Mark Alan Webber (born 27 August 1976) is an Australian Formula One driver.After some racing success in Australia, Webber moved to the United Kingdom in 1995 to further his motorsport career.Webber began a partnership with fellow Australian Paul Stoddart, at that time owner of the European Racing Formula 3000 team, which eventually took them both into Formula One when Stoddart bought the Minardi team.
Webber made his Formula One debut in 2002, scoring Minardi's first points in three years at his and Stoddart's home race. After his first season Jaguar Racing took him on as lead driver. During two years with the generally uncompetitive team Webber several times qualified on the front two rows of the grid and outperformed his team mates. His first F1 win was with Red Bull Racing in the 2009 German Grand Prix, which followed second places at the 2009 Chinese, Turkish, and British Grands Prix. By the end of 2009, Webber had scored eight podiums, including another victory in Brazil. His eight podiums in 2009 compares to only two podiums in the first seven years of his career. He has since added ten more podiums in 2010, including victories in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Webber finished the 2010 season in third place having led for a long period, losing out to teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Webber was born in Queanbeyan, New South Wales,son of Alan, a local motorcycle dealer. He started his relationship with sport at a young age, working as a ball boy for premiership winning rugby league team, the Canberra Raiders, during the late 1980s. However, motorsport was where his interest lay, later listing Formula One World Champion Alain Prost and Grand Prix motorcycle racer Kevin Schwantz as his childhood heroes. Starting out racing motorcycles, Webber moved to four wheels in 1991, taking up karting at the age of 14. He won the New South Wales state championship in 1993, and moved straight into the Australian Formula Ford Championship after his father bought him an ex-Craig Lowndes Van Diemen FF1600. Working as a driving instructor at Sydney's Oran Park Raceway between races, Webber finished 14th overall in his debut season. Continuing in the series in 1995, Webber scored several victories, including a win in the support race for the Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide. He finished the series in fourth place but, perhaps more importantly, teamed up with Championship coordinator Ann Neal, who secured him a seven-year sponsorship with Australian Yellow Pages,and would become his manager and accompany him on a trip to England in an attempt to start a career in Europe.
Webber was given a test at Snetterton with the Van Diemen team, and subsequently earned a works drive for the team at the 1995 Formula Ford Festival, held at Brands Hatch, where he finished third.It was a result good enough to prompt the team into signing him for the 1996 championship.Before moving to Europe permanently, Webber won the Formula Holden race at the 1996 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. During the 1996 British Formula Ford Championship, Webber took four victories on his way to second place overall, finishing his strong season with a win in the Formula Ford Festival. He also won the Spa-Francorchamps race of the Formula Ford Euro Cup, taking third in the series despite competing in only two of the three rounds. His results throughout the year saw him voted as Australian motorsport's "Young Achiever" and "International Achiever" of 1996. Two days after his Festival victory Webber completed a successful test for Alan Docking Racing, and was signed by the team to graduate to Formula Three in 1997.
Without the financial backing he had enjoyed during his time in Formula Ford, Webber and his team struggled to find the money to fund their championship campaign. He was almost forced to quit halfway through the season, but was able to obtain significant financial and personal support from Australian rugby union legend David Campese, which helped him to complete the year. Mark has since stated he has been able to pay back the money Campese gave him
Webber took victory in just his fourth ever F3 race, at Brands Hatch, leading from start to finish and setting a new lap record in the process. He took a further four podium finishes, including a second place in the support race for the 1997 British Grand Prix, and finished the season in fourth overall. Webber also took strong finishes in the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort (3rd) and the Macau Grand Prix (4th), both times making his circuit debut.
During the 1997 season, Webber was approached by Mercedes-AMG to compete in a sports car race. Although he initially declined the offer he was persuaded at the end of the year when invited to participate in a test session for the team at the A1-Ring in Austria. AMG were suitably impressed with Webber, and he was signed as the official Mercedes works junior driver for the 1998 FIA GT Championship, alongside reigning champion Bernd Schneider. Travelling around the world, including the United States, Japan and Europe, the pair won five of the ten rounds on their way to second in the overall standings, beaten to the Championship by teammates Klaus Ludwig and Ricardo Zonta by just eight seconds in the final race at Laguna Seca. Webber remained with the AMG team for 1999, and was promoted to his own race car for the season. However, his sportscar career came to an early end after he flipped twice on the Mulsanne straight during practice for the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans race.An aerodynamic fault on the team's Mercedes-Benz CLRs caused Webber to spectacularly become airborne during both practice and race-day warm up, with the same fate befalling teammate Peter Dumbreck five hours into the race. Both drivers escaped uninjured, but the crashes forced Mercedes to shelve their sportscar program for the year and Webber to reconsider a return to open wheel racing.
