Biarritz is a coastal city. This city is located on the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic coast) which lies south-west to France. This town is an important destination for tourists and for surfers all over the globe. This town lies between Basque territory, and Basque flags. This city is located in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Aquitaine territory. It is adjacent to Bayonne and Anglet and few miles from the border of Spain.

Main Sights of Attraction:

Main features of attraction in Biarritz are:

1. The Asiatic Museum, which form the house for Asian art.

2. The Museum of the sea, which has a collection of 24 aquariums containing sharks and seals.

3. The Biarritz Surf Festival is one of the premier surf events in the town which is held every year.

4. St-Martin’s Church which was constructed in 12th century is another great monument to see.

5. The Russian Orthodox Church which is famous for its blue dome and was constructed in 19th century.

6. A Museum of Chocolates which provide you insight information about history and manufacturing of Chocolates.

Sports:

Surfing first started in 1957 here and is one of the most famous sports in Biarritz. There is a very strong culture of surfing in this city. This city is home of famous rugby club, Biarritz Olympique. Another popular sport of Biarritz is Basque pelota. Several local and international competitions take place here every year. Golf is also an important sport in the city. The town has many big angular golf courses which are located at its borders.

Transport:

From Paris this town can be accessed very easily by high-speed trains, which operates from Gare Montparnasse. In the inland of the city, The Biarritz – Anglet – Bayonne Airport is 4 hours away. It is joined to the airports of Anglet and Bayonne.

In an all this city is a great place to visit especially for people who like surfing.

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Gibraltar is a small island off the coast of Spain, governed by the UK and due to it’s geographical location is on important port in addition to it’s role as an offshore financial centre. A company formation in Gibraltar has been a popular choice for European businesses for many years, providing an essentially British experience but with the benefits of an offshore financial centre.

However, whilst it offers the corporate structure flexibility with a minimum of just one director (which can be a corporation) they do not offer quite the same extent of privacy with a public register containing the names of directors and shareholder.

There are no requirements to disclose to anyone the identity of the owners or shareholders of a non-resident company in Gibraltar and the Gibraltar government would only ever do so if an order is received by the Supreme Court. This would only be granted on suspicion or serious criminal activity. This privacy is further protected by the minimal reporting requirements for example, companies are not required to keep accounts and lodge them with the Gibraltar government. Whilst still providing this high-level of privacy, Gibraltar is one of the High Disclosure Offshore Centers which puts it into the same category as the likes of Jersey and Guernsey. In most cases, this is seen as a good thing as it makes Gibraltar one of the safest destinations for companies looking to move offshore.

Gibraltar offers a slightly different corporate tax structure to a lot of offshore jurisdictions in that taxation on residents is actually comparatively high however non-resident companies have much lower tax, one of the cheapest offshore jurisdictions. The tax advantages of having a Gibraltar offshore company include the fact that there are no capital gains taxes, gift taxes or wealth taxes. Due to the close relationship between Gibraltar and the UK, Gibraltar does have income tax for companies and they are also required to pay stamp duty on on any property purchased, debt obligations, shares and any other securities.

One reason for the rapid growth of smaller businesses and individuals forming offshore companies particularly in Gibraltar but also in similar jurisdictions, is the development of the banking systems abroad. Not only have the regulations and security around international banks increased in Gibraltar whilst still maintaining all the privacy, but they also provide more secure banking solutions but even leading local banks such as HSBC having an offshore arm dedicated to providing a quality banking solution to the leading financial jurisdictions such as the ones mentioned above.

Due to it’s close links with the UK, Gibraltar is a popular choice for companies looking re-locate or start-up in a place where they can benefit from the tax advantages whilst being in a high disclosure financial center, essentially meaning they have all the protection and reliability associated with the UK, even having it’s local currency as the GBP.

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Zacarías González is not a name that appears in many art books or catalogues. It’s not a name that appears on the title tags in many public galleries. It does appear attached to the name of a less than significant building in Calle Alcaron in Salamanca, the Casa-Museo Zacarías González.

Zacarías González was an artist. He was also a teacher. He taught drawing. He was born in 1923 and died in 2003. He lived most of his life in Salamanca, the city of his birth. He spent some time in Madrid, some on national service in Navarra and, in later years, when the Castilian winter was felt more keenly, he headed south to Alicante. He was a lifelong teacher of drawing and painted in his spare time. He does not seem to have travelled extensively.

In the Calle Alcaron gallery, a visitor can see most of the artist’s life’s work, which divides itself across three broad periods, the representational, the abstract and the re-discovery of a changed realism. Zacarías González is largely unknown in international art circles, hardly known even in Spain and is a name that only aficionados in Salamanca would recognise. So why devote an article to him? The answer is simple. It’s the quality of the experience that deserves publicity and wider appreciation.

In his biographical note in the gallery’s excellent catalogue, Louis Javier Moreno observes that for many twentieth century artists, the life is the art. In the case of Zacarías González, however, he insists that this should be inverted so that for this artist, the art was his life. These are pictures that are intensely personal, enigmatic, intellectual, reflective, self-analytical, self-critical, refined, ascetic. They are also incredibly beautiful. At no point does this work try to shock, strive for noticeable individuality above communication, use overstatement to momentarily shock. Everything here simply communicates.

As an artist, Zacarías González seems to have visited several twentieth century styles in the same analytical way that an interested tourist might become familiar with a new place. He seems always to have been learning, but his powers of assimilation were considerable. He notices stylistic detail, contextualizes it within his own experience and then, rather than copy its dictates, he uses this assimilated language to communicate a personal world in visual form.

And so here, in three floors of this Casa-Museo set in a modest house, we are presented with recognisable associations of early Picasso, cubism, di Chirico-like surrealism, Tapies-like enigmatic abstraction, classical forms that might have been painted on the plaster of Pompei, Klee and Rouault and probably quite a lot more. But these are not copies. They are not imitations. They are personal works that inhabit a stylistic world and use the language of that world to share potential expression and thus, via that learned assimilated language, state something profoundly personal, and thus quite different from the still identifiable influence.

The gallery’s website can easily be found by enetering the name and location into a search engine and many of the works it houses may be viewed there. Personal highlights included Cerrada hasta octubre, Fuga, Fuego fatuo, Charra, La tunecina, El viaje del Dios, Viejo, viejo Mondrian, La suite de Nueva Orleans, and many more.

One of the joys of traveling in Spain is to share the oft-expressed pride in local heroes, be they artists, writers, musicians, architects, or whatever. From the famous, such as Dali in Figueres or Chillida in San Sebastian or Sorolla in Madrid (which, of course, was his residence, not his birthplace) to the less well-known internationally such as the Galician painters in Ourense and Pontevedra, those of the Almería school, or the Basque artists in Vittoria or Bilbao. Each town in each province seems to express a quiet, understated pride in local achievement and, crucially, devote resources to celebrate that achievement with always understated, but real pride. There may be queues of tourists in Figueres, but one often needs to seek out those galleries that display local work. One needs, for instance, to book an appointment to visit the Chillida. Also here in Salamanca, there’s an email link on the Casa-Museo website that allows a visit to be pre-arranged. One can’t just turn up to visit to the Casa-Museo Zacarías González. But do not be deterred. The appointment is easy to obtain, and the rewards are memorable.

