Best Football Players Ever

The game has been blessed with some phenomenal talents and it does many scant justice when it comes to choosing the 10 greatest soccer players of all time. But, for what it is worth, here is About.com World Soccer’s best of the best.

1. Pele (1956-1977)

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A World Cup winner in 1958, 1962, and 1970, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, to give him his full name, is generally regarded as the greatest soccer player of all time. Pele won multiple titles with Santos, with whom he played out the best years of his career, before joining the New York Cosmos for a brief spell. Scorer of 760 official goals, Pele was a superb striker and dribbler of the ball, but could also combine well with his teammates and feature prominently in the build up to goals.

2. Lionel Messi

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It is not an exaggeration to say that The Atomic Flee is now challenging Pele for the crown of greatest ever soccer player and will surely surpass the Brazilian if the remainder of his career is as fruitful as the opening years. Messi joined Barcelona when he was just 13, scored on his debut at 17 and now wows the Camp Nou faithful on a regular basis with his dribbling, passing and goalscoring exploits. He broke Gerd Muller's record for most goals in a calendar year when he scored an incredible 91 in 2012.

3. Maradona (1976-1997)

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Diego Armando Maradona is one of the greatest dribblers the game has ever seen. His 'Hand of God' goal against England at the 1986 World Cup and the stunning solo effort that followed sum up this flawed genius better than any words. Maradona did not always play by the rules, and confesses that his expulsion from the 1994 World Cup after testing positive for ephedrine is one of his saddest memories. But the Maradona that captained Argentina to the 1986 World Cup and helped unfashionable Napoli to Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990 was irrepressible.

4. Johan Cruyff (1964-1984)

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The outspoken Dutchman excelled for Ajax and Barcelona in the 1960s and 1970s and is considered by many to be Europe’s best ever player. His name was synonymous with Rinus Michels’ "Total Football" movement whereby players interchanged positions. Cruyff was effective in both wide and central positions, and was famous for his ability to turn players. Winner of three Ballon D'Ors (European Player of the Year awards), Cruyff won eight Dutch titles and three European Cups with Ajax, and also made a controversial move to bitter rivals Feyenoord.

5. Franz Beckenbauer (1964-1984)

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"Der Kaiser is the only man to captain and manage his side to World Cup victory. In the early 1970s, the German revolutionised the game with his switch from central midfield to an attacking sweeper role where he would dictate play from the back by dribbling the ball out of defense and joining in his team’s attacks. He enjoyed his best years with Bayern Munich, where he won five Bundesliga titles and three European Cups, but he also spent time with Pele at the New York Cosmos.

6. Michel Platini (1973-1987)

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A star with Nancy, St-Etienne and Juventus, Platini was a European champion for club and country after winning the 1984 European Championship with France and the European Cup the following year with Juventus. One of the best passers in soccer history and an expert free-kick taker, the attacking midfielder scored nine goals in that 1984 triumph.

7. Alfredo Di Stéfano (1943-1966)

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Di Stéfano's achievement of scoring in five consecutive European Cup finals is unlikely to ever be matched. Born in Argentina to Italian immigrants, but playing internationally for three different teams, Di Stéfano's career was nothing if not cosmopolitan. A player of exceptional fitness levels, the Saeta rubia (blond arrow) was instrumental in Real Madrid's dominance in the 1950s, although the history books could tell a very different story if he had joined Barcelona instead of the Merengues in 1943.

8. Ferenc Puskás (1944-1966)

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One of the best strikers ever, Puskas averaged nearly a goal a game at club and international level. He was a prominent member of the great Hungary team of the 1950s, known as the Mighty Magyars. Puskas was top league scorer with Real Madrid on four occasions, and scored seven goals in two European Cup finals. He won five league titles with Budapest Honvéd before moving to Real in 1958 and winning another five. The inside-left also boasts three European Cups.

9. Eusébio (1958-1978)

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"The Black Panther" is considered Portugal’s greatest ever soccer player. Scorer of nine goals at the 1966 World Cup finals, Eusébio possessed explosive pace and deceptive ability. The forward turned out for a host of teams, but his best years were spent with Benfica where he averaged more than a goal a game. Eusébio told World Soccermagazine in 2010 that he signs photographs of himself every night to give to children the following day.

