LIONEL MESSI "FOOTBALL MASTER"-

Lionel Messi is an Argentinian footballer widely regarded as the one of the greatest players of the modern generation. He plays for FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. He has won FIFA world player of the year four times (a record already). He been described as Diego Maradona's successor because of his prolific goal scoring record and ability to dribble past opponents.

Lionel Messi was born, 24 June 1987, in Rosario, Argentina to a working class family. His father was a factory steel worker, and his mother a cleaner.

He began playing from an early age, and his talent was soon apparent. However, at the age of 11, Messi was diagnosed with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). This was a condition that stunted growth, and required expensive medical treatment, including the use of the drug Human growth hormone.

Local club, River Plate were interested in signing Messi, but didn't want to pay for his medical treatment. However, Messi was given a trial with Barcelona, and coach Carles Rexach was impressed - offering Messi a contract (written on paper napkin!) which included paying for Messi's treatment in Spain. Messi moved to Barcelona with his father and became part of the prestigious FC Barcelona youth academy.

Messi progressed through the ranks and was given his first appearance in the 2004/05 season becoming the youngest player to score a league goal. In 2006, Messi was part of the double winning team which won both La Liga (Spanish League) and Champions League . By next season, (2006-07) aged just 20, Messi was the first choice striker and a key part of the Barcelona team - scoring 14 goals in 26 league games.

In the 2009-10 season, Messi scored 47 goals in all competitions, equalling Ronaldo's record total for Barcelona. As the seasons have progressed, Messi kept improving and breaking his own records. In the calender year of 2012, he broke the all time world record for most goals scored in a calender year. His final total of goals in 2012 was 91 - beating the previous record of 85 by German Gerd Muller, and Pele's milestone of 75 in 1958.

At the start of 2013, in club football, Messi has scored 292 goals from a total of 359 appearances, and in international football, 31 goals from 76 appearances.

At the end of 2012, Messi turned down a very lucrative offer to play for an unnamed Russian side. It would have given Messi a salary of €20 million a year and made Messi the most expensive player in the world (Barcelone would have been paid €250million). He turned down the offer because he was unsure if he would be playing in major European championships and the difficulties in moving to Russia. Instead he signed a contract with Barcelona until the end of 1918. When asked about moving to the English Premier league, Messi revealed his sense of committment to Barcelona.

INTERNATIONAL CAREER-

Because Messi was brought up in Spain, since he was 11 years old, he has Spanish nationality. In 2004, he was offered the chance to play for Spain's Under 20 side, but Messi decided to play for Argentina, the country of his birth. He led Argentina to victory in the 2005 FIFA Youth championship. Messi made his full international debut in August 2005, during a friendly against Hungary. In his first game, Messi was sent off for allegedly elbowing a player. The decision was contentious and not in keeping with Messi's style of play which is not dirty, and has very rarely been accused of diving.

In 2006, he participated in the World Cup, becoming Argentina's youngest player to play in the world cup. Argentina were eliminated in the quarter finals. In 2008, he won an Olympic gold medal for Argentina in football at the Beijing Olympics. Initially Barcelona had not allowed him permission to play, but new coach Pep Guardiola allowed him time off.

In the 2010 World Cup, Messi wore the number 10 shirt and played well to help Argentina reach the quarter finals, but Messi struggled to score and Argentina dissappointingly lost 4-0 to Germany in the quarter final.

Messi is widely regarded as one of the most exciting players of the modern age - in fact any age. He has a peerless ability to dribble and take on opponents. Maradona has described his ball control as supremely good. "The ball stays glued to his foot; I’ve seen great players in my career, but I’ve never seen anyone with Messi's ball control." Messi has said he wishes to retain the joy of how a child plays football.

LEWIS HAMILTON-

Lewis Hamilton is a British Formula One motor racing driver, who won the world championship in 2008. He began motor racing from a young age, but burst on to the Formula One season finishing second in his first season 2007. When he won the world title in 2008, he was aged just 23 and, at the time, was the youngest ever winner. He currently races for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes.

Lewis Carl Hamilton MBE (born in Stevenage; 7 January 1985) is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren Mercedes team and is the youngest ever Formula One World Champion winning the title in 2008.

At the age of ten Lewis approached the McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis, at the 1995 Autosport Awards ceremony and told him "I want to race for you one day." Less than three years later, he was signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, European Formula Three and GP2 championship in 2006, he became a McLaren F1 driver for 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Coming from a mixed-race background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One".

In his first season in Formula One Hamilton set numerous records and finished second in the 2007 Formula One Championship one point behind Kimi Räikkönen. His first world championship was won the following season, ahead of Felipe Massa by the same margin of a single point. He has stated that he wants to stay with the McLaren team for the rest of his F1 career.

In 2008, he successfully won the F1 World Championship in the last race of the season. He was narrowly pipped to the post in the BBC sports personality of the year award. In any other year, Lewis Hamilton would probably have won. But, 2008 was also a remarkable Olympic year for the British team. The title was awarded to triple gold medallist Chris Hoy.

