Gooal TV

The Gunners start the season in flying fashion as the new signing Samir Nasri gave them am early lead.

In 1991, Batistuta was selected to play for Argentina in the Copa América held in Chile, where he finished the tournament as top scorer with 6 goals as Argentina romped to victory. During the Copa América competition, the vice-president of Fiorentina was impressed by Batistuta’s skills and signed him for the Italian club. However, the following season Fiorentina were relegated to the Serie B division, despite Batistuta’s 13 season goals. The club returned to Serie A two years later, with the contribution of 16 Batistuta goals and managed by Claudio Ranieri.

In 1993, Batistuta played in his second Copa América, this time held in Ecuador, which Argentina again won. The 1994 FIFA World Cup, held in USA, was a disappointment: after a promising start Argentina were beaten by Romania in the last 16. The morale of the team was seriously affected by Diego Maradona’s doping suspension. Despite the disappointing Argentine exit, Batistuta scored 4 goals in as many games, including a hat-trick in their opening game against Greece.

On his return to Fiorentina, Batistuta found his best form. He was the top scorer of the 1994-95 season with 26 goals, and he broke Ezio Pascutti’s 30-year-old record by scoring in all of the first 11 matches of the season. In the 1995-96 season Fiorentina won the Italian Cup and Super Coppa.

During the qualification matches for the 1998 FIFA World Cup (with former River Plate manager Passarella now coaching the Argentinean national team) Batistuta was left out of the majority of the games after falling out with the coach. Playing in the World Cup finals themselves, he scored 5 goals in that competition, before Argentina lost 2-1 to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. In the game against Jamaica, he recorded the second hat trick of his World Cup career, becoming the 4th player to achieve this (the others were Sándor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, and Gerd Müller) and the first to score a hat trick in 2 World Cups.

After failure to win the Italian championship with Fiorentina, Batistuta started considering a transfer to a bigger team. In an effort to keep Batistuta, Fiorentina hired Giovanni Trapattoni as coach and promised to do everything to win the Scudetto. After an excellent start to the season, Batistuta suffered an injury that kept him out of action for more than a month. Losing momentum, Fiorentina lost the lead and finished the season in third place, which gave them the chance to participate in the Champions League in the following season.

[edit] Scudetto with AS Roma and last years
Batistuta stayed at Fiorentina for the 1999-00 season, tempted by the chance of winning both the Scudetto and the Champions League. After a promising start in both competitions, the team only reached seventh in the league and were eliminated in the second round group phase. The following season, he was transferred to A.S. Roma in a deal worth 35 million US dollars. Although a knee injury restricted his number of appearances, he scored 20 goals for A.S. Roma in his first season. He finally realized his dream of winning a major trophy as Roma clinched the Scudetto for the first time since 1983. The following season with A.S. Roma he changed his shirt number from #18 to #20 in reference to the number of goals he had scored during the Scudetto winning campaign. He also wore his age on the back of his Roma jersey in 2002, #33.
After a good series of performances by Argentina in the qualification matches for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, hopes were high that the South Americans - now managed by Marcelo Bielsa - could win the trophy, and Batistuta announced that he planned to quit the national team at the end of the tournament, which Argentina aimed to win. But Argentina’s “group of death” saw the team fall at the first hurdle, as poor results against Nigeria, England, and Sweden meant that the team was knocked out in the opening round for the first time since 1962.
Back in Italy, Batistuta failed to find form with Roma and was loaned out to Internazionale; however, he failed to make an impression and departed for Qatari team Al-Arabi Sports Club. In Qatar, he broke the record of most goals scored that was held by Qatari Legend Mansour Mouftah with by scoring 24 goals. He was awarded for being the top scorer in all Arab leagues in 2004 with a Golden Boot.[citation needed
Batistuta retired in 2005, and now lives in Perth, Australia. Despite having completed his coaching badges in Argentina, he currently has no involvement with football (instead he prefers to play golf). He has, however, recently expressed an interest in coaching Australia’s national team.

At the pinnacle of success, Weah moved to Europe in 1988 when he was signed by Arsène Wenger,[5] then manager of Monaco, who Weah credits as an important influence on his career.[6] At Monaco, Weah was a member of the team that won the French Cup in 1991. In the 1990s Weah subsequently played for Paris Saint Germain (1992 - 95), with whom he won the French league in 1994; and AC Milan (1995 - 1999), with whom he won the Italian league in 1996 and 1999. In 1995 he was named European Footballer of the Year and FIFA World Player of the Year. After leaving Milan in January 2000 Weah moved to Chelsea, Manchester City and Olympique Marseille in quick succession, before leaving Marseille in May 2001 for Al Jazira FC, in the United Arab Emirates.

As successful as he was at club level, Weah was not able to bring over that success to the Liberian national team. He has done everything with the squad from playing to coaching to financing it, but failed to qualify for a single World Cup, falling just a point short in qualifying for the 2002 tournament. This has all led to Weah being known as one of the best footballers never to have played in a World Cup.
George Weah is a Gooaltv Living legend.
few things he picked up while playing footy.
World Best Player 1995
African Player of the Year 1989,1994, & 1995
European Player of the Year 1995
African Player of the Century

Roberto Baggio (born 18 February 1967 in Caldogno, Veneto) is a retired Italian footballer, among the most Read the rest of this entry »

