Spanish Football History

    The association between Spanish soccer and Britain has a extended and memorable history going back way further than Posh and Becs. The game seems to come to Spain in the late Nineteenth century, spread by emigrant workers and Spanish students, returning from overseas. The oldest football club, Huelva Recreati on, was founded in 1889 by British workers of the Rio Tinto company. The first official match, staged in 1890, between Huelva and Colonia Ingelsa [a team made of employees of the local water works] caught up 20 Brits. Athletic Bilbao was, not unexpectedly then, founded with players late of the dockyards of Southampton and Portsmouth and Durham miners, as well as Basque students. The fast improving support for limited clubs, coupled with the expanding bar network, made away fixtures potential. As in England the Cup became the first club nationwide contest. In 1902 it was suggested a knock-out contest was held to mark Alfonso XIII’s coronation. This contest for 4 clubs from Madrid developed, in 1905, into the nationwide Copa del Rey. Alphonso’s significance in the game lead to support of several clubs, identifiable by the prefix‘Real.’

A description of the Home Internationals, La Selección, in progress in 1915. This was used as a way of picking the Olympic side. Catalan, Galician and Basque teams unmoving play today but are not recognized by FIFA, who are nothing, if not statistic in their viewpoint. Football could be a focus for the nationalist aspirations of Catalans. In 1925 the Barcelona crowd booed the Spanish National Anthem – The Royal March. Dictator Primo de Rivera congested the ground for six months [later reduced to three] and required the President, Joan Gamper to resign.Out of initiatives like the Catalan championship, nationwide football developed in the 1900’s and achieved completion in 1929, when La Liga was founded. In those daring days many English managers and administrators ended up in Spain. The British youth [and not so youth] exhausting Barcelona shirts after a quick trip to the Nou Camp are echoed in the club’s long English convention. Walter Wild was president of Barcelona between 1899 and 1901. Arthur Witty went from player to president in 1902. Barcelona was also managed by Jack Greenwell and Ralph Kirby in the 1910’s, 20’s and 30’s. Greenwell also managed Valencia in the 1933-4, Espanyol in the 20s and Peruvian national team in the 1930s. The list goes on. Steve Bulmer coached Irùn in the 1920s, Patrick O’Connell [ok, he’s Irish, but he was born in the United Kingdom] managed Santander, Real Betis and Oviedo and Arthur Johnson, managed Real Madrid from 1910 to 1920.

Of all these pioneers of the English way of messing about with a pig’s bladder, the one whose story should be better known is Fred Pentland, if for no other reason than the way that war kept on messing up his career. Frederick Beaconsfield Pentland was born in Wolverhampton in 1883. He worked as a gun maker’s supporter and played youth football in Birmingham before joining Blackpool professionally in 1903. A reasonably illustrious career saw him play for several clubs and collect 5 England caps. He ended his playing career with a year as Player-coach in Halifax in 1912, a brief spell as a player for Stoke in 1913.

Spanish Football History

The English football History

Football was played in England as distant back as medieval times. The modern global game of organization football was first codified in 1863 in London [citation needed]. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games. The first written confirmation of a football match came in about 1170, when William Fitzstephen wrote of his vacation to London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." He also went on to talk about that each trade had their own team, "The elders, the fathers, and the men of wealth come on horseback to sight the contests of their juniors, and in their style sport with the young men; and there seems to be aroused in these elders a moving of natural heat by performance so much motion and by involvement in the joys of unrestrained youth." Kicking ball games are described in England from 1280. In 1314, Edward II, then the King of England, said about a sport of football and the use of footballs, "certain tumults arising from huge footballs in the fields of the public, from which a lot of evils may arise. An account of an exclusively kicking "football" game from Nottinghamshire in the fifteenth century bears comparison to connection football. By the 16th centuries references to organized teams and goals had appeared. There is confirmation for refereed, team football games being played in English schools since at least 1581. The eighteenth century Gymnastic Society of London is, questionably, the world's first football club.