The visitor to Salamanca will have the cathedrals, the University, the palaces and the stunningly beautiful old town on the list, not to mention the art nouveau gallery. But do not let the apparent obstacle of having to arrange a visit to this gallery deter you. Any visit to Salamanca by anyone with the slightest interest in art should include a trip to the Casa-Museo Zacarías González. You will not be disappointed.

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The Hispanic and Latino market is on fire, there is a lot of spendable income there and they love personal electronics, and they are good voters. This is changing the dynamics in the United States and the way we live. This is one incredible consumer market segment that no business can neglect. Perhaps, it is for that reason that I have a very good book I’d like to recommend to you. The name of the book is;

«The Latino Boom! – Everything You Need to Know to Grow Your Business in the US Hispanic Market,» by Chiqui Cartagena (female), published by Ballantine Books, New York, NY, 2005, (232 pp), ISBN: 0-345-48235-2.

This author knows exactly what she’s talking about and she grew up in Spain and runs a Hispanic media company. She tells us that in 2005 Hispanic families made $4000 more annually than African-Americans in the United States. Hispanic could be many different nationalities – Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Latin Americans, and people from Spain. The teens are urban trendsetters and by 2020 Hispanics will be 25% of the population in the United States and that is at the low end of the projection.

It is estimated that by 2012 the spendable income from Hispanic citizens will be well over $1 trillion. Although Hispanics also have the highest dropout rates, many of them also are self-employed or own businesses. In the United States Black Americans account for 36 million people or 13%, whereas Hispanic populations account for 41 million or 15%, and Hispanics are outpacing in population growth almost 2 to one presently. In Puerto Rico alone there are 3.8 million Hispanic folks.

The Hispanic voters were the decider in the 2004 elections. In the 1960s hundreds of thousands fled from Cuba and came to Miami. Miami is also home to Argentinians, Brazilians, and Venezuelans all considered Latino. They bring with them their culture, strong family values, and future buying power. 80% of the Hispanics in the US live in seven states; California, Texas, New York, Arizona, New Mexico, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois.

In 2008 they had an estimated $800 billion in buying power, and at that time only 4% of Hispanics who were over 50 years old made $50,000 per year, although that number is rapidly climbing. The average Cuban-American is 30 years old and they are one of the most industrious groups running many businesses in Florida. 30% of Hispanics are foreign born do not speak English very well and 10% of US-born Hispanics don’t speak English, although 30% are bilingual.

With larger families they lean towards collectivism and they believe in fate and God, very religious folks. They are spontaneous and are much more able to relax than a typical whitey American. Their spending on personal electronics is way up, and perhaps this accounts for the reason that Carlos Slim is now the richest person in the entire world and he is involved with cell phones and personal technologies. It is also known that in North Carolina Hispanic populations have quadrupled in the last decade – a story which will be repeated in many states in coming years.

This book is a complete eye opener for anyone who thinks they can neglect the Hispanic market in their business. Because nothing could be further from the truth – this is definitely the demographic and market segment that you need to watch in your business, and that’s why I highly recommend that you buy this book and get yourself educated on this topic. This is a game changer, it will change everything, and it’s time that you went with the flow to greater profits in your business.

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Back when I was 11, I used to think that, thanks to J.J.B. Sports, the only sports brands that existed were Adidas, Nike and Reebok. Not true. Andy Murray sports Fred Perry, the Welsh rugby team play in Under Armor and Portsmouth F.C. wear Canterbury kits. The truth is that this completely fictional, holy trinity of brands has now been superseded by a new generation of sports clothing.

For me this became apparent in 2005. I was on my way to a tennis match when on Radio 2 came a program about the rise of the word «chav». Described by Urban Dictionary as «fag in one hand, jewellery in the other», they wonder around housing estates in «imitation Adidas tracksuits». This is further complemented on television shows like Channel 4’s Shameless, and thanks to characters like Mickey Maguire the identity of the tracksuit being an an innocent staple of 1980’s football, the tracksuit has become, with the right person, responsible for crimes against others as well as fashion.

Today the blandest one-piece on the market, that was the Adidas trademark, has been replaced by apparel from brands like Canterbury, Under Armour and Kukri. Homoerotic super skin-tight base layers are the main culprit. Seemingly a size too small, many sportsman wear them to keep warm and in contact sports for «bosh-protection’. Stemmed from rugby league where it was used so opponents couldn’t grab on to shirts when making a tackle, base layers are becoming a «necessity» in all sports. No longer does your typical Premier League footballer embrace northern away trips to Newcastle on a winter night in just an away jersey.

European imports from Spain, Portugal, France, now must play in long sleeves, polar necks and base layers to keep warm. However some players just take it too far. In 2005 Ryan Giggs played in black tights to «protect his hamstrings» against Manchester City. This doesn’t help re-enforce that football is a man’s game but more of a «dress-up» by major brands on their own Barbie dolls, sorry, football players. However with this new generation of brands like Canterbury not having the arsenal, ahem, of clothing available to them some order has been restored.

Instead of the cliched university stereotype that if you have a Jack Will’s top, you have Canterbury tracky b’s, went to public school etc many others like footballers and hockey players alike are buying these clothes too. Whether rugby players like it or not.

By Joel Girling

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Good Luck for London 2012!

1896 The States was one of the first 13 countries to send an athletic delegation to the Summer Games – among the world’s most high-profile sporting events– on Greek soil. This year was a key moment for the global’s sport.

1896 In Athens, the United States of America became the leading sports country of the world after finishing first in unofficial team standings in the First Modern Olympiad. There, the 1896 U.S. Olympic squad earned a total of 20 medals: 11 gold, 7 silver, and 2 bronze. Meanwhile, Boston-born James B. Connolly was the first person to claim a gold medal in Olympic history after winning the triple jump in Athens’ Panathinaiko Stadium. Back home in Boston, Mr. Connolly was given a hero’s welcome. Since 1896 -without interruption– America has been renowned for producing international champs.

1896 Thomas Burke’s rise to prominence came in Athens when he was the first winner of the men’s 100m in Olympian history, making him the world’s fastest sprinter. Mr. Burke was identified with the emerging generation of American athletes in the late 1890s when he realized his dream of winning the Olympic gold.

1896 What hurdler was the first American athlete to win an Olympic title? Answer: Thomas Curtis, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student. He made a time of 17,6 seconds to win the gold in the men’s 110m hurdles in Greece.

1900 With 47 international medals (19 gold, 14 silver, and 14 bronze), the States once again became one of the world’s elite sports powers in the multi-sport event in Paris (France).

