Raúl González Blanco (born June 27, 1977 in Madrid, Spain), usually referred to simply as Raúl, is a Spanish football forward. He has been playing for Real Madrid at senior level since 1994, where he is currently the team captain. He has played 102 games for the Spanish national team, and is its all-time leading goal scorer with 44 goals. He represented Spain in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2004 and 2006 FIFA World Cup tournaments. He is the UEFA Champions League all-time leading scorer with 61 goals.
Raúl is also currently 7th highest goalscorer in the history of Spain's top flight, with 200 goals in 473 games. All of these goals were for Real Madrid, making Raúl the club's 2nd highest goalscorer of all time. He is also called 'El siete', 'El Angel del Madrid' and 'El Capitán' by fans and pundits etc.
When playing, he wears jersey number 7 for both club and country (except WC'98 and EC'00 he wore 10 for Spain). He has been wearing the number 7 shirt for Real Madrid since he was 19.
His current contract with Real Madrid runs until 2011 and will be extended for a year each as long as he plays at least 30 official games for Real Madrid in his last year of a contract. This means that he will play for the club for the rest of his career
Aránzazu (Arantxa) Isabel Maria Sánchez Vicario (born December 18, 1971, in Barcelona, Spain) is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Spain. During her career, she won 4 Grand Slam singles titles and 6 Grand Slam doubles titles.
Sánchez Vicario started playing tennis at age four, when she followed her older brothers Emilio Sánchez and Javier Sánchez (both of whom became professional players) to the court and hit balls against the wall with her first racquet.
Sánchez Vicario surprised the tennis world in 1989 when, as a 17-year-old, she became the youngest winner of the women's singles title at the French Open, defeating World No. 1 Steffi Graf in the final. (Monica Seles broke the record the following year when she won the title at age 16.)
Sánchez Vicario quickly developed a reputation on the tour for her tenacious fighting spirit and willingness to scamper around the court, refusing to concede a point. She was the ultimate counterpuncher. Affectionately known as the "Barcelona Bumblebee," she "stung" some of the major competitors of her era.
Sánchez Vicario's most successful year as a singles player was 1994, when she won both the French Open and U.S. Open singles titles. She won eight tournaments that year.
Sánchez Vicario was the World No. 1 singles player in 1995 for 12 weeks. She was the first woman since Martina Navrátilová in 1987 to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles.
Sánchez Vicario won six women's doubles Grand Slam titles, including the U.S. Open in 1993 (with Helena Suková) and Wimbledon in 1995 (with Jana Novotná). She also won four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.
In 1991, Sánchez Vicario helped Spain win its first-ever Fed Cup title, defeating the United States in the final. She was a member of Spanish teams that won the Fed Cup four additional times in 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1998. Sánchez Vicario holds the record for the most singles and doubles wins by any player in Fed Cup competition, with 72 victories. She also holds the records for most ties played (58) and most years played (16).
Fernando Alonso Díaz (born July 29, 1981 in Oviedo, Spain) is a Spanish Formula One racing driver and a two-time world champion.
On September 25, 2005 he won the World Driver's Championship title at the age of 24 years and 58 days, thus breaking Emerson Fittipaldi's record of being the youngest F1 champion and is also the youngest double champion. In 2007, he became the second F1 driver, after Michael Schumacher, to score at least 100 points for three consecutive seasons. He is nicknamed El Nano. Also acts as goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.
Miguel Ángel Indurain Larraya (born July 16, 1964, Villava, Navarre) is a Spanish retired road racing cyclist. He is best known for having won the Tour de France from 1991 to 1995, becoming the fourth of five persons to win the event five times, and the first to win five in a row. Indurain's ability and physical size—1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) and 80 kg (176 lbs)—earned him the nickname "Miguelón".
Indurain turned professional in 1985 and entered the Tour de France for the first time the same year, ultimately entering it in each of the next eleven years. Although he dropped out of the Tour in 1985 and 1986, his standing improved steadily until his first win in 1991. He rode in support of his team captain Pedro Delgado in the 1990 Tour, even though he might have been strong enough to win it himself. He won the event from 1991 to 1995, becoming the first to win five consecutive times (Jacques Anquetil was the first to win the event five times non-consecutively).
Indurain is often said to have been the best time trialist in the Grand Tours, putting in large gains against his rivals on the time-trial stages and riding defensively in the climbing stages. In the 1992 Tour he finished a 65 km time trial an astonishing three minutes ahead of the second-place rider. Despite his five Tour victories, he won only two Tour stages that were not individual time trials: mountain stages to Cauterets (1989) and Luz Ardiden (1990) in the Pyrenees. He was often accused of not fighting hard enough for wins in mountain stages in which he arrived in the lead group, while others respected this as a sign of a gentleness and gratefulness to his rivals who were thus overhearing him say "Mi baño es tu baño" (My bath is your bath) after big stages concluded especially to fellow countryman and domestique extraordinaire, Pedro Delgado.
In retirement he is a member of the Spanish Olympic Committee and of UCI's Professional Cycling Council. He is also Honorary President for the Miguel Indurain Foundation. He often attends cyclotourist events such as L'Etape du Tour and the Cape Argus Pick & Pay Cycle Tour in Cape Town, South Africa.
Gasol has often been compared with fellow European players Toni Kukoč and Dirk Nowitzki, holding career averages of 18.8 ppg, 8.6 rpg and 3.1 apg. He is a refined scorer from both inside and midrange, and also is near-ambidextrous. Gasol uses a variety of midrange jumpers, hookshots, up-and-under moves, reverse pivots, and shot fakes to score very efficiently. He is also an above-average shotblocker, with a career average of 1.8 bpg.
In 2000-01, Pau established himself as one of the finest players in Europe, averaging 11.3 points and 5.2 rebounds in just under 24 minutes per game.
Selected third overall in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, his draft rights were traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies (prior to the team's relocation to Memphis) in exchange for Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
On February 9, 2006, for the first time in his career, Gasol was selected to play in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas as a reserve center for the Western Conference.
He was the first Spanish basketball player as well as the first Grizzlies player to ever make it to the All-Star Game.
Gasol missed the first 19 games of the 2006-07 NBA season due to a broken foot suffered near the end of Spain's semifinal win over Argentina in the 2006 FIBA World Championship. He would go on to be named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, which Spain won.
He is involved with a lot of community work organized through the Memphis Grizzlies.
On January 24, 2007, Gasol recorded his second career triple-double against the hosting Utah Jazz, garnering 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists. He also registered 2 blocks and one steal.
On February 1, 2008, Gasol was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, rights to Marc Gasol (Pau's younger brother), and 2008 and 2010 first round draft picks. On February 5, 2008, he made his first Lakers appearance in the game against the New Jersey Nets, during which he scored 24 points and had 12 rebounds, and the Lakers went on to defeat the Nets in a 105-90 victory.