Sebastian Vettel (German pronunciation; born 3 July 1987) is a German Formula One racing driver, currently driving for Red Bull Racing. He is the current World Champion, having won in the 2010 season.In his first year driving for Red Bull in 2009 he finished the season as the youngest ever championship runner-up. Vettel also secured Red Bull's first pole position and race win in the team's history. The following year he went on to become the youngest driver ever to win the World Drivers' Championship. In the same year he helped Red Bull win the team's first World Constructors' Championship, along with teammate Mark Webber.
Vettel is the youngest Formula One driver to drive at a Grand Prix meeting, at 19 years and 53 days, and on his race debut at the 2007 US Grand Prix he also became the youngest driver to score championship points. While racing for Toro Rosso, Vettel became the youngest driver to lead a race, at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. During qualifying for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, Vettel became the youngest Formula One driver to secure pole position. He went on to win the race, making him the youngest F1 race winner by nearly a year.He also is the first and only driver to win a race, secure pole position, and reach the podium in the history of the Toro Rosso team, including the twenty years it was known as the Minardi team.
Vettel also holds the fastest lap-time for a Formula One driver on BBC2's Top Gear programme in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment, with a lap of 1:44.0, beating previous holder Rubens Barrichello and the old Stig, Ben Collins.
Vettel was born in Heppenheim, West Germany. He has one younger brother, Fabian, and two older sisters, Melanie and Stefanie. Vettel suggested in an interview that he was terrible at school; he also mentioned that his childhood heroes were "The three Michaels", who were Michael Schumacher, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. He stated that he wanted to be a singer like Michael Jackson but realised that he couldn't as he didn't have the voice.Vettel lives in Switzerland amongst other racing drivers and is a fan of German football team Eintracht Frankfurt
Vettel started racing karts in 1995, winning various titles such as the Junior Monaco Kart Cup (2001). In 2003, he upgraded to open-wheel cars, and won the 2004 German Formula BMW Championship with 18 victories from 20 races. In 2005 he drove for ASL Mucke Motorsport in the Formula Three Euroseries. He was placed fifth in the final standings with 64 points, winning the year's top rookie honours. He did not win any races, but this was largely due to the championship's domination by ASM Formule 3. Despite this, he tested the Williams FW27 Formula One car on 27 September as a reward for this Formula BMW success. He then went on to test for the BMW Sauber team.
Vettel finished as runner-up in the 2006 F3 Euroseries, behind series leader and team mate Paul di Resta. He also made his debut in the World Series by Renault at Misano, winning after Pastor Maldonado was disqualified. However, at the next round at Spa-Francorchamps, his finger was almost sliced off by flying débris in an accident, and he was expected to be out of racing for several weeks. Nevertheless, he managed to compete in the Ultimate Masters of F3 at Zandvoort the following weekend, finishing in sixth place. He also set third fastest lap time, and it surprised his ASM team boss Frédéric Vasseur. Vasseur said: "I was impressed for sure, because at the beginning of the week I was sure he wouldn't race! But he showed good pace from the first practice session. I can't imagine he's 100 per cent but at least we know we can be competitive in the next F3 Euroseries round at the Nürburgring next weekend – that's important."
Peter Gabriel Burgoyne (born 29 January 1978) is a former Australian rules footballer with Port Adelaide in the Australian Football League (AFL), playing between 1997 to 2009.Peter played primarily in midfield and on the half back flank. He is the elder brother of current Hawthorn and former Port Adelaide player, Shaun Burgoyne and is the son of former Port Adelaide player Peter Burgoyne, Snr.
Beginning his AFL career with the inaugural Port Adelaide side to enter the AFL, Burgoyne became well regarded for his performance as an attacking midfielder. He was selected from the Port Adelaide side in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in their changeover from the SANFL to the AFL.
Honours include being selected as part of the International rules series in 1999 and was a vital part of Port's premiership side of 2004. Burgoyne was also named in the Indigenous Team of the Century. Despite being selected for and representing South Australia in the final State of Origin game against Victoria in 1999, Burgoyne was not technically eligible under the existing rules, having resided in the Northern Territory and not South Australia for the majority of his life between the ages of 10 and 17.
In 2007 Burgoyne made a highly successful transition to the halfback flank, following an injury-riddled 2006 in his usual midfield role, and finished third in the club's Best and Fairest count. His finals series was also acknowledged with the Power's 'Best Finals Player' award.