1900 Alvin Kraenzlein was in the spotlight as he, a born-athlete, led American team to win four golds in Paris: 60m, 110m hurdles, 200m hurdles, and long jump. To prepare himself to become an outstanding sportsman, the United States hurdler made his first overseas visit to the United Kingdom. Hailing from Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Kraenzlein was the American star in the Games of the Second Olympiad, followed by Ray Ewry (3 golds), Margaret Ives Abbot (first female in US history to capture an Olympian championship), and Irving Baxter (2 golds), among other high-profile athletes. On the other hand, Kraenzlein’s life has been an inspiration to several sports people in Wisconsin and the States.

1904 St. Louis (MO) was the site for the Games of the Third Olympiad. Unequivocally, the 1904 Olympics were in the focus of the attention of the world press.

1904 In the Olympic diving tournament in Missouri, the Americans swept the first three positions.

1904 Pittsburgh-born runner James Lightbody was the winner of the men’s 800m and 1,500m–He was the first male to win both these competitions at the same Olympics. Shortly afterward, he took a number of other major athletic titles, including the Intercalated Games in Greece.

1904 The host country’s team -made up of four stars: Herman T. Glass, Edward Hennig, Anton Heida, George Eyser- claimed first in the gymnastics tournament at the III Olympiad in St. Louis (MO).

1908 At the IV Summer Olympics in London (England), the US Olympic team was ranked second in the medal count -23 golds, 12 silvers, 12 bronzes-behind only Britain.

1908 With three wins (800m, 1500m and medley relay), New Jersey’s runner Mel Sheppard had an exceptional year in the Briton capital of London.

1912 Oklahoma-born Jim Thorpe won both the decathlon and pentathlon in the Summer Games at Stockholm, Sweden. Decades later, many sportswriters and sports experts selected Thorpe as both «the greatest football player and male athlete of the first half of the 20th Century».

1912 With three gold medals in the shooting tournament, New York City-born Alfred Lane became America’s most successful athlete at the V Summer Olympics on Scandinavian soil.

1912 Two future personalities competed in the Games in Sweden: Firstly, Avery Brundage in pentathlon-elected President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); the first U.S. sports leader to occupy the post. Secondly, George S. Patton, General during World War II.

1920 At the Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp (Belgium), the States became undisputed champion when it was first in the medal standings with 95 medals. The U.S. team had more than 40 Summer Olympic Games Champions.

1920 In Belgium, Duke Kahanamoku earned the men’s 100m freestyle for the second time in a row. For the past four years, Hawaii’s sporting icon became the first islander to conquer the coveted title (Stockholm Games) and was a national-class swimmer in the States. Prior to 1916, the untapped athlete moved between his home, Hawaii, and frequent swimming events in the continental United States, where his only goal was to train to become the world’s fastest swimmer. There, he gained the national trials, capturing tickets for the Summer Olympics. As well as being one of the most outstanding swimmers on Earth since 1912, Duke Kahanamoku reintroduced the sport of surfing to the western world- he turned it into a great national passion in the continental U.S. Like Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and the performer Don Ho, his immense personal popularity added to Hawaii’s international fame.

1924 In the Olympics in Paris, France, America’s strong squad was first in the medal count with 99 – 67 medals more than Finland (second in the Games).

1924 The US water polo team took third place in the international competition, becoming the first American squad to be medalist in the Olympiad.

1924 After gaining four golds, America’s sportsmen became champion in the free-style wrestling tournament in the Games of the VIII Olympiad in Paris. The winners were Robin Read, Russel Vis, John Spellman, and Harry Steele.

1924 The United States swimmer Albert White quickly established himself as the «undisputed champ» in the Olympian Diving Tournament in France, winning golds in both springboard and platform diving.

1928 During the IX Olympiad in the Netherlands, the States was the leading nation in the medal count, earning 22 global titles -12 more than Germany.

1928 Pennsylvania’s Olympic ambassador Johnny Weissmuller won the 100m freestyle for the second time in a row in Amsterdam (Holland/Netherlands). He was one of the top favorites to win the title. Over a sporting career that spanned more than 10 years, he obtained 52 national championships and five Olympian golds. Likewise, he set 67 world records in the States and Western Europe. After stepping down as swimmer, he became a top movie star in Hollywood and co-starred with such prominent actresses as Brenda Joyce and Maureen O’Sullivan.

1928 Elizabeth Robinson had the distinction of being the first female to win the 100m (track & field) in the IX Summer Olympics.

1932 The Games of the X Olympiad were held in Los Angeles (CA)-for the second time in the history of the United States (St. Louis, 1904).

1932 World-class athletes led the US delegation to win the Los Angeles Games: 103 medals! -well ahead of Italy (36). Among Summer Olympic stars: Jesse Owens (track and field), Jim Bausch (decathlon, athletics), Edward Flynn (boxing), Michael Galitzen (diving)…

1932 The home country took third place in the Water Polo Championship, earning a bronze. The local team gained that distinction by beating Japan and Brazil.

1932 America’s Olympian decathlon champion Jim Bausch obtained the James R. Sullivan Memorial Trophy as the top Olympic athlete. Few were surprised when he received that award.

1936 Despite a troubled relationship with the Germany of Adolf Hitler, Washington dispatched a national contingent to Berlin, home to the XI Games.

1936 Alabama-born Jesse Owens captured America’s attention by earning four world titles in Berlin— 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay, as well as the long jump. As a result of this, the United States sprinter was one of the globe’s most high-profile athletes in the 20th Century. This man is of great historical significance for America. Why? His big performance came at a time when there were fewer black athletes in the global sports arena, breaking down the barriers of prejudices, and occurred with the political backdrop of Germany’s Nazi regime. During Owens’ days as sprinter and long jumper, he became a symbol of the struggle against racism.

1936 The U.S. men’s soccer squad did not qualify for the second round after being eliminated by Italy-the world’s top-ranked team — but they finished 10th in the Olympic tournament, ahead of Taiwan, Egypt, Hungary, Turkey, Finland, and Luxembourg.

1936 The United States -a basketball-mad nation– placed first in the Inaugural men’s basketball championship in Germany, a feat they repeated from 1948 and ’68. The U.S delegation captured the universal trophy by beating Mexico (25-10) in the semis and then Canada (19-8) in the gold-medal match. On their way to win the event, the North American nation also defeated Estonia (52-28) in the second round and Philippines (56-23) in the quarter-finals.

1936 Glenn Morris, a native of Simla (Colorado), made headlines around the world when he obtained the James R. Sullivan Memorial Trophy as the top Olympic athlete in the States.

1940-1944 The Games were cancelled due to World War II.

1948 The United States received 23 golds in the Games of the 14th Olympiad in London, Great Britain, winning the unofficial team championship. In the meantime, in New York City, America’s win set off a wave of explosive emotion as it was announced on nationwide radio.

1948 In the United Kingdom, the young American Bob Mathias, who hails from Tulare (California), began to make a name for himself in track and field when he finished first in the decathlon with 7,139 points.

