Eric Cantona

Éric Daniel Pierre Cantona (French pronunciation: [kantɔna]) (born 24 May 1966) is a French actor and former French international footballer. He played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes and Leeds United before ending his professional footballing career at Manchester United, where he won four Premier League titles in five years and two League and FA Cup Doubles.
Cantona is often regarded as having played a key role in the revival of Manchester United as a footballing force and he enjoys iconic status at the club. He wore the number 7 shirt at United, which was previously worn by George Best and Bryan Robson, and subsequently worn by David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. Cantona is affectionately nicknamed by Manchester United fans as "King Eric", and was voted as Manchester United's greatest ever player by Inside United magazine. Set against his footballing achievements was a poor disciplinary record throughout his career, including a conviction for assault on a fan in 1995.
Following his retirement from football, he took up a career in cinema and had a role in the 1998 film Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, and the 2009 film Looking for Eric.
In 2010, he debuted as a stage actor in Face au paradis, a French play directed by his wife, Rachida Brakni.
On 19 January 2011, Cantona joined the revived New York Cosmos as Director of Soccer.

Jari Litmanen

Jari Olavi Litmanen  (born 20 February 1971 in Lahti) is a Finnish footballer who last played for HJK. He also played for the Finland national football team, where he served as a first choice captain between 1996–2008. His international career ran from 1989 to 2010, making him the only footballer to play an International in four different decades.

He is widely considered to be Finland's greatest football player of all time. He was chosen as the best Finnish player of the last 50 years by the Football Association of Finland in the UEFA Jubilee Awards in November 2003. Litmanen also finished 42nd in the 100 Greatest Finns voting in 2004. The Association of Football Statisticians' (The AFS) compendium of 'Greatest Ever Footballers' listed Litmanen as the 53rd best footballer ever. In Finland he is often called "Litti" (after Pierre Littbarski), which dates from his early years in Finland; his childhood playmate Tommi Kautonen was "Auge" after Klaus Augenthaler. He is very often also called "Kuningas" ("The King").
Litmanen was the long-time captain for the Finnish national team, in an international career lasting two decades. During his club career he has represented Reipas, HJK, MyPa and Lahti in Finland, as well as Ajax, FC Barcelona, Liverpool, Hansa Rostock, Malmö FF and Fulham abroad. Once considered one of the best attacking midfielders in the world, he became the first Finnish footballing superstar while playing for Ajax in the mid-1990s, and won the 1995 Champions League with them.

Carles Puyol

Carles Puyol i Saforcada (La Pobla de Segur, Pallars Jussà, 13 d'abril del 1978) és un futbolista català que juga de defensa al primer equip del FC Barcelona, de la selecció catalana, així com també de la selecció espanyola. És el capità de l'equip blaugrana des de la temporada 2003/2004, quan agafà el relleu de Luis Enrique; i també ho és de la selecció espanyola quan no juga Iker Casillas.

Va començar com a futbolista a la Pobla de Segur (Pallars Jussà), on va tenir una gran progressió. El 1996, amb 17 anys, va entrar a la Masia, on va continuar desenvolupant el seu talent sobretot gràcies a l'esforç i a la constància. Un pas decisiu en la carrera de Puyol va ser quan Louis Van Gaal el va pujar al primer equip, d'on no només ja no va marxar, sinó que s'ha acabat convertint en un dels jugadors més importants del Barça. Té una clàusula de rescissió de contracte de 180 milions d'euros.
El primer partit de Carles Puyol amb la Selecció espanyola va ser el 15 de novembre del 2000, contra Holanda.
El dia 7 de juliol del 2010 marcà un gol decisiu que classificà a la Selecció espanyola per a la final d'un mundial per primer cop en la seva història.

