who do u think is best looking football player  

The quarterback for the Arizona cardinals is pretty hot -- Matt Leinart.

well not a keen follower of foot ball so not much to discuss i guess

yeah i think brazil captain kaka is the best footballer in terms of glamour....he has good look...smart and stylish
then the christiano ronaldo also abit okey.....but kaka stands on top

kaka, totti

Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (born April 22, 1982 in Brasília), better known as Kaká, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Brazil and the Serie A club A.C. Milan.
Early life

Kaká was born in Brasília, Brazil on the 22nd of April, 1982 to Simone Cristina dos Santos Leite and Bosco Izecson Pereira Leite. He has a younger brother, Rodrigo Ifrano dos Santos Leite, known as Digão, who has followed in Kaká's footsteps by playing football in Italy.

His nickname Kaká, from his native Portuguese, is pronounced as it is spelled, with the stress being on the second syllable as the accent signifies. It is a commonly used shortened form of "Ricardo" in Brazil [1], however, Kaká received his nickname from his little brother, Rodrigo, who could not pronounce the word "Ricardo" when they were young. Rodrigo called his older brother "Caca" which was later changed to "Kaká". [2]

In September, 2000, at the age of 18, Kaká suffered a career-threatening and possibly paralysis-inducing spine fracture as a result of a pool accident. The worst did not occur, however, and Kaká fully recovered from the incident. One year later Kaká made his comeback on the pitch, when he came in as a reserve-substute in the Tornero Rio Final. His team was down by one goal when the coach decided to put on the reserve, Kaká with 14 minutes left. The commentators were going crazy and said that there was some possibility that the Sao Paulo coach was crazy, but after two minutes Kaká had scored two goals and taken his team to a victory. He attributes his recovery to God and has since tithed his income to his church.[3]

Career

Club career

Kaká made his debut at São Paulo FC in 2001 when he was 18 years old. In the first season, he scored 12 goals in 27 appearances, and 10 goals in 22 appearances in the following season. At the age of 17, while he was still at the youth squad, Sao Paulo was set to sell Kaká to Turkish 1st division side Gaziantepspor. The deal did not occur, however, because the manager of Gaziantepspor, Nurullah Saglam, and the clubs board refused to pay a price of $1.5m for the 17 year old.[citation needed] After joining São Paulo FC senior squad, his performance attracted attention from European clubs.

He joined AC Milan in 2003 for US $8.5 m, a fee described in hind-sight as "peanuts" by club owner Silvio Berlusconi.[4] Within a month, he became a first team regular, and he has been a starter ever since. He debuted in Serie A in an away match against Ancona, which Milan won 2-0. He scored 10 goals in 30 appearances that season, winning the Italian Serie A Championship and the European Super Cup.

Kaká was an integral part of the five-man midfield in the 2004-05 season, usually playing in a withdrawn role behind striker Andriy Shevchenko. He scored 7 goals in 36 league appearances, and also won the Italian Super Cup with the club. Milan finished second to Juventus in the Serie A, and lost the UEFA Champions League final to Liverpool on penalty kicks. He was voted the best midfielder of the Champions League tournament. He also ended up in the ninth place in the 2005 Golden Ball poll, earning 19 votes.

One of Kaká's most notable goals has been the one against Fenerbahçe SK in the AC Milan's first game in the 2005-06 Champions League, won 3-1 by the Rossoneri. It had pundits draw instant comparisons to Diego Maradona, as Kaká started his run from the midfield and skipped past three tackles before entering the area and finishing with a low shot under Fenerbahçe goalkeeper Volkan Demirel.

On April 9, 2006, he scored his first Rossoneri hat-trick against Chievo Verona. All three goals were scored in the second half.

In 2006, Real Madrid showed an interest in signing the 24 year old star, but Milan refused to sell. Kaká signalled his intention to stay by signing a contract extension until 2011.

On November 1, 2006, AC Milan moved to within a point of the UEFA Champions League knockout stages as Kaká scored a hat-trick to help the team win 4-1 against RSC Anderlecht. This was his second hat-trick at Milan and his first hat-trick in European competitions.

Best player in the world In 2006 Kaká was considered by many experts and journalists that he was the best player in the world. A poll by the Brazilian magazine O`globo was made with the question who's the best player in the world? The results showed that Kaká got 81,5% of the votes, while Ronaldinho got 11%. Other discussions took place on Gazzeta dello sport, the Italian giant, where the same topic was brought up. Kaká won also there and was claimed to be the best player in the world, the panel in gazzeta dello sport was a group of experts.