1948 The US basketball team claimed first place in the London 1948 Olympic basketball tournament, earning the title and allowing they to compete in the next Olympics in Scandinavia.

1948 Surprisingly Porter William led a United States sweep in the men’s 110-meter hurdles.

1948 Unbeaten in the decathlon, Robert Mathias –invariably known to his friends as «Bob»— earned the James E. Sullivan Memorial Trophy. He gained a gold medal the XIV Olympiad and those of the XV Olympiad in 1952.

1952 At the Helsinki Games, the United States delegation took first place in team standing by winning 40 global titles.

1952 With four trophies, America’s sportsmen finished first in the weightlifting competition in the 15th Summer Games in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, defeating the Soviet Union in the medal count.

1952 Pennsylvania’s runner Horace Ashenfelter was the first American runner to gain a gold medal in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase in Finland.

1952 The States captured a gold in basketball in the XV Olympics, giving the US squad access to compete in the upcoming men’s Olympic Games basketball championship in Australia in the mid-1950s.

1952 Upon winning an Olympic trophy in the men’s javelin throw in Scandinavia, Cy Young was the first person in America’s sporting history to receive that honor.

1955 Looking ahead to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the US Olympic Committee sent an important delegation (spearheaded by its top athlete Patricia McCormick) to Pan American Games in the Mexican metropolis—Among whom were the future Olympic winners: Rafer Johnson (decathlon), Parry O’Brien (shot put), Mildred McDaniel (women’s high jump), Huelet Benner (shooting), and Charles Vince (weightlifting).

1956 Norma Armitage, a fencer, was the flag-bearer for America’s fourteenth Olympian delegation at the 16th Olympiad at Melbourne, (Australia).

1956 The United States team took first place in the basketball tournament at the Melbourne Olympics following its impressive string of triumphs in the 1954 World Championships and 1955 Pan American Sports Games.

1956 Patricia McCormick gained two global titles (her fourth Olympian gold) in the diving championship at the Australia Summer Games, becoming a regional hero. Previously to her wins in Oceania, she had collected two golds in the Helsinki Olympiad and three women’s Pan American titles in 1951 and 1955. Hailing from Seal Beach (California), she was one of the most respect female divers in the world sports community in the 1950s.

1959 Santa Monica-born Parry O’Brien –who lived his dream of becoming an Olympic champ in 1952 and 1956 — earned the Sullivan award as the country’s top amateur athlete.

1960 In the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Italy’s capital, Rome, Wilma Rudolph was known worldwide by her triumphs in athletics — 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay.

1960 The national team won the men’s basketball tournament in Rome after losing to Brazil in the gold-medal match at the 1959 World Championship.

1960 Louisville-born Cassius Marcellus Clay Junior gained the gold medal in the Games of the Olympiad in Rome-This boxer was a fierce athlete (both amateur and professional) in every arena he competed, giving an extraordinary example for America’s sportsmen and women. In the wake of his victory on Italian soil, he turned pro at the age of 18. Afterwards, by the 70s, he was regarded as the greatest boxer of all time by many international sportswriters. He converted to Islam, changing his name to Muhammad Ali in the mid-1960s.

1964 At the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, the US contingent captured 90 medals – 36 gold, 26 silver, 28 bronze– winning the first place in the unofficial team championships.

1964 The non-favorite runner Bob Schul came in first in the men’s 5,000m (track and field) in Japan, being the first American to do so since it was included as one of the official sports in the First Olympic Games in 1896.

1964 At the Tokyo Games, Billy Mills was the first person in America’s sporting history to take a gold medal in the 10,000meters since 1908 when men’s 10,000m became a medal sport.

1964 The men’s basketball team defeated the USSR/Soviet Union for their sixth straight Olympic Cup (1936-1964) after failed to make the top three in the men’s basketball World Championship in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

1968 America’s sports system produced several Olympic champions and future new stars in the XIX Mexico City Games, defeating the USSR in the medal count. The States won 45 golds.

1968 New York’s Bob Beamon set a long jump world of 29 feet 2 ½ inches, earning the Olympic title in the Mexican metropolis—which stood until 1991.

1968 Despite being considered a strong contender to earn golds in men’s swimming, Mark Spitz only won two Olympic titles in the United Mexican States, but that was a prelude to his «big win» in the next Olympiad in West Germany.

1968 The U.S men’s basketball side, among the globe’s most high-profile sports teams, obtained the gold for the seventh time in a row during the Mexican Games.

1968 America’s discus thrower Al Oerter made Olympic history to win his fourth consecutive gold (from Melbourne 56 to Mexico 68).

1972 World-class swimmer Mark Spitz made international headlines in the Munich Olympics after winning seven golds: 100m frestyle, defeating 47 competitors from 29 countries and territories; 200m freestyle, with a victory over his fellow athlete Steve Genter; 100m butterfly, first among 39 swimmers from 29 nations; 200m butterfly, finished first over his countryman Gary Hall; 4x100m freestyle, alongside David Edgar, John Murphy & Jerry Heidenreich; 4x200m freestyle, with his fellow Americans John Kinsella, Frederick Tyler, and Steve Genter; 4×100 medley, with Mike Stam, Bruce Tom, and Heidenreich. On the other hand, America’s coach James Counsilman was the «hand behind» the victory of his compatriot Spitz.

1972 While America’s elite swimmer Mark Spitz made Olympic history in the Summer Olympics at West Germany’s city of Munich, the basketball national team failed to earn the Olympian championship for the first time, after losing to the Soviet Union, led by its star and future famer Sergei Belov. Since 1936, the US squad went undefeated to win the Olympian championship.

1972 Olga Connolly –a gold medalist Olympic athlete for Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic since 1993) in 1956- was named as the flag bearer of the US Olympic delegation at the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympics at Munich, West Germany.

1972 Finishing ahead of the world’s top four runners — among these were Ethiopia’s Mamo Wolde and Japan’s Kenji Kimihara– Frank Shorter, a gold medal-winning marathoner at the VI Pan American Games in 1971, stunned West Germany by becoming the first American to gain the marathon since John H. Hayes in 1908.

1976 The women’s basketball squad of America earned the Pre-Olympic Cup in the Canadian city of Hamilton, qualifying for the Games of the Olympiad in Montreal. In Canada, that winning team defeated such teams as Cuba (89-73), Mexico (80-57), France (79-59), Poland (84-66), and Bulgaria (76-75).

1976 With Darrell Pace and Luann Ryon, the States finished first in the archery competition in the XXI Summer Olympics at Montreal, Canada.

1976 Surprisingly, with a world record of 49,99 seconds, Jim Montgomery captured the men’s 1oom in the Olympic Swimming Tournament. He achieved his greatest success at Montreal after gaining a bronze medal in the 100m at the II FINA World Championships in Cali, Colombia (South America), in July 1975.

