Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH (pronounced [kɾiʃˈtiɐnu ʁuˈnaɫdu]), (born 5 February 1985 in Funchal, Madeira), better known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a professional Portuguese footballer. He plays for the English club Manchester United and Portugal. Ronaldo has played primarily as a winger for United and can play on either wing but mostly right wing.[2] He has additionally also played in a central attacking role for Manchester United as well as a second striker.

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Ricardo Carvalho

Ricardo Alberto Silveira Carvalho, OIH (born May 18, 1978 in Amarante, near Porto), pron. IPA: [ʁi'kaɾdu kɐɾ'vaʎu], is a Portuguese football player, who currently plays as a central defender for Chelsea.

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Miguel Monteiro

Miguel (pron. IPA: [mi'ɣɛɫ]), full name Luís Miguel Brito Garcia Monteiro, OIH, (born January 4, 1980 in Lisbon), is a Portuguese football defender. He plays for Valencia C.F. and the Portuguese national team where he made his senior debut against Italy on 12 February 2003. Miguel played for his country squad in Euro 2004, where Portugal were defeated in the final. Over the course of his career Miguel has played in various positions. He started his career with E.Amadora as a winger, then progressed at Benfica, making the transition to right midfield and then right back - the position that ultimately has brought him worldwide recognition. In 2007 he was linked with a move to Chelsea and Arsenal, but he signed a new 5 years contract in September 2007.

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Fernando Meira

Fernando Meira (born 5 June 1978 in Guimarães), pron. IPA: [fɨɾ'nɐ̃du 'mɐiɾɐ], is a Portuguese football player. He has won numerous caps for the Portugal national football team before establishing himself as a regular in the national side's defence. After being left out of the squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he earned a recall under new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

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Paulo Ferreira

Paulo Ferreira (pron. IPA: ['paulu fɨ'ʁɐiɾɐ]), full name Paulo Renato Rebocho Ferreira, OIH, born January 18, 1979, is a Portuguese football player. Ferreira is predominantly a right-back, but has also played at left-back and in central defence for Chelsea.

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Ricardo Pereira

Ricardo Pereira, usually referred to simply as Ricardo (pron. IPA: [ʁi'kaɾdu]; full name Ricardo Alexandre Martins Soares Pereira, OIH; born February 11, 1976 in Montijo), is a Portuguese football player.

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Gary Neville

Gary Neville (born 18 February 1975 in Bury, Greater Manchester) is an English football player. He is England's most capped right full back and Manchester United's club captain. Neville started his career at Old Trafford as a central defender, but was later converted to a full back as it was felt he may have been too short to play centrally. He made his international debut in 1995 and has been first choice right back for club and country for more than ten years. He is the brother of fellow Premier League footballer Phil Neville, England netballer Tracey Neville and son of ex-Lancashire league cricketer Neville Neville.

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Rio Ferdinand

Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978 in Peckham, London) is an English footballer of mixed St Lucian, Dominican and Anglo-Irish descent. He plays at centre-back for Manchester United in the Premier League and at the international level for the England national football team.

He is quick, very comfortable on the ball, and has a good reading of the game with ability to take the ball out of defence into attack. Like other contemporary English defenders, he also has good aerial strength. He has achieved 64 caps for the English national team, and has been selected for three FIFA World Cup squads.

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Michael Owen

Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979, in Chester, Cheshire)[3] is an English football player currently with Newcastle United. He previously played for Liverpool (1996–2004) and Real Madrid (2004–05). He plays as a striker and has enjoyed a hugely successful and high-profile career at both club and international level and was the Ballon d'Or winner in 2001. Owen is currently England's fourth highest scorer of all time, with 40 goals in 88 games for his country, and is England's leading competitive goalscorer with 26 goals.

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David Beckham

David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE (born 2 May 1975) is an English professional football (soccer) midfielder who plays for and captains Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy. He is also currently a member of the England national team.

He has twice been runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year, and as recently as 2004 was the world's highest-paid footballer. He was Google's most searched of all sports topics in both 2003 and 2004. Such global recognition has made him an elite advertising brand and a top fashion icon. Beckham was captain of England from 15 November 2000 to 2 July 2006. He made 58 appearances as captain, and ended his tenure in that role after the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. He continued to make contributions for the England national team in 2007 competitions.

Beckham's career began when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United, making his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17. During his time there, United won the Premiership title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999. He left Manchester United to sign for Real Madrid in 2003, where he remained for four seasons. In his final season, Real clinched the La Liga title (Beckham's only major trophy with the club) in the final game of the season. In January 2007, it was announced that Beckham would leave Real Madrid and sign a five-year contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy.[8] He played his final match with Real on 17 June, after which the team was awarded the 2006–07 La Liga championship.

Beckham's new contract with the Galaxy, effective 1 July 2007, gave him the highest salary of any MLS player in history. He debuted for the team on 21 July in a friendly versus Chelsea FC at the Home Depot Center[9], and on 15 August, he had his first start with the team, scoring his first goal and first assist in the 2007 SuperLiga semi-final. His first league start then came on 18 August, where he recorded two more assists against the New York Red Bulls in front of a record crowd at Giants Stadium.