The Cambridge rules, first drawn up at Cambridge University in 1848, were mainly powerful in the development of succeeding codes, as well as association football. The Cambridge Rules were written at Trinity College, Cambridge, at a meeting attended by council from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury schools. They were not universally adopted.[4] During the 1850s, many clubs unrelated to schools or universities were formed throughout the English-speaking world, to engage in activity various forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably, Sheffield Football Club (the world's oldest club), formed by former public school pupils in 1857, which led to arrangement of the Sheffield & Hallamshire Football Association in 1867. In 1862, John Charles Thring of Uppingham School also devised an powerful set of rules. His brother, headmaster of the school Reverend Edward Thring, was a advocate of football as an substitute to masturbation, seen as weakening the boys, and through football hoped to give confidence their development of supposed manly attributes which were present in the sport.( These ongoing efforts contribute to the formation of The Football Association (The FA) in 1863, which first met on 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London.[4] The Sheffield FA played by its own system until the 1870s with the FA fascinating some of its system until there was little differentiation between the games. A match between Sheffield and Hallam F.C. on 29 December 1862 was one of the first matches to be recorded in a newspaper. With the modern passing game believed to have been innovated in London and with England being home to the oldest football clubs in the world dating from at least 1857, the world's oldest football trophy, the Youdan Cup, the first national contest, the FA Cup founded in 1871, and the first ever association football league (1888) as well as England having the first national football team that hosted the world's first ever international football match, a 1-1 draw with Scotland on 5 March 1870 at The Oval in London,[9] England is careful the home of the game of football.

For more details on this topic, see footballhistory.com

Win Any How -Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristino Ronaldo –Interview

It was your dream to play for Madrid, has it lived up to expectations?

“For sure. Real Madrid is extraordinary, and I am enjoying it a lot there. It can be hard when you come from a dissimilar league in a different country, and injuries didn’t help me to settle quickly, but I’m feeling very comfortable in Spain now. When the team plays well, obviously it helps me a lot, and I have been joined by a lot of unbelievable players in the changing room and a truly great manager too. I do believe I’m playing for the biggest club in the world. Now we need to prove that on the pitch.”

Apparently there are two Real Madrids: one with you and one without you…

“There is some talk about that in the Spanish papers, but everything depends on the results. People do figures for when I play, and when I don’t play, when there are goals and when there aren’t, and so on. But I don’t think a team should depend on just one player. It is a big club with some of the best players in the world, so I just say Madrid is a fantastic team – whether I play or not.”

Have you noticed many differences between La Liga and the Premier League?

“The Premier League is definitely quicker and more physical, while La Liga is patient and technical. In terms of standard, those at the top of each division are similar. But I think at the bottom of each separation there is a greater difference because the lower teams in England battle hard while the lower Spanish teams try to play football more. Either way, they are tough to break down.”

So have you had to adapt your game for La Liga?

“There’s not really much to adapt to. In Spain there are fewer direct balls from the defenders to the strikers and from that point of view more matches actually seem to suit my style of receiving it deep and running at defenders. But good players can play in any environment – the Champions League has shown that. Having developed in England over the six years I was at United, I feel able to cope with any physical battles. Plus, playing international football has also taught me that it doesn’t matter who I am playing for or against, or what style the match is, I can still make an impact.”

Cristiano is a more impressive physical specimen in the flesh. He is tall – every millimetre of his 6ft 1ins – without being lanky, and his top half is brimming with sculpted muscle. He’s wearing a tight tracksuit top this evening, and a pair of ripped stonewash jeans that look like they could’ve come from the sale rack at Top Man, but will almost certainly have been handmade by a notorious designer at 10-times the price.

His demeanor, too, surpasses expectation. While he can come across brash and petulant on the pitch, any sense of the marauding arrogance so many people label him with is vacant here. He talks maturely – and articulately considering English is his third language – yet, at times, he retains the youthful gaze of a mischievous kid in a playground. It’s this balance of aspiration and unpretentiousness that makes him all the more marketable for big brands such as Nike, Emporio Armani, and the Portuguese bank Espírito Santo, who ran an advertising campaign earlier this year in which Ronaldo sings in a recording studio.

