All Time Legend - Andoni Zubizarreta

Andoni Zubizarreta Urreta (Basque: [anˈdoni s̻uβiˈs̻areta uˈreta], Spanish: [anˈdoni θuβiˈθareta uˈreta]; born 23 October 1961) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

The all-time most capped player for the Spanish national team for several years, he played with individual and team success for Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona (eight years with the latter, he would later work with the club in directorial capacities), appearing in more than 950 official professional matches during his club career.

Zubizarreta represented Spain in seven major international tournaments, four World Cups and three European Championships, starting in six of those.

In 1986 Zubizarreta signed with FC Barcelona, for a then-record for a player in the position €1.7 million, quickly removing established Urruti from the starting post and rarely missing a match onwards – for example, only four in the Catalan's four consecutive league wins combined. He added the club's first ever European Cup in 1992, a 1–0 triumph against U.C. Sampdoria.
After the 1993–94 UEFA Champions League, where Barça lost heavily to A.C. Milan in the final (0–4), Zubi was deemed surplus to requirements and finished his career at Valencia CF, again at a high level. He retired after 1997–98 at nearly 37, having played in more than 950 official games (622 in the league alone – all-time best – conceding 626 goals).

On 2 July 2010 Zubizarreta was named Barcelona's director of football by incumbent president Sandro Rosell, taking over from former club and national teammate Txiki Begiristain. In the previous decade he had served in the same capacity at Athletic Bilbao, also working as a radio and television commentator.

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King of Legends - Marco Van Basten

Marcel "Marco" van Basten (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɑr.koˑ vɑn.ˈbɑs.tə(n)], 31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played for Ajax and Milan, as well as the Dutch national team, in the 1980s and early 1990s. He is regarded as one of the greatest forwards of all time and has scored 277 goals in a high-profile career, but played his last game in 1993 at the age of 28 due to an injury which caused his retirement two years later. He was later the head coach of Ajax and the Dutch national team.

Known for his strength on the ball, his tactical awareness and spectacular strikes and volleys, Van Basten was named European Footballer of the Year three times (1988, '89 and '92) and FIFA World Player of the Year in 1992. Van Basten was voted eighth in a poll organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century. In 1999, Van Basten was ranked tenth in the European player of the Century election held by the IFFHS, and he was voted twelth in the IFFHS' "World Player of the Century" election. In 2004, Pelé named Van Basten one of the 125 best living footballers in his FIFA 100 list. In 2004, a nationwide poll was held for the 100 greatest Dutch people (De Grootste Nederlander) and Van Basten was number 25, the second highest for a football player, behind Johan Cruyff. In March 2007, Sky Sports ranked Van Basten first on its list of great athletes who had their careers cut short.

In 1987, Silvio Berlusconi signed Van Basten for Milan, with fellow countrymen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard joining in 1988. In his first season, Milan won their first Scudetto in eight years, but Van Basten played only 11 games and was constantly troubled by an ankle injury.

In 1988–89, Van Basten won the Ballon d'Or as Europe's top footballer. He scored 19 goals in Serie A and scored two goals in the final of the European Cup as Milan triumphed against Steaua Bucureşti.

In 1989–90, he became Capocannoniere, Serie A's leading goal scorer, and Milan successfully defended the European Cup after beating Benfica in the final match.

Milan struggled in the 1990–91 season, as Sampdoria won the Scudetto. After Van Basten fell out with Arrigo Sacchi, Berlusconi sacked the manager. Fabio Capello took over the following season, and Milan went undefeated in the league to win another Scudetto. Van Basten scored 25 league goals, and became Capocannoniere again.

In November 1992, he became the first player to score four goals in a Champions League match, against IFK Göteborg, including a picture perfect bicycle kick. The record was later equalled by other players, but was bettered only 20 years later, when Lionel Messi scored five goals against Bayer Leverkusen during the 2011-12 Champions League season.

Milan stretched their unbeaten run into the 1992–93 season, going 58 matches over two seasons before they lost a game. Van Basten played exceptionally well in the early part of the season. He was again voted the European player of the year, becoming the third player after Johan Cruyff and Michel Platini to win the award three times.

His troublesome ankle injury recurred in a game against A.C. Ancona, forcing him to undergo another series of surgery. He returned for the last few games in the season, before Milan lost to Marseille in the Champions League final. The match was Van Basten's final game for the Italian club.

He had been hopeful of playing for his country at the 1994 World Cup as well as for his club in the 1994–95 season after spending the whole 1993–94 season out of action (missing Milan's victory in the European Cup as well as their Serie A title glory), but his club ordered him not to take part in the World Cup amid fear of ruining his rehabilitation. He finally conceded defeat in his battle to recover on 17 August 1995, when he announced his retirement as a player after two whole years on sidelines.