Burgoyne retired at the end of the 2009 season. He and team-mate Brendon Lade, the last remaining members of Port Adelaide's inaugural AFL team, both played their final games in Round 22, 2009.His brother was traded to Hawthorn after his retirement.
Peter Burgoyne
José Antonio Reyes Calderón (born 1 September 1983) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Atlético Madrid.Mainly a left winger but also a forward, he made his professional debuts for hometown's Sevilla at only 16, signing with England's Arsenal aged 20.After a relatively successful career abroad, Reyes returned to his country, going on to represent both main sides in Madrid, Real and Atlético, also having a short loan spell in Portugal.Reyes gained 21 caps for Spain, and represented the nation at the 2006 World Cup.
Born in Utrera, south-east Seville, to Spanish Kale (Gitanos) parents, Reyes joined the youth ranks of local Sevilla FC at the age of 10. His talent was identified, and he represented the club at all youth levels.He finally signed a full contract in 1999, making his full squad debuts during 1999–2000 at just 16, in a game against Real Zaragoza, and was later called up to Spain's squad for the UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship. With the Andalusians now in Segunda División, he added another first-team club appearance.
After Sevilla promoted, Reyes established his reputation as a versatile offensive unit in the following years, his 22 goals in 86 matches over four seasons at Sevilla leading to other clubs taking notice, although the player's popularity with the club's fans made a move to a bigger Spanish club politically difficult for Sevilla's club president.
Despite Sevilla manager Joaquín Caparrós wishing to hang onto him, Reyes signed with English club Arsenal during the January transfer window of the 2003–04 season. The £10.5 million transfer fee was negotiated with top ups, depending on the success of Arsenal, which could have risen to £17 million.He made his debut on 1 February 2004 in a 2–1 win over Manchester City; two days later, he scored an own goal against Middlesbrough in the Football League Cup. Later that month, Reyes scored twice against Chelsea to knock them out of the FA Cup. He also scored against Chelsea in the season's UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, and his goals in the penultimate two games of the season helped keep Arsenal's unbeaten run in the Premier League going.
Hat-tricks in friendlies during the summer 2004 showed his improvement, and Reyes was a prominent influence on Arsenal's impressive start to the 2004–05 season, in which he managed to score in each of the first six games. However, Reyes struggled during the middle of the season after Arsenal's defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford. His inconsistent performance brought little reward for much of the season, and yet towards the end of it he scored three valuable goals.
In early 2005, Reyes was reported to be homesick while at Arsenal, even though his parents, Mari and Francisco, as well as brother Jesús lived with him in England. During a prank call perpetrated by Cadena COPE Radio of Spain in February 2005, a prankster claiming to be Emilio Butragueño, at the time director of football of Real Madrid, speaking on behalf of the president of the club, reportedly called Reyes' agent and spoke to Reyes himself about a possible transfer deal. In the ensuing conversation, Reyes allegedly declared that life in London was far from what he had envisioned and he would welcome a move back to his native Spain. Reyes also supposedly said that he wanted out of the club as there were "bad people" at Arsenal.
On 21 May 2005, Reyes became only the second player in history (after Kevin Moran) to be sent off in an FA Cup final, when he was dismissed for a second yellow card shortly before the end of extra time against Manchester United, though Arsenal still went on to win the game in a penalty shootout.He temporarily ended speculation about a move away from Highbury in July 2005, when he signed a new six-year contract and declared that he was "looking forward to having many more successful years at the club." In Arsenal's 2005–06 Champions League run, Reyes featured heavily against, among others, Real Madrid, Juventus and Villarreal CF in the most impressive Champions League results for Arsenal to date. He came on as a substitute in the 17 May 2006 final against FC Barcelona, which Arsenal lost 2–1. However, in August 2006, he expressed a desire not to play in Arsenal's Champions League qualifying match against NK Dinamo Zagreb – to do so would render him 'cup-tied' and complicate a move to Real Madrid.Club manager Arsène Wenger left him out of the team, thus fuelling speculation that a transfer was soon to be agreed.
Adam Joseph Copeland (born October 30, 1973) is a retired Canadian professional wrestler and actor, better known by his ring name Edge. He is best known for his time with WWE, formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Copeland was trained by former professional wrestlers Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchinson. Throughout 1990s, he wrestled in North American independent promotions early in his career. During his time in these promotions, he competed in singles and tag team competition, the latter with Christian, his storyline brother. In 1997, Copeland signed a developmental deal with the WWF and began competing for the company the following year. After signing with the WWF, he began competing under the ring name Edge. In June 1999, he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship, making it his first title reign with the company. He and Christian went on to win the WWF Tag Team Championship on seven different occasions. During this time, they gained notoriety in the tag team division, partly due to their participation in Tables, Ladders, and Chairs matches.