In November 2006 Kakás coach Carlo Ancelotti made a statement that Kaká should win the golden ball that year.

International career

Kaká made his international debut in January 2002 against Bolivia. He was a part of the national squad which won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but did not see much action playing just 19 minutes of the first round match against Costa Rica. In 2003, he was the captain for the Gold Cup tournament in the US and Mexico, leading Brazil to the second place and scoring key goals against Colombia. Later, he was in action at the 2005 Confederations Cup, with Kaká scoring in the Confederation Cup final win over Argentina. (During the postmatch celebration, he and several of his teammates sported T-shirts with "Jesus Loves You" written in different languages.) He finished in joint tenth place in the voting for the 2004 FIFA World Player of the Year award. In the 2005 competition he finished two places higher. More recently, he helped Brazil qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Kaká has matured as a player and is currently considered as one of the best footballers from Brazil. He scored Brazil's first goal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Croatia on 13 June 2006. On 3 September 2006 he scored one of his most brilliant goals for the Brazilian team after assisting a goal to a new team addition, Elano. Kaká received the ball off a deflection from an Argentina corner kick, and took the ball 3/4 of the field to score. On 15 November 2006, Kaká was chosen as Brazil captain for a friendly match against Switzerland in the absence of current Brazil captain Lucio due to injury.

2006 World Cup

In the first match for Brazil, in group F, Kaká scored a goal in the 44th minute against Croatia. A left-foot strike from 25 meters led Brazil to the 1-0 victory. The media regarded him as the only member of the "magic quintet" – Adriano, Kaká, Ronaldo, Robinho and Ronaldinho – who produced in the match. Also against Ghana he wrote himself into the history books by assisting the goal that Ronaldo broke Gerd Müller's World Cup goalscoring record with. He was unable to carry his momentum into the next match and Brazil were eliminated by France in the quarter finals.

Personal life

Kaká married Caroline Celico at the Reborn in Christ Church on December 23, 2005, two years after Kaká's move from São Paulo to Milan. Caroline was born on 26 July 1987 to Rosangela Lyra, the director of Dior in Brazil, and Celso Celico, an entrepreneur. She and Kaká met in 2001 while she was a student and he was playing for the São Paulo Football Club. The wedding was attended by about 600 people, including fellow Brazilian footballers Cafu, Ronaldo, Adriano, Dida, Júlio Baptista and (then) Brazilian national coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. Caroline plans to earn a business degree from a university in Milan.[5]

Kaká is a devout evangelical Christian. [6]

He is known to sport Christian gear from time to time: he has worn an "I Belong to Jesus" t-shirt on several occasions during matches, such as during the Brazilian team's celebration after their 2002 World Cup victory, and during Milan's Scudetto celebration in May 2004. He wears shoes customised with the same words written on them. [7] Every time he scores he points his fingers to the sky as a sign of thanks to God, and, in what is possibly a first for a footballer at his level, he is proud that he was a virgin when he married.[8]

Trivia
Kaká is of Portuguese descent.
In Italian, the language of his current club team, the phonetic equivalent is written as Kakà. However, the player's shirt name is spelled KAKA' (with an apostrophe, rather than an accented 'A') for both his club in Milan and in the past for the Brazilian national team. In the World Cup 2006, the back of his shirt read KAKÁ.
Kaká is a member of the "Athletes of Christ" organization. [9]
Since November 2004, Kaká has been an Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme. He was the youngest ambassador at the time of his appointment
Kaká's favourite music is gospel music. [10]
Kaká's motto in life is "I belong to Jesus" and "God is faithful", which he has stitched onto the tongue of his Adidas boots. [11]
Kakás favourite book is the Bible
In his freetime he likes to be in church, read the bible, and be with his family, particularly his younger brother Digao.
Adriano, Kaká's teammate in the international side, said that he holds Kaká as one of his soccer idols.
Kaká has many times been called "the new pele" or the "white pelé"
Pelé once described him as having Brazilian technique combined with European strentgh, which is why he has been so successful in Italy.
On February 12, 2007, Kaká obtained the Italian citizenship.[12]

Honours

Club
Torneo Rio 2001
Supercampionato Paulista 2002
European Super Cup: 2003
Serie A: 2004
Italian Super Cup: 2004
UEFA Champions League 2004-05: Runners-up

International
FIFA World Cup: 2002
Confederations Cup: 2005

Individual honours
Bola de Ouro (Golden Ball; Best Player Of Brazilian League), 2002
UEFA Club Football Awards 2004-05, Best Midfielder
Premio A.I.C. Miglior Giocatore Assoluto (Absolute best player): 2003/2004

Michael Ballack (born September 26, 1976 in Görlitz, East Germany) is a German football player.

