Know Your Player - Steve McManaman

Steven "Steve" McManaman (born 11 February 1972) is an English former footballer who played as a midfielder, winger andplaymaker for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City. McManaman is the most decorated English footballer to have played abroad, with the UEFA website stating that "of all England's footballing exports in the modern era, none were as successful as McManaman." He is a regular pundit on BT Sport football coverage.

After nine years at Liverpool, during which time he won the FA Cup and League Cup, McManaman moved to Real Madrid in 1999. The transfer became one of the most controversial and high profile Bosman rulings of all time. He became the first English player to win the UEFA Champions League with a non-English club in 2000, and two years later became the first English player to win the Champions League twice. He also won La Liga twice before moving to Manchester City in 2003, and retiring from football in 2005. After his retirement he worked as a football pundit for Setanta Sports, ESPN and BT Sport. In 2008, he was ranked third in a Top 10 of greatest British footballers to play overseas, just behind Kevin Keegan and John Charles.

Although McManaman had a couple of quieter seasons with the advent of the Premier League, he continued to develop a reputation as one of English football's two best wingers alongside Ryan Giggs of Manchester United, with both players known to "embarrass defences with their mazy runs, which too often lack the finishing touch they deserve."

In 1993–94, McManaman showed fine form with two goals against Swindon Town and some assists including a spectacular run and assist against Tottenham Hotspur. However this form faltered following a confidence drop after an incident with Bruce Grobbelaar towards the end of a Merseyside derby, when the players exchanged blows after Grobelaar lambasted McManaman for a poor clearance which led to a goal being conceded (an incident later named as one of the top five bust ups between team mates in Premier League history).

In 1994–95, McManaman got a new million pound contract, and was given a central, freer role by new coach Roy Evans, who wanted to utilise McManaman's natural running and dribbling ability to drift all over the park. It proved a successful decision as McManaman began mesmerising defences with runs that were later to become hallmarks of the Liverpool side of the 1990s. That season he collected a League Cup winner's medal after scoring twice in his side's 2–1 win over Bolton; such was his performance that fans named it "The McManaman Final". For his second Wembley final appearance in succession he was awarded man of the match, earning the Alan Hardaker Trophy and a tribute from guest of honour, celebrated veteran winger Sir Stanley Matthews, who exclaimed after the final: "He reminds me of me when I was playing... I wish there are more dribblers like him."

By the end of 1995–96, McManaman was top of the Premier League goal assists chart with 25 assists over the season, including assists and top ratings in a match against Newcastle voted the best of the decade in the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards. By now, McManaman was ranked as one of the finest midfielders in England and had developed a strong reputation on the European stage following UEFA Euro 1996, earning praise from many at the time including Kevin Keegan, who said "there are few finer sights in world football than the sight of Steve McManaman running down the length of the pitch."

McManaman had also been noted for his versatility in his free role, switching from right to left wings, and his ability to play in central midfield, behind the front pair, or as a forward, with many notable managers including then Ajax coach Louis van Gaal, describing it as a role few could pull off the way McManaman had. McManaman was credited for making the role manager Evans gave him work, with the result being that Liverpool were playing some of the most aesthetically pleasing attacking football at the time in England.McManaman was also said to have been one of only a handful of so-called "talismanic" players along with Eric Cantona and Gianfranco Zola in the league at the time believed to have the charisma to lift supporters from their seats each time they got the ball. Managers would deploy a man-marker specifically to follow him for an entire game, with Gianfranco Zola noting that McManaman was the player the Italian national players monitored the most. Howard Wilkinson said McManaman was "virtually unstoppable" at times, while then Middlesbrough manager, Bryan Robson, was quoted as saying that "everyone in the Premiership knows that if you stop McManaman, you stop Liverpool." Roy Evans, attempting to diminish the attention on marking McManaman, stated "I would hate to think we are no more than a one-man team." German coach Berti Vogts named McManaman as one of only three Premiership players in his select European XI Team.