1976 America’s charismatic athlete Bruce Jenner defeated West Germany’s Guido Kratschmer and Nikolai Avilov from the Soviet Union -winner at Munich’72– to earn the decathlon with 8.618 points. During his brief stayed in Montreal, he was regarded as one of the «most popular athletes» by sportswriters and Canadian fans. Upon his win, he became the face of the Summer Olympics during the 1970s.

1976 Women’s basketball debuted in the Olympiad with the US squad gaining a silver medal.

1979 As a warm-up to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, America’s sportsmen and women competed at the VII Soviet Spartakiad,between July 21 and August 5, 1979, in the Russian capital of Moscow–the world’s largest multi-sport event in the 70s.

1980 The world of sport was mourning the death of Jesse Owens-who had hundreds of fans outside the United States.

1980 After capturing the FIBA Seoul World Championship and the William Jones Cup on Taiwan, the women’s basketball side obtained a spot at the Moscow Olympics following a historic win over the host nation 76-75 in the World Olympic Qualification at Varna, Bulgaria.

1980 The men’s soccer squad made an unexpected returned to the Olympic scene when they qualified for the Moscow, but the American could not go the USSR.

1980 At the request of President Jimmy Carter,the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to boycott the Moscow Games after a votation, becoming a project against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and then followed by 60 other governments and anti-Soviet rulers –as Albania’s Maoist chairman Enver Hoxha– around the globe. It was a major blow to America’s Olympian sport.

1980 Ahead of the Moscow Games, the American team were planning to spend many days training in West Germany.

1983 With the leadership of the future Hall of Fame player Michael Jordan, the American basketball team claimed first in the IX Pan American Sports Games at Venezuela, the most important pre-Olympic event in the Western Hemisphere.

1983 In preparing for its upcoming event -Los Angeles ’84, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent five future Olympian champs to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas to compete in the Pan American Boxing Tournament. They were Henry Tillman (heavyweight), Jerry Page (lt.welterweight), Pernell Whitaker (lightweight), Steve McCrory (flyweight), and Paul Gonzalez (super heavyweight).

1984 The Kremlin and its satellites in the developing world – the likes of Laos and the backed-Soviet Angola– and Eastern Europe decided not to participate in the Los Angeles Games. Similarly, four anti-American states, Albania, Burkina Faso, Libya and the Islamic republic of Iran, declined to send athletes to these Olympics. By contrast, Guinea, Guyana, Madagascar, Nicaragua, Romania, Seychelles, and Yugoslavia –states with difficult ties to Washington-competed at Los Angeles’84.

1984 Los Angeles (CA) was transformed into an «Olympic paradise» with the famous Olympic Stadium as backdrop. The largest city of America’s western coast, hosted the Summer Games for the second time, regarded as one of the greatest multi-sport events in Olympian history despite an international boycott.

1984 Guyanese-born Innis Jennifer became the first naturalized American to compete in the women’s long jump in the Olympics. As a United States athlete, she was runner-up in the Pan American Games at Indianapolis in late 1987. While competing for Guyana -an Anglophone republic on the South American continent– she placed 13th in the 1980 Olympiad. Jennifer’s athletic career dates from the time when she went abroad to compete in the 1979 Pan American Games.

1984 Edwin Moses came in first in the men’s 400m hurdles, capturing its second Olympian title. Curiously, he won all his races between 1977 and 1987.

1984 In California, the American track-and-field athlete Valerie Brisco-Hooks defeated the up-and-coming Florence Griffith Joyner to win the 200 meters. Brisco-Hooks also was the winner of the women’s 400m-she was the first sportswoman to earn both these competitions at the same Olympic Games.

1984 The 1984 U.S. Olympic team came close to winning the water polo gold after losing to Yugoslavia -an ex champion in 1968– in the finals.

1984 After being runner-up in the 1976 Montreal tournament, the US women’s team gained the III basketball championship in the Los Angeles Olympiad, securing a berth in the 1988 Olympiad in South Korea. The North American squad was one of the world’s most high-profile teams, attending every Olympic event from 1984 onwards.

1984 At Los Angeles, Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal in women’s gymnastics, becoming the first US women to do so. Aside from that, she won five 1984 Olympic medals.

1984 Surprisingly, Joan Benoit was the first person to gain the inaugural women’s marathon at Los Angeles by defeating Grete Waitz of Norway and Rosa Mota of Portugal (both world-class runners).

1984 America’s handball players participated in women’s tournament– It was the first appearance for the US side on the Olympic stage.

1988 At the United States Olympic Track and Field Trials at Indianapolis, California’s sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, under Bobby Kersee’s watchful eye, lowered the previous world record of 10,76 seconds (established by her fellow team-mate Evelyn Ashford) in the 100m four times -a 10.60, 10.49, 10.71, and 10.61.

1988 Surprisingly, the men’s basketball team of America –often the favorites to obtain the competition-earned a bronze medal. In the last global tournament in Spain, by 1986, the national team placed first by defeating the Soviet Union.

1988 Astonishingly, America’s top swimmer Matt Biondi lost to Suriname’s Anthony Conrad Nesty in the men’s 100m butterfly.

1988 After finishing second in the women’s 200m in the Games of the 23rd Olympiad on US soil in 1984, Griffith Joyner became the globe’s fastest woman when she obtained three golds in the Seoul Games:100m, 200m and 400-meter relay. She added a silver medal in the 1,600-meter relay. But that wasn’t all. On September 29, 1988, she broke the world record twice in the women’s 200m — 21.56s (semi-finals) and 21.34s (finals). At the medalist’s press conference following his victory in South Korea, she said: «When you’ve been second-best for so long, you can either accept it, or try to become the best. I made the decision to try and be the best in 1988». As well as being named as the «sportswoman of the year» by sportswriters, sports comentators, and other experts in Western Europe and the States, she was praised in the Communist-controlled newspapers in the Soviet Union. By the end of the year, she obtained the 1988 Sullivan Award.

1992 John Smith, Kevin Jackson, and Bruce Baumgartner were the first American wrestlers to capture golds in non boycotted Olympic events since 1972.

1992 The so-called «Dream Team» made its long-awaited international debut in the Games of the 25th Olympiad in the Spaniard city of Barcelona, after beating Angola (African champion) 116-48. Later on, the team became Olympic champion. The US delegation included the NBA stars Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, Larry Bird, and the young-up-and-coming player Christian Laettner. From the beginning, the American side was the «big favorite» by the media in Spain. Four years earlier, the 1988 U.S. Olympic squad-made up of American collegians– claimed third in the Olympiad -its worst result since 1972-previously they had a bad year in the pre-Olympic year of 1987 when the North American team losing to Brazil in the gold-medal match during the X Pan American Games in Indianapolis (IN). At the time, under Soviet/East German pressure (during Cold War, exactly), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to accept professionals in the multi-sport events. Nonetheless, by 1989, the IOC ruled that professional athletes were eligible to participate in the Summer Olympics (1992-).