10. George Best (1963-1984)

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Like Maradona, Best enjoyed the luxuries that his profession afforded him, and it was his alcohol addiction that contributed to his death in 2005. On the pitch he had a devastating combination of pace, skill and finishing that should have brought more than two league titles and one European Cup with Manchester United. Best played as a winger or attacking midfielder and had the ability to dribble past defenders as if they were not there. Like several other players on this list, Best also plied his trade in America in the 70s and 80s.

FIFA Player of the Year Ever

The FIFA World Player of the Year is an association football award presented to the player voted as best in the world by coaches and captains of international teams. It began in 1991 as an award for the best men's player in the world; a women's award was added in 2001. In a voting system based on positional voting, each coach has three votes, worth five points, three points and one point, and the winners are ordered based on total number of points.

During the time that the men's award was presented, European-based Brazilian players dominated that award, winning 8 out of 18 editions of the prize, ahead of the second country France, which won it three times. In terms of individual players who have received the award, Brazil leads with five, followed by Italy and Portugal with two each.

The women's award has had fewer individual winners. So far, only five players – one from each of three different countries, plus two Americans – have won the award. Of these women, only 2011 winner Homare Sawa and 2012 winner Abby Wambach have won only one award.

The award's youngest winner, male or female, was Ronaldo, who won at the age of 20 in 1996. He won it again in 1997 and 2002. Marta is the only player to win it five times in a row; Birgit Prinz won three times in a row, while Ronaldo, Mia Hamm and Ronaldinho won twice in a row. Marta is the only five-time winner, while Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, and Prinz have won the award three times. The oldest winner of either sex is Sawa, who was 33 when she won in 2011. The oldest male winner is Fabio Cannavaro, who was also 33 when he won in 2006, but whose birth date is one week after Sawa's. The youngest female winner is Marta, who won in 2006 at age 20, but was seven months older than Ronaldo in 1996.

List of the FIFA Player of the Year

year	player	nationality
2012	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2011	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2010	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2009	Lionel Messi	Argentina
2008	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal
2007	Kaká	Brazil
2006	Fabio Cannavaro	Italy
2005	Ronaldinho	Brazil
2004	Ronaldinho	Brazil
2003	Zinedine Zidane	France
2002	Ronaldo	Brazil
2001	Luís Figo	Portugal
2000	Zinedine Zidane	France
1999	Rivaldo	Brazil
1998	Zinedine Zidane	France
1997	Ronaldo	Brazil
1996	Ronaldo	Brazil
1995	George Weah	Liberia
1994	Romário	Brazil
1993	Roberto Baggio	Italy
1992	Marco van Basten	Netherlands
1991	Lothar Matthäus	Germany

Basketball

Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.0 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end. Basketball is one of the world's most popular and widely viewed sports.

A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play. A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or closer to the basket than the three-point line, and three points (known commonly as a 3 pointer or three) if the player is behind the three-point line. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) may be issued when the game ends with a draw. The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it while walking or running or throwing it to a team mate. It is a violation to move without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling.

Violations are called "fouls". A personal foul is penalized, and a free throw is usually awarded to an offensive player if he is fouled while shooting the ball. A technical foul may also be issued when certain infractions occur, most commonly for unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of a player orcoach. A technical foul gives the opposing team a free throw, and the opposing team also retains possession of the ball.

As well as many techniques for shooting, passing, dribbling and rebounding, basketball has specialized player positions and offensive and defensive structures (player positioning). Typically, the tallest members of a team will play "center", "power forward" or "small forward" positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed play "point guard" or "shooting guard".

FIFA World Cup Fun Facts

The FIFA World Cup is the biggest soccer tournament in the world with over a billion people tuning in to watch 32 countries battle it out at different venues in the host country to lift the much coveted FIFA World Cup. 18 tournaments have been held since 1930, only seven nations have won the prestigious World Cup, Brazil is on top of the list with 5 wins, followed closely by Italy and Germany with 4 and 3 wins respectively. Argentina and Uruguay have 2 titles each and England France with one each.

The World Cup was first televised in 1954 and is the most widely watched sporting event in the world. The cumulative audience of all the matches of the FIFA World Cup 2006 is estimated to be over 26.29 billion.