Since winning the title in 2008, he has struggled to finish higher than 4th.

DAVID BECKHAM "THE FOOTBALL LEGEND"- 

David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE (born May 2, 1975) is an English footballer who

has played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, in the US soccer league and Paris St Germain. Outside of football, he also created his own brand of clothing, and is one of the most iconic sportsman.

Beckham is the 2nd most capped England player of all time (115). He is also the only Englishman to score in three different World Cups. . He was captain of the English national team from 15 November 2000 to 2 July 2006.

Beckham's career began when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United, making his first first-team appearance in 1992, at the age of 17. While with Manchester United he played a key role in their dominance of the FA Premier League, being pivotal in accomplishing The Treble of the League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League in 1999. During this time, he was managed by Alex Ferguson. Allegedly Ferguson once threw a shoe at Beckham in the changing room. Though, despite their differences they have mutual respect. 

Alex Ferguson is the best manager I've ever had at this level. Well, he's the only manager I've actually had at this level. But he's the best manager I've ever had.

In 1999, he maried Victoria (one of the Spice Girls). The marriage attracted great media attention. His football manager, Alex Ferguson later criticised this by saying:He was never a problem until he got married. He used to go into work with the academy coaches at night time, he was a fantastic young lad. Getting married into that entertainment scene was a difficult thing - from that moment, his life was never going to be the same. He is such a big celebrity, football is only a small part.'

IN WORLD CUP-

In his first world cup, David Beckham was sent off in the quarter final against Argentina for a petulant kick - a game England went on to lose. This made him a public enemy number one. However, he redeemed himself during the next few seasons. In particular, his spectacular last minute free kick against Greece to enable England to qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals.

PELE-

Pele is the most iconic footballer of the twentieth Century. He epitomised the flair, joy and passion the Brazilians bought to the game.

Pele's career spanned throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

In his early career, the young and unknown Pele helped inspire Brazil to victory in the 1958 World Cup. In 1962, Brazil retained the World Cup. In 1966, Brazil were hot favourites, but, lost out to the home nation England.

His crowing glory was the Brazilian victory in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. In this world cup, some of the football played by Brazil and Pele was sheer class. Brazil won the final 4-1 against Italy; it was a genuine advertisement for the 'beautiful game' and a fitting pinnacle of Pele's international career.

Pele went on to score over 1,000 goals in professional games. (The 1000th goal coming as a penalty in the US league sparking celebrations around the world). His strike rate in international games was one of the highest ever. In 92 appearances, he scored 77 goals.

In the domestic league, Pele made his debut for Santos aged just 16. He played for Santos in the Brazilian league from until the 1972-73 season..

Pele finished his career in the lucrative US league. In 1975, he signed for New York Cosmos and played three seasons. He led the New York Cosmos to the US title in 1977 - the year of his retirement.

After retiring has gone onto be a great ambassador for football and sport in general. In 1992, Pelé was appointed a UN ambassador for ecology and the environment. He was also appointed a UNESCO goodwill ambassador. He is not only one of the most gifted footballers of his generation, but, also a mild mannered man who used his fame and prestige for a positive effect.

FLYING SIKH-

Sardar Milkha Singh is the greatest living Sikh Athlete. Born in a family of modest means, joining the army and then discovering the penchant for running and winning is his life in summation. . He deservedly got an epithet named "Flying Sikh" from Pakistan General Ayub Khan. Till date (Until 2000 Sydney Olympics) the 'Flying Sikh' is the only Indian to have broken an Olympic record. Unfortunately, he was the fourth athlete to reset the mark and thus missed the bronze medal in the 400m event at the Rome Olympics in 1960.

For the man who won 77 of the 80 races he ran, Milkha Singh has no medals. It has been some years that 'The Flying Sikh' donated his sporting treasures to the nation. No personal souvenirs line his living room walls, no trophies sit on the mantle. Instead, the walls make do with pictures of the surgeon in America who saved his wife's life and Havildar Bikram Singh, a Kargil martyr. "I have given permission that my medals be transferred from the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi to the sports museum in Patiala," says the 72-year-old Singh. Strangely, the stadium gallery lined with many of India's sporting talent does not have a single picture of Milkha Singh. In a country where great sportspersons are few and far between, India has a strange way of honouring its stars.

But Milkha Singh's achievements can do without such testimony. "The people of this country remember me. I may have started dyeing my beard but I am recognised at airports, railway stations -- anywhere. School textbooks have chapters on me, and somehow the sobriquet 'The Flying Sikh' has endured in people's memory," he says. Singh, however, has no complaints about the recognition given to him by the government. A Padma Shri and Arjuna Award winner, the legendary athlete who started his career on a Rs 10 wage went on to become director, sports, ministry of education in the Punjab government. "I have received more than I deserved."