1992 The 19-year-old boxer Oscar de la Hoya, nicknamed «Golden Boy», gained the Olympian lightweight boxing title, upon a win over Marco Rudolph (Germany) in the finals–America’s only boxing gold in the 25th Olympiad,

1992 Evelyn Ashford qualified for the Olympics for the fifth time (from Montreal’76 to Barcelona’92).

1992 After not even qualifying for the 1988 South Korea Games, New Mexico-born Trent Dimas was the first American gymnast to become an Olympian champ during the Post-Cold War era.

1996 Kentucky-born Muhammad Ali-the Greatest– lit the cauldron for the Centennial Games in Atlanta, giving one of the more memorable moments in the Summer Games.

1996 After capturing the gold in the men’s long jump by defeating James Beckford of Jamaica, Carl Lewis, whose career spanned three decades, earned his ninth Olympic gold medal. Due to these trophies, he was considered one of the 20th Century’s greatest athletes. He began to represent the States in the international meets in July 1979 as he attend the VIII Pan American Games on Puerto Rico in July 1979-at the time Carl Lewis was an pre-Olympic hopeful.

1996 The men’s soccer team competed in the Games after being absent for two editions -Seoul’88 & Barcelona’92.Nonetheless, they placed ninth — the nation’s best result!

1996 The U.S women’s soccer team, one of the most popular squads on the North American continent, won the Olympic Cup at the Atlanta Games, the first time women’s soccer was included in the Summer Olympics. As host nation and medalist in the last global championship in Scandinavia, the U.S. team was the heavy favorite to gain the Olympic contest, well ahead of Norway’s side (the current world champ). Meanwhile, the backbone of America’s undefeated 1996 championship squad, Mia Hamm was the most outstanding player.

2000 Rulon Gardner defeated three-time Olympic champ Aleksadr Karelin of Russia -known during Cold War’s time as the Soviet Union/USSR — to win the Greco-Roman super heavy-weight final; Karelin had never lost an international championship. Gardner is widely regarded as the most remarkable wrestler in history of the US Olympic wrestling team.

2000 Baseball history was made in the Summer Games when the US side received the gold by defeating Cuba.

2000 The US women’s team finished first in the Sydney Olympic softball tournament, earning the gold. In the finals, they defeated Japan in extra innings, 2-1.

2004 The US took first place at the 2004 Athens, capturing 103 medals (35 gold, 39 silver, 27 bronze).

2004 Astonishingly, America’s basketball players won the bronze medal in the men’s Olympic championship, behind Argentina (gold) and Italy (silver). In Athens, the national squad was considered a strong contender to earn the event.

2004 Steven Lopez, whose parents are from Nicaragua (Central America), won a gold medal in taekwondo for the second time in a row. With two golds between 2000 (lightweight) and 2004 (middleweight category), he is the greatest American taekwondo fighter of all time.

2008 America’s soccer players obtained their Olympic ticket for men’s tournament in Beijing 2008.

2008 President George W. Bush made a special trip to the People’s Republic of China to attend the Summer Games.

2008 With special pride, Lopez Lomong –a former refugee during Sudan’s civil war 1983-2005– accepted to carry the American flag in the four-and-a-half-hour-long opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Beijing’s National Stadium.

2008 After many disappointing years in which the States repeatedly lost the big events – 2004 Olympiad, 2006 FIBA World Cup (third ), 2007 Pan American Games (5th place), the national team won the basketball tournament.

2008 Maryland-born swimmer Michael Phelps shocked the world by winning eight Olympics golds in Beijing, China’s capital. This sports star — whose supporters number among them President George W. Bush– won the 200m individual medley, the 400m individual m, the 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, the 4x100m freestyle relay, the 4x200m freestyle relay, and the 4x100m medley relay–breaking the 36 -year-old record of Mark Spitz. His victory in the Asian country was the subject of considerable media attention and was the most recognize face on the planet in 2008. The United States athlete is the most decorated sportsman in Olympian history.

2012 America’s modern democracy and political-economic system has produced a host of top-class athletes since 1896 (not as a political propaganda as occurred in the former Soviet Bloc): Alvin Kraenzlein (1900), Mark Spitz (1972), Mary Lou Retton (1984), and Greg Louganis (1984-1988), among other high-profile sports figures. Unlike many countries around the world, its sportsmen and women are lionized by their compatriots. In fact, they are Goodwill Ambassadors. At London 2012, the States might send 580 athletes, having strong chances in several sports as athletics, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. In the last FINA World Aquatics Championships at Shangai, China, for example, the US delegation captured 17 golds with sports stars like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Soni, Jessica Hardy and Missy Franklin. Meanwhile, in the 2011 Athletics Global tournament, there were 12 winners from America.

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10. Luis Figo, a world famous football star, who played for FC Barcelona from 1995 till 2000. He was arguably the fans’ most favorite player in FC Barcelona, until 2000. That’s when «it» happened, Barcelona’s biggest rivals, Real Madrid, decided to splash the cash and break the transfer list fees record by getting Luis to Real Madrid.

The move caused outrage among Barcelona fans, Madrid got him for a world record fee of 38 Million Pounds. And that’s when the fun begins, during the match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, when Luis Figo stepped up to take the corner kick, a pig’s head was thrown at him from Barcelona’s side. Another incident took place during the 2004 EURO Cup Final between Greece and Portugal. A Portuguese fan ran out on the field, managed to outrun the police, and heading towards Luis threw a Barcelona jersey at him, as the whole world was watching.

9. 1996 – African Challenge.

1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, The most surprising gold medals went to the hands of Nigerian football stars after they overcame Brazil in thrilling semi-finals, with a 4-3 score. The finals was between Argentina and Nigeria, well over 2 billion people were watching it, of course most of them thought that Argentina will have no problems getting the gold medal, but most of them were wrong. Argentina was in the driver’s seat after leading 1-0. The goal came on a 3rd minute, scored by Claudio Lopez, on the 28th minute Nigeria managed to equalize, as Babayaro scored a perfect finisher. So it was 1-1 on half-time. In the early second half Hernan Crespo gave Argentina the lead again and Argentina was on the way to get the gold medals, but «not so fast» said Amokachi as he scored the equalizing goal and again gave Nigeria hope. Match was almost over and everybody thought it was going to be decided by the penalty shoot out. 90th minute and Amunike gave the lead to Nigeria, it was a shock for Argentina, time was almost over, Argentina had no chance, so it ended with a final score 3-2. Nigeria won the gold medal, for the first time in Olympic Games history.

8. 1960, First ever UEFA European Football Championship (EURO) held in France. It was won by the USSR, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 in a tense final in Paris. It is however quite interesting to note that earlier in the competition Spain had withdrawn from its quarterfinal match against the USSR due to political reasons. As an interesting fact, USSR also scored the first goal in the EURO history, during the qualification games.