 En Puyol ha jugat a totes les posicions de la defensa, però des de fa tres anys juga de forma regular a la posició de defensa central. És el clàssic "tronc" de les defenses, alt, fort, agressiu sobre el rival, i gairebé insuperable en l'u contra u. Jugant en equips plens d'estrelles, sovint el seu joc passa desapercebut, però quan no hi és sempre es troba a faltar. És un dels pocs defensors purs que queden en circulació avui en el futbol modern. És ràpid i de reaccions increïbles, i un gran especialista de l'anticipació. Juntament amb Xavi, és tàcticament el jugador clau del Barça.
Finalment, cal dir que està dotat d'una gran personalitat i dedicació, cosa que l'ha convertit en tot un símbol del Barça i de Catalunya.

Lothar Matthäus

Lothar Herbert Matthäus German pronunciation: [ˈloːtaɐ̯ maˈtɛːʊs], (born 21 March 1961 in Erlangen, West Germany) is a German football manager and former player.
In 1990, he was named European Footballer of the Year and World Soccer Player of the Year after captaining West Germany to victory in the 1990 World Cup. One year later, he was also named the first ever FIFA World Player of the Year.
He has played in five World Cups (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998) more than any other outfield player, and holds the record for the most World Cup matches played (25 games). He also won Euro 80, and played in Euro 84, Euro 88, and Euro 2000. In 1999, he was again voted German Footballer of the Year despite being 38 years old. He is the most capped German player of all time, retiring with a total of 150 appearances (83 of them when the team was called West Germany) and 23 goals for the German national team. Matthäus is a member of the FIFA 100 – a list of 125 of the greatest living football players chosen by Pelé. Maradona said about Matthäus "he is the best rival I've ever had. I guess that's enough to define him" in his book Yo soy el Diego (I am Diego).
A versatile and complete player, Matthäus was renowned for his perceptive passing, positional sense, and well-timed tackling, as well as his explosive shot. During his career, he usually played as a box-to-box midfielder, although later in his career he played as a sweeper.

Thomas Linke

Thomas Linke (born 26 December 1969) is a retired German professional footballer who played as a central defender.
Linke was remembered as a hard-nosed tackler with tremendous heading ability, and played in 13 Bundesliga seasons in representation of Schalke 04 and Bayern Munich, totalling 340 games.
Having gained his first cap for Germany in his late 20's, Linke went on to represent the nation in one World Cup and one European Championship.

René Adler

René Adler (born 15 January 1985 in Leipzig, Saxony, East Germany) is a German footballer who plays as a goalkeeper in the German Bundesliga for Bayer Leverkusen and for the German national team.
 He made his Bundesliga debut in dramatic fashion on 25 February 2007 against league leaders Schalke 04. With starting goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt serving a suspension, Adler saved ten shots on goal, repelling Schalke's repeated attacks. A breakaway goal by Stefan Kießling in the 85th minute gave Leverkusen a 1–0 upset victory. Leverkusen manager Michael Skibbe praised Adler's "world-class saves". His strengths are his quick reactions. He stopped Schalke's record of 13 games unbeaten, Stuttgart's record of five games unbeaten and Hamburg's four-game winning spree with a saved penalty kick against Rafael van der Vaart. Since then, Adler became a first choice goalkeeper until newly signed Bernd Leno took his place due to injuries. Adler announced that he is set to leave the club as his contract expires next season.

Adler has been a club captain at all levels of competition and at the German Under-19 championships he was one of the star players of the tournament.
Adler has made four appearances for the German U-21 team under the leadership of Dieter Eilts. He was part of the German team that finished as runners-up in Euro 2008. After the retirement of Jens Lehmann and death of Robert Enke, he became first choice during the World Cup qualifying. He made his debut for Germany on 11 October 2008 in a World Cup qualifier against Russia. Despite having been confirmed as Germany's main team goalkeeper for the World Cup, a serious rib injury prevented him from travelling to South Africa. He has been capped ten times by the German national football team.