He is the current captain of the German national team, and plays club football for Chelsea F.C. in the English FA Premier League.
Biography

Ballack is known for being a versatile and well-conditioned player, equally comfortable in attack and defense. Ballack is tall, which makes him good at in the air battles. He made his name as a classic box-to-box midfielder with Bayer Leverkusen, where he operated as the central midfielder and took on both defensive and attacking responsibilities. Later in his career, at FC Bayern Munich, under the guidance of Ottmar Hitzfeld and Felix Magath, Ballack excelled in a deeper role, where he went forward less often and instead concentrated on protecting the back four and distributing the ball. However, he remained a box-to-box midfielder for the German national team.

He is capable with both his left and right foot, as well as in the air. These attributes have earned him the German player of the year award on three occasions (2002, 2003, 2005). He is one of Germany's leading sports icons of recent times.[citation needed]

Ballack was made captain of the German national team by the then national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann in 2004. Current Germany head coach Joachim Löw has indicated that he will keep Ballack as his national team captain. Ballack has worn the number 13 shirt for every club that he has played for, as well as the German national team.

Ballack has been included in the FIFA 100.

Ballack and his partner Simone Lambe have three children: Louis (born August 16, 2001), Emilio (September 19, 2002), and Jordi (born March 17, 2005).[1]

[edit]
Career

[edit]
Chemnitzer FC

Ballack started his career with BSG Motor Karl-Marx-Stadt. His parents sent him to train with the side when he was seven years old. He later moved on to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt (renamed Chemnitzer FC in 1990). His father had played second-division football himself in Germany. Unusual for his early age was Ballack's ability to use both feet with equal authority.

In 1995, Ballack was given his first professional contract, thanks to his impressive performances in the role of central midfielder. He was dubbed the "Little Kaiser", in reference to Franz Beckenbauer, who was nicknamed "The Kaiser". His professional debut came on 4 August 1995, on the first day of the new Second Bundesliga season. Chemnitz lost the game 2-1, against VfB Leipzig.

At the end of the season, during which Ballack made fifteen appearances, Chemnitz were relegated to the multi-tiered, regional third division. For Ballack himself, however, that season held one great success: on 26 March 1996, he made his debut for Germany's Under-21 side.

The following season, Ballack became a regular first-team player and almost helped Chemnitz to bounce straight back. He did not miss a game and scored ten goals for the "Sky Blues". It was not enough for Chemnitz to go up, but Ballack managed to win his own, personal promotion: in the summer of 1997, he was signed by decorated German coach Otto Rehhagel to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, who had just returned to the top flight.

[edit]
FC Kaiserslautern

It was during the seventh game of the 1997-98 season, away to Karlsruher SC, that Rehhagel decided to throw young Ballack into the Bundesliga for the first time, if only for the final five minutes of the encounter. On 28 March 1998, Ballack found himself in the starting line-up for the first time - the opponents were Bayer Leverkusen, and the novice was given the crucial job of marking playmaker Emerson, his future team-mate, out of the game.

Ballack made sixteen appearances for his new team during the season and thus played a part in Kaiserslautern's success - the club became the first-ever newly promoted team to lift the league title. In the following season, Ballack became both a regular (he made 30 appearances, scoring four goals) and one of the side's leading players. Kaiserslautern reached the quarter finals of the Champions League, but were knocked out by Bayern Munich.

On 1 July 1999, some two months after his first full international, Ballack moved to Bayer Leverkusen at the age of 22, for a transfer fee of 8 m Deutschmarks (€4.8 m).

[edit]
Bayer Leverkusen

It was at Bayer Leverkusen that Ballack made his big breakthrough. Coaches Christoph Daum and Klaus Toppmöller granted him the whole of the pitch as his sovereign territory. With Bayer, he was the man who pulled the strings in the centre of the pitch, making late runs into the opponents penalty box and also the reliable finisher upfront. Over his three seasons at the BayArena, he scored 27 goals in the league, and a further nine goals in Europe.

