THE WORLD PORTAL

RYAN GIGGS

Manchester United star player Ryan Giggs was selected as ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year’ in 2009. He was the surprise winner of this award. In a public voting, Giggs defeated Formula One world champion Jenson Button and heptathlon world champion Jessica Ennis. He was only the fifth footballer to win this award and the first footballer to win this most prestigious award since David Beckham in 2001. Ryan Giggs is also the midfielder of the Wales football team and was the first player in football history to win two consecutive ‘PFA Young Player of the Year’ awards.

BIOGRAPHY

Manchester United and Wales football player Ryan Giggs was born on 29th November 1973, in Wales, United Kingdom. He was brought up in England. In his school days, he was played for the England Schoolboys team. As an adult, he played for the Welsh national team and not played for England national team. The reason is that he had no English grandparents. Giggs started her domestic career with ‘Manchester United’ club during the 1990-91 season. He is the most decorated football player in the history of Manchester United. He is the holder of eleven Premier League championship, one Champions League and four FA Cup titles. He has also won the ‘PFA Young Player of the Year’ award twice. In addition, he holds the record of most number of appearances for Manchester United with 759 appearances. He has played an important role in every one of their eleven Premier League wins. Giggs started his international career as the youngest player of ‘Wales’ football team in 1991. He was also appointed as the captain of Wales in 2004. To the surprise, he retired from the international football career in 2007 to concentrating Manchester United club career. He made 64 appearances and scored twelve goals for the Welsh national team. He had a very good disciplinary record during his football career. He is married to Stacey Cooke and they have two children, Liberty and Zach. He appeared in many advertisements for Reebok, Sovil Titus, Citizen Watches, Givenchy, Fuji, Patek Phillipe, Quorn Burgers, ITV Digital and Celcom. In addition, he is also the UNICEF campaigner to prevent landmine from killing children.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Ryan Giggs had gained many awards and honors in his football career. He was named in the Football League 100 Legends. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen`s 2007 Birthdays Honors List and was inducted into the exclusive English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 for his services to English Football. He is the two time winner of the ‘PFA Young Player of the Year’. Recently, he won ‘PFA Player of the Year’ in 2009. In addition, he won ‘Bravo Award’ in 1993, ‘BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year’ in 1996 and 2009, ‘Overall Team of the Decade - Premier League 10 Seasons Awards’ in 1992–93 - 2001–02, ‘Wales Player of the Year Award’ in 1996 and 2006 etc. His latest achievement was he was his selection of the ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year’ in 2009.

LIONEL MESSI

Argentina and Barcelona club football player Lionel Messi won the ‘Golden Ball award’ which is awarded to the ‘European Footballer of the Year’. He became the sixth Barcelona player who gained this award. He beat last year’s winner Cristiano Ronaldo into second place. Messi is considered to be one of the best football players of the world.

BIOGRAPHY

Lionel Messi was born on 24th June 1987 in Rosario, Argentina as the younger son of Jorge Messi and Celia. At the age of five, he showed interest in football and played for the local club ‘Grandoli’. From the age of 11, he suffered from a hormone deficiency and as his parents were unable to pay for the treatment in Argentina, they decided to move to Barcelona, Spain. Messi’s club career started with Barcelona club in 2003. He scored six goals in seventeen league appearances and scored one Champions League goal for this club during 2005-2006 season.His goals are always similar to the Maradona’s famous goals and the Spanish press labeled Messi as “Messidona”. Under the performance of Messi, Barcelona club won many tournaments. His International career started in 2004 playing in under-20 friendly match against Paraguay. In ‘2005 FIFA World Youth Championship’ in Netherlands, he showed wonderful performance. His team won the championship and he won the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament and the Golden Shoe for the top scorer with 6 goals. In ‘2006 FIFA World Cup’, he was the youngest player of the Argentina, and he gained one goal against Serbia. Gaining this goal, he became the youngest scorer in the tournament and the sixth youngest goal scorer in the history of the World Cup. He scored goals in ‘2007 Copa America’ but his team was defeated by Brazil in the final. ‘2008 Summer Olympics’ was good for him. In that Olympics, he scored one goal against Ivory Coast and Netherlands. In addition, he assisted his teammate Di Maria for the victory goal against Nigeria in the final match and his team won the gold medal in that Olympics. Messi is always comparing to the football legend Diego Maradona due to his playing style and ability. Maradona himself declared Messi as his successor. German sportswear company Adidas is the sponsor of him, and he appeared in many of their advertisements. He is dating with Antonella Roccuzzo, and they plan to wed on at the end of 2010.