Justin Bieber

Born: March 1, 1994 (age 19), London, Canada
Height: 5' 7" (1.70 m)
Parents: Pattie Mallette, Jeremy Bieber
Siblings: Jazmyn Bieber, Jaxon Bieber

Justin Drew Bieber was born March 1, 1994 is a Canadian pop musician, actor, and singer-songwriter. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by American talent manager Scooter Braun,who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with entertainer Usher Raymond in Atlanta, Georgia, Bieber was signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), and then to an Island Records recording contract offered by record executive L.A. Reid.

Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian pop musician, actor, and singer-songwriter. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by American talent manager Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager.

Bieber has received numerous awards, including both Artist of the Year Awards at the 2010 American Music Awards and the 2012 American Music Awards, and was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. With a global fan base, termed as "Beliebers", and over 40 million followers on Twitter, he was named by Forbes magazine in 2012 as the third-most powerful celebrity in the world. He had earned an estimated US$55 million in the previous 12 months. As of May 2012, Bieber has sold 15 million albums.

first artist to have seven songs from a debut record to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Bieber's first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, was released in March 2010. It debuted at or near number-one in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the single "Baby". He followed up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Bieber released his second studio album Under the Mistletoe in November 2011, when it debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200. Bieber released his third studio album Believe on June 19, 2012, and it became his fourth chart topper in the United States, debuting at number-one on the Billboard 200.

Early life

Justin Drew Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario, at St Joseph's Hospital, and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. He is the son of Jeremy Jack Bieber and Patricia "Pattie" Mallette. Bieber's mother was 17 years old when she became pregnant. His parents were never married, but maintain a close friendship and common goals regarding their son's personal and professional life. Mallette raised her son with the help of her mother, Diane, and stepfather, Bruce.

Interested in hockey, soccer, and chess, he kept his musical aspirations to himself. As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In early 2007, aged 12, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and was placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew.

Bieber's paternal great-grandfather was German.Bieber's mother's ancestry is French Canadian. He has stated that he believes that he has some undetermined Aboriginal Canadian ancestry. He attended a French-language immersion elementary school in Stratford, the Jeanne Sauvé Catholic School.

In September 2012, Mallette's memoirs, titled Nowhere but Up, were published. The book tells of her early life and her work with her son to pursue a career in the music industry. In her book, as well as in an interview with the Today show, Mallette talked about how everyone around her tried to push her toward abortion, and how she refused to abort her baby. Mallette worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a single mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, who married another woman and had two children.

Mario Balotelli

Born: August 12, 1990 (age 22), Palermo, Italy
Height: 6' 2" (1.89 m)
Salary: 4.5 million EUR (2013)
Parents: Rose Barwuah, Thomas Barwuah
Siblings: Enoch Barwuah, Abigail Barwuah, Angel Barwuah
Teams: Italy national football team (#9 / Forward), A.C. Milan (#45 / Forward)

In March 2010, he came under criticism by Inter fans after he appeared on the Italian TV show Striscia la notizia, wearing an A.C. Milan jersey. This damaged the prospect of him having a long career at Inter, but he did make several appearances after that. With doubts over his career at Inter, former coach Roberto Mancini had since moved to Manchester City and decided to give Balotelli a fresh chance at a new club. He joined Manchester City in August 2010, where his performances and off-field activities have continued to be enigmatic and unpredictable. Nicknamed Super Mario, he earned his first cap for the Italian national team on 10 August 2010 in a friendly match against the Côte d'Ivoire.

Mario Barwuah Balotelli  is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Milan and the Italian national team.He started his professional football career at Lumezzane and played for the first team twice before having an unsuccessful trial at FC Barcelona, and subsequently joining Internazionale in 2007. Inter manager Roberto Mancini brought Balotelli into the first team, but when Mancini left, Balotelli's disciplinary record fell away. He had a strained relationship with new head coach José Mourinho and was suspended from Inter's first team in January 2009 after a number of disciplinary problems.

Early life

Mario Balotelli was born in Palermo, Sicily, to Christian Ghanaian parents Thomas and Rose Barwuah. The family moved to Bagnolo Mella in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, shortly after he was born. As an infant, he had life-threatening complications with his intestines which led to a series of operations, although his condition had improved by 1992. Mario's health problems and the family's cramped living conditions meant the Barwuahs decided to ask for the help of social services who recommended that he be fostered.