In 2000, Bayer needed only a draw against minnows SpVgg Unterhaching to lift the league title, but an unexpected own goal by Ballack sunk the club. Still, the disappointment of costing his team the title did not stymie his development into one of Europe's best midfielders.

He left Leverkusen after a memorable, if ultimately heartbreaking, 2001-02 season when they came second in the Bundesliga again and were beaten in both the UEFA Champions League final and German Cup final. He and Leverkusen teammates Bernd Schneider, Carsten Ramelow, and Oliver Neuville were even beaten finalists with Germany in the 2002 World Cup). Ballack finished with 17 league goals, and his remarkable season led to him being voted into the uefa.com users' Team of 2002 as well being named Germany's Footballer of the Year.

[edit]
Bayern Munich

Ballack was approached by Spanish giants Real Madrid, but decided to sign with Bayern Munich in a €12.9 m deal in 2002. Ballack was deployed in a more defensive role, but still managed ten goals as Bayern stormed to the Bundesliga title. He also scored twice in the 3-1 German Cup final win against Kaiserslautern.

After a trying second season with the Bavarian giants, Ballack enjoyed more success in the 2004/05 season as Bayern Munich completed another double. New coach Felix Magath stated he was the only automatic starter in their midfield.[[1]] In four seasons at Bayern, Ballack won three Bundesliga and German Cup doubles and scored 47 goals in 135 matches. Between 1998 and 2005, Ballack had notched up 61 goals in his domestic league.

However, Ballack was criticized for constantly choking in important UEFA Champions League matches, as well as continually looking for a big international move.[citation needed] This resulted in open public criticism from club general manager Uli Hoeness, communications director Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and club president Franz Beckenbauer (all former Bayern players); the later whom went as far as to accuse Ballack of "saving his strength" for prospective employers Chelsea after Ballack turned in an average performance in the 2006 DFB-Pokal final against Eintracht Frankfurt.[citation needed][2]

During his few final games for Bayern, he was jeered throughout the stadium by Bayern supporters. Ballack was angry at the jeering because he felt that he had honoured his contract and conducted himself professionally on and off the pitch as a Bayern player. Shortly after his transfer to Chelsea, Ballack proclaimed sarcastically that the acrimony surrounding his departure made him glad as it proved how important he had been to Bayern. Ballack also rubbished accusations that money was his primary motivation in moving to Chelsea, stating that he earned well at Bayern. Ballack stated that he had joined Chelsea to fulfil his dream of playing abroad. He also stated that Chelsea's fellow Premiership club Manchester United had made him an approach, but he decided that Chelsea were a more attractive team to join. It could be said that United were in more need of such a player after the departure of Roy Keane, but the appeal of living in London probably made the decision for Ballack.[3]

[edit]
Chelsea F.C.

Ballack agreed to join Chelsea on a Bosman transfer on 15 May 2006[4]. During his last season as a Bayern player there were rumours of interest from Manchester United, Real Madrid and A.C. Milan,[5] but Ballack instead chose to go to Stamford Bridge . Shortly after arriving at Chelsea, Ballack stated that he hoped to end his career at Stamford Bridge. He also expressed his hopes of eventually making his mark on English football as great as Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira.

After debates in the media as to whether Ballack and Frank Lampard could play together in the same team, Chelsea manager José Mourinho confirmed that he was not worried about the players' compatibility.[6]. Mourinho said of Ballack: "For me he's one of the best players in the world. He's very intelligent, tactically very strong and he scores a lot of goals. For me in Europe there's only [England and Chelsea's] Frank Lampard who plays at that level. The two would form a dream pair." [7]

Ballack's Chelsea debut came on Monday 31 July 2006, during a practice match at UCLA's intramural football pitch. Ballack was presented to the media the following day and was also given his favoured number 13 shirt - previously donned by William Gallas - which he has worn throughout his career. On 27 August 2006, Ballack was handed his Premiership debut for Chelsea against Blackburn Rovers F.C..

Ballack scored his first goal for Chelsea on 12 September 2006 in the Champions League group stage match against SV Werder Bremen at Stamford Bridge with a penalty. However, he received his first straight red card of his career and was banned for the next three Premiership matches for violent conduct against Mohamed Sissoko in Chelsea's 1-0 win over Liverpool F.C. September 17 2006. Ballack later waited outside Liverpool's dressing room after the match to apologise to Sissoko. [8] [9]

Ballack scored his first Premiership goal on 21 October 2006 against Portsmouth F.C. in a home game at Stamford Bridge.

Ballack was r