SPORTS WORLD

    Diego Maradona Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona  (born October 30, 1960,  Lanus ,  Buenos Aires , Argentina—died November 25, 2020,  Tigre , Buenos Aires) was an Argentine  football  (soccer) player who is generally regarded as the top footballer of the 1980s and one of the greatest of all time. Renowned for his ability to control the ball and create scoring opportunities for himself and others, he led club teams to championships in  Argentina , Italy, and Spain, and he starred on the Argentine national team that won the 1986  World Cup . Diego Maradona   Diego Maradona, 1986. Maradona displayed football talent early, and at age eight he joined Las Cebollitas (“The Little Onions”), a boys’ team that went on to win 136 consecutive games and a national championship. He signed with Argentinos Juniors at age 14 and made his first-division  debut  in 1976, 10 days before his 16th birthday. Only four months later he...

   Cristiano Ronaldo Portuguese football player Cristiano Ronaldo  (born February 5, 1985,  Funchal ,  Madeira ,  Portugal ) is a Portuguese  football  (soccer) forward who is one of the greatest players of his generation.  Ronaldo  is the winner of five Ballon d’Or awards (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017), and in 2024 he became the first men’s player to score 900 career goals in official matches.                                          Five-time Ballon d'Or winner   Cristiano Ronaldo, 2018. Early life and career Ronaldo’s father, José Dinis Aveiro, was the equipment manager for the local club Andorinha. (The name Ronaldo was added to Cristiano’s name in honor of his father’s favorite movie actor, Ronald Reagan, who was U.S. president at the time of Cristiano’s birth.) At age 15 Ronaldo was diagnosed with a heart condition...

    Lionel Messi  Argentine-born football player Lionel Messi  (born June 24, 1987,  Rosario , Argentina) is an Argentine-born  football  (soccer) player who received a record-setting eight Ballon d’Or awards as the world’s top male player (2009–12, 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2023). In 2022 he helped  Argentina  win the  Fédération Internationale de Football Association  (FIFA)’s  World Cup . Lionel Messi  Football star Lionel Messi, December 2022. Early life Messi started playing football as a boy and in 1995 joined the youth team of Newell’s Old Boys (a Rosario-based top-division football club). Messi’s phenomenal skills garnered the attention of prestigious clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. At age 13 Messi and his family relocated to Barcelona, and he began playing for  FC Barcelona’s under-14 team. He scored 21 goals in 14 games for the junior team, and he quickly graduated through the higher-level teams u...