the Great War, really the two Manchester clubs, the two Liverpool clubs, the principal London clubs and, until the 1960s, the north-eastern rivals, have had things to themselves.

Peter's other nomination is Colin Bell. Bell belongs to that curious late-Ramsey-post-Ramsey period during which the England team couldn't quite regain its composure after the shock of meeting Netzer at Wembley in 1972. Peter describes him as "maybe the last Charlton-style universally respected player". Here are some reasons why:

Peter points out that Bell was a local lad, and (early career aside) a one-club loyalty player. I think there's a debate to be had as to which is the more typical of the history of English football - the local player loyal to his local club, or the travelling man. I'd argue - and will argue, when I post about my own nomination - for the travelling man, and I'll call in evidence the way players were really treated by football clubs, what the relationship really was. The players might have had to be loyal, else leave the game or starve, and as for the clubs... But I agree with Peter that the local player as a kind of representative of that area, especially in the eyes of fans, has been a feature of English football since its beginnings.

Bill suggests Dave Mackay. Mackay, by any measure, is an extraordinary man. As he's a Scot, playing the bulk of his career in England, he would go some way to fit my bill of the epitome, especially as he played for Spurs, of which much, much more in my own nomination post. He's another of the men who a later era's school system might have diverted away from professional sport - although, in his case, you have to suspect that he'd have gone right ahead and played whatever other options were open to him. His career straddled the period in which what Billy Meredith helped start was (almost, but awaiting Bosman) finished. And he went on to manage abroad, in addition to excellent seasons at Derby in the post-Clough era. Mackay is not my man, and was in his cradle when my man died. But they'd have understood each other very well. Dave Mackay, then:

(If the embed hasn't worked for you, click here to watch the Mackay video)

Kris and "John Terry's Mum" both plump for Gascoigne. (I second the recommendation of the Gascoigne autobiographies, written with Hunter Davies. It's the second of these that convinces me that Gazza has been consistently misdiagnosed - not (primarily) alcohol or OCD in my view, but instead an extreme but uncomplicated lifelong generalized anxiety disorder. But bear in mind that "distance" diagnoses are highly suspect, and it's very possible that Gazza's therapists are in the right).

Gascoigne is that very, very occasional English phenomenon, the Best/Garrincha/Maradona type all-out genius. I rate him at least at Garrincha level, if that makes any sense at all, and admire him immensely both for getting as much out of his career as he did as well as for the great help he's provided to fellow patients whilst in treatment. I wish it would do more for the man himself... but these are by far the hardest problems in the mental health field, ones with no generally agreed treatment paths or indeed treatments with much track record.

In terms of his footballing abilities, he's the exception that proves the rule. Great skill does not have to be accompanied with offputting "cunning" and great play can go along with laughter and fun. Despite his injuries, he played until his early thirties, and because, unlike Best, his every move was put to film, he has a fabulous greatest hits reel.

The trouble with Gascoigne's situation is that a lot of people imagine he can somehow take a decision and walk away from it. Instead, he has to wake every morning straight into the middle of feelings, emotions and automatic reactions that are difficult to handle and pretty much impossible for outsiders to imagine. "Fighting his demons", they call it, as if they can be cast out if only he were to try hard enough.

Who are the other English Gascoignes? Wilf Mannion? Peter Osgood? Alan Hudson? He had contemporaries of slightly different kinds in Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle, but I'd argue that not since Best has there been a player like him for sheer unpredictable edge-of-your-seat excitement. If he was on the pitch for England, there was always room for optimism.

I don't know if I'd describe him as epitomising anything about English football other than himself. Here is my favourite Gazza moment, one among how many in a ten year international career:

Ismael Klata nominates Kevin Keegan. What I'd say about Keegan, other than that he was THE football hero of my childhood, is that he epitomises, completely and perfectly, English football between 1972 and 1982. Everything about it: its northerness, teatime in front of World of Sport, warmth and friendliness (let's forget hooliganism for the time being), patriotism combined with a kind of cosmopolitanism when the working class boy from Doncaster made such a brilliant success of life in Hamburg. He represented us well, didn't he?