In 1993, the Barwuah family agreed to entrust the three-year-old boy to an Italian foster family, the Balotellis. At first, he stayed at the Balotellis during the weekdays, and returned to his biological parents on weekends, but after a while it was arranged for him to be permanently fostered by the Balotellis. His foster parents, Silvia and Francesco Balotelli, who have Jewish Italian heritage, lived in a large house in the affluent village of Concesio, Brescia. When Mario Balotelli became famous, his biological parents asked for his return. He later accused them of "glory hunting", stating that they only wanted him back because of the prominence he had gained. According to Law 91 of 5 February 1992, Balotelli had to wait until his 18th birthday to request Italian citizenship, as the Balotellis had not adopted him. Balotelli officially gained citizenship in Concesio on 13 August 2008. After the ceremony he released the following statement:

Gerard Piqué

Born: February 2, 1987 (age 26), Barcelona, Spain
Height: 6' 4" (1.92 m)
Partner: Shakira (2011–)
Salary: 3.96 million EUR (2012)
Teams: FC Barcelona (#3 / Defender), Spain national football team (Defender)
Parents: Joan Piqué, Montserrat Bernabeu


Gerard Piqué i Bernabeu  born 2 February 1987) is a Spanish footballer who plays as a central defender for FC Barcelona.

A product of Barça's cantera, he initially left the club for Manchester United in 2004, where he remained for four years, before returning to Barça under Pep Guardiola's leadership, helping the club become the first ever to complete a Sextuple. Piqué is one of four players to have won the UEFA Champions League two years in a row with different teams, the others being Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa and Samuel Eto'o.

Piqué has also represented Spain, making his debut on 11 February 2009. He played an integral role in the Spain team that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012.

Wayne Rooney

Born: October 24, 1985 (age 27), Croxteth, United Kingdom
Salary: 15.61 million GBP (2012)
Spouse: Coleen Rooney (m. 2008)
Children: Kai Wayne Rooney
Siblings: John Rooney, Graham Rooney
Teams: Manchester United F.C. (#10 / Forward), England national football team (#10 / Forward)

Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.

In 2009–10, Rooney was awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year. He has won the Premier League Player of the Month award five times, a record he shares with Steven Gerrard. He came fifth in the vote for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or and was named in the FIFPro World 11 for 2011. Rooney has won the 'Goal of the Season' award by the BBC's Match of the Day poll on three occasions, with his bicycle kick against rivals Manchester City winning the 'Premier League Goal of the 20 Seasons' award. Rooney is the third highest-paid footballer in the world after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with an annual income of €20.7 million (£18 million) including sponsorship deals.

Aged nine, Rooney joined the youth team of Everton, for whom he made his professional debut in 2002. He spent two seasons at the Merseyside club, before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 million in the 2004 summer transfer window. The same year, Rooney acquired the nickname "Wazza". Since then, with Rooney in the team, United have won the Premier League four times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and two League Cups. He also holds two runner-up medals from the Champions League and has twice finished second in the Premier League. In April 2012, Rooney scored his 180th goal, making him United's fourth-highest goal-scorer of all time.

Rooney made his senior international debut in 2003, becoming the youngest player to represent England (a record since broken by Theo Walcott). He is England's youngest ever goalscorer.He played at UEFA Euro 2004 and scored four goals, briefly becoming the competition's youngest goalscorer. Rooney featured at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and is widely regarded as his country's best player. He has won the England Player of the Year award twice, in 2008 and 2009. As of June 2013, he has won 83 international caps and scored 36 goals, making him England's fifth highest goalscorer in history. Along with David Beckham, Rooney is the most red carded player for England, having been sent off twice.

Early life

Rooney was born in Croxteth, Liverpool to Thomas Wayne and Jeanette Marie (née Morrey) Rooney. He is of Irish descent and was brought up as a Roman Catholic with younger brothers Graham and John;all three attended Our Lady and St Swithin's primary school and the De La Salle Humanities College. He grew up supporting his local club Everton.

Alex Morgan

Born: July 2, 1989 (age 23), Diamond Bar, California, United States
Height: 5' 8" (1.73 m)
Weight: 137 lbs (62 kg)
Salary: 70,000 USD (2012)
Books: Saving the Team
Education: Diamond Bar High School, University of California, Berkeley


Alexandra Patricia "Alex" Morgan (born July 2, 1989) is an American soccer player and and Olympic Gold medalist. She is a forward for National Women's Soccer League club Portland Thorns FC and the U.S. Women's National Team. Morgan was drafted number one overall in the 2011 WPS Draft by the Western New York Flash. She was the youngest player on the USA's roster at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. At the 2012 London Olympics, her game-winning goal in the 123rd minute against Canada was Morgan's team-high 20th in 2012, becoming only the sixth and youngest U.S. player to do so in a single year. Morgan finished 2012 with 28 goals and 21 assists, joining Mia Hamm as the only American women to score 20 goals and 20 assists in the same calendar year, and was named U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year.

