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1-8 of 8
- Alan Hansen was a formidable defender during his playing days. He was also the first outfield player to win English league titles in three different decades. Since retiring he has become one of the most respected and knowledgeable pundits on the beautiful game.
His first club as a professional was Scottish team Partick Thistle, where his brother John Hansen already played. Alan and John also played together before signing professional contracts with Partick Thistle at non league club, Sauchie Juniors.
It didn't take long for Alan to break into the Partick Thistle first team. His intelligence and defensive talents began to attract attention from bigger clubs, including Bob Paisley's Liverpool. A move to one of the country's top clubs was beckoning.
He transferred to Liverpool at a cost of £110,000, and made his debut on the 24th September, 1977, in a league match at Anfield against Derby County.
As an integral part of the great Liverpool side of the late 70s and early to mid- 80s, Alan's record of achievement with the Merseyside giants is impressive.
His first full international cap came on the 19th May, 1979, in a British Home Championship match against Wales. He also represented his country at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain, however, Scotland failed to progress beyond the qualifying group due to drawing 2-2 with the USSR.
In total he received 26 caps for Scotland- not a lot for a defender of such considerable talent. This was in part due to the already formidable central defensive partnership of Willie Miller and Alex McLeish, who also played together at Aberdeen.
Given his exceptional footballing brain, it wasn't long after his retirement that Sky Television employed Hansen as a pundit and summariser. He then moved to BBC Radio 5 Live before taking up his most well-known role as a pundit for Match of the Day.
He is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph, Telegraph.co.UK and the BBC website on football issues and has also worked as a motivational speaker.
He is represented in the UK by Useful Sports. - Brian Turner is a renowned celebrity chef who has appeared as a cook on BBC2's ever-popular Ready Steady Cook since 1994, as well as, presenting other cookery programmes. The popular TV chef has worked at, and launched, many restaurants in London. Most notably, Brian opened The Greenhouse restaurant in Mayfair, which was a stamping ground for chefs including Gary Rhodes, Shaun Hill and Paul Merrett. In 2002, Brian was awarded a CBE for his services to the catering industry.
He trained at some of the most prestigious hotels and restaurants, including Simpson's in the Strand and The Savoy Grill, both under Richard Shepard. His early mentor, though, was the late food writer and broadcaster Michael Smith. He went onto the 'Beau Rivage Palace' in Lausanne, returning to England to work at Claridge's and then in 1971 the Capital Hotel where Turner and Richard Shepherd earned a Michelin star.
It was during the early 1970s that Brian had a break from hands on cooking to work as a Chef Lecturer, teaching others the skills that he was already becoming a master at.
Then in 1986, Brian opened his own restaurant Turner's, in Walton Street, Knightsbridge, London, which he ran successfully until it was sold in 2001. But a year later Brian Turner's Restaurant opened at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Birmingham's NEC, and in April 2003 Brian launched 'Brian Turner Mayfair' at the Millennium Hotel, London Mayfair. The restaurant serves modern British food, within a relaxed and comfortable environment, quality at a reasonable price. It was also in that year that he invented the 'Brian Turner - S & C' which is a type of snack-food.
A chef of considerable talent, Brian has collected a number of awards and accolades during his career. He has been awarded the Craft Guild of Chef's Special Award for achievement within the industry together with the Caterer and hotel-keeper Catey Award for 'Chef of the Year', as well as, the 'Wedgwood Award' for outstanding services to the hospitality industry. He has also received an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University for his services to catering
He has also been the Chairman of the Academy of Culinary Arts for nine years and is the chairman of the UK Hospitality Skills Board.
Despite all of this hard-work, Brian is heavily committed to various charities, having run the London Marathon for the benefit of Aids victims, walked The Moonwalk for Breast Cancer and ridden at Windsor Racecourse for The Princess Trust for Carers he still finds time to do work for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust of which he is a main board member and other charities as well. He is represented in the UK by Useful Talent, who are based in London. - Charles Van Commenee was born June 22nd 1958, and grew up in Osdorp, a borough of Amsterdam. From an early age he was instilled with a strong work ethic. He competed in the decathlon and the 200 metres as a young man but a hamstring injury forced him to give up the sport.
His first foray into the world of athletics came at the age of 18 when he began teaching children whilst he was studying for a degree in physical education, and this was to have a lasting impact. After he had completed his military service in 1981, he decided to dedicate himself to coaching full time and in 1987 he was appointed as the coach for the Dutch javelin team.
Building upon his coaching success, in 1992 he was promoted to technical director of combined events and throws by the Dutch athletics federation. He took on other coaching responsibilities, including a brief stay in China where he met shotput thrower Huang Zhihong.
His first involvement with UK athletics came in 1994 when he started working with British athlete Denise Lewis, who, Under the guidance of Charles, would go on to become champion at both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships in 1998 before taking a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Denise took gold to become Olympic Champion. She put much of her success and 'drive to win' down to the fact that Charles had been so focused.