McManaman was once described as "England's forgotten man" but was also accused of being apathetic and having a laidback attitude and having a reputation for being a troublemaker, which began after an infamous "dentists' chair" incident before Euro96, where along with Teddy Sheringham and Gascoigne, McManaman was photographed drinking and accused of causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to a Cathay Pacific first class flight cabin. McManaman's reputation was also not aided by the fact that he was also known for being a serial prankster with Fowler, which did nothing to help new coaches' negative opinions about him, with the Spice Boys' image also making it worse, although, colleague Gareth Southgate did say McManaman and Fowler's antics though "silly", helped foster team spirit. In 2004, certain journalists even called for McManaman to be included in the Euro 2004 squad, arguing that McManaman's experience would have been worth his inclusion in the side alone, but to no avail as McManaman himself decided to retire shortly after.

Know Your Player - Luis Suárez

Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz; born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan footballer who plays for Premier League club Liverpool and the Uruguayan national team.

In 2006, Suárez moved to the Netherlands to play for Groningen in the Eredivisie. Suárez transferred to Ajax in 2007. In 2008–09 he was named Ajax Player of the Year. The following year, he was made the club captain, became the league's top scorer with 35 goals in 33 games, and was named Dutch Footballer of the Year. He scored 49 goals in all competitions and Ajax won the KNVB Cup. In the 2010–11 season, he scored his one hundredth Ajax goal, joining a group of players including Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp in doing so.

In January 2011, Suárez transferred to Liverpool for €26.5 million (£22.8 million). During his partial season at Liverpool, Suárez helped the club move from twelfth in the league in mid-January to finish sixth at the end of the season. In February 2012 Suárez won his first trophy with Liverpool, as they won the Football League Cup. On 4 December 2013 he scored his fifth Premier League hat-trick for the club, making him the most frequent scorer of hat-tricks in Premier League history, one every 17.4 games. Suárez represented Uruguay in the 2007 U-20 World Cup. In the 2010 World Cup he played an important role in Uruguay's fourth place finish and scored three goals, including when he infamously blocked an extra time goalbound header with his hands during the quarter finals against Ghana. At the 2011 Copa América Suárez scored four goals for Uruguay as they won a record fifteenth Copa América and was named Player of the Tournament. On 23 June 2013, Suarez became Uruguay's all-time record goalscorer with 35 goals. In December 2013, Suárez was ranked by The Guardian as the ninth-best footballer in the world.

Know Your Player - Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, name given as Edison on birth certificate, born 21 October 1940 – however, Pelé claims that he was born on 23 October), is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is regarded by many experts, football critics, former players, current players and football fans in general as the best player of all time. In 1999, he was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics. The same year, influential France Footballmagazine consulted their former Ballon D'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. Pelé came in first place. In 1999, Pelé was elected "Athlete of the Century" by the IOC, and was named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people of the 20th century. In 2013 he received the FIFA Ballon d'Or Prix d'Honneur in recognition of his career and achievements.

According to the IFFHS, Pelé is the most successful league goal scorer in the world, with 541 league goals.[ In total Pelé scored 1281 goals in 1363 games, for which he was honoured by the Guinness World Records for the most career goals scored in football.[18] During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best paid athlete in the world.[19] In his native Brazil, he is hailed as a national hero, for his accomplishments in football, and for his vocal support of policies to improve the social conditions of the poor. In 1961, President Jânio Quadros had Pelé declared a national treasure.]During his career, he became known as "The Black Pearl" (Pérola Negra), "The King of Football" (O Rei do Futebol), "The King Pelé" (O Rei Pelé) or simply "The King" (O Rei).

Pelé began playing for Santos at 15 and the Brazil national football team at 16. He won three FIFA World Cups; 1958,1962 and 1970, the only player ever to do so, and is the all-time leading goalscorer for Brazil. He is also the record goalscorer for Santos, and led them to the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores. Pelé’s electrifying play and penchant for spectacular goals made him a star around the world, and his club team Santos toured internationally in order to take full advantage of his popularity.

Since retiring in 1977, Pelé has been a worldwide ambassador for football and has undertaken various acting roles andcommercial ventures. In 2010, he was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos.

In February 2012, Legends 10 began handling the Pelé brand and brought all marketing and management efforts under one roof, including all intellectual property rights, global licensing, branding, endorsements, and public appearances.

