Cristiano Ronaldo

Name: Cristiano Ronaldo
Age: 22
Current Club: Manchester United
All Previous Clubs: Sporting CP
# Goals Last Season: 23
Position Played: Right Winger, Striker
Nationality: Portuguese
International Caps: 53

Description: Born in Portugal, he started playing at professional level in 2001 when he signed a deal with Sporting. His performances here were notable and a lot of clubs wanted to buy him. In the summer of 2003, Manchester United was beaten by Sporting with 3-1 at the inauguration of Sporting’s new stadium and this was the match when Sir Alex Ferguson spotted Cristiano Ronaldo. Since Manchester United has sold David Beckham to Real Madrid in the same year, Cristiano Ronaldo was the perfect player to replace him. He’s a two-footed player and he could play anywhere up front: in the middle and left or right wing. After he moved to Manchester United he soon began a key player for the first team and his get is getting better and better every day. His skills were improved a lot here at Manchester and in last year’s he gained a lot of honours and awards. In 2007 he has won the 3rd place for FIFA world player of the year and in the same year he helped the club a lot to win the premiership again. He is an also a key player for Portugal international team for which he scored 20 goals in 53 matches.

Elano

Elano Name: Elano
Age: 26
Current Club: Manchester City
All Previous Clubs: Santos, Shakhtar Donetsk
# Goals Last Season: 5
Position Played: Playmaker
Nationality: Brazilian
International Caps: 27

Description: He started his professional footballer career at Santos in 2001 where he played with other great players like Robinho, Diego and Alex. Robinho moved to Real, Diego to Weder, Alex to Fenerbahce and Elano moved to Shakhtar Donetsk in 2005. He gained a reputation of talented scoring midfielder and he managed to gain a first-team place in Shakhtar Donetsk’s team that plays in Champions League almost each year. In 2007 there were several changes and new sign-ups at Manchester City and Elano was bought from Shakhtar for £8 million. In his first match here he managed to assist one goal and next month he scored his first goal in a victory against Newcastle. At international level he made his first appearance for Brazil in January 2004 but his first goals for the team came in a breathtaking friendly match against their old-time rivals, Argentine, played at Emirates Stadium, in London. Elano managed to score the first 2 goals in a 3-0 victory and that gained him a lot of popularity in Brazil and from them a lot of clubs were interested in buying him, but Manchester City got it.

Steven Gerrard

Name: Steven Gerrard
Age: 27
Current Club: Liverpool
All Previous Clubs: Liverpool Youth
# Goals Last Season: 11
Position Played: Midfielder
Nationality: British
International Caps: 63

Description: Steven Gerrard is one of the most influential and versatile midfielders in the world and at just 27 he is already a symbol for Liverpool. His entire career is related to Liverpool. In 1989 he started playing for Liverpool’s youth team when he was just 9 years old and in late 1997 he signed his first professional contract with Liverpool. From his first year, he has proven he’s a really gifted midfielder and when Gerard Houllier came at the club he became a key player in Liverpool’s first squad. In 2001 he helped the club to win a “tremble”: FA cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup and in 2003 he became captain for this club. A couple of years later he helped the club to win UEFA Champions League after a wonderful comeback from 3 goals. His solid performance from Liverpool helped him to reach England’s first team. Here, he’s a key player and starting midfielder at almost every match England plays and he appeared in 63 games from 2000 for England scoring 12 goals.

Fernando Torres

Name: Fernando Torres
Age: 23
Current Club: Liverpool
All Previous Clubs: Atletico Madrid
# Goals Last Season: 15
Position Played: Striker
Nationality: Spanish
International Caps: 45

Description: Born in a suburban town of Madrid, Fernando Torres has started playing at Atletico Madrid and quickly his class helped him break a couple of records for Atletico. He was the youngest player to play for Atletico Madrid at just 17 and 2 years later, when he was 19, he became the youngest captain for Atletico. He spent 6 years here and became a symbol for this club. In this time, he played 214 for Atletico scoring 82 goals, 75 of them in Primera Division. Only Eto’o and David Villa managed to score more goals than him in this period. In 2007, even though a lot of Atletico fans were disappointed, he left the club to sign with Liverpool for a transfer fee of £20 million. Even though he has played only half a season now, he has proven he’s a great striker and he’s aiming the Top goal scorer position in premier league. He scored his first goal against Chelsea and in 22 matches he scored 12 goals for Liverpool but there are a lot more to come!

Didier Drogba

Name: Didier Drogba
Age: 29
Current Club: Chelsea
All Previous Clubs: Le Mans, En Avant Guingamp, Olympique Marseille
# Goals Last Season: 33
Position Played: Striker
Nationality: Ivorian
International Caps: 50

Description: When he was 19 he signed for Ligue 2 club Le Mans but only 2 years later he signed his professional footballer contract with the club. His great skills quickly made him to sign with a Ligue 1 team, En Avant Guingamp where he scored 17 goals in one season and took the team to 7th place in Ligue 1, their highest place ever. After the season ended he moved to Marseille, and there he scored 19 goals and got an offer that he couldn’t refuse from Chelsea for £24 million. In his career, Drogba became one of the best strikers in the world, scoring 1 goal at less than 2 matches. He had a big role in 2005, 2006 when Chelsea has won Premier League twice. His skills are incredible and he is almost a hero in his home country, Cote d’Ivoire. He played for Cote D’Ivoire team from 2002 and he scored 32 goals in just 50 matches. In 2006 he was named as African Footballer of the Year and in 2007 he became premier league top scorer after scoring 21 goals in Premier League.

Michael Ballack

Name: Michael Ballack
Age: 31
Current Club: Chelsea
All Previous Clubs: Chemnitzer FC, 1.FC Kaiserslautern, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich
# Goals Last Season: 7
Position Played: Midfielder
Nationality: German
International Caps: 77

Description: He began playing football when he was 7 years old for Chemnitzer FC Youth team. A couple of years later, he signed his first professional deal with the club’s first team and in 1997 he moved to Bundesliga to play for Kaiserslautern. But his major performances and successes came a couple of years later, when he moved to Bayer Leverkusen. He was probably the key player for Leverkusen’s dream team that managed to reach in the finals of UEFA Champions League against Real Madrid. He was one step away from gaining the title and, since Leverkusen it’s not one of the biggest clubs in Bundesliga, he signed with Bayern Munchen. His great attributes and game play got earned him the German player of the year award in: 2002, 2003 and 2005. Finally, in 2006, after gaining a couple of titles with Bayern, he signed with Chelsea where he integrated perfectly and managed to win the FA Cup with the club. At international level, he is a key player for Germany. He made his debut in 1999 while he was playing for Leverkusen and since then he scored 35 goals in 77 matches.

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