Lilian Thuram-
On January 1st 1972 in Pointe-a-Pitre Guadeloupe in France a world class footballer to be was born. His name is Lillian Thuram. He is now the most capped player in the France National team’s history playing in 126 international games. He plays as a centre back for France and currently plays in Serie A with Juventus. For over 15 seasons Thuram has played top flight football. This has included ten in Serie A, Italy. Thuram has won the World Cup with France in 1998 and in 2000 the European Championships with France as well. He won the 1998 World Cup in his home country of France.
Previous to Thuram being a footballer he had always wanted to become a Roman Catholic priest. This was only up until he found out that he wanted to make use of his football abilities.
He began as a professional footballer with Monaco in the French Ligue 1 in 1991. He then went on to play in Italy, when he joined Parma in 1996 from Monaco. In 2001 after 5 seasons with Parma he made the switch to Juventus where he currently plays his football. He has won the Serie A title four times, but due to match fixing Juventus where stripped of two titles.
After Juventus had being sent down to Serie B for their part in the match fixing scandals in 2006, Thuram moved clubs and switched to Spain to play for Barcelona where he signed a deal until 2008.
Thierry Henry-
Thierry Henry is regarded as the world’s best striker. Henry was born on August 17th 1977 in Paris, France. Henry is a French international and recently joined Barcelona from Arsenal. Henry is a fast, skillful and prolific striker.
In 1990 Henry signed for Monaco, and in 1994 was given his first professional debut. In 1998 he joined Italian giants Juventus and also earned an international call up to the French squad. In 1999 he joined Arsenal after failing to impress for Juventus in his one season with them. Henry joined Arsenal for £10.5 million.
At Arsenal to start off with Henry struggled for form and was un impressive. Henry soon found his form and became the top scorer for Arsenal in most seasons. He also became the all time Arsenal top scorer with more than 200 goals, which beat Ian Wright’s record.
Henry won two Premiership titles, was nominated for the FIFA World Player of the Year and won the Barclays Premiership Player of the Season award twice. He became the club captain for his last two seasons with Arsenal. In May 2007 Henry decided to join Spanish giants Barcelona for £16.1 million.
Henry has had some success in International football. In 1998 he was part of the French team that won the World Cup. Two years after that win France won the Euro 2000 competition, which Henry was part of as well.
Claude Makélélé-
Claude Makelele was born on February 18th 1973 in DR Congo. Although his birth place was the DR Congo, Makelele plays for the French national team. Makelele married a French supermodel, Noémie Lenoir and have three sons together. As well as playing for France, Makelele is a Premiership footballer who plays for Chelsea. His position is a defensive midfielder which he is the best in the world at playing.
Before joining Chelsea Makelele played for Nantes in France between 1992 and 1997. He then moved to Marseille for one season before joining Celta Vigo in 1998 where he stayed until 2000. After his spell there he moved to Spain to join Real Madrid. He had three years at Real Madrid and was soon on the move again. This time Makelele moved to the English Premier League. He joined Chelsea in 2003 for a fee of £16.6 million. Claudio Ranieri, Chelsea manager at the time said that Makelele would be the engine room in midfield. That season Chelsea failed to do what they had said they would, win the Premier League, and finished second place. They were also knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco in the Semi Finals. Makelele’s stay at Chelsea has been a somewhat successful one. Many players find it difficult to play against the Frenchman and he allows the attacking players in the Chelsea team to push up and help the forwards.
Not only has Makelele had a long and illustrious domestic career, but his international career has been eventful. At the end of 2004 Makelele had earned 33 caps for France playing at major tournaments including the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. In September 2004 Makelele made a decision to quit international football to concentrate on his Chelsea career. But in August 2005 he returned to help France qualify for the 2006 World Cup. After the World Cup Makelele stated that he might retire again, but recently announced that he wants to help France qualify for Euro 2008.
William Gallas-
William Gallas was born on August 17th 1977 in France. Gallas is a professional footballer who plays for Arsenal and France. Gallas’ preferred position is centre back, but he can be deployed as a full back on both sides of the field.
Before Gallas moved to Arsenal he played for Chelsea and his contract there was due to run out in May 2007. In May 2006 Gallas refused to sign a new contract with Chelsea, which included new and improved terms, stating that the offer wasn’t good enough and that he wanted to move abroad and play in Italy. This sparked immediate interest from Juventus and AC Milan. Chelsea was reluctant to let Gallas go anywhere as they valued him as an important first team player. Gallas had other ideas though after his transfer request was turned down.
On September 1st London rivals Arsenal brought William Gallas from Chelsea in a deal that took long term Chelsea target Ashley Cole to Stamford Bridge and William Gallas to the Emirates Stadium. Chelsea also had to pay Arsenal £5 000 000 for part of the deal.
This move then sparked Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to make comments that he was furious with Gallas and that he had decided to move to rivals Arsenal. He also said that the deal had been made harder due to the fact that Peter Kenyon, Chief Executive of Chelsea not offering Gallas a better deal. Chelsea FC also issued a press release after the move saying that Gallas had threatened to score deliberate own goals had he been made to stay and play for Chelsea.
When Gallas signed for Arsenal he signed a four year deal. As a defender it is rare to see one in a high numbered shirt, but Gallas took the number 10 shirt, vacated by Dennis Bergkamp.
Gallas made his full Arsenal debut on September 9th in the home draw with Arsenal. He scored his first Gunners goal against Sheffield United on September 23rd 2006.
Gallas is a regular in the French national side. In the European Championship qualifiers of 2004 Gallas made his full France debut in a 5-0 win over Slovakia. He was also a member of the 2006 World Cup side that reached the finals in Germany. In September 2006 Gallas won his 50th French cap with a 3-1 win over Italy in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
David Trezeguet-
David Trezeguet was born on October 15th 1977. He was born in a French town called Rouen. He plays for Juventus in Italy and his national country France, despite having a link to Argentina. Trezeguet’s dad is an Argentine and former footballer called Jorge Trezeguet, who is son of immigrants from France to Argentina. Trezeguet was born in France while his father was playing football but he grew up in Argentina after moving from France at the age of two. In his early career he played his first competitive match in Argentina but as a 17 year old he moved back to France to play for AS Monaco.
In 2001, Trezeguet moved to Juventus in Serie A, Italy, where he has won two titles. He has scored 130 goals for Juventus in 207 matches. He is referred to as a goal poacher, similar to Van Nistelrooy and Crespo. He has recently signed a new contract with Juventus which will keep him at the club until 2011. Reports from Italy suggested that both Manchester United and Liverpool were interested in the prolific striker.
Away from football Trezeguet has a number of good friends. He is good friends with French team mate and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry.