• The record number of World Cup career goals is 15 by Brazilian forward Ronaldo.
• The record number of appearances in world cup matches is 25, held by German footballer Lothar Matthaus.
• The fastest goal in the world was scored by Turkey’s Hasan Sukur, 11 seconds into the game against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.
• Oliver Kahn is the only goalkeeper in the history of FIFA World to have won the Golden Ball trophy.
• India withdrew from the 1950 World Cup when they realized that according to FIFA regulations players had to wear football boots and would not be allowed to play barefoot.
• The record for most defeats suffered by a nation in World Cups is held by Mexico with 20 losses.
• Norman Whiteside was 17 when he played in the 1982 FIFA World Cup making him the youngest player to play in the world cup.
• Out of the 18 world cups, South America and European countries have won 9 titles each. No other continent has produced a world champion.
• The only two players to have scored in four consecutive finals tournaments in 1958, 1962, 1966 & 1970 are Pele of Brazil and Uwe Seeler of West Germany.
• 42-year-old Roger Milla in 1994 became the oldest goal scorer and the oldest player in World Cup history.
• The very first hat-trick in a World Cup match was scored by Bert Patenaude of United States in a match against Paraguay in the 1930 World Cup.
• In 1986 FIFA prohibited shirt swapping because they did not want players to ‘bare their chests’ on the field.
• Brazil is the country to have appeared for every finals tournament. They have appeared for the last 18 tournaments, won five of them and will be appearing in the 2010 World Cup as well.
• Sir Viv Richards is the only person to have played both World Cup Football and World Cup Cricket.

Health And Sports

Sports

Playing sports helps you stay in shape, teaches you how to organize your time, boosts friendships and builds relationships with your peers and adults. Through athletics, you gain skills that can best be acquired on court, track or field.

• Friendship
• Family
• Coaches
• Health
• Sports Neutrition
• School
• Leadership Skill

Friendship

Playing sports enables you to create friendships you otherwise might not have formed. Sports bring teens together from different schools, backgrounds, and communities. Many times, the friendships you create on the field remain intact even when you are not playing sports.

Family

The fans on the sidelines are one of the most important parts of the game. The constant support of your parents helps you to feel good about yourself and strengthens your connection to them. As a teen, it is not always easy to find time to spend time with your parents. Sports give you and your parents time to appreciate one another.

Coaches

Providing wisdom and encouragement, coaches can be very good role models. The relationship that you develop with your coach is very important to the success of the team. Positive coaching helps to bring the team together, and gives players the right tools to push themselves academically and physically.

Health

Participating in sports improves your health in many ways. To be a good athlete, you must take care of yourself. This gets you thinking about what to eat and how to treat your body to achieve peak performance levels.

Sports Nutrition

When engaging in sports for the first time, you may feel hungrier than usual. This is normal, because your body is expending much more energy than it is used to. Here are some nutrition tips to help keep you healthy while you participate in sports.

• Eat fat. About 20 to 25 percent of energy comes from fats, so to keep energy levels high, your body needs you to consume fat.
• Make sure to eat before, during and after your sport. The helps maintain blood glucose levels, which in turn will help enhance your sports performance.
• Keep hydrated! When playing a sport, your body loses a lot of fluid, which can cause dehydration. This is dangerous, potentially fatal, so drink plenty of water.
• Eat a balanced diet. An athlete's diet should include plenty of complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fats.
• Limit salt and simple sugar.
• Don't fast!

School

It's a common misconception that being both a student and an athlete is hard if not impossible. Participating in sports can actually have a positive impact on school. Sports force you to organize your time so that you can both go to practice and finish your homework. The key is finding a balance. If you can learn to organize your time then you can succeed in both.

Leadership Skills

Participating in sports helps build leadership skills. Sports teams give you an opportunity to surround yourself with competitive people and role models, and learn from them both. You can demonstrate your own leadership through team captainships and individual actions to improve your team's success. 