Overall, Edge won 31 championships in WWE, including eleven world championships (the WWE Championship four times and the World Heavyweight Championship a record seven times), five Intercontinental Championships, one United States Championship, 14 tag team championships (a record 12 World Tag Team Titles and two WWE Tag Team Championships), and is one of only two wrestlers (Kurt Angle being the other) who has held every currently active male Championship in WWE. In addition to his championship accolades, Copeland won the 2001 King of the Ring tournament, the inaugural Money in the Bank ladder match in 2005, and the Royal Rumble match in 2010 making him the only wrestler in history to achieve all three of those accomplishments.
Aside from professional wrestling, Copeland has appeared in the 2000 fantasy film Highlander: Endgame and made guest appearances on television shows, including The Weakest Link, Mind of Mencia, Deal or No Deal, and MADtv.
Copeland was born on October 30, 1973 in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, to Judy Copeland, a single mother, who worked two jobs to support her son.To this day, he has never met his father, nor seen a picture of him.At a young age, he became interested in professional wrestling. His favorite wrestlers included Mr. Perfect, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart When he was eighteen, Copeland won an essay contest, with Sully's Gym offering free wrestling training to whoever could write a good essay, explaining why they would want to become a professional wrestler. As the result of his win, he was trained by Sweet Daddy Siki and Ron Hutchinson in Toronto. Copeland put his wrestling aspirations aside, to help pay the bills.He held numerous jobs and decided to go to Humber College, where he graduated with a diploma in radio broadcasting
Throughout the 1990s, Copeland wrestled on the independent circuit in Ontario and the Great Lakes region of the United States under the name Sexton Hardcastle. He became a part of the tag team Sex and Violence with Joe Legend. During 1997, Sex and Violence became part of a larger stable known as Thug Life, made up of Legend, Hardcastle, Christian Cage (Copeland's childhood friend Jason Reso), Bill Skullion, and Rhino Richards.During his independent career, he won the ICW/MWCW Midwest Unified Tag Title holder alongside Joe.
Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham MBE (born 2 April 1966) is a retired English footballer, and the father of footballer Charlie Sheringham. Sheringham played as a striker, and had a successful career at the club level, winning almost every domestic honour available with his clubs, most notably the Treble with Manchester United in the 1998–99 season. The pinnacle of his career came when he scored the equaliser and provided the assist for Manchester United's winning goal in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich. Sheringham also represented England at international level. He was given an MBE in June 2007. He retired from competitive football at the end of the 2007–08 season with Colchester United, at the age of 42.
Sheringham began his professional career at Millwall in 1982 at the age of 16, after impressing a scout when playing for non-league club Leytonstone & Ilford during a youth team game against Millwall. He was signed up, initially as an apprentice and scored on only his second appearance for the club in a match away at Bournemouth in January 1984. After being loaned out by the club twice in 1985 to Aldershot and later a Swedish side, Djurgården, he quickly became a first choice selection at Millwall and during the late 1980s formed a striking partnership with Tony Cascarino. He was the club's top goalscorer in four seasons (1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 and 1990–91) and played in every game of the season twice, in 1986–87 and 1990–91.
The 1987–88 season saw the club promoted to the First Division, then the highest tier of English league football, for the first time. Sheringham scored the first goal in Millwall's first home game in Division One. Millwall briefly topped the table at the start of October 1988 and the goals of Sheringham (15) and Cascarino (15) kept Millwall in the top four for most of the season before fading after Easter to finish in 10th position. Sheringham said in his autobiography that, "It was a crazy exhilarating time. There we were, little Millwall, in our first season in the First Division and topping the table until about March. Everybody said it couldn't last and of course it couldn't and it didn't, but we gave them all a good run for their money. We were beating the best teams when we shouldn't and getting away draws to which we had no right."
Millwall's spell in the top flight was not to last as they were relegated in the following season, finishing bottom of the Division after briefly topping the table again early in the season. Sheringham was again top scorer for Millwall with twelve goals, having missed ten league games through injury. The club had an opportunity to bounce straight back up at the end of the 1990–91 season, reaching the semi-finals of the Division Two play-offs, but they were beaten by Brighton & Hove Albion and remained in the Second Division. Sheringham's outstanding form during the 1990–91 season saw him finish as the league's highest scorer with 37 goals, a haul which included four hat-tricks. With Millwall failing to return to the top flight, a departure for Sheringham looked inevitable. In his final season at Millwall, Sheringham broke all of the club's goalscoring records, scoring a total of 111 goals in all competitions in his eight years at the club.