Later, he was Paul Scholes' favourite England manager, and, in my view, showed great honesty and courage in the manner of his departure from the England job. He was right to resign, and brutally, bravely honest in how he did so. I don't think I could have displayed that kind of grace in defeat myself.

The story of English football over the course of his career was of club success but international frustration, coupled with a sense that something was rotting in the Football League's ancient, astonishingly resilient structure. He was at the heart of all of that, and, at Newcastle as player and as manager, the gatekeeper for the wealthier, glossier future, a future he did much to give a human face to. Now, he's the trusted witness for what is happening to and within the Premiership, still speaking with the openness and honesty and courage that we all still want to be typical of England, of Britain. Here's that voice, the first time we heard it:

Gary Langham nominates Ian Wright, because of Wright's recent dismissal of the idea that coaches need specialist training. As he says, only in England, and that is a theme that stretches right back to the Edwardian era. I'll revisit it at length in my own nomination post.

There are other reasons to nominate Wright, though. His stress on bringing passion and enthusiasm to the game are very English traits, and it's his misfortune to have been the man who finally began to bring overreliance on them into popular disrepute. He deserved better - no one was ever more committed to the England cause, despite frustration under Taylor and Venables, nor more unlucky with badly timed injuries. His hamstring injury before the 1998 World Cup was, forgive me, gutting.

Ian Wright is the embodiment of the victory of English black players against racism. That kind of victory always seems to need winning again, but he is one of the men who had to do the hard digging, and it's one reason why I think he's an excellent nomination. Here he is. Sayonara, Lineker-San:

Karthik nominates Paul Scholes. Interestingly, he does so because Scholes is atypical, saying "how England produced Scholes is a mystery to me.." I think we can all see where he's coming from on this. A short, quiet, asthmatic local boy who supports Oldham, Scholes was rated by both Marcello Lippi and Edgar Davids as one of the very great world midfielders.

I am and always have been a great fan of Sven Goran Ericksson, as both club and international coach. My sole deep criticism of his England stint was that he preferred Gerrard and Lampard in central midfield to Paul Scholes, who'd be pushed out onto the left. Granted that there was a time, long ago, when England never lost when Steven Gerrard played, and hindsight is terribly convenient, yet still..

His one contribution to English football history is a Manchester United one. In other words, my initial question is in danger of playing down a magnificent career just because it doesn't fit in with it. Here's my favourite "Scholes" - Paul enjoying himself under Keegan. Nine years ago!

I mentioned that I'd be taking some photographs in Berlin in relation to my own nomination. And so I did. This is the best of them, and it's a clue to the name of the man I am going to write about at some length this week. In the meantime, see if you can guess who it is (click to enlarge).

When the fans making their way down from the top of the Tribuna Centenario reached the final flight of stairs, there was a sudden rush down the stairs and fans towards the front tried to get out of the way by running for the exit. The gate, however, was obstructed, either closed altogether or left only partially open, and the turnstiles hadn't been moved out of the way: it isn't clear even today exactly what the situation was, much less what caused it.

As this memorial report in El Gráfico tells us, some survivors also spoke of how the police, mounted on horseback, compounded the situation by insisting that those who'd already made it through the gate re-enter, further congesting the only escape route. Seventy-one died and the walls around the gate were stained with blood.

Two months later, two River Plate directors, Américo Di Vietro and Marcelino Cabrera, were sentenced to jail for negligence after a trial regarding their roles in running the stadium's security operation. At the end of November that year, however, both men were cleared on appeal. The following year, the case was archived, and the file hasn't been reopened since.

Ten years and two days after that, the Monumental saw one of its greatest celebrations, as I'll be writing on Wednesday. But three decades on from that, the events of ten years prior to Argentina's World Cup win are still seared into the collective memory of the nation.