Augustine Azuka “Jay-Jay” Okocha (born August 14, 1973 in Enugu) is a Nigerian football midfielder, currently playing for Hull City. He was well known for being one of the best dribblers in the world at his prime.
Before signing with the English Premier League club Bolton Wanderers (where fans wore t-shirts that bore the legend “Jay Jay. So Good They Named Him Twice”), Okocha played for Paris Saint-Germain, Fenerbahçe, and Eintracht Frankfurt. In 2002 he was offered to Everton, however manager Walter Smith decided to sign David Ginola instead, as his salary would be heavily sponsored by Aston Villa. He was regularly selected for the Nigeria national football team from 1993 until 2006. He was also captain of the Super Eagles when he retired from international football at the 2006 African Cup of Nations.
Okocha has played at the 1994, 1998 (where he was named in the official team of the tournament), and 2002 FIFA World Cup finals and many African Nations Cup tournaments. He was also a member of the Nigerian team that won the golden medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
Jay jay Okocha is a Gooaltv Living Legend

Jürgen Klinsmann (born July 30, 1964 in Göppingen) is a German football manager and former football player, who played for several prominent clubs in Europe and was part of the German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He was one of Germany’s premier strikers during the 90s.
He managed the German national team to a third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup.
Klinsmann was born in Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg. He was first introduced to football at the age of eight, playing every position in his youth, including goalkeeper. He started his professional career at the age of seventeen at Stuttgarter Kickers, which at the time was a second division club. In 1984 he joined the more prestigious Stuttgart club VfB Stuttgart, a perennial first division member.
Besides playing for German clubs VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich, Klinsmann played abroad for Internazionale, AS Monaco, Tottenham Hotspur and Sampdoria. During this time he was under the tutelage of such coaches as Arsène Wenger and Giovanni Trapattoni, among others.

The first time he arrived at Tottenham he was not popular in England, partly because he played in the 1990 Germany team that knocked England out of the World Cup, and partly because of his reputation as a diver. After his Tottenham debut, when he poked fun at himself by diving across the pitch to celebrate his first goal, he became much more popular. One Guardian journalist, who had written an article called “Why I Hate Jürgen Klinsmann”, wrote another two months later called “Why I Love Jürgen Klinsmann”. Klinsmann went on to win the 1995

Diego Armando Maradona (born October 30, 1960) is a former Argentine football player. He played in four World Cups and received the people’s choice FIFA Player of the Century award, after being voted in 2000 in an internet poll on the organisation’s website to decide the best player of the 20th century.

Maradona won many trophies with Boca Juniors, FC Barcelona and SSC Napoli over the course of his career. During an international career that included 91 caps and 34 goals, he played in four FIFA World Cup tournaments, leading the Argentina national team to its victory over West Germany in 1986 World Cup, in which he collected the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player. He scored both goals in the 2-1 victory over England in the quarter-final of the ‘86 tournament. The first goal was an unpenalized handball known as the “Hand of God”, while the second goal was a spectacular 60-metre weave through six England players, commonly referred to as “The Goal of the Century” or, in Argentina, “The Cosmic Kite” (Spanish: El barrilete cósmico).
He is also considered one of the sport’s most controversial figures. Maradona was suspended for 15 months in 1991 after a failed doping test for cocaine in Italy, and then again for ephedrine during the 1994 World Cup in USA.
After retiring from playing on his 37th birthday in 1997,[3] he suffered ill health and weight gain, hardly helped by ongoing cocaine abuse. However, a stomach stapling operation helped control his weight gain. Since overcoming his cocaine addiction, he has become a TV host in Argentina.[4]

A product of Milan’s youth system, he spent 14 highly successful years with the club after debuting as a 17-year-old in 1989. Albertini spent part of the 1990/91 season on loan at Padova Calcio, but established himself in the Milan side in 1991/92 and went on to make almost 300 appearances for the club, claiming three successive Serie A titles between 1992 and 1994 and further league championships in 1996 and 1999. In addition, he made 41 Champions League appearances, helping the Rossoneri reach three consecutive finals between 1993 and 1995, lifting the trophy in 1994. He also won three UEFA Super Cups.

Albertini was at Milan from 1988 to 2002, after leaving Milan, Albertini bounced around different teams; he spent 2002-03 on loan to Atlético Madrid, 2003-04 with Lazio,[1] and started 2004-05 with Atalanta [2]before transferring to Barcelona in January.[3]

For the Italian national team, Albertini has been capped 79 times, scoring 3 goals. He made his debut on 21 December 1991. He played for his country at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups, Euro 96, and Euro 2000. In 1992 he competed with the national squad at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. He has also captained Italy on 6 occasions.
Demetrio Albertini is a Gooaltv Living Legend.

Zidane got an early start in football when he joined the junior team of US Saint-Henri, a local club in the La Castellane district of Marseille. At the age of fourteen, he left Septemes and participated in the first-year junior selection for the league championship, where he caught the attention of AS Cannes scout Jean Varraud. He went to Cannes for a six-week stay, but ended up remaining at the club for four years to play at the professional level. Zidane played his first Ligue 1 match at seventeen, and scored his first goal on 8 February 1991, for which he received a car as a gift from the team president. His first season with Cannes eventually culminated in a UEFA Cup berth.

Zidane transferred to FC Girondins de Bordeaux for the 1992-93 season, winning the 1995 Intertoto Cup and finishing runner-up in the 1995-96 UEFA Cup in four years with the club. He played a set of midfield combinations with Bixente Lizarazu and Christophe Dugarry, which would become the trademark of both Bordeaux and the 1998 French national team. In 1995, Blackburn Rovers coach Kenny Dalglish had expressed interest in signing both Zidane and Dugarry, to which team owner Jack Walker reportedly replied, “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”
if you played footbal,watched football, or even dream about it… then you should be able to finish this Living legends story…
Zinedine Zidane is a Gooaltv living legend.