Andriy Shevchenko

Andriy Mykolayovych Shevchenko (Ukrainian: Андрі́й Микола́йович Шевче́нко; born 29 September 1976) is a Ukrainian footballer who curently plays as a striker for Dynamo Kyiv and the Ukraine national team. He is the third-highest scorer in the history of European club competition with 67 goals as of 10 March 2011, behind Ruud van Nistelrooy and Raúl. With 175 goals scored with Milan, Shevchenko is the second most prolific player in the history of the club, and is also the all-time top scorer of the Derby della Madonnina (derby between Milan and their local rivals Internazionale) with 14 goals, as well as for the Ukrainian national team with 46 goals.
Shevchenko's career has been highlighted by many awards, the most prestigious of which was the Ballon d'Or in 2004 (becoming the third Ukrainian, after Oleg Blokhin and Igor Belanov, to receive it). He won the UEFA Champions League in 2003 with Milan, and he has also won various league and cup titles in Ukraine, Italy, and England.
In his illustrious international career, the striker led Ukraine as captain to the quarter-finals in their first ever FIFA World Cup appearance in 2006. He is capable of playing center-forward or attacking from the left wing and is effective with set-pieces and penalties.

Jürgen Klinsmann

Jürgen Klinsmann (born 30 July 1964 in Göppingen) is a German football manager and former player who is currently the coach of the United States men's National team.As a player, Klinsmann played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the German one that won the 1996 UEFA European Championship. One of West Germany's/Germany's premier strikers during the 1990s, Klinsmann scored in all six major international tournaments he participated, from Euro 1988 to 1998 World Cup.
He managed the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup. On 12 July 2006, Klinsmann officially announced that he would step down as Germany's coach after two years in charge and be replaced by assistant coach Joachim Löw. He took over as coach of Bayern Munich in July 2008, when Ottmar Hitzfeld stepped down to take over as the head coach of the Swiss National Team. On 27 April 2009 he was released early, even though he had won five of the previous seven league games and was only three points behind league leader VfL Wolfsburg. In the jointly initiated reforms at Bayern it emerged there was a severe clash of opinions between coach and club management.
On 29 July 2011, after years of speculation and protracted negotiations with the US Soccer Federation, Klinsmann was named coach of the USMNT after coach Bob Bradley was released.

Hristo Stoichkov

Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (Bulgarian: Христо Стоичков Стоичков), sometimes Stoitchkov; born 8 February 1966 in Plovdiv) is a retired Bulgarian footballer. He is regarded as one of the best footballers of his generation and the greatest Bulgarian footballer of all time. Nicknamed The Dagger (Камата), The Dog (Кучето), The Modern Left (Модерния ляв). At Barcelona he earned the Spanish nickname 'El Pistolero' which translates to 'the gunslinger'. He was a member of the Bulgaria national team that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup. Apart from his footballing talent, he was notable for his on-pitch temper. He was honoured as European Footballer of the Year in 1994. He was named by Pelé as one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony in 2004.

Roberto "Toro" Acuña

Roberto Miguel Acuña Cabello (born 25 March 1972 in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a Paraguayan footballer who plays for Club Rubio Ñú.
Nicknamed El Toro (bull) due to his strength and dominating presence, he operated as a central midfielder. He spent several years as a professional in Spain, at Zaragoza and Deportivo de La Coruña, being very unlucky at the latter.

Emmanuel Adebayor

Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor (born 26 February 1984), known as Emmanuel Adebayor, is a Togolese footballer who plays for Tottenham Hotspur as a striker on loan from Manchester City. He plays in the same position for the Togo national team. Adebayor previously played for Metz, Monaco and Arsenal and was voted African Footballer of the Year for 2008. In January 2010, Adebayor was one of the players involved when the Togo national team's bus came under a gunfire attack on the way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola.

Tony Adams

Tony Alexander Adams, MBE (born 10 October 1966 in Romford, Essex) is an English football manager and former player.
Adams spent his entire playing career of 22 years as a defender at Arsenal. He is considered one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time by the club's own fans and was included in the Football League 100 Legends. With Arsenal, he won four top flight division titles, three FA Cups, two Football League Cups, a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and three FA Community Shields. A statue honoring Adams was unveiled at Emirates stadium on 9 December 2011, along with statues of Thierry Henry and Herbert Chapman.
When his playing career finished Adams went into football management, spending periods in charge of Wycombe Wanderers, Portsmouth and Azerbaijan side Gabala.