Morgan has a deal with Simon & Schuster to write The Kicks, a middle-grade book series about four soccer-playing girls. In May 2013, the first book in the series, Saving the Team (ISBN 1442485701), debuted at number seven on the The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Middle Grade.

Early life and collegiate career

Morgan was born in Diamond Bar,California, the daughter of Pamela S. (née Jeske) and Michael T. Morgan. She was a multisport athlete growing up, but did not begin playing club-team soccer until she was 14, several years later than most players who go on to reach the elite levels of the sport. Within three years she was called into the U-17 and U-20 national team. She attended Diamond Bar High School, where she was a three-time all-league pick and was named an NSCAA All-American.

Morgan is third all-time in goals scored (45) and points (107) for the Golden Bears. She graduated from UC Berkeley one semester early, with a degree in Political Economy.

After being named a candidate for the Hermann Trophy Watch list in her junior year, Morgan became the first California player to ever be named one of the top-three Hermann Trophy finalists. She was also one of four finalists for the Honda Sports Award, given to the best overall candidate in each sport.

As a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, Morgan was the leading scorer. Her last goal of her freshman season came against Stanford in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, tying the game at 1–1 with less than two minutes left in regulation time and forcing the Cardinal into overtime and then to penalty kicks. Despite continued absences due to U.S. national team commitments (2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and then the senior team) throughout her collegiate career, she still led the team in scoring and to the NCAA Tournament in each of her four years, advancing to the second round twice.

International career

Alex Morgan of the United States Women's National Soccer Team in Frisco, Texas
Due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury that slowed her progress in 2007, Morgan was not called up to train with the United States under-20 women's national soccer team until April 2008. Her first appearance for the U-20s came at the 2008 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship in Puebla, Mexico, where she scored her first international goal against Cuba.

She has been capped by the senior national team, first appearing as a substitute in a match versus Mexico in March 2010, and scored her first international goal after coming on as a substitute against China, which salvaged a 1–1 draw in October 2010. Her most important goal to date came a month later in a crucial road game against Italy. After entering the match in the 86th minute, she scored in the fourth minute of added time to give the United States a 1–0 victory over Italy in the first leg of a playoff to qualify for the final spot for the Women's World Cup.

Morgan was named to the United States U-20 women's national team that competed in the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Chile, scoring a total of four goals in the tournament against France, Argentina and North Korea. Morgan's fourth goal of the tournament was a match-winner that gave the U.S. a gold medal, which subsequently voted the best goal of the tournament, and later FIFA's second-best goal of the year. Morgan's performance on the field earned her the Bronze Shoe as the tournament's third-highest scorer and the Silver Ball as the tournament's second-best player behind teammate Sydney Leroux.

Fernando Torres

Born: March 20, 1984 (age 29), Fuenlabrada, Spain
Height: 6' 0" (1.83 m)
Spouse: Olalla Domínguez Liste (m. 2009)
Salary: 13.9 million GBP (2012)
Children: Nora Torres, Leo Torres
Teams: Spain national football team (#9 / Forward), Chelsea F.C. (#9 / Forward)


Fernando José Torres Sanz ( born 20 March 1984),  is a Spanish footballer who plays as a striker for Chelsea and the Spain national team.

Torres is a Spanish international and made his debut against Portugal in 2003. He has since participated in five major tournaments; UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2008, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012. Torres did not score at Euro 2004, but netted three at the 2006 World Cup. He scored twice at UEFA Euro 2008, including the winning goal for Spain in their 1–0 win over Germany in the final. He went on to win the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 with Spain, scoring no goals in the former, and scoring three goals in the latter to win the Golden Boot, as part of the historic Spain side which won three consecutive major tournaments.

He joined Premier League club Liverpool in 2007, after signing for a club record transfer fee. He marked his first season at Anfield by being Liverpool's first player since Robbie Fowler in the 1995–96 season to score more than 20 league goals in a season. Torres became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals. He left the club in January 2011 to join Chelsea for a record British transfer fee of £50 million, which made him the most expensive Spanish player in history. In his first full season at Chelsea, Torres was integral in the club winning the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League, despite receiving criticism for a comparatively low goal-scoring record. The following season he scored in the final of the 2012-13 UEFA Europa League, helping Chelsea to win the competition for the first time. On 15th May 2013, Torres won the UEFA Europa League with Chelsea, joining team-mate Juan Mata to become the first players to have held all 4 of the Champions League, Europa League, World Cup and the European Championships simultaneously.

