Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Leo Messi -The Greatest Ever?

Born in 1987 in Buenos Aires, Leo Messi was signed by FC Barcelona in 2000. Making his debut in the 2004–05 season, he broke his team record for the youngest footballer to score a league goal. Barcelona won La Liga in Messi's debut season and the Champions in 2006.
His breakthrough was the 2006–07 season; he became a first team regular, scored a hat-trick vs Real Madrid and finished with 14 goals in 26 league games. This was eclipsed in the 2009–10 campaign, where Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions, equalling Ronaldo's record total for Barcelona. He surpassed this record again in the 2010–11 season with 53 goals in all competitions and after scoring 12 goals in the 2010–11 Champions League, Messi became only the third player (after Gerd Müller and Jean-Pierre Papin) to top-score in three successive European Champion Clubs' Cup campaigns. He is also only the 4th player to win three Ballon d'Ors, after Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco Van Basten. And yet he is still a discreet, shy person. This is why I like him. Time Magazine recently suggested he may be the greatest player ever. I think they are right. Here is me with the greatest, in Barcelona airport, summer 2009.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Usain Bolt - The Fastest Man in the World

Here is the amazing video of Usain Bolt in 2009 breaking his own Olympic record to win at 9.58 seconds, a new world record!!!


Bolt was born in 1986 in Sherwood Content, a small town in Jamaica. His parents ran the local grocery store and Bolt spent his time playing cricket and football on the street with his brother. "When I was young, I didn’t really think about anything other than sports", he said recently.

As a child in primary school he first began to show his sprinting potential by running in the annual national primary-schools' meeting for his parish. By the age of twelve, Bolt had become the school's fastest runner over 100 metres. He won his first annual high school championships medal in 2001, taking the silver in the 200 metres with a time of 22.04 seconds.
Pablo McNeil, his coach, sometimes gets frustrated because Bolt is always doing funny things and practical jokes.  I think he is a 'messer', but he is the fastest 'messer' ever over 100 metres.
I love to watch him and I will follow him in this summer's Olympic Games (in London).