”I like to sing in the shower,” he says. “So I thought it’d be a bit of fun.”

Cristiano is the very model of a modern major footballer. He’s athletic, skilful, marketable, intelligent… all these things and more. All the money, adoring fans, cars, girls and plush mansions can be overwhelming for a lad who, aged 14, left the dusty austerity of his childhood home on the island of Madeira to pursue a career as a footballer, and was named the world’s greatest less than a decade later. But while he finds time to do the showbiz thing – guest-listing at LA nightspots with Paris Hilton and rubbing shoulders with movie stars during his summer off – he still values his humble roots…

You are one of four siblings, how important is family to you?

“My family have always been important to my life. It is those closest to me who have given me confidence, and made me what I am now. For that I am thankful and really proud. Every day it helps me a lot to know that they are there for me.”

I was voted the best in the 2008 Ballon d’Or, but Messi won it last year. There are so many great players out there. I couldn’t say if it is me before them.

You left home at a young age to pursue your dream at Sporting Lisbon. At what point did you believe you were going to make it?

“In the beginning I had no idea really, I just played football because I enjoyed it. Even when I was 15 or 16-years-old, I didn’t really know if I was going to be a professional footballer. But I believed in myself, and people were always telling me good things. Then, when I started to train with the first team at Sporting, I started to realise that I could be a good player.”

‘A good player’ is something of an understatement. Are you the best player in the world?

“Right now it’s not for me to say. I was voted the best in the 2008 Ballon d’Or, but Messi won it last year. There are so many great players out there. I couldn’t say if it is me before them.”

How important are individual awards to you?

“Of course I want to win more of these individual awards but the decision is out of my hands. I can only continue to play at my best level. The priority is always the collective trophies – the team is the most important thing to me. But personal awards provide a different kind of success, a sense of pride in my own achievement. It’s always nice to show these awards to my family, they can recognise it’s something special.”

Which fellow footballers have you looked to for inspiration during your career?

“I do not look to anyone. Of course there are players I enjoy watching and playing with: Rooney, Messi, Torres, Ribery, Cesc, Kaka and Benzema are some of my favourites. They are all great players. But I don’t copy people. I am my own man and my own player.”

You mentioned Wayne Rooney. You and him had a great partnership at United, do you keep in touch with him?

“Yes, I still stay in contact with a lot of friends in Manchester. Rooney is a great player; I have always known how great he is. He has a winning mentality and you never lose that. I would like to play with him again some day if possible.”

Who in particular do you stay in contact with at United?

“I speak to Rooney, and call or text Rio, Vidic, Evra and Nani. Just because I left the club does not mean my relationships with these guys ended. I spent many years playing with them and they are still my friends. In fact I still speak with Alex Ferguson, too, but what I talk to the boss about is private!”

You were used to a fair bit of stick from opposition fans in England, but how have you been treated in Spain?

“It has not been on the same scale to be honest. In England – not in every stadium but in most of them – they would boo me every time I got the ball. But I think people have started to learn that when they boo it only spurs me on and gives me more confidence and power. So if people in Spain want to start, then this is not a problem for me at all!”

You could take away the money, the crowd, the fame and everything like that, but I would still play football because I love it. I have been in love with the game since a very young age. Even now, if I see a ball or a pitch or a goal, I can’t help myself wanting to have a kick around.

In spite of abuse from the terraces and criticism from pundits, journalists and – more often than not in the last year or so – FC Barcelona officials, Cristiano’s performances are invariably brilliant. And you can’t take that away from him.

