Sports Stars: May 2011

Friday, May 27, 2011

Cristiano Ronaldo Best Picture dedicates Golden Boot to Real Madrid fans

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾɨʃtiˈɐnu ʁuˈnaɫdu]; born 5 February 1985) commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a right winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team. Ronaldo is the most expensive player in football history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid in a transfer deal worth £80 million (€94m,132m). In addition, his contract with Real Madrid, in which he is to be paid £11 million per year over the following six years, makes him the highest-paid football player in the world,and values him at €1 billion as per his buyout clause.

Ronaldo began his career as a youth player for Andorinha, where he played for two years, then moved to Nacional. In 1997, he made a move to Portuguese giants Sporting Clube de Portugal. Ronaldo's precocious talent caught the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and signed the 18-year-old for £12.24 million in 2003. The following season, Ronaldo won his first club honour, the FA Cup and played at Euro 2004 with Portugal. Ronaldo scored his first international goal in the opening game of the tournament against Greece, although Greece won 2–1. Portugal reached the final, which they again lost to Greece.

Ronaldo was the first player to win all four main PFA and FWA awards, doing so in 2007. In 2008, Ronaldo won the Champions League with United, was named best forward and player of the tournament and was the competition's top goalscorer as well as winning the European Golden Shoe, becoming the first winger to do so, and topping the Premier League Golden Boot award. He won three of the four main PFA and trophies, only missing the PFA Young Player of the Year, and was named the FIFPro, World Soccer and Onze d'Or Footballer of the Year and the World Player of the Year, in addition to becoming Manchester United's first Ballon d'Or winner in 40 years. Ronaldo holds the distinction of being the first player to win the FIFA Puskás Award, an honour handed by FIFA to the best goal of the year. He scored that goal from 40 yards out against FC Porto in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final match, while playing for Manchester United Three-time Ballon d'Or winner Johan Cruyff said in an interview on 2 April 2008, "Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United

On 15 May 2011, Ronaldo became the highest goal scorer in a season in the history of Real Madrid with 51 goals, surpassing the club's previous high of 49 by Ferenc Puskás, he would later finish the season with a total of 53 goals, making him the first Real Madrid player to ever reach as well as surpass 50 goals in a season. On 21 May 2011, Ronaldo broke the record of most goals ever scored in a season in La Liga with 40, surpassing Telmo Zarra's mark established in 1951 and Hugo Sanchez's mark matched in 1990, Ronaldo also broke Zarra's record of most goals per minute, with a goal scored every 70,7 minutes. The newspaper Marca, the official deliverer of the Pichichi Trophy (the top La Liga goalscorer award), claimed that Ronaldo scored 41 goals. In so doing, he won the European Golden Shoe award once again, becoming the first player to win the trophy in two different championships.
* 1 Early life
* 2 Club career
o 2.1 Early career
o 2.2 Sporting CP
o 2.3 Manchester United
+ 2.3.1 2003–2006
+ 2.3.2 2006–2009
o 2.4 Real Madrid
+ 2.4.1 2009–10 season
+ 2.4.2 2010–11 season
* 3 International career
o 3.1 Euro 2004
o 3.2 2006 World Cup
+ 3.2.1 Post-World Cup
o 3.3 Euro 2008
o 3.4 2010 World Cup
o 3.5 International goals
* 4 Career statistics
o 4.1 Club
o 4.2 International
* 5 Honours
o 5.1 Club
o 5.2 Individual
+ 5.2.1 Orders
* 6 Personal life
* 7 Philanthropy
* 8 References
* 9 External links
Ronaldo was born in Santo António, a neighbourhood of Funchal, Madeira, the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, a cook, and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardenerHis second given name "Ronaldo" was chosen after then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who was his father's favourite actor He has one older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia
Club career
Early career

At the age of eight, Ronaldo played for amateur team Andorinha, where his father was the kit man. In 1995, Ronaldo signed with local club Nacional, and, after a title-winning campaign, he went on a three-day trial with Sporting CP, who subsequently signed him for an undisclosed sum.
Sporting CP

Ronaldo joined Sporting's other youth players who trained at the Academia Sporting, the club's football academy, in Alcochete. He became the only player ever to play for Sporting's under-16, under-17, under-18, B-team, and the first team, all within one season. He scored two goals in his league debut on 7 October 2002, which Sporting CP won 3–0 against Moreirense, while featuring for Portugal in the 2002 European Under-17 Championship

When he was 15, Ronaldo was diagnosed with a racing heart, a condition that might have forced him to give up playing football. The Sporting staff were made aware of the condition and Ronaldo's mother gave her authorisation for him to go into hospital. While there, he had an operation in which a laser was used to cauterise the area of his heart that was causing the problem. The surgery took place in the morning and Ronaldo was discharged from hospital by the end of the afternoon; he resumed training only a few days later

He was first spotted by then-Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier at the age of 16, but Liverpool declined to take him on because they decided he was too young and needed some time to develop his skills However, he came to the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2003, when Sporting defeated United 3–1 in the inauguration of the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon. Ronaldo's performance impressed the Manchester United players, who urged Ferguson to sign him

Ronaldo

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Sachin Tendulkar: Curriculum Vitae

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar About this sound pronunciation (help·info) (Marathi: सचिन रमेश तेंडुलकर; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket.He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricketIn 2002, just 12 years into his career, Wisden ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Donald Bradman, and the second greatest one-day-international (ODI) batsman of all time, behind Viv RichardsIn September 2007, the Australian leg spinner Shane Warne rated Tendulkar as the greatest player he has played with or against Tendulkar was an integral part of the 2011 Cricket World Cup winning Indian team at the later part of his career, his first such win in six World Cup appearances with India.

Tendulkar is the first and the only player in Test Cricket history to score fifty centuries, and the first to score fifty centuries in all international cricket combined; he now has 99 centuries in international cricket. On 17 October 2008, when he surpassed Brian Lara's record for the most runs scored in Test cricket, he also became the first batsman to score 12,000, 13,000 and 14,000 runs in that form of the game having also been the third batsman and first Indian to pass 11,000 runs in Test cricket He was also the first player to score 10,000 runs in one-day internationals, and also the first player to cross every subsequent 1000-run mark that has been crossed in ODI cricket history and 200 runs in a one-day international match. In the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, Tendulkar surpassed Australia's Allan Border to become the player to cross the 50-run mark the most number of times in Test cricket history, and also the second ever player to score 11 Test centuries against Australia, tying with Sir Jack Hobbs of England more than 70 years previously.Tendulkar passed 30,000 runs in international cricket on 20 November 2009. He also holds the world record for playing highest number of Test and ODI matches.Tendulkar has been honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award, India's second highest civilian award, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, India's highest sporting honor. Tendulkar became the first sportsperson and the first personality without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by the Indian Air Force.He has received honorary doctorates from Mysore Universityand Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences [He won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards
1 Early years and personal life
2 Philanthropy
3 Early domestic career
4 International career
4.1 Early career
4.2 Rise through the ranks
4.3 Captaincy
4.4 Injuries and apparent decline
4.5 Return to old form and consistency
4.6 2007/08 tour of Australia
4.7 Home series against South Africa
4.8 Sri Lanka Series
4.9 Return to form and breaking the record
4.10 ODI and Test Series against England
4.11 2009–2010
4.12 2011 World Cup
5 Indian Premier League
6 Champions League Twenty20
7 Style of play
8 Controversies
8.1 Mike Denness incident
8.2 Controversy over Ferrari customs waiver
9 Fan following
10 Business interests
10.1 Commercial endorsements
11 Biographies
12 Career achievements
12.1 Individual honours and appreciations
13 See also
14 Notes
15 References
16 Further reading
17 External links

tendulkar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai). His mother Rajni worked in the insurance industry and his father Ramesh Tendulkar, a Marathi novelist, named Tendulkar after his favourite music director, Sachin Dev Burman. Tendulkar's elder brother Ajit encouraged him to play cricket. Tendulkar has two other siblings: a brother Nitin, and sister Savita.

Tendulkar attended Sharadashram Vidyamandir (High Schoolwhere he began his cricketing career under the guidance of his coach and mentor, Ramakant Achrekar. During his school days he attended the MRF Pace Foundation to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who took a world record 355 Test wickets, was unimpressed, suggesting that Tendulkar focus on his batting instead.

When he was young, Tendulkar would practice for hours on end in the nets. If he became exhausted, Achrekar would put a one-rupee coin on the top of the stumps, and the bowler who dismissed Tendulkar would get the coin. If Tendulkar passed the whole session without getting dismissed, the coach would give him the coin. Tendulkar now considers the 13 coins he won then as some of his most prized possessions.