25 amazing facts on sports

1. Golf the only sport played on the moon – on 6 February 1971 Alan Shepard hit a golf ball.
2. In the National Hockey League, home teams wear white jerseys and visiting teams wear dark jerseys. That’s because back in the 1960s, the league figured it would be more difficult to keep white uniforms clean while players were on the road.
3. About 42,000 tennis balls are used in the plus-minus 650 matches in the Wimbledon Championship.
4. The first puck ever used in a hockey game was a frozen piece of cow crap.
5. The New York Yankees have won 26 World Series titles, which is more than any other team.
6. Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia are building a 27-hole golf course on the border between the three countries, with nine holes in each country. Much of the area proposed for the golf course is currently a minefield.
7. Yo-Yo was started as a weapon in the Philippine Islands in the 16th century. It weighed four pounds and had a 20 foot cord. It was introduced to the United States as a toy in 1929.
8. The Olympic Flame is a symbol of the fire stolen from the Greek God Zeus. Months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic games the torch is lit at the ancient site of the Olympics in Olympia. A ceremony is performed by Eleven women called priestesses in which the torch is lit by a parabolic mirror which concentrates the rays of the sun.
9. The big black tarps that cover the middle field seats in baseball, are so the batter can see the ball better. When people sat in those seats it was too hard for the batters to see the ball coming out of the pitchers hand. The back ground was too busy. The tarp fixed it.
10. Fishing is the biggest participant sport in the world.
11. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year’s supply of footballs.
12. Before 1859, umpires sat in a padded rocking chair behind the catcher
13. More than 1,800 medals are awarded at the Olympics.
14. Soccer is the most attended or watched sport in the world.
15. American football has the highest injury rate of any sport, with a rate 12 times higher than basketball, the next most injurious sport. Most NFL players eventually suffer a career-ending or career-shortening injury sometime in their career.
16. The Boston Celtics have won the most NBA championships (17), including seven straight from 1960 to 1966.
17. Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 5 pitches.
18. Boxing became a legal sport in 1901.
19. Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool! He changed it every 2 innings!
20. College footballs and NFL footballs are the exact same size. The only difference is the white stripes on the college ball. The white stripes on college footballs is to help the recievers see the ball better.
21. The record for the most major league baseball career innings is held by Cy Young, with 7,356 innings.
22. Archery is the national sport in Bhutan,a Buddhist country in Asia.
23. The fastest serve in a game of tennis was in 1963 by Michael Sangster. It was clocked at 154 mile per hour.
24. Sports command the biggest television audiences, led by the summer Olympics, World Cup Football and Formula One racing.
25. Golf balls can reach speeds of 170 miles an hour.

Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometers that is usually run as a road race.The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921. More than 500 marathons are held throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes. Smaller marathons, such as the Stanley Marathon, can have just dozens of participants, while larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants.This time peoples are using this game as a fun , as charity program , as a program for some reason such as for the health purpose etc. In the case of our country Nepal, there is a big unemployment problem. So we have to make people to think about the sports like marathon which can be apply as a profession to earn the money and prestige in all over the nation.

chess

Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

Each player begins the game with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves differently. Pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent's pieces, with the objective to 'checkmate' the opponent's king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by the voluntary resignation of the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may also result in a draw in several ways, where neither player wins. The course of the game is divided into three phases: opening, middlegame, and endgame.This is very interesting and mind making game. We should be aware of making all the steps in the whole game and also need the future attention. So this game will help for the people to develop their mind.

Criket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a roughly circular field, at the center of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. Each team takes it in turn to bat, in which they attempt to accumulate as many runs as possible, while the other team fields, attempting to prevent the batting team scoring runs. Teams may bat once or twice each depending upon the format of the game. Each turn is known as an innings. The game progresses as one member of the fielding team known as the bowler delivers the ball to the batsman down the length of the pitch. The batsman then attempts to strike the ball with his bat so that the ball either reaches the boundary or travels far enough away from a fielder to enable him to run to the other end of the pitch and thus accumulate runs. Each batsman may continue batting until he is dismissed. Once ten batsmen from the batting side have been dismissed, the team is said to be all out and the two teams change roles. A person who plays cricket is called a cricketer.In professional cricket the length of a game ranges from 20 overs of six bowling deliveries per side to Test cricket played over five days. The Laws of Cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with additional Standard Playing Conditions for Test matches and One Day Internationals.

Football

Football is a very interesting and popular game in the world. In this game we need 22 players for one team and among them 11 will play the game.While playing this game, in my point of view I forget all the things only I can remember is to play for my team and also how to assist for my friend to make goal to win the game. So I think this is the very interesting game in the universe. While playing football we have to do lots of physical exercise that helps our health. Also, we can earn lots of money, prestige etc.. In this world there are many great football players who have earned lots of money, prestige. For example: Maradona, Pele , Ronaldo, Ronaldino.There is an organization in this  world which helps for the development of the football is FIFA . According to FIFA the competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is a scientific reason behind it.All the international games has been undertaking on the rules and regulation of  FIFA. If  any player or country cross the FIFA's rules then they will be punished according to the rules.