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Intercontinental Club Legends - Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimović (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈslaːtan ɪbraˈhiːmɔvɪtʂ], Bosnian pronunciation: [ˈzlatan ibraˈxiːmɔʋitɕ]; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and the Swedish national team for which he is captain. Ibrahimović started his career at Malmö FF in the late 1990s under Roland Andersson. He was signed by Ajax, and made a name for himself under Ronald Koeman. He later signed with Juventus for €16 million. Ibrahimović gained fame in Serie A, benefiting from his strike partnership with David Trezeguet.

In 2006, he signed with league rival Internazionale, where he won individual awards such as the Italian Oscar del Calcio and the Swedish Guldbollen, and was named in the 2007 and 2009 UEFA Team of the Year, in addition to finishing as the league's highest scorer in 2008–09 while winning three straight Scudetti. In the summer of 2009, he transferred to Barcelona for €69 million, the second highest transfer fee in football history. His time at Barcelona was short lived, however, moving back to Serie A football with Milan the following season, in a deal which made him one of the highest paid footballers in the world and cost the Italian club €24 million.
In 2012, he was ranked 5th in The Guardian's 100 Best Footballers in the world.

On 28 August 2010, Milan announced on their official website that they had acquired the services of Ibrahimović for the 2010–11 season. He was loaned out to Milan for the 2010–11 season, with Milan having the option to purchase him outright from Barcelona for €24 million at the end of the season. He made his team debut in a 2–0 loss to Cesena on 11 September, in which he missed a penalty late in the match, and scored his first goals for the club when Milan defeated Auxerre in their first Champions League match of the season on 15 September. On 14 November, Ibrahimović scored the only goal in a 1–0 victory against his former club Internazionale in the Milan Derby. On 20 November, he scored his seventh goal against Fiorentina in the 45th minute with an over-the-head bicycle kick, passing Alexandre Pato as the team's top goal scorer for the season. On 4 December 2010, in a game against Brescia, he assisted Kevin Prince-Boateng to give Milan an early lead and then scored the third goal by a powerful shot near the edge of the penalty box to give Milan a 3–0 win. On 12 December 2010, history repeated himself in the game against Bologna after he assisted Boateng to give Milan an early lead once again and scoring later that match to make it 3–0, leading him to 13 goals with 8 assists in 21 matches in all competitions, after which he has been compared to Milan legend Marco van Basten by both the media and van Basten himself.

Ibrahimović received a three-match ban, after getting a red card in a 1–1 home draw against Bari in March 2011 for punching Bari defender Marco Rossi in the stomach. An additional three-match ban was given to Ibrahimović in February 2012, in a 1–2 home defeat against Fiorentina, for supposedly swearing at an assistant referee. Ibrahimović stated in his defense that he was talking to himself in frustration. He won his first Scudetto with Milan after a stalemate against Roma. He is therefore currently on a streak of eight straight league wins in three different countries and with five different clubs, including the later stripped wins with Juventus. All agreements between Milan and Barcelona were confirmed on 18 June 2011.

In the first official match of the 2011–12 season, Ibrahimović opened it in the best possible way scoring the first goal of a Milan comeback to beat city rivals Internazionale in the Italian Super Cup. He also scored Milan's first goal of their 2011–12 Serie A season in a 2–2 draw against Lazio. He scored his third goal in the first three games in Milan's Champions League game against Czech club Viktoria Plzeň from the penalty spot and assisted the second goal. Ibrahimović justified his tag of the carrier of Milan by scoring in many games, yet still providing many assists. He scored in the next UEFA Champions League game against BATE Borisov, a goal in Milan's 4–1 win over Parma and two more in their 2–3 win over Roma, ending a successful month of October. November was equally impressive for the Swede, scoring in consecutive games against BATE, in the Champions League, and Catania, in the league. In the highly anticipated encounter between Milan and Barcelona, Ibrahimović scored against his old club to equalise the game at 1–1 but eventually Barça ran away 3–2 winner at the San Siro. He ended November with a brace against Chievo, his first goal took his tally of goals in Serie A to 100 goals, and the second from the penalty spot. Ibrahimović continued his impressive form in December, and scored a goal in each of five Serie A games. 2012 started on high note for Ibrahimović, as he scored against Atalanta converting a penalty kick. He was the top goalscorer of Serie A, with 14 goals in 16 appearance, after the brace against Novara, of which second goal, came after cheeky backheel. On 5 January 2012 in a match against Napoli on continuation of Serie A, Ibra awarded a red card for slapping Salvatore Aronica in an off-the-ball incident and will rule out of Milan's next three games. On 15 February, in the 2011–12 Champions League season, Ibrahimović set up all two Robinho's goals and also scored by a spot kick, thus helping Milan win 4–0 over Arsenal. He continued his goalscoring run in March 2012, with a hat-trick in a 4–0 away win against Palermo at the Stadio Renzo Barbera. The first two goals were assisted by Robinho and the third by Emanuelson. In the next three games, he scored four goals, two against Roma, which took his tally to 22 goals in 23 games. With two goals against Siena, Ibrahimović surpassed his previous domestic goal record of 25 goals. He finished the season with 28 goals in 32 matches.

