Fabio Capello

Fabio Capello (born 18 June 1946) is an Italian football manager and former professional footballer. He most recently managed the England national football team.

Capello was born in San Canzian d'Isonzo. His uncle, Mario Tortul was also a football player and played for Triestina, Padova, Sampdoria and the Italian national football team. Capello is married and has a son named Pier Filippo who acts as his agent. Capello is also a collector of fine art and has a personal collection thought to be worth over £10 million.

As a player Capello represented SPAL 1907, Roma, AC Milan and Juventus. He played as a midfielder and won several trophies during his career which lasted over 15 years. He won the Coppa Italia with Roma in 1969. He was most succesful with Juventus, winning three Serie A titles in 1972, 1973 and 1975. With Milan he won the Coppa Italia again in 1977 and also won another Serie A in 1979. Capello also played for Italy during his career and amassed 32 caps, scoring eight goals as well.

As a manager, Capello has the distinction of winning the domestic league title with every club he has coached throughout his career. In his first five seasons as a manager he won four Serie A titles with Milan, where he also won the 1993–94 UEFA Champions League, defeating Barcelona 4–0 in a memorable final. He then spent a year at Real Madrid, where he won the La Liga title at his first attempt, and in 2001 led Roma to their first league title in 18 years. Capello also won two titles at Juventus (which were later stripped after the Calciopoli scandal), and in 2006 returned to Real Madrid, where he won another La Liga title. Overall he has won a major league championship in seven (or nine, counting the two revoked titles with Juventus) of his 16 seasons as a coach. Capello was appointed as England manager on 12 December 2008. During his time as England manager he succesfully guided the team to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where they were knocked out in the second round, and 2012 European Championship. On 8 February 2012, he resigned as manager due to a dispute with The Football Association.

Personal Life

Capello was born in San Canzian d'Isonzo near Gorizia, in north-eastern Italy, in what was then the Allied-occupied Zone A of the Julian March. His parents were Guerrino and Evelina Capello. Capello is a devout Catholic who prays twice a day. His father, a schoolteacher, played football, and his uncle Mario Tortul was also a football player; for Triestina, Padova, Sampdoria and the Italian national football team during the 1960s. Capello has spent his entire adult life working in football. He has been married to his wife Laura, whom he first met on a bus as a teenager, for over 40 years. He is represented by his son Pier Filippo, who acts as his agent.

In January 2008, Italian police announced that they were launching an investigation into tax irregularities by Capello. However, the probe has been dismissed as routine by Capello's spokesmen who said this was part of a wider investigation into a number of wealthy Italians. The FA revealed that they had known about the upcoming probe when they had appointed Capello, and expected no charges to be brought.

From : www.wikipedia.org

José Antonio Camacho

José Antonio Camacho Alfaro (born 8 June 1955) is a retired Spanish footballer who played as a left defender, and the current coach of the China PR national football team.

He played for 15 professional years with Real Madrid, appearing in more than 500 official matches with the team and helping it to 19 major titles, including nine La Liga championships. Subsequently, he embarked in a lengthy manager career, which included two very brief spells with his main club.

Camacho gained more than 80 caps with Spain, representing it in two World Cups and as many European Championships. He also managed the national team during four years, taking it to the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup.

Playing Career

Camacho was born in Cieza, Murcia. After playing youth football at Albacete Balompié, he moved to La Liga giants Real Madrid at age 18, being almost immediately cast into the first team and its starting XI, his debut being handed by manager Luis Molowny.

During his spell with Real Madrid, Camacho played in nearly 600 official matches (414 in the league alone), forming a proficient left-wing partnership with Rafael Gordillo, who played mainly as a midfielder then. In January 1978, he suffered a serious injury in training, which put his career on hold for nearly two years, but returned strong, being instrumental as the capital side won consecutive UEFA Cups.

Camacho also played 81 games for the Spanish national team, his debut coming at not yet 20, on 5 February 1975 in Valencia, in a 1–1 draw against Scotland for the UEFA Euro 1976 qualifiers.

For the following 13 years, Camacho was a defensive mainstay for the national side, being selected – and always as first-choice – for the 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cups, as well as Euro 1984 and 1988; after the 0–2 group stage loss against West Germany in the latter competition, he retired from the international scene, aged 33.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Luis Aragonés

José Luis Aragonés Suárez (born July 28, 1938), usually referred to as Luis Aragonés and sometimes simply as Luis, is a former Spanish footballer and national coach.

Aragonés has spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the successful Atlético team of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The team won La Liga four times, reached the final of the European Cup and won the Intercontinental Cup. Between 1964 and 1974 he played 265 La Liga games for Atlético and scored 123 goals. Aragonés has coached the club on four separate occasions. He has also played with several other clubs, most notably Real Betis, and played 11 times for Spain, scoring three goals. Apart from Atlético he has also coached seven other La Liga clubs as well as the Spanish national football team whom he led to their 2nd European Championship title in 2008. He became the head coach of the Turkish football team Fenerbahçe after Euro 2008, and this is the first time that Aragonés has coached outside of his native Spain.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Florentino Pérez

Florentino Pérez Rodríguez (born 8 March 1947) is a Spanish businessman, civil engineer, former politician, and current president of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, as well as ACS. He is most famous for ushering Real Madrid's period of Los Galácticos, a time in which he paid extremely high transfer fees for elite footballers.

Biography

Pérez joined the Democratic Center Union party in 1979, serving among other in the city council of Madrid.

In 1986, Pérez ran in the Spanish general elections as candidate for the Partido Reformista Democrático. He attended Polytechnic University of Madrid.

In 1993, he was named president of OCP Construcciones, S.A. After the fusion of OCP with Gines y Navarro into Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. (ACS) in 1997, he became president of the new company.

Real Madrid

Florentino Pérez first ran for the presidency of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol in the 19 February 1995 election. He campaigned on the poor financial situation of the club and the alleged mismanagement by the board extensively, but lost to the incumbent Ramón Mendoza by 700 votes.

First term : His second attempt was more successful when he took over as president in 2000, beating the current chairman at that time, Lorenzo Sanz. Sanz assumed that the recently won European Cups in 1998 and 2000 would give him enough credit to win the elections, but Pérez's campaign, once again highlighting the financial problems of the club and claims of mismanagement by the previous boards, proved otherwise. Pérez's promise to bring in Luís Figo from arch-rivals FC Barcelona also played a decisive role in the elections. Pérez was reelected in 2004 with 94.2% of the total votes.

Luís Figo also marked the start of Pérez's policy to bring one of the best football players in the world to Real Madrid each season. The strategy was initially known as that of Zidanes y Pavones - in which superstars would play alongside the Canteranos, but the players were soon popularly referred to as Galácticos. In 2001, Zinedine Zidane was signed from Juventus for a world record transfer fee of €73.5 million. He was followed by Ronaldo in 2002, David Beckham in 2003, Michael Owen in 2004, and Robinho for a short while in 2005. Initially, Pérez's policy worked to great success, because each Galáctico built their squads around the player, and had a more proper team balance of attack and defense. In his first years in office, Real Madrid won two Spanish Championships and its record ninth European Cup.

Pérez claimed success in clearing the club's debt; however, this was contradicted by director Ramón Calderón.

After the 2002–03 season, Pérez decided not to renew Vicente del Bosque's contract, despite Real capturing a 29th La Liga title. Del Bosque was able to balance the many different modern player egos in the star studded team. It was widely believed that there was a political split, with del Bosque and his players (Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman, and Claude Makélélé) on one side, and Pérez on the other. All of the aforementioned players left the club in 2003 in Pérez's shakeup bid to regain control.

In particular, Claude Makélélé, considered one of the best defensive midfielders at the time and a key component to Real's successes, decided to ask for an improved contract with the support of teammates Zidane, Raúl, Steve McManaman, and Fernando Morientes. Up to this time, Makélélé was also one of Real Madrid's most under-paid members, earning a fraction of what was paid to the Galácticos, but Pérez flatly refused to consider Makélélé's request. Upset, Makélélé handed in a transfer request, whereupon he was promptly dispatched to Chelsea. Pérez infamously poured scorn on Makélélé's footballing abilities and proclaimed that Makélélé would not be missed, saying: "We will not miss Makélélé. His technique is average, he lacks the speed and skill to take the ball past opponents, and 90% of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways."

After Makélélé was sold, Pérez signed a number of high-profile attackers, including Michael Owen, Júlio Baptista, and Robinho, in accordance with his Galáctico policy. Unfortunately, all of the Galáticos were attacking players, with generally limited defensive roles and abilities, and Pérez failed to adequately replace Makélélé in the holding midfielder's role. Negotiations to sign Patrick Vieira from Arsenal in 2004 failed because of Pérez's refusal to pay high wages for "defensive players".

Several years after leaving Real, McManaman and Morientes stated that Makélélé was the most important and least appreciated midfielder, the latter saying "The loss of Makélélé was the beginning of the end for Los Galácticos... You can see that it was also the beginning of a new dawn for Chelsea." From the 2003–04 season onward, with the absence of del Bosque and Makélélé, Real Madrid failed to win a trophy.

Though Pérez's policy resulted in increased financial success based on the exploitation of the club's high marketing potential around the world, especially in Asia, it came under increasing criticism for being focused too much on marketing the Real Madrid brand and not enough on the football.

He announced his resignation on 27 February 2006, acknowledging that the team and the club as a whole needed a new direction.

Second term : On 14 May 2009, Pérez announced his candidacy for President of Real Madrid in a press conference at the Hotel Ritz Madrid. On 1 June 2009, given that he was the only candidate able to provide the €57,389,000 guarantee necessary to run for the presidency, Pérez was announced as the new president of Real Madrid.

Pérez has continued with the Galácticos policy pursued in his first term. On 8 June 2009, he bought Kaká from Milan for just under £60 million. On 11 June, Manchester United accepted an £80 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo, which would once again break the world record. On 25 June, Pérez and Real Madrid announced the signing of Valencia centre-back Raúl Albiol for €15 million. On 1 July, Pérez bought Karim Benzema from Olympique Lyonnais for at least £30 million and could rise to £35 million, depending on his success.

On 5 August 2009, Real Madrid confirmed the signing of Xabi Alonso from Liverpool for £30 million, becoming the second Liverpool player to join Real Madrid in the same transfer window after full-back Álvaro Arbeloa's £3.5 million switch to the Santiago Bernabéu in July.

On 31 May 2010, Florentino Perez presented José Mourinho as new coach of Real Madrid for £6.8M.

On 1 July 2010 Real Madrid announced that Sergio Canales will join the team from Racing Santander. The fee was believed to be €4.5 million plus incentives.

On 8 July Real Madrid signed Argentina International Ángel di María from Benfica. The transfer fee was a total of €25 million plus €11 million on incentives.

On 15 July 2010, Real Madrid confirmed the transfer of Pedro León for €10 million from Getafe.

On 30 July 2010 Real Madrid signed Germany international Sami Khedira from VfB Stuttgart for €14 million.

On 10 August 2010, Real Madrid signed Ricardo Carvalho for a reported fee of £8 million on a 2–year contract with an optional third from Chelsea.

On 17 August 2010 Real Madrid confirmed that they secured the signing of Germany's World Cup 2010 star Mesut Özil from Werder Bremen for €15 million.

Real Madrid's signings for the 2010/11 season (Canales, di María, Pedro León, Khedira, Carvalho and Özil) were presented at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium before the match against Peñarol kicked-off. The fans at the stadium gave each player a clamourous welcome.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Roberto Carlos

Roberto Carlos da Silva Rocha (born 10 April 1973 in Garça, São Paulo, Brazil), more commonly known simply as Roberto Carlos, is a player/manager who currently plays as a defensive midfielder for Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala, where he is also club captain. Carlos has spent most of his career as a left wingback but started his career in Brazil as a forward. He started playing for Brazil in 1992 and was a member of the Brazil national team in three World Cups, helping the team reach the final in 1998 and win the 2002 tournament. He is also known for his running speed and trademark free kicks with power and curve.

He previously played for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid for 11 years, making over 500 appearances and winning four leagues, three UEFA Champions League trophies, and two Intercontinental Cups. Roberto Carlos is also one of only fifteen players to have played more than 100 matches in the Champions League. He finished second to countryman Ronaldo in the 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year award poll and was named as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers by Pelé in March 2004.

Biography

Roberto Carlos was born in the city of Garça, São Paulo. Raised with no luxury, he had a poor childhood and used to spend his time between helping his parents in farm works, and playing with his friends after his all works were over. In 1981, Roberto Carlos with his family moved to Cordeirópolis.

On 24 June 2005, Carlos was robbed by two gunmen while doing a live radio interview. However, the thieves did not harm him, merely taking his watch and the interviewer's cellular phone.

On 2 August 2005, Carlos received dual Spanish and Brazilian citizenship. This proved important for Real Madrid, as it meant that he now counted as a European Union player, opening up one of the club's allowed three slots for non-EU players and enabling Real to sign fellow Brazilian star Robinho.

For his 38th birthday, it was reported that Anzhi Makhachkala owner, Suleyman Kerimov, bought him a Bugatti Veyron.

From : www.wikipedia.org 

Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Yazid Zidane (born 23 June 1972) is a retired French footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Zidane was the leading figure of a generation of French players that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship. After a brief international retirement, he returned to the national team in 2005 and captained France to the 2006 World Cup Final where he won the Golden Ball as the tournament's most outstanding player.

At club level Zidane won the La Liga and the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid, two Serie A league championships with Juventus, an Intercontinental Cup, and a UEFA Super Cup each with both aforementioned sides. He is, alongside Brazilian striker Ronaldo, the only three-time FIFA World Player of the Year winner; he also won the Ballon d'Or in 1998. He retired from professional football after the 2006 World Cup.

He currently holds the post of Real Madrid Director of Football, filling the spot previously held by Jorge Valdano.

Early life

Zidane is of Kabyle Berber descent. His parents, Smaïl and Malika, emigrated to Paris from the village of Aguemone in the Berber-speaking region of Kabylia in eastern Algeria in 1953 before the start of the Algerian War. The family, which had settled in the city's tough northern districts of Barbès and Saint-Denis, found little work in the region. So in the mid-1960s, they moved to the northern Marseille suburb of La Castellane where, on 23 June 1972, Zidane was born as the youngest of five siblings. Zidane's father Smaïl worked as a warehouseman at a department store, often on the night shift, while his mother was a housewife. The family lived in so small a tower-block apartment in the housing complex that he, his parents, three brothers and one sister had to sit down to eat in shifts. Yet, due to his father's steady job, the family lived a reasonably comfortable life by the standards of the neighbourhood, which was notorious throughout Marseille for its high crime and unemployment rates.

It was at La Castellane that Zidane had his earliest introduction to football, joining in at the age of five, in football games that the neighbourhood's children played on the Place Tartane, an 80-by-12-yard plaza that served as the main square of the housing complex. In July 2011, Zidane named Blaž Slišković, Enzo Francescoli and Jean-Pierre Papin as his idols while growing up.

Tributes and legacy

In 2004, Forbes magazine named him the 42nd-highest paid athlete in the world, with earnings of US$15.8 million a year. In November 2006, Zidane toured Bangladesh as the guest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. He also visited the Algerian birthplace of his parents, and met personally with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who gave him an official reception.

Filmmakers Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon filmed a documentary Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which follows Zidane during an entire match, filmed with 17 cameras. The documentary was part of the 2009 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Many experts have testified to Zidane's skills and impact as an all-time great, such as Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira who has labelled Zidane "a monster" for his performance and playing skills. French footballer Michel Platini states Zidane is one of the most skillful players the game has ever known: "Technically, I think he is the king of what's fundamental in the game – control and passing. I don't think anyone can match him when it comes to controlling or receiving the ball."

German coach Franz Beckenbauer stated: "Zidane is one of the greatest players in history, a truly magnificent player." Pelé, a World Cup winner three times with Brazil, hailed Zidane after seeing Brazil losing to France: "Zidane was the magician in the game." Italy's manager Marcello Lippi, who has also coached Zidane, opined "I think Zidane is the greatest talent we've known in football these last 20 years, yet he never played the prima donna. I am honoured to have been his manager." Among his peers, David Beckham has described Zidane as "the greatest of all time",FC Barcelona star Xavi has stated in a 2010 interview that Zidane was "the '90s and early 2000's best player" while Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos has said of Zidane that, "he is the best player I've seen", in a 2010 interview with French newspaper L'equipe. At the 1998 World Cup, Cesare Maldini, the manager of the Italian team, said: "I would give up five players to have Zizou in my squad." In 2011 Uefa.com asked players, journalist and their users to crown the best player in the UEFA Champions League of the past 20 years, Zidane topped the poll ahead of Lionel Messi.

Personal life

Zidane met his wife, Véronique Fernandez, while playing for Cannes in the 1988–89 season. They have four sons: Enzo Zidane Fernandez (b. 24 March 1995), Luca Zinedine Zidane Fernandez (b. 13 May 1998), Theo (b. 18 May 2002), and Elyaz Zidane Fernandez (b. 26 December 2006). Enzo, Luca and Theo are all members of the Real Madrid Academy. Enzo (Midfielder) is in Juvenil C ( Real Madrid's U-17 ), Luca (Goalkeeper) is in Infantil B and Theo (Striker) is in Benjamin B.

From : www.wikipedia.org