While playing for Whiston Juniors, he caught the eye of the Liverpool scouts. He was drafted into the Liverpool youth setup. He made his Liverpool debut on 29 November 1998 when he came on as a last minute substitute for Vegard Heggem. He has not looked back since. Over the next decade, he has played 355 games for Liverpool scoring 76 times. He has won two FA Cups, two League Cups, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and the UEFA Super Cup with Liverpool. The only medal that has eluded him is the Barclays Premier League Winners’ medal.

Gerrard made his international debut against Ukraine on 31 May 2000. After that, he has gone on to represent England on 77 occasions scoring 16 times. He made a solitary substitute appearance at Euro 2000. He scored his first goal in the famous 5-1 rout of Germany in the 2002 World Cup Qualifying rounds. He went on to captain England during Steve Mclaren’s reign as manager. But England suffered back to back losses against Croatia and Russia under his leadership and hence did not make it to Euro 2008. Capello also gave Gerrard a run of games as captain of England, but later settled on John Terry.

At 30, the World Cup in South Africa in six months’ time will be Gerrard’s final chance to win the sport’s biggest trophy. And if he is able to do the same, his name will be etched forever in the annals of English football.

He had to wait till the 1994 season to secure his first driver’s championship title. Another one followed in 1995. In the summer of 1996, he shifted to Ferrari who had last won the championship in 1979. After four unsuccessful years behind the wheel at Ferrari, he blew away all records winning five consecutive championships from 2000-2004. His last race was the 2006 Interlagos Grand Prix where he finished fourth.

But the mercurial genius was not to be away from the sport for long. In 2009, he returned to Ferrari as their technical advisor. In the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s number one driver Felipe Massa suffered a serious injury. Schumacher was being readied by the Ferrari bosses to replace Massa till the end of the season. But the move ran into some legal wrangles and Michael decided against racing with a neck injury that he had suffered earlier in the year.

On 23rd December 2009, Schumacher announced that he would race in the 2010 season for the Mercedes Grand Prix Team alongside compatriot Nico Rosberg. Schumacher’s surprise re-entry to the sport has been compared to Niki Lauda’s return in 1982 and Nigel Mansell’s return in 1994. Will the undisputed king of motorsport still be a force to deal with in his second stint with Fomula One? If he does half as well as he had done in his heydays, the legend of Michael Schumacher would be embellished with another glorious chapter.

Only 2 years later, at the tender age of 17 he made his debut at Manchester United playing in a match against West Bromwich Albion on 14th September 1963 which they somewhat fortuitously won 1-0, setting a precedent for things to come and giving him a taste for victory from the outset. It was in only his second appearance that George Best managed to get onto the score sheet in a 5-1 victory over Burnley, quickly cementing his position as one of Manchester United’s most promising players in the eyes of Busby. This led to his inclusion in many more first team games after the New Year right to the end of the season.

Best quickly became a firm favourite with the general public as well as the media due to his outstanding ball skill and showmanship, and today is widely perceived as one of the first major superstars to come out of professional football. His good looks and long hair earned him the nickname ‘the fifth Beatle’, and he was often affectionately referred to as Georgie, or Geordie in his native city of Belfast. Before eventually leaving Manchester United, and his subsequent well documented demise, Best made 470 appearances for Manchester United scoring a total of 179 goals. In one remarkable fixture he managed to score six goals in a single game against the fourth division Northampton Town.

As well as many individual remarkable performances Best also achieved some other notable accolades during his football career. These include winning the European Cup after scoring in the final against Benfica during his time at Manchester United, being crowned European Footballer of the Year as well as Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year. Indeed he was so prolific during his time at Manchester United, that it was a sure bet that they would win any match during the 1966-67 season; indeed if online betting sites were around then – betting on Best to score a goal was almost a sure thing and would have earned many punters some easy money.

Pacquiao was born on December 17, 1978 in Mindanao, Phillipines and started his professional boxing career at the age of 16. In November 2003, he won against Marco Antonio Barerra, in what was his first fight in featherweight division. There was no looking back after that victory. Six month later he fought a highly controversial draw against another Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez. He fought Mexican legend Erik Morales thrice in years to come, beating his twice and winning by knockout in the second contest. It was the first time Morales was knocked out in his career.

In late 2008, he beat Oscar de la Hoya, in what is believed as the highest grossing boxing fight in recent times. It was also tagged “The Dream Match” and made Pacquiao richer by 15 to 30 million dollars. In 2009, he took on British boxer Ricky Hatton in what was billed “The East vs West Contest”. Hatton was knocked out in the second round by the Mexicutioner and suffered an embarrassing defeat.

