FABIO CANNAVARO
Italian soccer player. He became the world football champion and received the Golden Ball.
Cannavaro played three times at world championships and twice more at European championships. And each time he entered the symbolic teams. After waiting for the world triumph of “Azzurra Squadra” in 2006, the defender Cannavaro became a much more suitable leader and captain for the team that puts the highest defense in football than Francesco Totti or Roberto Baggio at one time. The magic of Germany 2006 provided Cannavaro with a full set of individual awards for the year: the Golden Ball from France Football, the title of the best player according to FIFA and World Soccer magazine. After the World Cup, Fabio moved from Juventus thrown into Serie B to Real Madrid. At 33, losing a year in the second division is an inadmissible luxury. In Spain, Cannavaro is not yet impressive. However, this circumstance is unlikely to make him forget his gorgeous game on German summer fields (video). And on all the rest - until the World Cup.
FRANK RAYKARD
Dutch soccer coach. He led Barcelona to victory in the Champions League and the championship of Spain.
One Brazilian journalist proclaimed the two-passages Pele and Tostao proof of the existence of God. Modern agnostics would probably take Ronaldinho, Eto'O, Messi and Julie for such interactions, through which Barcelona, without changing their patent style, won the Champions League and the Spanish Championship last year. For a long time no one has reached such peaks with such an easy gait. Sometimes it seems that this graceful, relaxed and very talented football is brewed, catalyzed as if by itself, without any involvement of Frank Rikard. But this is unlikely. And, in any case, it does not deprive Barcelona of the title of the most charming champion of our time.
ALEXANDER OVECHKIN
Russian hockey player. He became the best newcomer to the NHL season 05/06.
This year he met not with a rising, but with a completely full-fledged star, one of the best masters of his craft. In the summer, Alexander Ovechkin received the Calder Trophy, ahead of Sidney Crosby. Probably the key difference was the age difference - Ovechkin is almost two years older, which, however, does not invalidate his victory. For the first time since 1993, when the enchanting debut of Teem Selyanne took place, the newcomer managed to score more than a hundred points and score more than fifty goals. In general, for the first time in NHL history, a rookie managed to enter the top three scorers of the championship. In addition, in January Ovechkin scored the best goal of the season in the NHL (video). But all this is a thing of the past. In the fall, we saw a new Ovechkin - a player just as unstoppable, aggressive, but already absolutely a team player. And his “Washington” has turned from an ordinary team into a serious contender for a place in the playoffs.
VYACHESLAV BYKOV
Russian hockey coach. He won three stages of the Eurotour with the Russian team.
It would be better for the head coach of the Russian hockey team to become the hero of next year by winning the world championship, which will be held in Moscow and Mytishchi. But it’s impossible to leave Bykov’s success unnoticed in the year that has passed. Under his leadership, the Russian team managed to hold nine matches at three stages of the Eurotour. In eight of them she won, and only in one lost - on shootouts. The result - the first place in “Ceske Poyishtovna”, “Karjala” (in the video) and the Channel One Cup, as well as an advance ticket to the final of the Eurotour. Nobody has ever won the first three stages in a row, and even more so with our long-suffering team. Say, not enough for a hero? Then consider it in advance. Which Bykov, we hope, will work out in May 2007.
Ettore Messina
Italian basketball coach. He led the Moscow CSKA to victory in the Euroleague, the championship and the Cup of Russia.
In the summer of 2005, he took on a difficult task. He got a well-equipped team, trained by another well-known coach, but did not reach the top, where she was pushed by the leadership, fans and public opinion. Ettore Messina was not afraid to instill in CSKA his own style and tastes, not flinching after a couple of starting defeats in the Russian Championship and bringing the matter to triumph in the “Final Four” (video). Did he know that at the end of the season this team is able to maximize and collect all conceivable rewards? Sometimes it seems so. Clearly realizing that the defense of the throne requires an order of magnitude more effort than its conquest, Messina skillfully entered the image of an expressive trainer, courageously rewarding the press with cheerful, but not the most pleasant epithets for the wards. Who is surprised? He is again watched with open mouths, waiting for the moment of "collecting stones" ...
Eugene Dementiev
Russian skier. He won gold and silver medals at the Olympics in Turin.
“I am not afraid of any angers, esthils, taykhmanns and Fredriksson. I came to win! ”So arrogant that your D'Artagnan, defying the three best royal musketeers, burst into the conservative world of skiing 24-year-old Evgeny Dementyev from the Tyumen village of Taiga. Before the Olympics, only two people knew about his phenomenal ability to endure on the track and hurricane to finish to the finish line, who believed in the Siberian with the sixth sense: coaches Yuri Borodavko and Elena Vyalbe. In Turin, Dementiev crashed into a cake, but won by opening an account to Russian gold medals, pulled silver in an incredible jerk in a marathon (in the video) and gave the whole country his sincere, indescribable emotions. After the victory in the duathlon, he knelt down, kissed the snow, shouted something insane in the cameras and a glove - how could he otherwise? - He wiped the blood oozing from his cracked lip.
VLADIMIR KRAMNIK
Russian chess player. He became the absolute world champion.
The unifying chess match in Elista turned into an unexpected scandal. Instead of the nominal favorite Topalov, a much more influential Bulgarian manager Silvio Danailov joined the battle with Kramnik, accusing the Russian grandmaster of getting computer prompts from the toilet. The situation is unprecedented: in the most intelligent sport it came to Ostap-Bender things - apparently, the aura of the Kalmyk New Vasyukov affected. Fortunately, Vladimir managed to get out of the toilet story dry. Having lost a point for not appearing at one of the games, Kramnik reduced the match to a tie-break and won, proving not only gaming, but also moral superiority (in the video). Before this victory, the chess world recognized only the power of intelligence, but now recognized the strength of spirit. And for the first time in many years he got a real hero.
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