It was a hard uphill climb for the refugee from Muzaffargarh in west Pakistan. The Partition massacres of 1947 took the lives of his parents and Singh was rejected by the army thrice. He subsequently enrolled in the army's electrical mechanical engineering branch in 1952 when his brother Malkhan Singh put in a word for him, and experienced his first sport outing at its athletics meet a fortnight later. "That was the first time I saw a ground bedecked with flags," reminisces Singh. "I later participated in a crosscountry race with 300 to 400 jawans. And sat down after the first half mile before starting again -- that was my first race."

Determined to be the best and realising his talent as a sprinter, the jawan took to training five hours every day.Motivated by his coach Havildar Gurdev Singh, he left it to the elements to hone his craft -- running on the hills, the sands of the Yamuna river, and against the speed of a metre gauge train. He says so intense was his training that very often he vomitted blood and would collapse in exhaustion.

Every morning Milkha Singh still goes for a jog by the Sukhna lake in Chandigarh. Most afternoons are spent playing golf and he uses the gym in his house regularly. "Discipline. You have to be disciplined if you want to be world class," he says, "That's what I tell my son Jeev. I give him the example of Tiger Woods, and hope he would bring the medal I couldn't." Jeev Milkha Singh, India's best golfer, was recently awarded the Arjuna Award and is striving to make a mark on the international golf circuit. Whether he does manage to bring the sporting glory that eluded his father, is yet to be seen. Till then, it is a disappointment that Milkha Singh will never forget. Forty years on, that failure in Rome still haunts him. 1960. The Olympics at Rome

After clocking a world record 45.8 seconds in one of the 400 metres preliminaries in France, Milkha Singh finished fourth in a photofinish in the Olympics final. The favourite for gold had missed the bronze. By a fraction... "Since it was a photofinish, the announcements were held up. The suspense was excruciating. I knew what my fatal error was: After running perilously fast in lane five, I slowed down at 250 metres. I could not cover the lost ground after that -- and that cost me the race." "After the death of my parents, that is my worst memory," says Singh, "I kept crying for days." Dejected by his defeat, he made up his mind to give up sport. It was after much persuasion that he took to athletics again. Two years later, Milkha Singh won two medals at the 1962 Asian Games. But by then his golden period was over.

It was between 1958 and 1960 that Milkha Singh saw the height of glory. From setting a new record in the 200 and 400 metres at the Cuttack National Games, he won two gold medals at the Asian Games at Tokyo. The lean Sikh went on to win gold at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, and was awarded the Helms trophy or being the best athlete in 1959.

BASEBALL-

Baseball is a bat and ball game played between two teams of nine players who take turns batting and fielding.

The offence attempts to score more runs than its opponents by hitting a ball thrown by the pitcher with a bat and moving counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third and home plate. A run is scored when the runner advances around the bases and returns to home plate.

Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance on a team mate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for both teams, beginning with the visiting team, constitutes an innings, and nine innings a game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.

There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, and the glove or mitt:

1. The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist, around 9 inches (23 centimetres) in circumference. It has a rubber or cork centre, wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching.
2. The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a single, solid piece of wood. Other materials are now commonly used for non-professional games. It is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimetres) in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are typically around 34 inches (86 centimetres) long, and not longer than 42 inches (106 centimetres).
3. The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding positions.

TABLE TENNIS-

Table tennis, also known as ping pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, players must allow a ball played toward them only one bounce on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side. Points are scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules.

The game originated in England during the 1880s, where it was played among the upper-class as an after-dinner parlour game. It has been suggested that the game was first developed by British military officers in India or South Africa who brought it back with them.

In game play, the player serving the ball commences a play. The server first stands with the ball held on the open palm of the hand not carrying the racket, called the freehand, and tosses the ball directly upward without spin, at least 16 centimetres (approximately 6 inches) high.

KABADDI-

Kabaddi is a wrestling sport played in South Asia.Two teams occupy opposite halves of a small swimming pool or field and take turns sending a "raider" into the other half, to win points by tackling members of the opposing team; then the raider tries to return to his own half, holding his breath and chanting the word "Kabaddi" during the whole raid. The raider must not cross the lobby unless he touches any of his opponents. If he does so then he will be declared as "out". There is also a bonus line which ensure extra points for the raider if he manages to touch it and return to his side of the field successfully. In the international team version of kabaddi, two teams of seven members each occupy opposite halves of a field of 10 m × 13 m in case of men and 8 m × 12 m in case of women. Each has three supplementary players held in reserve. The game is played with 20-minute halves and a five-minute half-time break during which the teams exchange sides.

• the raider takes a breath before returning.

• the raider crosses a boundary line.

• a part of the raider's body touches the ground outside the boundary (except during a struggle with an opposing team member).

The goal of the defenders is to stop the raider from returning to the home side before taking a breath. If any of the seven players cross the lobby without touching the raider he will be declared as "out".

The raider is sent off the field if:

Each time when a player is "out", the opposing team earns a point. A team scores a bonus of two points, called a "lona", if the entire opposing team is declared "out". At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.