In November 2009, he defeated Miguel Cotto, thereby winning the WBO World Welterweight title. Manny has reportedly agreed to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr in March 2010 for a kitty of 50 million dollars. But the bout looks to be in jeopardy due to dispute over drug testing methods.

Be sure to follow Manny Pacquiao who is rapidly becoming the most recognisable boxing icon of recent times.

Maldini is distinguished as being one of the few top class footballers to spend his entire career with one club. Brought up through the Milan youth ranks he made his professional debut in 1985 in a league match against Udinese at the age of just 16 and continued playing until 2009 – a career spanning 24 glorious years at the end of which Milan retired his no. 3 shirt as a sign of respect. In fact many of the players on the pitch during his final professional match in 2009 weren’t even born when Maldini made his debut in 1985! He also made a record 126 appearances for Italy, scoring 7 goals, though sadly he never won a major honour at international level. A narrow defeat against France in the 2000 European Championships where Italy had the better of the game was the closest he came.

During his career he played in an amazing 9 champions cup finals, and during one scored the fastest goal in the competition’s history in just 51 seconds against Liverpool in 2005, and he won 5 trophies. The last of these came in 2007 when he captained Milan to a 2-1 victory over Liverpool. He also won European Cups in 1989, 1990, 1994 and 2003. Probably the most impressive of these was in 1994 when Milan destroyed a much-fancied Barcelona in 45 minutes winning the game 4-0. The side of that season also set a Serie A record of just 15 goals conceded, a record unlikely ever to be broken, Maldini being part of a back four also comprising Baresi, Tassotti and Costacurta and which is regarded by many as the strongest defence in club football history. As Milan went into decline in the late 90s, overshadowed by Juventus and a brief spell in the limelight for Lazio and Roma, many thought Maldini had probably won his last European Champions League medal, however he defied the odds and went on to win a further 2 in 2003 and 2007.

Before retiring there were calls from sections of the Italian media for Maldini to receive a final call up to the national team to honour his achievements. Marcello Lippi agreed to this and the Italian Football Federation offered him a place in the side to face Northern Ireland in a friendly. Maldini, showing the humility that made him much loved throughout Italian football, declined the offer. His final appearance for the Rossoneri came in a 2-0 victory over Fiorentina in 2009. He ended his career with 5 European Cups, 7 Serie A titles, 5 World Club Championships, 4 European Super Cups, 1 Coppa Italia and 5 Italian super cups. No other player in the modern era has won a comparable amount of silverware on both the domestic and European fronts.

Maldini will be remembered not just as a great footballer but also as an ambassador of the game who conducted himself in a dignified and responsible manner both on and off the field. There has been talk of him moving into coaching, however he has also expressed a desire in past to get involved in the running of the game with UEFA or FIFA. None of these possibilities has yet materialised, but it is unlikely football has seen the last of this legendary left back.

The highest career batting average belongs to Sir Don Bradman. At 54.79, Tendulkar comes eighteenth in the list. Modern day cricketers such as Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting are ahead of him in the average charts. One more allegation labelled against him is his inability to win games for India.  People argue that there is nothing more to Tendulkar than his records. There have been instances where Sachin has single handedly won games for India – like the two back to back centuries in Sharjah, recent VB series triumph in Australia. But critics argue that these instances have been few and far between.

Whatever be the case, there is no denying Sachin’s cult status on cricket grounds in India and over the world. Millions of Indians switch off their television sets when Sachin gets out. In a sense, people come to the grounds to watch Sachin and not the team. There will be always a debate whether he is the greatest cricketer of his era, but one thing is for sure he is the finest entertainer of his generation.

Beckham isn’t blessed with the pace of an Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright Phillips and Thierry Henry, but he is certainly one of the best passers and crossers in the business. The latter in particular, has seen him win many a game for Manchester United and England. He can deliver pin point crosses into the box, and as Ruud Van Nistelrooy will tell you, those are godsends for strikers who are poachers in the box. 

You will however not see Beckham blitz and skip his way past several defenders on his way into the box. That is not really his style- he doesn’t quite possess the necessary combination of raw speed, agility and dribbling to do that. Beckham is one of those more technically gifted footballers around, and is one of the best free kick takers the game has ever seen. 

Beckham is the most capped outfield player for England. Only goalkeeper Peter Shilton has won more English caps than him. He was also the first British footballer to play in 100 Champions League games, and is also a two time FIFA World Player of the Year runner up. 