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Steven Gerrard

Steven George Gerrard MBE (pronounced /ˈstiːvɨn ˈdʒɛrɑrd/) (born 30 May 1980, Whiston, Merseyside) is an English football player. He is the captain of Liverpool, where he wears the number 8 shirt. He is the England vice captain, for which he wears the number 4 shirt. He has been called an influential and versatile midfielder, and is known for his long-range shots and defence-splitting passes, he is usually employed in the "box-to-box" midfield role, although he has often been deployed as a right-sided midfielder, and occasionally as a second striker. Throughout his career he has won the PFA Young Player of the Year, PFA Player of the Year, European Midfielder of the year, Premier League Most Valuable Player (twice), and UEFA Most Valuable Player. He has also been awarded the MBE for his outstanding contributions in both the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final and the 2006 FA Cup Final in which he greatly inspired his team's comeback. He has been nominated three times for the FIFA Player of the Year, in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

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Frank Lampard

Frank James Lampard, Jr. (born 20 June 1978) is an English football player currently at Chelsea and previously with West Ham United and Swansea City.

Lampard was born in Romford, East London, England. He is the son of Frank Lampard Sr., the former England full back and two-time FA Cup winner with West Ham United. His family is related to another famous footballing family, the Redknapps. Lampard was educated at Brentwood School, a boys' independent school in Brentwood, Essex.

A current England national team regular, he has won the English Premiership twice (with Chelsea, 2004–05 and 2005–06), the FA Cup (with Chelsea, 2007) twice the League Cup (with Chelsea, 2005 and 2007), the FA Community Shield (with Chelsea, 2005), and the UEFA Intertoto Cup (with West Ham, 1999).

In November 2005 he was named runner-up to Brazilian midfielder Ronaldinho in the European Footballer of the Year awards. A month later he finished in second place, once again behind Ronaldinho, in the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He was also named FWA Footballer of the Year in 2005.

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Joe Cole

Joseph "Joe" John Cole (born 8 November 1981 in Romford, East London) is a professional footballer who plays for Chelsea of the English Premier League and the England national team.

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Shaun Wright-Phillips

Shaun Cameron Wright-Phillips (born 25 October 1981 in Greenwich, London) is an English football player of Jamaican and Grenadian descent. He is the adopted son of the famous player Ian Wright, the half-brother of fellow player Bradley Wright-Phillips and brother to the upcoming youth player Brett Wright. He grew up in Brockley, South London, and attended the state school Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College in New Cross Gate. He currently plays for Chelsea F.C.

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Gareth Barry

Gareth Barry (born February 23, 1981 in Hastings) is an English football player who currently is the captain of English Premier League side Aston Villa. Along with former team-mate Gareth Southgate, he was the only player to play in both final matches at the old Wembley Stadium, once for Aston Villa against Chelsea and for England against Germany, both resulting in a 1–0 loss.

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Ashley Young

Ashley Simon Young (born 9 July 1985 in Stevenage, England) is an English professional footballer of Jamaican origin who currently plays as both a midfielder and a striker for Aston Villa.

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Peter Crouch

Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981 in Macclesfield, Cheshire) is an English international football player. He currently plays for the English club Liverpool as a striker. His height of 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)[ makes him the tallest man ever to play for either Liverpool or the England national team, as well as the tallest player currently in the Premier League. He is also known for his robotic dancing goal celebration, performed after scoring for England in the pre-World Cup friendly matches in the spring of 2006. In the wake of his robotic dancing, The Guardian newspaper described Crouch as "fast building a reputation as a cult hero"

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Alan Smith

Alan Smith (born 28 October 1980 in Rothwell, Leeds, West Yorkshire) is an English professional football player. He started at Leeds United, then transferring to Manchester United before moving to Newcastle United in August 2007

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Wayne Rooney

Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985 in Liverpool) is an English footballer who currently plays for the English Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team. He is seen as one of the most exciting prospects of the modern game, and his transfer fee from Everton still stands as the highest ever paid for a teenager. He usually played as a second striker to Ruud van Nistelrooy for his club team before van Nistelrooy's move to Real Madrid, although during 2005-06 he showed his versatility as a player by switching to the midfield and playing on both flanks. Rooney has been compared to players such as Diego Maradona.

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John Terry

John George Terry (born December 7, 1980 in Barking, London) is an English professional football player. Terry plays as a centre back and is the captain of both Chelsea in the English Premier League and the national football team of England.

Terry was voted best defender in the 2005 UEFA Champions League, PFA Players' Player of the Year in 2005, and was included in the FIFPro World XI for 2005, 2006 and 2007. He was also named in the all-star squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the only English player to make the team. He wears the number 26 shirt for Chelsea and the number 6 shirt for England.

In 2007, he became the first captain to lift the FA Cup at the new Wembley Stadium in Chelsea's 1–0 win over Manchester United, and also the first player to score a full international goal there, scoring a header in England's 1–1 draw with Brazil.

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