2002 FIFA World Cup winner Rivaldo on Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, in conversation with Betfair
He spent five years with Spanish club Barcelona, where he formed a successful partnership with Patrick Kluivert, and won the 1998 and 1999 Spanish La Liga championship and the 1998 Copa del Rey.
From 1993 and 2003, Rivaldo played 74 matches and scored 35 goals for Brazil and is the seventh highest goalscorer. He helped Brazil reach the final of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and won the 1999 Copa América where he was named player of the tournament. Rivaldo starred alongside Ronaldo and Ronaldinho in the 2002 FIFA World Cup winning team. He was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team in 1998 and 2002.
One of the most skillful and creative players of his generation, Rivaldo was renowned for his bending free kicks,overhead kicks, technique, ball striking from distance, and ability to both score and create goals. In 1999, he won the Ballon d’Or and was named FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players. He is an inductee to the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame. In March 2014, Rivaldo announced his retirement from professional football, however since June 2015 he made appearances for Mogi Mirim. On August 14, 2015, he announced that the comeback was over and that he was retiring once again; this due to persistent injuries. In 2015, he acted in Iranian cinema film I Am Not Salvador.
“Signing for Real Madrid and winning titles is a dream come true. There are not many players who have managed to retire whilst playing for such a team but let’s see what happens. That is my real aim. I also need to win something with Croatia.”
Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric discusses his future aspirations with Codere
Born in Zadar, Modrić was signed by Dinamo Zagreb in 2002 after showing promise with his hometown club’s youth team. He continued his development in Zagreb before spells on loan to Zrinjski Mostar and Inter Zaprešić. He made his debut for Dinamo in 2005 and won three consecutive league titles and domestic cups with them, being named the Prva HNL Player of the Year in 2007. In 2008, he moved to Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, where he led the Spurs to their first UEFA Champions League appearance in almost 50 years, reaching the quarter-finals of the 2010–11 tournament.
After the 2011–12 season, he moved to Real Madrid for a fee of £33 million, where he became a key contributor under coach Carlo Ancelotti and helped the team to win La Décima, being elected to the squad of the season. In 2016 and 2017, he won his second and third Champions Leagues with the squad and election to the squad of the season on both, as well as receiving the La Liga Award for the “Best Midfielder” in 2016 for the second time, andUEFA Club Football Award for the “Best Midfielder” in 2017.
Modrić made his debut for Croatia against Argentina in March 2006, and he has since participated in every major tournament that Croatia have qualified for, including the 2006 and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He scored his first international goal in a friendly match against Italy. At the 2008 Euros, he was elected to the Team of the Tournament, becoming only the second Croatian to ever achieve this honor. In 2015, he became the first Croatian player ever to be included in the FIFA World XI, in which he was included once again in 2016 and 2017, as well in the UEFA Team of the Year in 2016. He has been named the Croatian Footballer of the Year five times, ranking behind only six-time winner Davor Šuker for most wins.
Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta speaks with Marca ahead of Saturday’s El Clasico
Iniesta played for Spain at the Under-16, Under-19 and Under-21 levels before making his international debut in 2006. He helped Spain win Euro 2008, playing every game and being selected in the Team of the Tournament. Iniesta was also a key member of the victorious Spanish team at the 2010 World Cup; he scored the winning goal in the final against the Netherlands, for which he was named the Man of the Match, and was selected to the tournament’s All-Star Team. At Euro 2012, Iniesta led Spain to their second consecutive continental crown, again being chosen as the Man of the Match of the final against Italy, and was named the Player of the Tournament.
Iniesta is widely considered to be one of the best players of his generation and one of the greatest midfielders of all time. Since 2009, he has been chosen in the UEFA Team of the Year six times and has been voted into the FIFA World XI on nine occasions. Iniesta won the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award in 2012 and was named the IFFHS World’s Best Playmaker in 2012 and 2013. He was runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or and achieved third place in 2012.
Danish international Mathias Jorgensen, commonly known as ‘Zanka’, spreads some festive cheer by offering to buy a drink for all Huddersfield Town fans making the trip to Southampton for their English Premier League meetingMathias Jattah-Njie Jørgensen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈjɶɐ̯n̩sn̩]; born 23 April 1990), commonly known asZanka, is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a centre back for the Premier League club Huddersfield Town.
Born to a Danish mother and a Gambian father, Jørgensen moved to FC Copenhagen from neighbouring club B.93, where he had played in first team matches even at the young age of 16. He signed a three-year contract with FCK on 26 June 2007. Before signing with the Danish champions, he had visited Arsenal for a one-week trial.
On 21 July 2007, Jørgensen strained the inner ligament in the left knee in a reserve team match – less than a month after he moved to the club. On 9 September, he played again for the reserve team. His first team debut came on 26 September 2007 in a cup match against FC Fredericia. He substituted Oscar Wendt 5 minutes before full-time, in the match FCK won 3–1. Three days later he got his Superliga debut, this time replacing Hjalte Nørregaard about 15 minutes before full-time.
Only 8 days after his first team debut, Jørgensen was thrown on pitch in the extra time of the UEFA Cup first round second leg at Parken Stadium against RC Lens, after captain Michael Gravgaard had received a red card. He was substituted for Marcus Allbäck and played in the central defence together with Brede Hangeland, and they prevented any more goals for Lens, when they were 10 against 11.
On 19 November 2008, he made his debut for the Danish national football team in a friendly against Wales.