The 25-year-old Sheringham was sold to Nottingham Forest in a £2 million deal in July 1991[10] to play alongside Nigel Clough. He did well for Forest and helped them finish eighth in the First Division at the end of the 1991–92 season as well as to reach the League Cup final, where they lost to Manchester United. Sheringham scored Forest's first Premiership goal against Liverpool in August 1992 (which was also the first ever live goal shown on Sky Sports) but a week later he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £2.1 million.[10] Forest went on to be relegated in 1992–93, having failed to adequately replace Sheringham in attack.
Sheringham had a successful start to his career at the club by being the Premier League's top goalscorer in its inaugural season, scoring 22 goals (21 with Tottenham and one with Forest). His strike partners at White Hart Lane included Gordon Durie, Ronny Rosenthal, Jürgen Klinsmann and finally Chris Armstrong. In 1993–94, he was Tottenham's top scorer with 14 Premiership goals but played in just 19 games due to injury and this impacted negatively on Tottenham's league form. Spurs finished 15th and were not completely safe from relegation until the penultimate game of the season. They have not finished lower than this ever since.The following season was better, as he helped Spurs finish seventh in the Premiership and reach the semi-final of the FA Cup, just missing out on European football for the 1995–96 season.
Jürgen Klinsmann, who partnered Sheringham during the 1994–95 season, was later quoted as claiming that Sheringham was the most intelligent strike partner he had ever had.Sheringham was hugely popular with the Tottenham fans and by the mid 1990s was recognised as one of the best strikers in the Premiership. However, despite his prolific strike rate by the end of the 1996–97 season he was 31 years old and had yet to win a major trophy in a career which had so far spanned 15 years; many pundits considered him past his best and likely to finish his career without major honours.
Carlos Alberto Tévez (born Carlos Alberto Martínez on 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for English club Manchester City and is currently the team's captain. He has previously played for Boca Juniors, Corinthians, West Ham United and Manchester United.
He transferred to Manchester City in the 2009 summer transfer window, becoming the first player to move between the two rival clubs since Terry Cooke in 1999. His energy and goal scoring rate has since made him an indispensable player for the club in the eyes of fellow players and media alike. His importance was marked by promotion to captain at the beginning of the 2010–11 season by manager Roberto Mancini.His career has been dogged by a long-standing affair with Media Sports Investments, the company which owned the rights of Tévez, and several other players and coaches. This eventually resulted in West Ham United being fined over issues regarding third-party ownership. He has made 59 appearances for the Argentina national team, scoring 13 goals.
Tévez was born Carlos Alberto Martínez in Ciudadela, Buenos Aires, and raised in the neighbourhood of Ejército de Los Andes, better known as "Fuerte Apache". It was from there that he got the nickname of "El Apache". His parents changed his surname to his mother's during a conflict between his junior club All Boys and Boca Juniors.Tévez has a distinctive burn scar that runs down his neck from his right ear to his chest. He was accidentally scalded with boiling water as a child, which caused third-degree burns and kept him hospitalised in intensive care for nearly two months.After joining Boca Juniors, Tévez refused an offer from the club to have them cosmetically improved, saying that the scars were a part of who he was in the past and who he is today.
Tévez joined Boca Juniors at the age of sixteen, and made his senior debut on 21 October 2001 against Talleres de Córdoba. He opted not to take part in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with Argentina, and committed to playing in the 2003 Intercontinental Cup instead. After winning the Copa Sudamericana, Copa Libertadores and Intercontinental Cup in 2003, he departed the club after the 2005 season.[citation needed
In January 2005, Tévez transferred to Corinthians for £13.7 million (15 million euro), and signed a five-year, £6.85 million contract following the Brazilian club's deal with Media Sports Investments. The deal was the biggest transfer ever in South American football.Tévez captained the squad to the 2005 Campeonato Brasileiro, and he was named the league's best player by the Brazilian Football Confederation, becoming the first non-Brazilian player to win the award since 1976.
On 23 August 2006, Sky Sports reported that Tévez was refusing to play for Corinthians. Tévez confirmed on his website on 31 August that both he and Javier Mascherano were signing for West Ham United on permanent deals for £12 million each.Media reports speculated that other Premier League clubs turned down the opportunity of signing Tévez and Mascherano because of stipulations put in place by Media Sports Investments, who owned both players' rights.
