This year 2006 has really been a special and a sad year for all of the sports lovers around the world.
Yes I am talking about the sporting icons those have ended their really great and glittering career this year and that’s also not in a way that any sports lover would’ve expected.
This Year started with the memories of Lance Armstrong, declaring his retirement last year July 2005, his absence was really felt this time at Tour de France. It is never easy to forget someone who has 7 Tour de France wins, 22 individual stages, 11 time trials. And the life which is really inspiration for any one. Yoy don’t find many people in your life time who has a courage and will power like this great man. We salute you sir!
So this was the last year, but this year was also no less. Two Tennis stars of our times, Andre Agassi, Martina Navaratilova. I think Martina was before our time too.
Martina Navaratilova, This woman of substance, surrounding all the controversy around her about her homo-sexual relationship, really proved what a woman or any person can do with the strong determination. You don’t find many players (I doubt any) who can play professional tennis at the age of 50, right! Just to take a look at her achievement 18 Grandslams singles titles, 31 doubles, 10 mixed doubles and total 167 other single titles is something to count. Most of the tennis players like apni Sania would never win these many matches in grandslams as many titles this great sport icon has under her belt.
Then comes another great man, Andre Agassi, This Guy might not be the greatest tennis player ever and might not be in the league of Pete Sampras or or Bjorn Borg, but he is surely the most flamboyant tennis player ever!. Well who can forget this ponny tail, his chest with hell lot of hairs and changing his t-shirts during the match, then he comes back with the fully shaven head and shaven chest too!. He was certainly one of the most crowd puller in any match amd one of the most loved tennis player ever by the tennis supporters.
And yes of course not to forget his tennis acheivemetns, 8 Grandslams, with only the second player in history of professional tennis to have won all the four grandslams, the feat even likes of Pete Sampras also couldn’t achieve. And what else the glittering professional life and more glittering personal life!. I mean not many lads have luxury of having Brooke Shields and Steffi Graff as their wives during the same life time! He is envied by most of the men(if not all) in the world. The Agassi-Graff couple is considered as one of the best and most beautiful sports couple ever!
So continuing with the sporting icons, next comes the man, for whom words are literally not enough. I guess just name is enough to see the spark in anyone's eyes. “ZiZou”. Yes I am talking about the greatest French footballer ever Zinedine Zidane!.
This is the man who always has controversies following him whereever he goes. This 3 times FIFA player of the year, once upon a time most expenisive footballer, sadly will be remembered more for what he did in the World cup final of 2006 (it is shown in the picture below) than what he did in the 1998 final where he made his team won the worldcup single handedly(or should I say single headedly :-)). However nothing can take away that he is one of the greatest footballer of our time.
And the last but not the least, who is according to me the Greatest Sportsman of our time. Michael Schumaker! This guy is still to end his carreer and the last race of his life is still pending but I can gaurantee you this person will be the most missed sports person from next year. I mean you can’t think of F1 without Schumi, you can't think of Ferrari without Schumi. Ferrari and Schmi have become synonyms for eachother over the time. This person has all the records of F1 under his belt. 7 championship titles, 91 race wins, 154 podium finishes, 68 pole position… . You name it and Schumi has it.
7 times F1 world champion, couldn’t have asked for lesser than winning a championship in his retirement year and he was going for it till the race in Japan. But there is always something that anyone can not control but the destiny. Still championship is not over but it looks next to impossible for this greatest man to win the championship, after engine failure when he was leading the race in Suzuka. However I have my fingers crossed and I really hope that something (I really don't know what but something, may be crash for Alonso) unusual happens and this my favourite wins the championship before hanging his helmet!
The sad thing is almost all of the above except Lance Armstrong, couldn’t end their career in a way any sport lover would’ve loved to see it. Agassi and Navaratilova couldn’t win the Grandslam before getting retired, ZiZou made one of the biggest controversy in his last match of FIFA worldcup before getting retired and not winning the worldcup for his team, and Schumi is also struggling because of destiny to win the championship before ending his carreer.
This post is dedicated to one and only my favourite “Schumi”. I seriously hope some miracle to happen to make Schumi world champion before getting retired.