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Intercontinental Club Legends - Andrea Pirlo

Andrea Pirlo, Ufficiale OMRI (born 19 May 1979), is an Italian World Cup-winning footballer who plays for Serie A club Juventus and for the Italian national team. He is usually deployed as a deep-lying playmaker for both Juventus and Italy and is regarded as a leading exponent of this position. Praised for his technique, dribbling, control, incredible vision, inventive play and his accurate passing ability, he is also a set-piece specialist and is known for his long distance shooting and passing. Fellow players on the Italian team gave him the nickname l'architetto ("the architect"), because his long passes frequently set up goal-scoring opportunities for the Italy national football team. In recent years, Juventus fans also dub him il professore ("the professor") and Mozart , as a fun reference to the Austrian composer's prodigious ability.

After three seasons on the Internazionale books, Pirlo was sold to fierce rivals Milan for 35 million Italian lire on 30 June 2001. (the last day of 2000–01 financial year) (about €18 million) but the transfer fee paid via partially by Dražen Brnčić to Inter for undisclosed fee, and made Milan had a profit of €9.641 million. In the same window Inter and Milan also swapped Cristian Brocchi (25 billion lire; €12.9 million) to Guly (undisclosed fee; €8.537 million profit); Matteo Bogani (valued €3.6 million) for Paolo Ginestra (undisclosed fee €3.585M profit) The deals later reported by press were also aimed to create "false profit" by inflating the transfer fees in the swap deal, which Serie C players Ginestra and Bogani both created about €3.5 million "profit" for both clubs but in terms of useless registration rights.



It was at Milan where he found his true strides developing into a world class player and one of the best deep-lying playmakers and set-piece specialists in the world. With Milan, he won two Serie A tites and was an integral part of Milan's midfield, as they went on to win two Champions League titles in 2003 and 2007, also helping them to the final in 2005, in which he finished as the second highest assist provider of the tournament with 4 assists. He also won an Italian Cup, a Supercoppa Italiana and two UEFA Super Cups with Milan in 2003 and 2007, as well as their first FIFA World Club Cup title in 2007. His most forgettable incident, however, was probably the penalty miss during 2005 UEFA Champions League Final, as his spot kick was saved by Jerzy Dudek.

Pirlo started his career as an offensive midfielder until coach Carlo Mazzone developed a deep-seated playmaking role while at Brescia, with Roberto Baggio in the attacking midfield role. A notable moment in his Brescia career was his long pass which assisted Roberto Baggio's late equaliser against Juventus at the Delle Alpi Stadium, in 2001. Fatih Terim and Carlo Ancelotti further-developed this role at Milan, to allow Pirlo to play alongside other talented attacking midfielders, such as Rui Costa and eventually Kaka. Since then, he formed a formidable partnership with Gennaro Gattuso (as well as with Clarence Seedorf, who also supported his playmaking role) in the midfield and has earned the nickname the metronome for the way he sets the team's rhythm. He led Serie A in the 2002–03 season in four special categories – passes played (2589), ball possession (123 hours played and 39 minutes), successful balls (661), and successful passes (2093). This implies that he averaged almost 90 passes per game. He led Milan in minutes played for the 2006–07 season with 2,782. In October 2007, he was nominated for the both the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year and the 2007 World's Best Playmaker Awards but they went to Milan teammate Kaká instead. After Kaká and coach Carlo Ancelotti left Milan in the summer of 2009, Chelsea tested Milan's resolve by bidding $12 million and Claudio Pizarro for Pirlo. The club rejected the offer and Pirlo was said to be contemplating a transfer request. On 5 August, club owner Silvio Berlusconi decided not to sell Pirlo, who said he was overjoyed and wanted to end his career at Milan. On 21 October 2009, Pirlo scored a notable 30 meter goal in Milan's 3–2 win over Real Madrid.

Milan played host to Genoa on 25 September 2010, Pirlo provided a lovely lifted ball over the top of the defense to set striker Zlatan Ibrahimović free to score the solitary goal of the game. On 2 October Pirlo scored a 40-yard goal against Parma to give Milan their first away win of the 2010–11 season. On 14 May 2011, Pirlo appeared in his last match for Milan, coming on as a half-time substitute for Massimo Ambrosini as the club celebrated their Title with a 4–1 victory over Cagliari. Four days later, Pirlo confirmed that he would be leaving Milan at the end of the 2010–11 season, after a mutual decision not to renew his contract. In his last season in Milan, Pirlo only appeared in the league 17 times notching just one goal and three assists.

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