Torres started his career with Atlético Madrid, progressing through their youth system to the first team squad. He made his first team debut in 2001 and finished his time at the club having scored 75 goals in 174 La Liga appearances. Prior to his La Liga debut, Torres played two seasons in the Segunda División for Atlético Madrid, making 40 appearances and scoring seven goals.

Early career

Born in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Torres became interested in football as a child and joined his first team, Parque 84, at the age of five. His father José Torres worked during Torres' childhood, and his mother Flori Sanz travelled daily with him to training sessions.[6] His grandfather was not a passionate football fan, but took pride in being an Atlético Madrid supporter, and Torres inherited his love for the club.

Torres started playing football as a goalkeeper, the position his brother played in. When he was seven years old, however, he started playing regularly as a striker in an indoor league for the neighbourhood club, Mario's Holland, using the characters from the anime Captain Tsubasa as inspiration. Three years later, aged 10, he progressed to an 11-side team, Rayo 13. He scored 55 goals in a season and was one of three Rayo 13 players to earn a trial with Atlético. He impressed the scouts and joined the club's youth system at the age of 11 in 1995.

Neymar

Born: February 5, 1992 (age 21), Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, Brazil
Height: 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Weight: 143 lbs (65 kg)
Salary: 10.42 million USD (2012)
Teams: Brazil national football team (#11 / Forward), FC Barcelona (Forward)
Parents: Nadine Santos, Neymar da Silva Sr


Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior  born 5 February 1992), commonly known as Neymar, is a Brazilian footballer who most recently played in the Brasileirão Série A for Santos and the Brazilian national team, mainly as a forward. In May 2013, he reached an agreement to join FC Barcelona on a five-year contract.

Neymar is a Brazilian international, having represented Brazil at Under-17, Under-20 and senior levels. On 10 August 2010, at the age of 18, he made his debut for the Seleção in a friendly match against the United States; he scored from a header in the 28th minute, contributing to Brazil's 2–0 win. He was the top scorer of the 2011 South American Youth Championship with nine goals, including two in the final, in the 6–0 win against Uruguay, helping Brazil to win their 11th title in this competition.

Neymar joined Santos in 2003 and, after rising through the ranks, was promoted to their first team squad. He made his debut for Santos in 2009, and was voted the Best Young Player of the 2009 Campeonato Paulista. Further honours followed, with Neymar being voted best player as Santos won the 2010 Campeonato Paulista, and also being top scorer in the 2010 Copa do Brasil with 11 goals. He finished the 2010 season with 42 goals in 60 games as his club achieved the Double. Neymar was again voted best player of the year in 2011 as his side retained the state title and Santos also winning the 2011 Copa Libertadores in which Neymar scored 6 goals in 13 appearances. He also played a key role in securing a Continental Double for his team, Santos' first since 1963. He received the Bronze Ball in the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, with Santos making it to the final, where they were defeated by Barcelona, 4–0.

At the age of 19, Neymar won the 2011 South American Footballer of the Year award, after coming third in 2010. He followed this up by winning it again in 2012. In 2011 Neymar received nominations for the FIFA Ballon d'Or, where he came 10th, and the FIFA Puskás Award, which he won. He is known for his acceleration, speed, dribbling and finishing. His playing style has earned him critical acclaim, with fans, media and former players drawing comparisons to Argentine forward Lionel Messi and former Brazil player Pelé, who has called Neymar "an excellent player".

Early life

Neymar da Silva Santos, Júnior was born in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo, to Neymar da Silva, Sr. and Nadine Santos. He inherited his name from his father, who is a former footballer and became his son's advisor as Neymar's talents began to grow. Neymar comments on his father's role "My father has been by my side since I was little. He takes care of things, my finances and my family." Growing up, Neymar combined his love of futsal with street football.

In 1992, Neymar moved with his family to São Vicente, where he began playing for youth side Portuguesa Santista. Then, in 2003, they moved to Santos, where Neymar joined Santos FC. With the success of his youth career and added income, the family bought their first property, a house next to the Vila Belmiro. Their quality of family life improved, as at age 15, Neymar was earning 10,000 reais per month and at 16, 25,000 reais per month. At 17, he signed a full professional contract, getting upgraded to the Santos first team and even receiving sponsorships.