There is always the argument that footballer Beckham gets overruled in favour of brand Beckham when it comes to football bosses taking decisions. Beckham is married to Victoria Adams, and the duo are one of the most high profile celebrity couples in the world today. Beckham’s good looks, along with his more than average abilities, means that the masses, especially females, take to him very easily. 

So, is David Beckham over rated as a footballer? He is certainly not the greatest English footballer ever, but he is certainly up there with the best.

Background

Khan spent his early years supporting his local soccer team, Bolton Wanderers whilst attending Smithills school. This early support has since been repaid by the club who have allowed Khan to use their training facilities. Amir’s parents hail from the Punjab province of Pakistan and as a result he can speak Urdu and Panjabi in addition to his native English. Khan has declared a serious intent to base a future fight in Pakistan, although all his professional fights to date have been within the United Kingdom and four of those have been in his home town of Bolton.

Amateur

The early amateur career of Khan was distinguished and his early gold medals were soon joined by an Olympic Silver Medal from the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at the age of 17, which was two years earlier than even the great Muhammad Ali who won his Gold Medal at the age of 19 at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Khan was beaten to the gold by Cuban Mario Kindelan. They had met before when Kindelan had beaten Khan a few months earlier in Greece. By 2005, Khan was good enough to avenge these earlier defeats and he beat the Cuban by 19 points to 13 at the Reebok Stadium. This became Khan’s last amateur fight before turning professional later in 2005.

Professional

Khan’s professional career began as his amateur career had ended, with a resounding victory over David Bailey in Bolton on July 16th 2005. A further three successful fights brought 2005 to an end and 2006 proved that the young Khan was as talented as his early promise seemed to indicate. In that year he fought a further six times, winning four of these fights inside the distance. This huge promise continued in 2007 with Khan fighting a further 5 times, all but one inside the distance. By mid 2008 it appeared that Khan was invincible and a fight against Columbian Breidis Prescott was expected to bring no surprises and another easy victory for Khan. In the event Khan was the one receiving the surprise as the big hitting Prescott hammered Khan to the canvas in less than a minute of the first round. Khan was unable to meet the count and tasted his first professional defeat. Khan has recovered by easily winning his three subsequent fights, beating the highly ranked Marco Barrera in March 2009 before his World Light-Welterweight Championship victory in July of the same year.

Outside boxing

Khan has long shown an interest in other matters outside boxing including the safety of children around the railways and has also been involved in charity work. This interest has extended to his beloved Pakistan after the earthquakes there in 2005, when he visited the country and provided food parcels to those in need. Khan has also worked for charity in his home town of Bolton where he has spent some of his boxing earnings promoting boxing in an attempt to provide youngsters with a route away from the streets. This interest in providing escape routes to young people has also seen Khan taking part in TV programmes to exhibit the discipline of boxing and how it can be used to focus lives and avoid trouble.

Romario starred in the tournament, ending it top scorer, and was now in the sites of some of the big European clubs. PSV Eindhoven of Holland won the race to sign the 22 year old, who went on to win 3 league titles and becoming one of the hottest properties in world football. In 1993 he was snapped up by Spanish giants Barcelona, where he joined an array of household names such as Ronald Koeman and Michael Laudrup. In the 1993-94 season he was top scorer with an impressive 30 goals in 33 games. The World Cup of 1994 was looming and Romario was expected to lead the line in Brazil’s quest for a first World Cup in 24 years.

During the competition he formed a deadly partnership with Bebeto and scored 5 goals. Sadly in the final he failed to get a sixth goal which would have seen him share the golden boot with Stoichkov and Salenko (who’d scored an amazing 5 goals in one game against Cameroon). Still Brazil won the World Cup and Romario was given much credit for the success. He was named world player of the year later in the year, beating off competition from team-mate Stoichkov and Roberto Baggio – both of whom had also had superb World Cups.

After problems with Barcelona and approaching his 30th birthday, Romario moved back to Brazil to Flamengo. This marks the start of a decline in Romario’s career. He had a further brief spell in Spain with Valencia in 1998. He missed the ‘98 world cup through injury, which was a massive disappointment for the player and probably his last chance to appear in the competition as he’d turned 32 years of age earlier in the year.

Romario played out most of the remainder of his career in Brazil, though had short and somewhat mixed spells in the USA and Australia.

Romario was credited as one of the few players to score 1000 goals, his milestone being reached playing for Vasco da Gama against Sport Recife.