Following his continued success with many of Britain's top athletes, Charles was in 2004 considered for the position of UK Athletics head of performance. Ultimately however, Charles decided to leave the UK in favour of becoming Performance Director of the Netherlands Olympic Committee. He went onto lead the country to their second-highest ever Olympic medal tally at the 2008 Beijing Olympic. A year later he returned to the UK to take up the position of head coach.
Today he is one of the world's leading experts on Performance Management. He is represented in the UK by Useful Sports. - Clarence was born in Suriname and is widely considered as one of the 'greats' of modern football. He has been a permanent fixture in the Dutch international squad for a number of years and is the first player to have won the Champions League four times and with three different clubs - Ajax in 1995, Real Madrid in 1998 and Milan in 2003 and 2007.
He made his professional debut on 29th November 1992 against Groningen at the age of 16, making him the youngest debutant for Ajax ever! Even at the tender age of 16 Clarence was setting records and it was only 2 years after this that he was called up to represent the Dutch national squad, at the age of 18. He scored on his debut, helping his team to a 5-0 victory in a Euro 1996 qualifying match.
He went on to become a key player in Ajax's midfield and helped them to their 1995 UEFA Champions League winning campaign.
This sparked interest in the talented midfielder from Europe's biggest clubs. In 1996 he moved to Real Madrid where he became a mainstay for 3 seasons in an incredibly talented midfield. In his first season, he helped Madrid regain the La Liga title; in his second season (1997-98), he played a major role in the team's Champions League success, as Real Madrid secured a 1-0 victory over Juventus in the final, earning his second Champions League title of his career.
At the end of the 2006-07 season, Seedorf was voted as the best midfielder in the Champions League. He played his 100th game in the Champions League on 4 December against Celtic.
In recent years Clarence has done a lot of media-related work, becoming a familiar face in the punditry world. He joined the BBC's team covering the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, working as a television pundit. He has also presented a number of features for the BBC, including one about Robben Island. He also joined the BBC for their Match of the Day Live coverage of the 2012 UEFA European Championship in Poland and Ukraine.
Clarence has strong connections to Suriname (where he was born) and has been involved in many social development projects there. He built his own "Clarence Seedorf Stadium" in the district of Para and the teams of the Suri Profs & Brothers play there regularly. With his Champions for Children Foundation he supports projects for good causes in Suriname.
For this, Suriname has honoured him to Commandor of the High-Order of the Yellow Star and recently in 2011 the Netherlands also honoured him to Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau (OON). - Lee is a former England international defender and a core member of Arsenal's famously impenetrable defence of the '80s and '90s.
Although most associated with Arsenal, Lee was a childhood Manchester City fan and played for a number of clubs before progressing to top-flight football. He started with an apprenticeship at Burnley before moving to Chester City, then to Bury and Stoke City, before being signed by Arsenal boss George Graham in January 1988. Dixon made his debut for Arsenal against Luton Town in February 1988.
His impressive statistics as an Arsenal player tallied up to 458 league appearances with 25 goals--not bad for a full-back!
Both he and Tony Adams retired from football after Arsenal's 2002 double-winning season. Only Seaman and Keown then remained at the club from the defensive group Dixon had become associated with at Arsenal.
He was also named in the PFA Team of the Year twice, for the seasons 1989-90 and 1990-91.
He had a fruitful international career, winning 22 caps, with his last appearance for England being in 1999 at Wembley against France.
Since his playing retirement, Dixon has worked as a football pundit and columnist. He began his television career working for the BBC, primarily on their Match of the Day and Football Focus programmes, but moved to ITV Sport in July 2012.
He is also known for his charitable work, joining Lawrence Dallaglio in a sponsored bike ride for Sport Relief which raised over £986,000 for the charity.
Alongside his media work, Lee also has a number of business interests including a restaurant and involvement in a property company advising footballers on their property investments. - Often cited as the best referee of his generation by players and fans alike, Pierluigi Collina was respected for his no-nonsense approach to officiating. He is instantly recognizable as he contracted a severe form of alopecia, resulting in the permanent loss of all his hair, giving him his distinctive bald appearance and earning the nickname Kojak. Coincidentally, this happened around the same time that he began refereeing more high-profile matches in the Italian Serie A League (about 1988).
He grew up in Bologne and graduated with a degree in economics from the University of Bologne in 1984. During his teenage years, he played as a central defender for a local team, but was persuaded in 1977 to take a referee's course, where it was discovered that he had a particular aptitude for the job.
Given his natural ability as a referee it didn't take him long to climb through the ranks, and within 3 years he was officiating in top-flight football. All achieved whilst completing his compulsory military service.
After taking charge of 43 Serie A matches he was placed on FIFA's Referees List--this being the pinnacle of any football referee's career. He was allocated five matches at the 1996 Olympic Games, including the final between Nigeria and Argentina.