After Roland Nilsson became manager for Copenhagen he became captain for “The Lions”. 22 February 2012 it was announced that Jørgensen would join Dutch club PSV Eindhoven on a free transfer during the summer transfer window.
Jørgensen was featured in an unofficial pre-season tournament, The Polish Masters, in July 2012 and scored his first goal for PSV in their game against S.L. Benficaon 22 July. However, he struggled to break into PSV’s first XI and only played 14 matches for the club over the course of two years.
He received his nickname from the movie Cool Runnings, where one of the main characters is named Sanka (played by Doug E. Doug). Mathias Jørgensen’s nickname was coined by Johan Lange back in 2000, while both Lange and Jørgensen were still at B.93. Lange would go on to be one of the assistant managers during Zanka’s first time at F. C. Copenhagen, and he would later serve as the Technical Director when Zanka returned to the club in 2014.
“You know, before that tournament, I was just a fan of Neymar, like everybody else. He’s an incredible footballer, which everyone knows. But getting to really know him during that time… it was so special, because of the kind of person he is. The way that he treats everybody surprised me a lot — because even in the short amount of time that I’ve lived in football, I’ve seen so many guys who are not even amazing players, who haven’t won anything, being mascarado. This means a person who wears a mask. They’re one way to the public, and another in the dressing room. But with Neymar, he treated everybody like his brother. He was a huge reason that we were able to come together and ignore the pressure and play for one another.”
Gabriel Jesus on Neymar and the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016, in conversation with the Players’ Tribune
“I first fell in love with football when I was a kid, around seven or eight years old. I remember watching the Champions League all the time and then trying to be like the Brazilian Ronaldo, Zidane and Totti when playing out in the street with my friends. I loved those kinds of players, players who played with magic.”
Egypt international Mohamed Salah tells Liverpool FC’s official website about his childhood footballing heroes
“Tite has been able to introduce quality to this Brazil team. Looking at how they have been playing, at everything that has been achieved, there are expectations again now with Brazil playing so well. Now comes a World Cup, however, and a World Cup is a very difficult thing, I participated in two and there are a lot of difficulties to overcome, but this Seleção is prepared. I do not like to say that Brazil are the favourite. Are we the favourite? No. We are a favourite. There are other teams that are also doing well. Germany, Spain, and I would say Portugal too. There are some very good players in the Belgium team and you always have to keep an eye on France. But I do think Brazil have set their sights on the title.”
1994 World Cup winner Ricardo Rocha discusses Brazil’s chances at Russia 2018 with Goal
“The difference is hard to explain, but I think I’m more experienced, more wise, more ‘cascudo‘, as we say in Brazil. This is because I had many experiences, I participated in a World Cup where we lost and I think I’ll be more prepared for the next one, because I know what it’s like to be in a World Cup, I can be better prepared. So the Neymar in 2018 is better than the Neymar in 2014.”
Brazil’s Neymar explains the differences between himself now compared to when the forward was starring for the host nation at Brazil 2014
“It’s amazing, something I’m very proud of. It’s been a crazy journey. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in the next few months. I’m just really excited about starting the new year. I think I’m ready to make another step, and hopefully some success will come with that.”
Borussia Dortmund’s Christian Pulisic on being named USA men’s player of the year, the youngest player to receive the award, speaking to viewers on a Facebook live cast on US Soccer’s official page
“Of course we got lucky with the Draw. There are no easy matches at this level, but we could have got much stronger opponents and it could have been much harder for us to qualify for the next round. Make no doubt, Russia will be a success at the World Cup. We just need the whole country to get behind us.”
Russia forward Fedor Smolov reflects on the host nation’s World Cup draw
“This is my role here. To teach the young players who have a good potential to grow. The only thing they need is someone to guide them in the right direction. One thing is to play in your country but if you go outside you get out of your comfort zone. Hopefully one day, young Indian players here can go to Europe. If you want to test yourself, you want to play against the best. It is the fourth year for this league now. It is so early, you can only grow from here. It is going to be a long road. As long as you try to do the right thing, everything will be fine. It will be good to see someone from India play in a big club in Europe.”
Speaking to the media, Kerala Blasters’ forward Dimitar Berbatov talks football in India
“I’ve heard it said that I’m silencing the critics so many times but it’s not that: I don’t have to prove myself to anyone. I don’t play for the critics, I play for my team-mates. For three, four years I haven’t listened to anything. People always talk and always will. ‘He’s good now because he’s at Barça’, ‘He was only good then because he was in China’, blah, blah, blah. When I was at Bragantino and I went to Corinthians it was the same; it was the same at Tottenham and in China. I’ve had that since the beginning.”
Barcelona midfielder Paulinho talks about silencing any of his critics, speaking with The Guardian
“I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to run and celebrate with the lads but I couldn’t do that. He (the ball boy) was the only one there. It was great to see him because I needed to celebrate with somebody and it just so happened it was the ball boy.”
Bristol City manager Lee Johnson on celebrating with a ball boy after the Robins’ late winner against giants Manchester United In the English League Cup
“I watched Gabriel Jesus play three years ago. I watched Mbappe for a year. I was watching them with the scout and it was a no-brainer. It was just like, ‘Get them.’ It would have been £5 million or something — get them, loan them back — and that’s where the recruitment could have been better.”
Ryan Giggs tells The Times that he tried to get Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal to sign Kylian Mbappe and Gabriel Jesus during his time as assistant coach