7. 1998/1999 English Premier League season, Manchester United got all trophies possible that season. They became the first ever team in football history to do so in one season. First they got the Premier League title, finishing first in the league table, then they took the F.A. Cup title by beating Newcastle United 2-0, and of course the most famous UEFA Champions League final, when United managed to come back from a 1-0 defeat, and score not one but two goals in an injury time beating Bayern Munich 2-1; it was considered to be one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed.

6. 2002 World Cup, Korea/Japan. Korean fans will never forget that historic moment, when Guus Hiddink took them all the way to the Semi-Finals of 2002 World Cup. Korean national football team became the first ever Asian national football team to reach semi-finals of World Cup. Nobody expected the underdogs to go that far, as they beat Portugal 1-0 in a group stages, then a famous 2-1 win over Italy, drawing with Spain in a quarter-finals and then beating them 5-3 on penalties. In the end however they couldn’t take on Germany in semi-finals, and they lost 1-0. In the game for the third place Korean team met Turkey, but again they lost. Eventually the Republic of Korea finished 4th in the 2002 World Cup, which was still a great success for the country’s football team.

5. June 2003, Chelsea FC was bought by the Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich for a record fee of 140 million pounds. Back then it was the biggest sale of an English Football club. Straight away Roman wanted to make Chelsea the best and strongest club in the world. He began buying players for a record braking transfer fees. First season with a new owner Chelsea FC finished as a runner-up. But next year, the 2004/2005 English premier league season, Chelsea became champions of England, for the first time since 1954/1955 season. 2005/2006 Season they took the premier league trophy again as they were crowned the champions of England for the second time in a row. These 2 seasons were the most successful 2 years in the club’s history.

4. January 11th 2007. It was confirmed that David Beckham will be leaving Real Madrid to play for the United States «soccer» club, Los Angeles Galaxy. Beckham’s decision was a shock to many, as one of the world’s best football players moves to United States of America, where «soccer» is not that popular. He was the first big player to enter Major League Soccer.

3. 6th February 1958, the Munich air disaster. It was the darkest day in Manchester United Football Club history. On the board of the plane was Manchester United football team along with the club supporters and journalists. 23 of the 44 passengers on board died. Captain James Thain, the pilot tried to take off twice, but both attempts were aborted due to engine surging. When a third take off was attempted, the plane failed to gain adequate height and crashed into the fence surrounding the airport and then into a house. Now every year on this day Manchester United holds a memorial to the people who lost their lives in the Munich air disaster.

2. 2006 World Cup Final produced one of the most famous moments in football history, when Zidane’s head-butted on Italian defender Marco Materazzi. It was Zidane’s last international appearance for the French national team and 3 billion people around the world were watching it. The next day newspapers all over the world were not writing about how Italy won their 4th World Cup title, but they were writing about how Zidane pulled the «stunt» on Marco. Definitely that was one of the biggest moments in the history of football.

1. Edison Arantes do Nascimento, aka Pele, the world’s most famous name in football. Football is probably the most famous sport in the world, and Pele is the man who made it what it is today. Pele made 669 appearances in club football, scoring 626 goals. He also made 92 appearances for Brazilian National football side and scored 77 goals. He made his first club appearance when he was just 15 years of age. He made his first international appearance for Brazil when he was 16, and won his first World Cup when he was just 17. Pele is hailed in Brazil as a national hero. The number one moment in football history is when Pele managed to score his first international goal for Brazil, just three month before his 17th birthday.

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Alexander Hleb is, of course, well-known amongst UK football followers because of his time at Arsenal, during which time Sky pundit Andy Gray described him as one of the Premier league’s ‘most skillful players’. Born in Minsk in Belarus in 1981, Hleb, whose brother is also an international footballer, initially made his name in the Bundesliga with FC Stuttgart, whom he joined from his first club, FC Bate Borisov, at the age of nineteen, with whom he had just won the Belarus national league. Arsenal were signing a player who had already made 172 first team appearances for Stuttgart, scoring 19 goals in total.

By the time Hleb joined Arsenal in 2005 he had already been voted Belarusian player of the year three times – he has added two more awards since then – and he became respected at Arsenal because of his versatility, energy and ability to fit into the team’s smooth passing style of play. In his first season in North London, Hleb started 40 league games and scored 3 goals – figures that he repeated the following season.

It was during season 2007/08 that rumours started to link Hleb with a move to Barcelona; stories that gathered momentum after a particularly impressive performance against AC Milan in the Champions’ League. The ‘will he, won’t he’ saga kept the press occupied until July when the player signed for Barca in a deal reported to be worth about £11.8 million. During his time at Arsenal, Hleb made a total of 130 appearances, scoring 11 goals.

Alexander Hleb hardly made the most promising start to his career with his new club – picking up a series of injuries during pre-season which disrupted his progress considerably. Towards the end of the year, however, he was beginning to become a regular in the squad and to show signs of being able to integrate with the nimble, quick passing midfielders already at the club.

Internationally, Hleb made his debut appearance as a substitute in a defeat against Wales in 2001. His full debut followed, along with his first international goal, against Hungary the following April and he has been a regular in the team since then – captaining the side since August, 2007.

It is easy to see why Barcelona signed Alexander Hleb; he fits into their mould of being skillful, adaptable and pacy – with the ability to chip in with the occasional goal and, overall, an acute positional sense and an awareness of the runs of forward players. He should make a valuable addition to the squad – and his wife certainly should make an impact on the local media; in August, 2008 Alexander married Anastasia, a Topless singer. To be precise, Anastasia Kosenkova was a member of the Belarusian girl band, Topless.

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The Ballon d’Or is an award awarded by UEFA and France Football magazine while «The Best» is awarded by FIFA, the ethically-challenged arbiter of the world’s most popular sport. Although prestigious as it is degenerate, both awards are nothing more than tangible compliments paid by the writers and experts (confederations administrators, coaches, football team captains, fans etc.) whose opinions and votes were canvassed. Presently, both awards have become an egotistical first past the post as nobody embodies the toxic and political nature of both awards than the recipients of the past decade. The comparisons of football players across and within football leagues (for these awards) is a time-honed guilty pleasure for fans. Like most sports awards, fans will always root for their favorites – but unlike many others, it’s hard to make a statistical case that one player is more valuable than another. The point is, teams are like machines. One part, no matter how important, cannot function properly without the other. That makes the award merely a measure of prolific goal-scoring but as any manager will tell you, that is probably not enough to carry a successful football team. Comparisons among football players are essentially what makes trading cards, sticker albums and fantasy soccer so popular but there should be no place for it in an official capacity. And how can we improve on what we have at present? The basic truth is we can’t, unless the awards are discontinued due to the following reasons:

Football is a Team Sport: Debate on individual footballers among football fans is fun but in a team sport with so many leagues, such individuality is impossible to measure precisely. Football (as we all know) is a team sport where eleven men from two separate squad of players compete against each other for a trophy or in modern times, to get a paycheck at the end of it all. Every football team requires world-class (supremely talented) goal-keepers, defenders, midfielders and attackers to excel and win domestic [EPL, Serie A etc.], continental [CAF, UEFA Champions League] and inter-continental [FIFA Club World Cup] trophies. No player or position is dispensable or greater than the other as they must all work in unison to achieve a common goal. Most great attackers of today (and yesteryears) would probably make terrible defenders and goalkeepers and most great defenders and goalies might be terrible attackers and midfielders in the game. It feels wrong to constantly elevate a particular set of football players over their teammates because of their position on the field of play. Football games are worn ‘Firstly’, by goals scored by a team’s strikers, midfielders, defenders and ‘Secondly’, by (potential) opposition goals stopped by that same team’s defenders and goal-keeper. No player truly wins a game single handedly except he plays all positions simultaneously – being at his penalty box defending and punching away the opposition’s shots on goal and at the same time running of to score all kinds of goals in the opposition penalty area. Most FIFA and UEFA individual awardees perform brilliantly when their team’s passing and playing style suit them thus giving them freedom like no other side would. Most managers strive to fit 11 players into the best team rather than having to fit the best 11 players into a team. There is a reason why reputable managers around the world like Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho have categorically despised and blasted such individual awards in a team based sport.

Biased towards Attackers: Winners of FIFA and UEFA awards (presently and in the past) are (nearly) always players who play close to the opposition goal – such as strikers and attacking midfielders – enabling them to score hatful of goals while putting faith in their teammates (defenders and goalkeeper) to prevent the opposing team from scoring and winning the game. In football, it is widely known and accepted that attack win games but defense win titles and trophies. Very few defenders and goalkeepers are recognized for their output on the field of play and the dirty work they do (so that their attacking teammates in the opposition goal can get the ball to score.) It is quite disheartening that attackers are paid way better than defenders and goalkeepers. Goalkeepers are usually the least paid in a football team, even with the alarming level of scrutiny aimed at them, which begs the question why anyone would choose to be a goalkeeper. No one has really found a way to compare the value of goal keepers to outfield players – much to the detriment of goalies. Should a goal stopped by a goalkeeper be treated as equally to a goal scored by a striker? How much should quality defenders influence our judgement of a keeper – and how much should quality midfielders influence our judgement of a forward? There can be no denying the fact that some players do improve the overall quality and effectiveness of certain teams, but even in that case, such extraordinary players wouldn’t be able to win anything for their respective teams if, for example, the goal keeper spills every shot fired at him by the opposition. The beauty of modern football is such that every player (bar the goalkeeper) is minimally required to score goals anytime, anyhow and whenever it pleases him or (to some extent) his coach, which makes the fact that individual awards given only to offensive players does a lot of disservice to their teammates and the sport.

No specific Criteria in given out the Awards: There are no specific criteria in given out individual awards to players by UEFA and FIFA in football competitions played. Most fans, and administrators do not know which competitions – the national league (EPL, La Liga, Serie A) the continental leagues (UEFA Champions League – since all FIFA individual awardees are based in Europe) or international tournament (The FIFA World Cup) – players’ performances in are given top priority when nominees for the FIFA and UEFA individual awards are compiled. Although most nominees and awardees of such awards play for football teams that are either champions in their domestic leagues or champions in the UEFA Champions League or champions in the World Cup (in a world cup year) with their countries, some winners of such awards play for club-sides and countries that were not champions in domestic, continental and international tournaments. Lionel Messi won the Ballon d’Or in 2010/2011 (because he scored 91 goals in a year) without winning Spain’s La Liga or Champions League with Barcelona or the World Cup with Argentina beating other deserving players who won at least one of the aforementioned competitions.

Breeds Individualistic and Selfish Footballers: In pursuit of individual awards from FIFA, some players forego team work and effort, preferring to go solo on the field of play – to show off (as fans would say) – to the detriment of the squad. Such players do not care if the team is winning or losing a game as long as they are scoring goals, boosting their goal tallies and being in contention for awards by shooting for goal instead of passing the ball to a better positioned teammate, taking every set-piece – free kicks, penalties, corner kicks – awarded in a game even when they have poor records taking such set-piece. This creates instances where a player wins The Ballon d’Or or The Best Player of the Year Awards because he has the highest number of goals in the football season in addition to 5 or 6 man-of-the-match performances and a few awesome highlight reels of the season while his team ends that season trophy-less and second-best in competition finals.

In conclusion, if there must be individual awards (for whatever bizarre reason) then they should be based on objective criteria such as number of goals scored (best striker), number of saves (best goal-keeper) or number of tackles made (best defender) etc. Even that wouldn’t make much sense because, again, scoring a goal is about team effort. No one player can score a goal without the help of his teammates. And Yes, even the solo goals require team efforts. Therefore, it becomes unfathomable as to why football’s governing body, FIFA would hand out these awards which are destructive to the very nature of the sport it is supposed to regulate. FIFA should not be lending its name to a beauty pageant.

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As a defender Carles Puyol remains somewhat in the shadow of players such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o or Lionel Messi, but with his energy, stamina and focus, he remains a favourite in the Nou Camp and is an essential member of the current line-up. Considered to be one of the best defenders in the world, Carles Puyol is also the first Catalan captain to have held the Champions League Cup aloft after the team defeated Arsenal in May 2006, the competition in which he was awarded Defender of the Year.

As team captain since the 2003-2004 season after Phillip Cocu left Barcelona for PSV Eindhoven, Puyol’s stocky build with legs built like tree trunks and a trademark head of curly locks all belie his speed and agility on the pitch and once he removes his shirt he reveals a ripped torso that is the product of many hours of hard training, impressively fee of any sign of body fat.

In fact Puyol’s dedication is such that he objects to being left out of a single match selection, even if it is for a rest period when the team is playing a number of matches is a short space of time and he has been noted to attend training sessions where he was specifically given a rest day.

Born in La Pobla de Segur, which is located in the interior of Catalonia, on April 13 1978, as a boy Carles Puyol played for the local side. He was signed for the FC Barcelona B team in 1996 at the age of 17 and made is first team debut in 1999 under Louis Van Gaal, when visiting Barcelona beat Valladolid 2-0.

Currently playing in the centre-back position, Puyol first played for Barcelona in the right back position when he was promoted from the B team. His original position as a boy was in goal, but when shoulder injuries prevented him from continuing he began to play as a striker, perhaps contributing to his attacking mentality today – you can only imagine what he would have been like as a goalkeeper given his absolute determination to stop the ball as a defender, but what is sure is that he would have played hard, perhaps contributing to his injuries.

Although he plays in the Spanish selection, which he has also captained on occasion, Carles Puyol is a Barcelona diehard through and through and it is difficult to imagine him playing for any other club when his contract expires in 2010, whatever offer was on the table. While Messi has been brought up at Barcelona – and there is no doubt about his current dedication to the club – it remains to be seen whether he could be lured away, but players such as Ronaldinho and Eto’o, whatever their brilliance, can only ever be considered hired hands.

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