Then, within the space of 3 years, Pierluigi was placed in charge of the world's 2 biggest football matches; the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final between Bayern Munich and Manchester United, and the 2002 World Cup final between Brazil and Germany.
In his book Le mie regole del gioco ("my rules", not "the rules"), Pierluigi writes about his preparations before a match, which perhaps give some insight into why he was such a top referee. He was a stickler for detail and always tried to find out as much as possible about the teams, the players, the style of play, and the history between the teams. He knew beforehand what a coach would do when his team was a goal behind, and he even wanted to know whether the players were left or right footed!
He met his future wife Gianna in 1988 in Versilia and after living together for a while they moved to the coastal town of Viareggio. The couple have since had 2 children.
Pierluigi is famous the world over, particularly in Japan after appearing in a TV commercial for frozen takoyaki products. He also officiated the Second Round match between Japan and Turkey at the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
He retired in 2005 after refereeing his last major international tournament, Euro 2004.
His love for football continued after his retirement and he acts as a non-paid consultant to the Italian Football Referees Association (AIA), and is a member of the UEFA Referees Committee. He has also been the head of referees for the Football Federation of Ukraine since 2010. He is represented in London by Useful Sports Agency. - Steve was born in Drogheda, Ireland, but lived in Dundalk County Louth, and attended the De La Salle College Dundalk. As well as playing soccer for his home club of Dundalk, he played Gaelic football, appearing for Louth's U-16 team.
After starting his career at his home club of Dundalk, Steve signed to Liverpool in 1986 after being scouted. He had a fruitful 5 years at the legendary club, winning the FA Cup in 1989, before transferring to Aston Villa where he soon became a regular in Villa's defence. This was the start of a yo-yo career for Staunton--he would move between Liverpool and Villa a number of times before his retirement.
The following season, he won a League Cup winners medal when he helped Villa beat favourites Manchester United 3-1.
Over the next two seasons he was once again a regular in defence, including Villa's run to the UEFA Cup quarter finals in 1996-97. In the league he helped them to a fifth place finish in 1996-97 and seventh in 1997-98.
Given his successes with Aston Villa, Liverpool were keen to re-sign the left-footed maestro and in July 1998 he moved back to Anfield where he remained for two years.
He joined Coventry City in 2003 where he remained until 2005, making 75 appearances. He then joined Walsall where he also held the post of assistant coach until January 2006, when he was appointed manager of the Republic of Ireland senior international side.
Staunton made his debut for the Republic of Ireland in the 4-0 friendly win over Tunisia. He played in every Republic of Ireland game of the 2002 World Cup and on 5th June became the first Irishman to have reached a century of caps for the Republic of Ireland national team and announced his retirement from international football after setting a national record of 102 appearances.
From 2006-2007 Steve managed the Republic of Ireland international team, before being replaced by Giovanni Trapattoni. He then went on to manage Leeds United before being appointed manager of Darlington in October 2009. - Vicky Butler-Henderson grew up on her family's farm, and was educated at the independent Perse School for Girls in Cambridge.
Racing was a big part of her upbringing and she was immersed in the culture from a young age. Her grandfather used to race a Frazer Nash at Brooklands and her father was in the British karting team. Her brother Charlie is also a racing driver. The only member of her direct family who in not involved with racing is her older sister, Charlotte.
She started racing karts when she was twelve, competing in one race that featured David Coulthard. After several years spent competing around Britain, at the tender age of 17 she started her career as a racing instructor at circuits such as Brands Hatch and Silverstone, as well as spending a year living and working at Knockhill in Scotland.
She has competed in series such as Formula First and the 2000 Pentel Ginetta Championship. She has also raced in many other events, such as the Porsche Cup, Radicals, the Speyside Stages Rally, a combine harvester race, a 24 hour 2CV race and, on two occasions, as navigator for ITV's Formula One pit reporter Louise Goodman, in the Rallye Sunseeker. In 2001 Vicki raced a Honda Formula Four-Stroke speedboat off of France.
She went on to win the Maserati Trofeo race with her co-driver and fellow journalist, Matthew Marsh. Vicky described the event as one of the best moments of her life. It was a historic moment as she was the first woman ever to win a race in a Maserati.
She made her television debut in 1994, racing a Ford Fiesta at Brands Hatch in a one-off piece for BBC2's Top Gear and was a regular presenter from 1997 until December 2001, during which time she also presented Top Gear GTI for UK Horizons. A year later she moved to five's new Fifth Gear programme to join fellow presenters Tiff Needell, Jason Plato and Tom Ford as well as presenting coverage of the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) for ITV.
Other than her presenting work, she is also a successful journalist and has written for; Car Mechanics magazine, Carweek magazine, Auto Express magazine and What Car?. She also helped launch Max Power magazine and was a regular contributor to Top Gear Magazine. She has also written for a string of national newspapers, such as The Daily Telegraph and The Times.