The most notable area of Pelé's life since football is his ambassadorial work. In 1992, Pelé was appointed a UN ambassador for ecology and the environment.

He was awarded Brazil's Gold Medal for outstanding services to the sport in 1995; Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso appointed him to the position of Extraordinary Minister for Sport, and he was appointed a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. During this time he proposed legislation to reduce corruption in Brazilian football, which became known as the "Pelé law." Pelé left his position in 2001 after he was accused of involvement in a corruption scandal, although nothing was proven, and it was denied by UNICEF. In 1997, Pelé received an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire from QueenElizabeth II, at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace.

Pelé scouted for Premier League club Fulham in 2002. He was chosen to do the draw for the qualification groups for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.

Pelé has published several autobiographies, starred in documentary and semi-documentary films, and composed musical pieces, including the entire soundtrack for the film Pelé in 1977. He appeared, alongside other footballers of the 1960s and 1970s, with Michael Caine, andSylvester Stallone, in the 1981 film Escape to Victory, about an attempted escape from a World War II German POW camp.

In 2005, Pelé received a lifetime achievement award from the BBC and, in June 2006, helped inaugurate the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, alongside supermodel Claudia Schiffer. Pelé also produced an international ad campaign for drug company Pfizer to promote Viagra and raise world awareness of erectile dysfunction.

Pelé was guest of honour at the world's oldest football club, Sheffield's 150th anniversary match vInter Milan in November 2007. Inter won 5–2 in front of an appreciative crowd of nearly 19,000 atBramall Lane. As part of his visit, Pelé opened an exhibition which included the first public showing in 40 years of the original hand-written rules of football.

In 2009, he cooperated with Ubisoft on arcade football game Academy of Champions: Soccerfor the Wii and appeared in the game as a coach to its players.[124] On FIFA 14 released in 2013, Pelé features for the Ultimate team known as Legends for the Xbox One, where game-players can acquire classic players from different eras.

On 1 August 2010, Pelé was introduced as the Honorary President of a revived New York Cosmos, aiming to field a team in Major League Soccer. On 3 August 2011, it was reported that Santos were considering bringing him out of retirement for a cameo role in the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, although these rumours later turned out to be false.

In 2012, Pelé was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh for "significant contribution to humanitarian and environmental causes, as well as his sporting achievements", his first such degree from a European university.

On 12 August, Pelé appeared at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, following the handover section to the next host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro.

Know Your Player -Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho who plays for Brazilian club Atlético Mineiro has won the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2004 and 2005 and is widely regarded to be one of the best footballers of his generation. Some people consider Ronaldinho to be the greatest player in the history of the game. 

Prior to his move to Atlético Mineiro, he played for Grêmio, Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, Milan and Flamengo. With the Spanish club, he won his first Champions League in 2006 and the Ballon d'Or in 2005. He became a Spanish citizen in January 2007. He was named to the FIFA 100, a list of the greatest footballers compiled by fellow countryman Pelé, and to the FIFPro World XI consecutively from 2004–2007.

Ronaldinho's football skills began to blossom at the of age 8, and he was first given the nickname Ronaldinho because he was often the youngest and the smallest player in youth club matches. He developed an interest in futsal and beach football, which later expanded to organized football. His first brush with the media came at the age of thirteen, when he scored all 23 goals in a 23–0 victory against a local team. Ronaldinho was identified as a rising star at th 1997 U-17 World Championship in Egypt, in which he scored two goals on penalty kicks.

Ronaldinho has been described as being "skilful by nature, his tricks are unparalleled and he is wonderful with the ball at his feet. One of the coolest players in pressure situations" and a "fast, brash, skilful, tricky, an uninhibited playmaker" who provides "a mix of goals, assists, skills and a large repertoire of crafty moves." Former Portugal midfielder, Rui Costa, has said of him: "There are not many players who can offer goalscoring passes like he can. He is just marvellous. He is a rare case of an assist man who can provide the ball from anywhere." He is also the player who perfected "Elastico", that considered the most stunning football move. He is fairly believed to be the greatest dribbler of all time, with his stunning technique and dribbling style, that makes him unstopable with the ball at his feet.