After setting the Premier League alight for the best part of five years, the new king of Madrid had the pressure of a world record £80million price tag and 100,000 passionate Madrileños, who turned up to his coronation last July. But unlike Zidane before him, the latest chief Galactico eased into life in La Liga effortlessly. After notching 20 goals in 18 games of an injury-interrupted debut season, Ronaldo is again operating at a ratio exceeding a goal-a-game since welcoming fellow Portuguese Jose Mourinho to the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer. Aside from a blip against an imperious Barcelona side in the recent El Classico, Cristiano has been the heartbeat of Mourinho’s formidable new generation, constantly breathing fresh, vibrant life into the Los Galacticos cause.

In an era of elite athleticism in football, and in a league that demands the industrious to win the ball and the playmakers to create, Ronaldo not only carries the piano for his team, he plays a concerto on it as well. The fact that Real fans had a 10-metre silver statue of him erected in a busy Madrid city centre square earlier this year, is indicative of the love affair the locals have with their latest Rey Supremo.

You’re now 25, have you hit your peak? Or is there more to come from you?

“I try to improve every day. I have my own goals and I work hard, train hard and believe that I can continue to get better. Like you say I am only 25. I am not perfect; there is a lot more to come from me, and I think I am at the right club to develop at this stage of my career.”

So what do you need to improve, then?

“I don’t think I am a complete player. The moment I start thinking that will be the day things go wrong. I can improve my free kicks, my dribbling and my left-foot shooting in particular. In training, I try to work with the same intensity I had when I first started to learn football, because a major part of being the best footballer I can be is practice.”

Do you love football?

“Of course. You could take away the money, the crowd, the fame and everything like that, but I would still play football because I love it. I have been in love with the game since a very young age. Even now, if I see a ball or a pitch or a goal, I can’t help myself wanting to have a kick around. The extra things that football has given me and allowed me to experience have been wonderful, but essentially I play because I love the game.”

What would you like your legacy to be?

“I want to be one of the legends of football history. When I finish my career I hope people will look to me and say ‘Cristiano is a fantastic player and a great example to kids.’ I am an entertainer and I believe football should be entertainment, so I hope that deep down people who really love football will love me too.”

Cristiano Ronaldo motionless loves to win. After countless trophies and individual accolades, the 24 year old could be excused for session back and being happy with what he has got. However, Cristiano Ronaldo is no mere mortal, and is driven by achievement.

"The extra professional you are, the stronger you have to be to be regular on the pitch. I've already won it all, but I will never exhaust of winning. Not till the day I retire. That's just how I am. I would like people to remember me as a player who won completely everything."

"I think football should take care of those players who try to make people have fun, to create, to put on an more and more attractive show. None of this would happen devoid of the fans."

"I play for the best club in the world and I am surrounded by wonderful team-mates. I feel loved here and I'm judgment the right balance between for my part and the whole thing that background me."

more inof :http://www.cristianoronaldo7.com

Lionel Messi

LOVE MESSI

LOVE MESSI

LOVE MESSI

LOVE MESSI

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi[3] (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi]; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine footballer who at this time plays for FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team as a forward or winger. He also holds Spanish residency, which makes him eligible as a EU player. Considered one of the best football players of his generation[4][5][6] and regularly cited as the world's best existing player,[7] Messi received several Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations by the age of 21 and won both by the age of 22.[7][8][9][10] His playing style and ability have drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his "successor".[11][12]

Messi began playing football at a young age and his possible was quickly identified by Barcelona. He left Rosario-based Newell's Old Boys's youth team in 2000 and moved with his family to Europe, as Barcelona offered treatment for his growth hormone deficiency. Making his debut in the 2004–05 season, he broke his team record for the youngest footballer to score a league goal. Major honours soon followed as Barcelona won La Liga in Messi's debut season, and won a double of the league and Champions League in 2006. His breakthrough season was in the 2006–07 season; he became a first team regular, scoring a hat-trick in El Clásico and finishing with 14 goals in 26 league games. Perhaps his most victorious season was the 2008–09 season, in which Messi scored 38 goals to play an essential part in a treble-winning campaign. In the following 2009–10 campaign, Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions, equaling Ronaldo's record total for Barcelona.

More info-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi