company name	Nike, Inc.
company logo
company type	Public company
traded as	S&P; 500 Component
foundation	1964 (as Blue Ribbon Sports)
founder	Bill BowermanPhil Knight
location	Washington County, Oregon, United States (Near Beaverton, Oregon)
area served	Worldwide
key people	Phil Knight(Chairman)Mark Parker(President and CEO)
industry	Apparels, accessories
products	Athletic footwear and apparel, sport equipments and other athletic and recreational products
revenue	US$ 19.014 billion (FY 2010)}}

| operating_income = US$ 2.517 billion (FY 2010) | net_income = US$ 1.907 billion (FY 2010) | assets = US$ 14.419 billion (FY 2010) | equity = US$ 9.754 billion (FY 2010) | num_employees = 34,400 (May 2010) | homepage = Nike.com }} Nike, Inc. (; ) is a major publicly traded clothing, footwear, sportswear, and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area. It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$18.6 billion in its fiscal year 2008 (ending May 31, 2008). As of 2008, it employed more than 30,000 people worldwide. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state of Oregon, according to ''The Oregonian''.

The company was founded on January 25, 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. on May 30, 1978. The company takes its name from Nike (Greek ''Νίκη'', pronounced ), the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand, as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Air Jordan, Nike Skateboarding, and subsidiaries including Cole Haan, Hurley International, Umbro and Converse. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey (later renamed Nike Bauer) between 1995 and 2008. In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just do it" and the Swoosh logo.

Origins and history

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS), was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in January 1964. The company initially operated as a distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger (now ASICS), making most sales at track meets out of Knight's automobile.

According to Otis Davis, a student athlete whom Bowerman coached at the University of Oregon, who later went one to win two gold medals at the 1960 Summer Olympics, Bowerman made the first pair of Nike shoes for him, contradicting a claim that they were made for Phil Knight. Says Davis, "I told Tom Brokaw that I was the first. I don't care what all the billionaires say. Bill Bowerman made the first pair of shoes for me. People don't believe me. In fact, I didn't like the way they felt on my feet. There was no support and they were too tight. But I saw Bowerman make them from the waffle iron, and they were mine."

The company's profits grew quickly, and, in 1967, BRS opened its first retail store, located on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear, which would bear the Swoosh newly designed by Carolyn Davidson. The Swoosh was first used by Nike on June 18, 1971, and was registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 22, 1974.

The first shoe sold to the public to carry this design was a soccer shoe named Nike, which was released in the summer of 1971. In February 1972, BRS introduced its first line of Nike shoes, with the name derived from the Greek goddess of victory. In 1978, BRS, Inc. officially renamed itself to Nike, Inc. Beginning with Ilie Năstase, the first professional athlete to sign with BRS/Nike, the sponsorship of athletes became a key marketing tool for the rapidly growing company.

The company's first self-designed product was based on Bowerman's "waffle" design. After the University of Oregon resurfaced the track at Hayward Field, Bowerman began experimenting with different potential outsoles that would grip the new urethane track more effectively. His efforts were rewarded one Sunday morning when he poured liquid urethane into his wife's waffle iron. Bowerman developed and refined the so-called "waffle" sole, which would evolve into the now-iconic Waffle Trainer in 1974.

By 1980, Nike had attained a 50% market share in the U.S. athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year. Its growth was due largely to "word-of-foot" advertising (to quote a Nike print ad from the late 1970s), rather than television ads. Nike's first national television commercials ran in October 1982, during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The ads were created by Portland-based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, which had formed several months earlier in April.

Together, Nike and Wieden+Kennedy have created many print and television advertisements, and Wieden+Kennedy remains Nike's primary ad agency. It was agency co-founder Dan Wieden who coined the now-famous slogan "Just Do It" for a 1988 Nike ad campaign, which was chosen by ''Advertising Age'' as one of the top five ad slogans of the 20th century and enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution. Walt Stack was featured in Nike's first "Just Do It" advertisement, which debuted on July 1, 1988. Wieden credits the inspiration for the slogan to "Let’s do it", the last words spoken by Gary Gilmore before he was executed.

Throughout the 1980s, Nike expanded its product line to encompass many sports and regions throughout the world.

Acquisitions

As of November 2008, Nike, Inc. owns four key subsidiaries: Cole Haan, Hurley International, Converse Inc. and Umbro. Nike's first acquisition was the upscale footwear company Cole Haan in 1988. In February 2002, Nike bought surf apparel company Hurley International from founder Bob Hurley. In July 2003, Nike paid US$309 million to acquire Converse Inc., makers of the iconic Chuck Taylor All Stars sneakers. On March 3, 2008, Nike acquired sports apparel supplier Umbro, known as the manufacturers of the England national football team's kit, in a deal said to be worth £285 million (about US$600 million). Other subsidiaries previously owned and subsequently sold by Nike include Bauer Hockey and Starter.

Products

Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. Their first products were track running shoes. They currently also make shoes, jerseys, shorts, baselayers, etc. for a wide range of sports, including track and field, baseball, ice hockey, tennis, association football (soccer), lacrosse, basketball, and cricket. Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. The most recent additions to their line are the Nike 6.0, Nike NYX, and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors'. In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high-performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Nike sells an assortment of products, including shoes and apparel for sports activities like association football, basketball, running, combat sports, tennis, American football, athletics, golf, and cross training for men, women, and children. Nike also sells shoes for outdoor activities such as tennis, golf, skateboarding, association football, baseball, American football, cycling, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, aquatic activities, auto racing, and other athletic and recreational uses. Nike is well known and popular in youth culture, chav culture and hip hop culture for their supplying of urban fashion clothing. Nike recently teamed up with Apple Inc. to produce the Nike+ product that monitors a runner's performance via a radio device in the shoe that links to the iPod nano. While the product generates useful statistics, it has been criticized by researchers who were able to identify users' RFID devices from away using small, concealable intelligence motes in a wireless sensor network.

In 2004, Nike launched the SPARQ Training Program/Division.

Some of Nike's newest shoes contain Flywire and Lunarlite Foam to reduce weight.

On July 15, 2009, the Nike+ Sports Band was released in stores. The product records distance run and calories expended, keeps time, and also gives runners new programs online they could try running.

The 2010 Nike Pro Combat jersey collection were worn by teams from the following universities: Miami, Alabama, Boise State, Florida, Ohio State, Oregon State, Texas Christian University, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, and Pittsburgh. Teams will wear these jerseys in key matchups as well as any time the athletic department deems it necessary.

==Headquarters== Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the city of Beaverton, but are within unincorporated Washington County. The city attempted to forcibly annex Nike's headquarters, which led to a lawsuit by Nike, and lobbying by the company that ultimately ended in Oregon Senate Bill 887 of 2005. Under that bill's terms, Beaverton is specifically barred from forcibly annexing the land that Nike and Columbia Sportswear occupy in Washington County for 35 years, while Electro Scientific Industries and Tektronix receive the same protection for 30 years.

Manufacturing

Nike has contracted with more than 700 shops around the world and has offices located in 45 countries outside the United States. Most of the factories are located in Asia, including Indonesia, China, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines, and Malaysia. Nike is hesitant to disclose information about the contract companies it works with. However, due to harsh criticism from some organizations like CorpWatch, Nike has disclosed information about its contract factories in its Corporate Governance Report.

Human rights concerns

Sweatshops

Nike has been criticized for contracting with factories (known as Nike sweatshops) in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Mexico. Vietnam Labor Watch, an activist group, has documented that factories contracted by Nike have violated minimum wage and overtime laws in Vietnam as late as 1996, although Nike claims that this practice has been stopped. The company has been subject to much critical coverage of the often poor working conditions and exploitation of cheap overseas labor employed in the free trade zones where their goods are typically manufactured. Sources for this criticism include Naomi Klein's book ''No Logo'' and Michael Moore documentaries.

During the 1990s, Nike faced criticism for the use of child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan in factories it contracted to manufacture soccer balls. Although Nike took action to curb or at least reduce the practice, they continue to contract their production to companies that operate in areas where inadequate regulation and monitoring make it hard to ensure that child labor is not being used.

In 2001, a BBC documentary uncovered occurrences of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike. The documentary focused on six girls, who all worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a day.

Campaigns have been taken up by many colleges and universities, especially anti-globalisation groups, as well as several anti-sweatshop groups such as the United Students Against Sweatshops. Despite these campaigns, however, Nike's annual revenues have increased from US$6.4 billion in 1996 to nearly US$17 billion in 2007, according to the company's annual reports.

A July 2008 investigation by Australian Channel 7 News found a large number of cases involving forced labour in one of the largest Nike apparel factories. The factory located in Malaysia was filmed by an undercover crew who found instances of squalid living conditions and forced labour. Nike have since stated that they will take corrective action to ensure the abuse does not continue.

As of July 2011, Nike stated that two-thirds of its factories producing Converse products still do not meet the company's standards for worker treatment. A July 2011 Associated Press article stated that employees at the company's plants in Indonesia reported constant abuse from supervisors.

China Olympics

Nike also caused controversy during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, when its sponsored Chinese athlete, Liu Xiang, withdrew from the Olympic 110 metre hurdles, leaving the track after a false start by another competitor. Liu claimed that he withdrew due an ankle injury. However, an anonymous message was posted on the internet, purportedly from a source close to Nike, claiming that the corporation had forced Liu to withdraw as he was unlikely to win, thereby tarnishing their image. Nike responded by announcing that "we have immediately asked relevant [Chinese] government departments to investigate those that started the rumour".

Environmental record

According to the New England-based environmental organization Clean Air-Cool Planet, Nike ranks among the top three companies (out of 56) in a survey of climate-friendly companies. Nike has also been praised for its Nike Grind program (which closes the product lifecycle) by groups like Climate Counts. One campaign that Nike began for Earth Day 2008 was a commercial that featured basketball star Steve Nash wearing Nike's Trash Talk Shoe, which had been constructed in February 2008 from pieces of leather and synthetic leather waste from factory floors. The Trash Talk Shoe also featured a sole composed of ground-up rubber from a shoe recycling program. Nike claims this is the first performance basketball shoe that has been created from manufacturing waste, but it only produced 5,000 pairs for sale.

Another project Nike has begun is called Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. This program, started in 1993, is Nike's longest-running program that benefits both the environment and the community by collecting old athletic shoes of any type in order to process and recycle them. The material that is produced is then used to help create sports surfaces such as basketball courts, running tracks, and playgrounds.

A project through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found workers were exposed to toxic isocyanates and other chemicals in footwear factories in Thailand. In addition to inhalation, dermal exposure was the biggest problem found. This could result in allergic reactions including asthmatic reactions.

Marketing strategy

Nike promotes its products by sponsorship agreements with celebrity athletes, professional teams and college athletic teams. However, Nike's marketing mix contains many elements besides promotion. These are summarized below.

Advertising

In 1982, Nike aired its first national television ads, created by newly formed ad agency Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. This was the beginning of a successful partnership between Nike and W+K that remains intact today. The Cannes Advertising Festival has named Nike its Advertiser of the Year in 1994 and 2003, making it the first and only company to receive that honor twice.

Nike also has earned the Emmy Award for best commercial twice since the award was first created in the 1990s. The first was for "The Morning After," a satirical look at what a runner might face on the morning of January 1, 2000 if every dire prediction about the Y2K problem came to fruition. The second was for a 2002 spot called "Move," which featured a series of famous and everyday athletes in a variety of athletic pursuits.

In addition to garnering awards, however, Nike advertising has generated its fair share of controversy.

Beatles song

Nike was criticized for its use of the Beatles song "Revolution" in a 1987 commercial against the wishes of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Nike paid US$250,000 to Capitol Records Inc., which held the North American licensing rights to the recordings, for the right to use the Beatles' rendition for a year.

Apple sued Nike Inc., Capitol Records Inc., EMI Records Inc. and Wieden+Kennedy for $15 million. Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was "groundless" because Capitol had licensed the use of "Revolution" with the "active support and encouragement of Yoko Ono Lennon, a shareholder and director of Apple."

According to a November 9, 1989 article in the ''Los Angeles Daily News'', "a tangle of lawsuits between the Beatles and their American and British record companies has been settled." One condition of the out-of-court settlement was that terms of the agreement would be kept secret. The settlement was reached among the three parties involved: surviving Beatles George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr; Yoko Ono; and Apple, EMI and Capitol Records. A spokesman for Yoko Ono noted, "It's such a confusing myriad of issues that even people who have been close to the principals have a difficult time grasping it. Attorneys on both sides of the Atlantic have probably put their children through college on this."

Nike discontinued airing ads featuring "Revolution" in March 1988. Yoko Ono later gave permission to Nike to use John Lennon's "Instant Karma" in another advertisement.

Minor Threat advertisement

In late June 2005, Nike received criticism from Ian MacKaye, owner of Dischord Records, guitarist/vocalist for Fugazi and The Evens, and front man of the defunct punk band Minor Threat, for appropriating imagery and text from Minor Threat's 1981 self-titled album's cover art in a flyer promoting Nike Skateboarding's 2005 East Coast demo tour. On June 27, Nike Skateboarding's website issued an apology to Dischord, Minor Threat, and fans of both and announced that they have tried to remove and dispose of all flyers. They stated that the people who designed it were skateboarders and Minor Threat fans themselves who created the advertisement out of respect and appreciation for the band. The dispute was eventually settled out of court between Nike and Minor Threat. The exact details of the settlement have never been disclosed.

Chinese-themed advertisement

In 2004, an ad about LeBron James beating cartoon martial arts masters and slaying a Chinese dragon with martial arts offended Chinese authorities, who called the ad blasphemous and insulting to national dignity and to the dragon. The advertisement was later banned in China. In early 2007, the ad was reinstated in China for unknown reasons.

Nike 6.0

The company rolled out a new campaign in June 2011 called "Nike 6.0" that was aimed at extreme sport athletes. As part of the campaign, Nike introduced a new line of T-shirts that include phrases such as "Dope", "Get High" and "Ride Pipe" – sports lingo that is also a double entendre for drug use. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino expressed his objection to the shirts after seeing them in a window display at the city's Niketown and asked the store to remove the display. "What we don't need is a major corporation like Nike, which tries to appeal to the younger generation, out there giving credence to the drug issue," Menino told ''The Boston Herald''. A company official stated the shirts were meant exclusively to pay homage to extreme sports, and that Nike does not condone the illegal use of drugs. Nike was forced to replace the shirt line.

Sponsorship

Nike pays top athletes in many sports to use their products and promote and advertise their technology and design.

Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase. The first track endorser was distance runner Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was the prized pupil of the company's co-founder, Bill Bowerman, while he coached at the University of Oregon. Today, the Steve Prefontaine Building is named in his honor at Nike's corporate headquarters.

Besides Prefontaine, Nike has also sponsored many other successful track and field athletes over the years, such as Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sebastian Coe. However, it is the signing of basketball player Michael Jordan in 1984, with his subsequent promotion of Nike over the course of his storied career, with Spike Lee as Mars Blackmon, that proved to be one of the biggest boosts to Nike's publicity and sales.

During the past 20 years especially, Nike has been one of the major clothing and footwear sponsors for leading tennis players. Some of the more successful tennis players currently or formerly sponsored include: James Blake, Jim Courier, Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martín del Potro, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Marion Bartoli, Lindsay Davenport, Daniela Hantuchová, Mary Pierce, Maria Sharapova, and Serena Williams.

Nike was the official kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team for five years, from 2006 until the end of 2010. Nike beat Adidas and Puma by bidding US$43 million.

Nike sponsors some of the leading clubs in world football, including the national teams of Serbia, India, France, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia.

Some of the world's top golf players are sponsored by Nike, among them Tiger Woods, Stewart Cink, Lucas Glover, Michelle Wie, Trevor Immelman, and Paul Casey.

Nike also sponsors various minor events including Hoop It Up (high school basketball) and The Golden West Invitational (high school track and field). Nike uses web sites as a promotional tool to cover these events. Nike also has several websites for individual sports, including nikebasketball.com, nikefootball.com, and nikerunning.com.

Nike is a major sponsor of athletic programs at Penn State and has decided not to abandon that relationship in the wake of the Penn State sex abuse scandal.

See also

Nike sweatshops

List of companies of the United States

List of swimwear brands

References

Further reading

External links

Nikebiz.com – Business Site

Oregon Senate Bill 887, as signed by Governor Ted Kulongoski

Company summary, from the New York Stock Exchange website

Nike at the Open Directory Project

* Category:Athletic shoe brands Category:Clothing companies of the United States Category:Companies based in Beaverton, Oregon Category:Companies established in 1964 Category:Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Category:Shoe companies of the United States Category:Sporting goods manufacturers of the United States Category:Sportswear brands Category:Swimwear manufacturers Category:Publicly traded companies of the United States Category:1980s fashion Category:1990s fashion Category:2000s fashion Category:2010s fashion

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Name	Rafael Nadal
Fullname	Rafael Nadal Parera
Country	Spain
Nickname	''Rafa''''The King of Clay''''The Matador''
Residence	Manacor, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Birth date	June 03, 1986
Birth place	Manacor, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight
Turnedpro	2001
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Careerprizemoney	$47,789,103
Singlesrecord	568–119 (82.55%)
Singlestitles	48
Currentsinglesranking	No. 2 (30 April 2012)
Highestsinglesranking	No. 1 (18 August 2008)
Australianopenresult	W (2009)
Frenchopenresult	W (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011)
Wimbledonresult	W (2008, 2010)
Usopenresult	W (2010)
Othertournaments	Yes
Masterscupresult	F (2010)
Olympicsresult	20px Gold medal (2008)
Doublesrecord	97–59
Doublestitles	8
Currentdoublesranking	No. 59 (30 April 2012)
Highestdoublesranking	No. 26 (8 August 2005)
Grandslamsdoublesresults	yes
Australianopendoublesresult	3R (2004, 2005)
Wimbledondoublesresult	2R (2005)
Usopendoublesresult	SF (2004)
Updated	28 October 2011 }}

}}

Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera (; ) (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time; his success on clay has earned him the nickname "The King of Clay", and has prompted many experts to regard him as the greatest clay court player of all time.

Nadal has won ten Grand Slam singles titles, including a record six French Open titles (tied with Bjorn Borg), the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, a record 20 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, and also was part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. He completed the Career Grand Slam by winning the 2010 US Open, being the seventh player in history, and the youngest in the open era, to achieve it. He is the second male player to complete the Career Golden Slam (winner of the four grand slams and the Olympic Gold medal) after only Andre Agassi.

Nadal had a 32-match winning streak in 2008, starting at the 2008 Masters Series Hamburg to the 2008 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Women's Open, which included titles at Hamburg, the French Open (where he did not drop a set), Queen's Club, his first title at Wimbledon, and the Rogers Cup. In 2012, by winning the Monte-Carlo Masters, he became the only player to have won eight consecutive editions in any tournament during history of tennis, and only the 2nd player to win a single tournament for a total of eight times during Open Era. Nadal was ranked world No. 2, behind Roger Federer, for a record 160 consecutive weeks before earning the top spot, which he held from 18 August 2008 to 5 July 2009. He regained the world No.1 ranking on 7 June 2010, after winning his fifth French Open title. He held it until 3 July 2011, when Novak Djokovic replaced him as world No. 1. Nadal has held the No. 2 ranking for an ATP record 232 weeks (as of 23 April 2012).

Early life

Rafael Nadal was born in Manacor, Majorca, Spain to Sebastián Nadal, a businessman who owns an insurance company, a glass and window company, Vidres Mallorca, and manages his own restaurant, Sa Punta. His mother is Ana María Parera, a housewife. He has a younger sister named María Isabel. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a retired professional footballer, who played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona, and the Spanish national team. Nadal supports football clubs Real Madrid and RCD Mallorca. Recognizing that Nadal had a natural talent for tennis, another uncle, Toni Nadal, a former professional tennis player, introduced him to tennis when he was three years old.

At age eight, Nadal won an under-12 regional tennis championship at a time when he was also a promising football player. This made Toni Nadal intensify training, and at that time he encouraged Nadal to play left-handed for a natural advantage on the tennis court, as he noticed Nadal played forehand shots with two hands. When Nadal was 12, he won the Spanish and European tennis titles in his age group and was playing tennis and football all the time. Nadal's father made him choose between football and tennis so that his school work would not deteriorate entirely. Nadal said: "I chose tennis. Football had to stop straight away."

When he was 14, the Spanish tennis federation requested that he leave Majorca and move to Barcelona to continue his tennis training. Nadal's family turned down this request, partly because they feared it would hurt his education, but also because Toni said that "I don't want to believe that you have to go to America, or other places to be a good athlete. You can do it from your home." The decision to stay home meant that Nadal received less financial support from the federation; instead, Nadal's father covered the costs. In May 2001, he defeated former Grand Slam champion Pat Cash in a clay-court exhibition match.

At 15, he turned pro. Nadal participated in two events on the ITF junior circuit. In 2002, at the age of 16, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Boy's Singles tournament at Wimbledon, in his first ITF junior event.

By the age of 17, he beat Roger Federer the first time they played and became the youngest man to reach the third round at Wimbledon since Boris Becker. At 18, he helped pace Spain over the US in the junior Davis Cup in his second, and final, appearance on the ITF junior circuit. At 19, Nadal won the French Open the first time he played it, a feat not accomplished in Paris for more than 20 years. He eventually won it the first four times he played at Roland Garros. In 2003, he had won the ATP Newcomer of the Year Award. Early in his career, Nadal picked up the trademark habit of biting the trophies he won.

Tennis career

2002–2004

In April 2002, at 15 years and 10 months, the world No. 762 Nadal won his first ATP match, defeating Ramón Delgado, and became the ninth player in the open era to do so before the age of 16. The following year, Nadal won two Challenger titles and finished the year in the top 50. At his Wimbledon debut in 2003, Nadal became the youngest man to reach the third round since Boris Becker in 1984. During 2004, Nadal played his first match against world No. 1 Roger Federer at the 2004 Miami Masters, and won in straight sets. He is one of the six players that defeated Federer that year (along with Tim Henman, Albert Costa, Gustavo Kuerten, Dominik Hrbatý, and Tomáš Berdych). He missed most of the clay court season, including the French Open, because of a stress fracture in his left ankle. Nadal, at 18 years and six months, became the youngest player to register a singles victory in a Davis Cup final for a winning nation. By beating world No. 2 Andy Roddick, he helped Spain clinch the 2004 title over the United States in a 3–2 win. He finished the year ranked world No. 51.

2005

At the 2005 Australian Open, Nadal lost in the 4th round to eventual runner-up Lleyton Hewitt. Two months later, Nadal reached the final of the 2005 Miami Masters, and despite being two points from a straight-sets victory, he was defeated in five sets by world No. 1 Roger Federer. Both performances were considered to be breakthroughs for Nadal.

He then dominated the spring clay court season. He won 24 consecutive singles matches, which broke Andre Agassi's open era record of consecutive match wins for a male teenager. Nadal won the Torneo Conde de Godó in Barcelona and beat 2004 French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria in the finals of the 2005 Monte Carlo Masters and the 2005 Rome Masters. These victories raised his ranking to world No. 5 and made him one of the favorites at his career-first French Open. On his 19th birthday, Nadal defeated Federer in the 2005 French Open semifinals, being one of only four players who defeated the top-seeded player that year (along with Marat Safin, Richard Gasquet, and David Nalbandian). Two days later, he defeated Mariano Puerta in the final, becoming the second male player to win the French Open on his first attempt since Mats Wilander in 1982: He also became the first teenager to win a Grand Slam singles title since Pete Sampras won the 1990 US Open at age 19. Winning the French Open improved Nadal's ranking to World No. 3.

Three days after his victory in Paris, Nadal's 24-match winning streak was snapped in the first round of the grass court Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, where he lost to the German Alexander Waske. He then lost in the second round of 2005 Wimbledon to Gilles Müller of Luxembourg.

Immediately after Wimbledon, Nadal won 16 consecutive matches and three consecutive tournaments, bringing his ranking to world No. 2 on 25 July 2005.

Nadal started his North American summer hard-court season by defeating Agassi in the final of the 2005 Canada Masters, but lost in the first round of the 2005 Cincinnati Masters. Nadal was seeded second at the 2005 US Open, where he was upset in the third round by World No. 49 James Blake in four sets.

In September, he defeated Coria in the final of the China Open in Beijing and won both of his Davis Cup matches against Italy. In October, he won his fourth ATP Masters Series title of the year, defeating Ivan Ljubičić in the final of the 2005 Madrid Masters. He then suffered a foot injury that prevented him from competing in the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup.

Both Nadal and Federer won eleven singles titles and four ATP Masters Series titles in 2005. Nadal broke Mats Wilander's previous teenage record of nine in 1983. Eight of Nadal's titles were on clay, and the remainder were on hard courts. Nadal won 79 matches, second only to Federer's 81. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2005, with eleven 6–0 sets during the year. Also, he earned the highest year-end ranking ever by a Spaniard and the ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award.

2006

Nadal missed the Australian Open due to a foot injury. In February, he lost in the semifinals of the first tournament he played, the Open 13 tournament in Marseille, France. Two weeks later, he handed Roger Federer his first loss of the year in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open (in 2006, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray were the only two men who defeated Federer). To complete the spring hard-court season, Nadal was upset in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California, by James Blake, and was upset in the second round of the 2006 Miami Masters.

On European clay, Nadal won all four tournaments he entered and 24 consecutive matches. He defeated Federer in the final of the Masters Series Monte Carlo in four sets. The following week, he defeated Tommy Robredo in the final of the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. After a one-week break, Nadal won the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, defeating Federer in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the final, after saving two match points and equaling Björn Borg's tally of 16 ATP titles won as a teenager. Nadal broke Argentinian Guillermo Vilas's 29-year male record of 53 consecutive clay-court match victories by winning his first round match at the French Open. Vilas presented Nadal with a trophy, but commented later that Nadal's feat was less impressive than his own because Nadal's winning streak covered two years and was accomplished by adding easy tournaments to his schedule. Nadal went on to play Federer in the final of the French Open. The first two sets of the match were hardly competitive, as the rivals traded 6–1 sets. Nadal won the third set easily and served for the match in the fourth set before Federer broke him and forced a tiebreaker. Nadal won the tiebreaker and became the first player to defeat Federer in a Grand Slam final.

Nadal injured his shoulder while playing a quarterfinal match against Lleyton Hewitt at the Artois Championships, played on grass at the Queen's Club in London. Nadal was unable to complete the match, which ended his 26-match winning streak. Nadal was seeded second at Wimbledon, but was two points from defeat against American qualifier Robert Kendrick in the second round before coming back to win in five sets. In the third round, Nadal defeated world No. 20 Andre Agassi in straight sets at Agassi's last career match at Wimbledon. Nadal also won his next three matches in straight sets, which set up his first Wimbledon final, which was against Federer, who had won this tournament the three previous years. Nadal was the first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in 1966, to reach the Wimbledon final, but Federer won the match in four sets 6–0, 7–6, 6–7, 6–3 to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title.

During the lead up to the US Open, Nadal played the two Masters Series tournaments in North America. He was upset in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nadal was seeded second at the US Open, but lost in the quarterfinals to world No. 54 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in four sets.

Nadal played only three tournaments the remainder of the year. Joachim Johansson, ranked world No. 690, upset Nadal in the second round of the Stockholm Open 6–4, 7–6. The following week, Nadal lost to Tomáš Berdych in the quarterfinals of the year's last Masters Series tournament, the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid. During the round-robin stage of the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup, Nadal lost to James Blake but defeated Nikolay Davydenko and Robredo. Because of those two victories, Nadal qualified for the semifinals, where he lost to Federer 6–4, 7–5. This was Nadal's third loss in nine career matches with Federer.

Nadal went on to become the first player since Andre Agassi in 1994–95 to finish the year as the world No. 2 in consecutive years.

2007

Nadal started the year by playing in six hard-court tournaments. He lost in the semifinals and first round of his first two tournaments and then lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open to eventual runner-up Fernando González. After another quarterfinal loss at the Dubai Tennis Championships, he won the 2007 Indian Wells Masters, before Novak Djoković defeated him in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Miami Masters.

He had comparatively more success after returning to Europe to play five clay-court tournaments. He won the titles at the Masters Series Monte Carlo, the Open Sabadell Atlántico in Barcelona, and the Masters Series Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, before losing to Roger Federer in the final of the Masters Series Hamburg. This defeat ended his 81-match winning streak on clay, which is the male open era record for consecutive wins on a single surface. He then rebounded to win the French Open for the third straight year, defeating Federer once again in the final.

Between the tournaments in Barcelona and Rome, Nadal defeated Federer in the "Battle of Surfaces" exhibition match in Majorca, Spain, with the tennis court being half grass and half clay.

Nadal played the Artois Championships at the Queen's Club in London for the second consecutive year. As in 2006, Nadal was upset in the quarterfinals. Nadal then won consecutive five-set matches during the third and fourth rounds of Wimbledon before being beaten by Federer in the five-set final. This was Federer's first five-set match at Wimbledon since 2001.

In July, Nadal won the clay court Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, which proved to be his last title of the year. He played three important tournaments during the North American summer hard court season. He was a semifinalist at the Masters Series Rogers Cup in Montreal before losing his first match at the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was the second-seeded player at the US Open, but was defeated in the fourth round by David Ferrer.

After a month-long break from tournament tennis, Nadal played the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid and the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. David Nalbandian upset him in the quarterfinals and final of those tournaments. To end the year, Nadal won two of his three round robin matches to advance to the semifinals of the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, where Federer defeated him 6–4, 6–1.

During the second half of the year, Nadal battled a knee injury suffered during the Wimbledon final. In addition, there were rumors at the end of the year that the foot injury he suffered during 2005, caused long-term damage, which were given credence by coach Toni Nadal's claim that the problem was "serious". Nadal and his spokesman strongly denied this, however, with Nadal himself calling the story "totally false".

2008

Nadal began the year in India, where he was comprehensively beaten by Mikhail Youzhny in the final of the Chennai Open. Nadal then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open for the first time. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Nadal 6–2, 6–3, 6–2 in the semifinal of 2008 Australian Open. Tsonga's semifinal performance was characterized by his powerful and precise serve, finesse volleys, and aggressive baseline play; it was a performance that drew the Melbourne crowd to their feet. Tsonga did not face a break point until the third set, while breaking the Spaniard five times in the match. Nadal also reached the final of the Miami Masters for the second time.

During the spring clay-court season, Nadal won four singles titles and defeated Roger Federer in three finals. He beat Federer at the Masters Series Monte Carlo for the third straight year, capturing his open era record fourth consecutive title there. He won in straight sets, despite Federer's holding a 4–0 lead in the second set. Nadal then won his fourth consecutive title at the Open Sabadell Atlántico tournament in Barcelona. A few weeks later, Nadal won his first title at the Masters Series Hamburg, defeating Federer in the three-set final. He then won the French Open, becoming the fifth man in the open era to win a Grand Slam singles title without losing a set. He defeated Federer in the final for the third straight year, but this was the most lopsided of all their matches, as Nadal only lost four games and gave Federer his first bagel since 1999. This was Nadal's fourth consecutive French title, tying Björn Borg's all-time record. Nadal became the fourth male player during Open era to win the same Grand Slam singles tournament four consecutive years (the others being Borg, Pete Sampras, and Federer). Nadal then played Federer in the final of Wimbledon for the third consecutive year, in the most anticipated match of their rivalry. Nadal entered the final on a 23-match winning streak, including his first career grass-court title at the Artois Championships staged at the Queen's Club in London prior to Wimbledon. Federer had won his record fifth grass-court title at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, and then reached the Wimbledon final without losing a set. Unlike their previous two Wimbledon finals, though, Federer was not the prohibitive favorite, and many analysts picked Nadal to win. They played the longest (in terms of time on court, not in terms of numbers of games) final in Wimbledon history, and because of rain delays, Nadal won the fifth set 9–7 in near-darkness. The match was widely lauded as the greatest Wimbledon final ever, with some tennis critics even calling it the greatest match in tennis history. By winning his first Wimbledon title, Nadal became the third man in the open era to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year, after Rod Laver in 1969, and Borg in 1978–80, (Federer later accomplished this the following year) as well as the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon. He also ended Federer's record streak of five consecutive Wimbledon titles and 65 straight wins on grass courts. This is also the first time that Nadal won two Grand Slams back-to-back.

After Wimbledon, Nadal extended his winning streak to a career-best 32 matches. He won his second Rogers Cup title in Toronto, and then made it into the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a result, Nadal clinched the US Open Series and, combined with Federer's early-round losses in both of those tournaments, finally earned the world No. 1 ranking on 18 August, officially ending Federer's record four-and-a-half year reign at the top.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Nadal defeated Novak Djoković of Serbia in the semifinals 6–4, 1–6, 6–4 and Fernando González of Chile in the final to win his first Olympic gold medal. Nadal became the first male player ranked in the top five to win the gold medal.

At the US Open, Nadal was the top-seeded player for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament. He did not lose a set during his first three matches, defeating qualifiers in the first and second rounds and Viktor Troicki in the third round. He then needed four sets to defeat both Sam Querrey in the fourth round and Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost to eventual runner up, Andy Murray 6–2, 7–6, 4–6, 6–4. Later in the year in Madrid, Nadal helped Spain defeat the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals.

At the Mutua Madrileña Masters in Madrid, Nadal lost in the semifinals to Gilles Simon 3–6, 7–5, 7–6. However, his performance at the event guaranteed that he would become the first Spaniard during the open era to finish the year as the world No. 1. On 24 October at the Campoamor theatre in Oviedo, Spain, Nadal was given the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, in recognition of his achievements in tennis. Two weeks after the Madrid Masters at the BNP Paribas Masters in France, Nadal reached the quarterfinals, where he faced Nikolay Davydenko. Nadal lost the first set 6–1, before retiring in the second with a knee injury. The following week, Nadal announced his withdrawal from the year-ending Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, citing tendinitis of the knee. On 10 November, Nadal withdrew from Spain's Davis Cup final against Argentina, as his knee injury had not healed completely.

2009

Nadal's first official ATP tour event for the year was the 250 series Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha. After his first-round match with Fabrice Santoro, Nadal was awarded the 2008 ATP World Tour Champion trophy. Nadal eventually lost in the quarterfinals to Gaël Monfils. Nadal also entered and won the tournament's doubles event with partner Marc López, defeating the world No. 1 doubles team of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in the final. As noted by statistician Greg Sharko, this was the first time since 1990, that the world No. 1 singles player had played the world No. 1 doubles player in a final.

At the 2009 Australian Open, Nadal won his first five matches without dropping a set, before defeating compatriot Fernando Verdasco in the semifinals in the second longest match in Australian Open history at 5 hours and 14 minutes. This win set up a championship match with Roger Federer, their first meeting ever in a hard-court Grand Slam tournament and their nineteenth meeting overall. Nadal defeated Federer in five sets to earn his first hard-court Grand Slam singles title, making him the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open and the fourth male tennis player—after Jimmy Connors, Mats Wilander, and Andre Agassi—to win Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces. This win also made Nadal the first male tennis player to hold three Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces at the same time. Nadal then played the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam. In the final, he lost to second-seeded Murray in three sets. During the final, Nadal called a trainer to attend to a tendon problem with his right knee, which notably affected his play in the final set. Although this knee problem was not associated with Nadal's right knee tendonitis, it was serious enough to cause him to withdraw from the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships a week later.

In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Serbia in a Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on clay in Benidorm, Spain. Nadal defeated Janko Tipsarević and Novak Djokovic. The win over world No. 3 Djokovic was Nadal's twelfth consecutive Davis Cup singles match win and boosted his career win–loss record against Djokovic to 11–4, including 6–0 on clay.

At the 2009 Indian Wells Masters, Nadal won his thirteenth Masters 1000 series tournament. In the fourth round, Nadal saved five match points, before defeating David Nalbandian for the first time. Nadal defeated Juan Martín del Potro in the quarterfinals and Andy Roddick in the semi-finals, before defeating Murray in the final. The next ATP tour event was the 2009 Miami Masters. Nadal advanced to the quarterfinals, where he again faced Argentinian del Potro, this time losing the match. This was the first time del Potro had defeated Nadal in five career matches.

Nadal began his European clay court season at the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, where he won a record fifth consecutive singles title there. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final for his fifth consecutive win, a record in the open era. Nadal is the first male player to win the same ATP Master series event for five consecutive years.

Nadal then competed in the ATP 500 event in Barcelona. He advanced to his fifth consecutive Barcelona final, where he faced David Ferrer. Nadal went on to beat Ferrer 6–2, 7–5 to record five consecutive Barcelona victories. At the Rome Masters, Nadal reached the final, where he defeated Novak Djokovic to improve his overall record to 13–4 and clay record to 8–0 against the Serb. He became the first player to win four Rome titles.

After winning two clay-court Masters, he participated in the Madrid Open. He lost to Roger Federer 4–6, 4–6 in the final. This was the first time that Nadal had lost to Federer since the semifinals of the 2007 Tennis Masters Cup.

On 19 May, the ATP World Tour announced that Nadal was the first player out of eight to qualify for the 2009 ATP World Tour Finals, to be played at the O2 Arena in London.

By beating Lleyton Hewitt in the third round of 2009 French Open, Nadal (2005–09 French Open) set a record of 31 consecutive wins at Roland Garros, beating the previous record of 28 by Björn Borg (1978–81 French Open). Nadal had won 32 consecutive sets at Roland Garros (since winning the last 2 sets at the 2007 French Open final against Federer), the second-longest winning streak in the tournament's history behind Björn Borg's record of 41 consecutive sets. This run came to an end on 31 May 2009, when Nadal lost to eventual runner-up, Robin Söderling in the 4th round. The Swede triumphed 6–2, 6–7, 6–4, 7–6. This was Nadal's first loss at the French Open.

After his surprise defeat at Roland Garros, Nadal withdrew from the AEGON Championships. It was confirmed that Nadal was suffering from tendinitis in both of his knees. On 19 June, Nadal withdrew from the 2009 Wimbledon Championship, citing his recurring knee injury. He was the first champion to not defend the title since Goran Ivanišević in 2001. Roger Federer went on to win the title, and Nadal consequently dropped back to world No. 2 on 6 July 2009. Nadal later announced his withdrawal from the Davis Cup.

On 4 August, Nadal's uncle, Toni Nadal, confirmed that Nadal would return to play at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. There, in his first tournament since Roland Garros, Nadal lost in the quarterfinals to Juan Martín del Potro. With this loss, he relinquished the No. 2 spot to Andy Murray on 17 August 2009, ranking outside the top two for the first time since 25 July 2005.

In the quarterfinals of the US Open he defeated Fernando González 7–6, 7–6, 6–0 in a rain-delayed encounter. However, like his previous US Open campaign, he fell in the semifinals, this time losing to eventual champion Juan Martín del Potro 2–6, 2–6, 2–6. Despite the loss, he regained his No. 2 ranking after Andy Murray's early exit.

At the World Tour Finals, Nadal lost all three of his matches against Robin Söderling, Nikolay Davydenko, and Novak Djokovic respectively without winning a set.

In December, Nadal participated in the second Davis Cup final of his career. He defeated Czech No. 2 Tomáš Berdych in his first singles rubber to give the Spanish Davis Cup Team their first point in the tie. After the Spanish Davis Cup team had secured its fourth Davis Cup victory, Nadal defeated Jan Hájek in the first Davis Cup dead rubber of his career. The win gave Nadal his 14th consecutive singles victory at Davis Cup (his 13th on clay).

Nadal finished the year as No. 2 for the fourth time in five years. Nadal won the Golden Bagel Award for 2009, with nine 6–0 sets during the year. Nadal has won the award three times (a tour record).

2010

Nadal began the year by participating in the Capitala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He defeated compatriot David Ferrer 7–6, 6–3 to reach his second final in the exhibition tournament. In the final, Nadal defeated Robin Söderling 7–6, 7–5.

Nadal participated in an Australian Open warm-up tournament, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, where he lost in the finals to Nikolay Davydenko 6–0, 6–7, 4–6.

In the first round of the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Peter Luczak of Australia 7–6, 6–1, 6–4. In the second round, he beat Lukáš Lacko 6–2, 6–2, 6–2. In the third round, he was tested by Philipp Kohlschreiber, finally beating him 6–4, 6–2, 2–6, 7–5. In the fourth round, he beat Ivo Karlović of Croatia, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4, 6–4. In the quarterfinals, Nadal pulled out at 3–0 down in the third set against Andy Murray, having lost the first two sets 6–3, 7–6. After examining Nadal's knees, doctors told him that he should take two weeks of rest, and then two weeks of rehabilitation.

Nadal reached the semifinals in singles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where he was the defending champion; however, eventual champion Ivan Ljubičić defeated him in three sets. He and countryman López won the doubles title, though, as wildcard entrants against number one seeds Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić. This boosted his doubles ranking 175 places to world number 66, whereas he was 241st before Indian Wells. After Indian Wells, Nadal reached the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open, where he lost to eventual champion Andy Roddick in three sets.

Nadal reached the final of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in Monaco, after beating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer 6–3, 6–2 in the semifinals. This was Nadal's first tour final since Doha earlier in the year. He won the final 6–0, 6–1 over his compatriot Fernando Verdasco. He lost 14 games throughout all five matches, the fewest he had ever lost en route to a championship, and the final was the shortest Masters 1000 final in terms of games. With this win, Nadal became the first player in the open era to win a tournament title for six straight years.

Unlike in previous years, Nadal next chose to skip the Barcelona tournament (despite being that event's five-time defending champion), and his next tournament was the 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. He defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber, Victor Hănescu, and Stanlias Wawrinka, all in straight sets, to win his 57th straight match in April. In the semis, he faced a resilient Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Roger Federer earlier in the tournament and took Nadal to three sets for the first time this clay-court season. Nadal eventually prevailed with a 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 in 2 hours and 40minutes. He then defeated compatriot David Ferrer in the final 7–5, 6–2 for his fifth title at Rome to equal Andre Agassi's record of winning 17 ATP Masters titles.

Nadal then entered the 2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, where he had finished runner-up the previous year. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, he defeated qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr in straight sets. He then played the six-foot-nine-inch American John Isner. Nadal comfortably came through in straight sets, 7–5, 6–4. He defeated Gaël Monfils in the quarterfinals 6–1, 6–3 and his countryman Nicolás Almagro in the next round, who was playing in his first Masters 1000 semifinal, 4–6, 6–2, 6–2. The first set of his match against Almagro would be just the second set he lost on clay up to this point in 2010. Nadal then defeated longtime rival Roger Federer 6–4, 7–6, avenging his 2009 finals loss to Federer. The win gave him his 18th Masters title, breaking the all-time record. He became the first player to win all three clay-court Masters titles in a single year and the first player to win three consecutive Masters events. Nadal moved back to No. 2 the following day.

Entering the French Open, many were expecting another Nadal-Federer final. However, this became impossible when rival Robin Söderling defeated Federer 3–6, 6–3, 7–5, 6–4 in the quarterfinals. The failure of Federer to reach the semifinals allowed Nadal to regain the world No. 1 ranking if he were to win the tournament. Nadal advanced to the final and defeated Soderling 6–4, 6–2, 6–4 to win the French Open. The win gave Nadal his seventh Grand Slam, tying him with John McEnroe, John Newcombe, and Mats Wilander on the all-time list, and allowed Nadal to reclaim the position of world No. 1, denying his biggest rival Roger Federer the all-time record for weeks at No. 1. By this win, Nadal became the first man to win the three Masters series on clay and the French Open. This was dubbed by the media as the "Clay Slam". This victory at Roland Garros marked the second time (2008) that Nadal had won the French Open without dropping a single set (tying the record held by Björn Borg). With the win in Paris he also booked his place at the World Tour Finals in London and became the first player to win five French Open titles in six years.

In June, Nadal entered the AEGON Championships, which he had won in 2008, at the prestigious Queen's Club. He played singles and doubles at this grass court tournament as a warmup for Wimbledon. Being one of the top eight seeds, he received a bye in the first round. In the second round, where he played his first match on grass since winning Wimbledon 2008, he defeated Marcos Daniel easily, 6–2, 6–2. In the third round, he played Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, whom he defeated 7–6, 4–6, 6–4, to advance to the quarterfinals. However, he was defeated by compatriot Feliciano López 6–7, 4–6.

At the Wimbledon, Nadal beat Kei Nishikori 6–2, 6–4, 6–4. Nadal was taken to the limit by Robin Haase winning 5–7, 6–2, 3–6, 6–0, 6–3. He defeated Philipp Petzschner in the third round. The match was a 5-set thriller, with Nadal triumphing 6–4, 4–6, 6–7, 6–2, 6–3. During his match with Petzschner, Nadal was warned twice for receiving coaching from his coach and uncle, Toni Nadal, resulting in a $2000 fine by Wimbledon officials. Allegedly, encouraging words for Nadal shouted during the match were some sort of coaching code signal. He met Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the round of 16 and comfortably beat Mathieu 6–4, 6–2, 6–2. In the quarterfinals, he got past Robin Söderling of Sweden in four sets 3–6, 6–3, 7–6, 6–1. He defeated Andy Murray in straight sets 6–4, 7–6, 6–4 to reach his fourth Wimbledon final.

Nadal won the 2010 Wimbledon men's title by defeating Tomáš Berdych in straight sets 6–3, 7–5, 6–4. After the win, Nadal said "it is more than a dream for me" and thanked the crowd for being both kind and supportive to him and his adversary during the match and in the semifinal against Andy Murray. The win gave him a second Wimbledon title and an eighth career major title just past the age of 24. The win also gave Nadal his first "Old World Triple"; the last person to achieve this was Björn Borg in 1978 ("Old World Triple" is a term given to winning the Italian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon in the same year).

In his first hard-court tournament since Wimbledon, Nadal advanced to the semifinals of the Rogers Cup, along with No. 2 Novak Djokovic, No. 3 Roger Federer, and No. 4 Andy Murray, after coming back from a one-set deficit to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, 3–6, 6–3, 6–4. In the semifinal, defending champion Murray defeated Nadal 6–3, 6–4, becoming the only player to triumph over the Spaniard twice in 2010. Nadal also competed in the doubles with Djokovic in a one-time, high-profile partnership of the world No. 1 and No. 2, the first such team since the Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe team in 1976. However, Nadal and Djokovic lost in the first round to Canadians Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil. The next week, Nadal was the top seed at the Cincinnati Masters, losing in the quarterfinals to 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis.

At the 2010 US Open, Nadal was the top seed for the second time in three years. He defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, Denis Istomin, Gilles Simon, number 23 seed Feliciano López, number 8 seed Fernando Verdasco, and number 12 seed Mikhail Youzhny all without dropping a set, to reach his first US Open final, becoming only the eighth man in the Open Era to reach the final of all four majors, and at age 24 the second youngest ever to do so, behind only Jim Courier. In the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic 6–4, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2 which completed the Career Grand Slam for Nadal and he became the second male after Andre Agassi to complete a Career Golden Slam. Nadal also became the first man to win grand slams on clay, grass, and hard court in the same year, and the first to win the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969. Nadal and Mats Wilander are the only male players to win at least two Grand Slams each on clay, grass, and hardcourts in their careers. Nadal also became the first left-handed man to win the US Open since John McEnroe in 1984. Nadal's victory also clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking for 2010, making Nadal only the third player (after Ivan Lendl in 1989 and Roger Federer in 2009) to regain the year-end number one ranking after having lost it. Nadal began his Asian tour at the 2010 PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok where he reached the semifinals, losing to compatriot Guillermo García López. Nadal was able to regroup, and at the 2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo (debut), he defeated Santiago Giraldo, Milos Raonic, and Dmitry Tursunov. In the semifinals against Viktor Troicki, Nadal saved two match points in the deciding set tiebreaker to win it 9–7 in the end. In the final, Nadal comfortably defeated Gaël Monfils 6–1, 7–5 for his seventh title of the season.

Nadal next played in the 2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters in Shanghai, where he was the top seed, but lost to world No. 12 Jürgen Melzer in the third round, snapping his record streak of 21 consecutive Masters quarterfinals. On the 5 November, Nadal announced that he was pulling out of the Paris Masters due to tendinitis in his left shoulder. On 21 November 2010, in London, Nadal won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the first time.

At the 2010 ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nadal defeated Roddick 3–6, 7–6, 6–4 in the first match, Djokovic 7–5, 6–2 in the second match, and Berdych 7–6, 6–1 in the third match, to advance to the semifinals for the third time in his career. This is the first time that Nadal achieved three wins in the round-robin stage. In the semifinal, he defeated Murray 7–6, 3–6, 7–6 in a hard-fought match to reach his first final at the tournament. In only their second meeting of the year, Federer beat Nadal in the final by a score of 6–3, 3–6, 6–1. After the match, Nadal stated: "Roger is probably the more complete player of the world. I'm not going to say I lost that match because I was tired." This was a reference to his marathon victory over Murray on Saturday. "I tried my best this afternoon, but Roger was simply better than me."

Nadal ended the 2010 season having won three Slams and three Masters 1000 tournaments, and having regained the No. 1 ranking.

Next up for Nadal was a two-match exhibition against Federer for the Roger Federer Foundation. The first match took place in Zürich on 21 December 2010, and the second in Madrid the next day.

2011

Nadal started 2011, by participating in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He defeated Tomáš Berdych, 6–4, 6–4, to reach his third final in the exhibition tournament. In the final, he won over his main rival Roger Federer, 7–6, 7–6.

At the Qatar ExxonMobil Open ATP 250 event in Doha, Qatar, Nadal barely struggled past his first three opponents, Karol Beck, 6–3, 6–0, Lukáš Lacko, 7–6, 0–6, 6–3, and Ernests Gulbis, 7–6, 6–3, citing fever as the primary reason for his poor performance. He fell in straight sets to a resurgent Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals, 3–6, 2–6. He and countryman López won the doubles title by defeating the Italian duo Daniele Bracciali and Andreas Seppi, 6–3, 7–6.

In the first round of the Australian Open, Nadal defeated Marcos Daniel of Brazil 6–0, 5–0 ret. In the second round, he beat upcoming qualifier Ryan Sweeting of the United States 6–2, 6–1, 6–1. In the third round, he was tested by emerging player Bernard Tomic of Australia, who previously ousted Nadal's countryman Feliciano López, but Nadal was victorious 6–2, 7–5, 6–3. He went on to defeat Marin Čilić of Croatia 6–2, 6–4, 6–3, in the fourth round. He suffered an apparent hamstring injury against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer early in the pair's quarterfinal match and ultimately lost in straight sets 4–6, 2–6, 3–6, thus ending his effort to win four major tournaments in a row.

On 7 February 2011, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Nadal won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the first time, ahead of footballer Lionel Messi, Sebastian Vettel, Spain's Andres Iniesta, Lakers basketball player Kobe Bryant, and Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao.

In March, Nadal helped Spain defeat Belgium in a 2011 Davis Cup World Group first-round tie on hard indoor courts in the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium. Nadal defeated Ruben Bemelmans 6–2, 6–4, 6–2. After Spain's victory in three matches, Nadal played a second dead rubber against Olivier Rochus and won 6–4, 6–2.

At the 2011 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Nadal defeated upcoming qualifier Rik de Voest of South Africa 6–0, 6–2, in his first match. In the third round, he beat qualifier Ryan Sweeting, 6–3, 6–1. He then defeated Indian qualifier Somdev Devvarman, 7–5, 6–4, in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, Nadal had a hard time against Croatian Ivo Karlovic, but won 5–7, 6–1, 7–6, and in the semifinals he met Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, back from a long injury. The last three confrontations between the players were in favor of del Potro, but despite some difficulties, Nadal won 6–4, 6–4. He reached his third final at Indian Wells, and in the final lost against Novak Djokovic, 6–4, 3–6, 2–6. The next day, Nadal and Djokovic played a friendly match in Bogota, Colombia, which Nadal won.

Nadal started the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open with a win over Japanese player Kei Nishikori, 6–4, 6–4, then met his compatriot Feliciano Lopez in the third round, whom he defeated 6–3, 6–3. In the fourth round, he defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, 6–1, 6–2. In the quarterfinals, Nadal had the first real test of the tournament when he met the world no. 7 Tomas Berdych. After a good first set, Nadal's level of play fell significantly due to an injured right shoulder, and he lost the second set. He eventually triumphed, 6–2, 3–6, 6–3. In the semifinals, Nadal met his main rival Roger Federer, their first meeting in a semifinal since the 2007 Masters Cup. Nadal was swiftly victorious, 6–3, 6–2; this match was one of the fastest matches played on hard courts. For the second time in two weeks, Nadal faced Novak Djokovic in the final. As in the Indian Wells tournament, Nadal won the first set, and Djokovic the second. The third set ended in a tiebreak, with Djokovic winning the match, 4–6, 6–3, 7–6. This is the first time Nadal reached the finals of Indian Wells and Miami in the same year.

Nadal began his clay-court season in style, winning the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters with the loss of just one set. Nadal defeated Jarkko Nieminen, 6–2, 6–2, Richard Gasquet, 6–2, 6–4, Ivan Ljubičić, 6–1, 6–3, and Andy Murray, 6–4, 2–6, 6–1, in the semifinals to reach his seventh consecutive final in Monte Carlo. In the final, Nadal avenged his defeat by David Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open and won the match, 6–4, 7–5. He was the first man to win the same tournament seven times in a row at the ATP level in the open era. Nadal chalked up his 37th straight win at the clay-court event, where he has not lost since the 2003 Monte Carlo Masters. It was his 44th career title and 19th at a Masters event. It was his first title since winning the Japan Open. Nadal shares third place with Björn Borg and Manuel Orantes in the list of players with the most titles on clay.

Just a week later, Nadal won his sixth Barcelona Open crown, winning the 2011 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell final in straight sets. He won the final over Ferrer, 6–2, 6–4. In doing so, Nadal became the first man in the open era to have won two tournaments at least six times each. Nadal was then the leader in terms of matches won in the year, with 29. He did not gain any points for this victory, however, as only four ATP 500 tournaments can be counted towards a players ranking at one time, but they will go into effect 8 August 2011, when the result of the 2010 Legg Mason Tennis Classic expires.

At the Madrid in May, he defeated Marcos Baghdatis, had a walkover against Juan Martin del Potro, and defeated Michael Llodra and Roger Federer, before losing the final to Novak Djokovic, 5–7, 4–6.

Nadal lost in straight sets to Novak Djokovic in the Rome Masters final, 4–6, 4–6. This marked the first time that Nadal has lost twice on clay to the same player in a single season. However, Nadal retained his no. 1 ranking during the clay-court season and won his sixth French Open title by defeating Roger Federer, 7–5, 7–6, 5–7, 6–1.

At Wimbledon, Nadal beat Michael Russell in the first round, 6–4, 6–2, 6–2, Ryan Sweeting, 6–3, 6–2, 6–4, in the second round, and Gilles Muller, 7–6, 7–6, 6–0, in the third round. He then faced former US Open Champion Juan Martin del Potro in the fourth round, prevailing 7–6, 3–6, 7–6, 6–4. He then faced tenth-seeded Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals, prevailing in four sets, 6–3, 6–3, 5–7, 6–4. His semifinal opponent was world no. 4 Andy Murray. Murray took the first set, but Nadal upped his game and won in four sets, 5–7, 6–2, 6–2, 6–4. This set up a final against world no. 2 Novak Djokovic, who had beaten Nadal in all four of their matches in 2011 (all in Masters finals). Djokovic broke in the 10th game of the first set to take it 6–4; he then won the second comfortably 6–1, but Nadal fought back, breaking early in the third to win it 6–1. In a tense fourth set, Djokovic broke in the ninth game and clinched the title, with Nadal losing 4–6, 1–6, 6–1, 3–6. This was the first Grand Slam final that Nadal had lost to someone other than Roger Federer and his first loss at Wimbledon since his five-set loss to Federer in the 2007 final. The loss ended Nadal's winning streak in Grand Slam finals at seven, preventing him from tying the Open-Era record of eight victories in a row set by Pete Sampras. Djokovic's success at the tournament also meant that the Serb ascended to world no. 1 for the first time, breaking the dominance of Federer and Nadal on the position, which one of them had held for every week since 2 February 2004. Nadal fell to world no. 2 in the rankings for the first time since June 2010.

After resting for a month from a foot injury sustained during Wimbledon, he contested the 2011 Rogers Cup, where he was shocked by Croatian Ivan Dodig in a third-set tiebreak. He next played in the 2011 Cincinnati Masters, where he lost to Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals.

At the 2011 US Open, Nadal defeated Andrey Golubev in straight sets and advanced to the third round after Frenchman Nicholas Mahut retired. After defeating David Nalbandian on September 4, Nadal collapsed in his post-match press conference due to severe cramps. Nadal lost to Novak Djokovic in the final in four sets 2–6, 4–6, 7–6, 1–6.

After the US Open, Nadal made the final of the Japan Open Tennis Championships. Nadal, who was the 2010 champion, was defeated by Andy Murray, 6–3, 2–6, 0–6. At the Shanghai Masters, Nadal was top seed with the absence of Novak Djokovic, but was upset in the third round by no. 23 ranked Florian Mayer in straight sets, 6–7, 3–6. At the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals, Nadal was defeated by Roger Federer in the round-robin stage, 3–6, 0–6 in one of the quickest matches between the two, lasting just 60 minutes. In the following match, Nadal was defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6–7, 6–4, 3–6, and was eliminated from the tournament.

In the Davis Cup final in December, Nadal had a quick straight-set win over Juan Monaco in his first match. In his second match against Juan Martin del Potro Nadal did not win a single service game in the first set but came back to win the match 1–6, 6–4, 6–1, 7–6(0).

Nadal ended his tennis season with the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, an exhibition tournament not affiliated with the ATP. The tournament, normally held in early January, was held from December 29 to December 31, 2011. Nadal had a bye into the semifinals and played against David Ferrer, who defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarterfinals. Ferrer won the match in straight sets 6–3, 6–2. Nadal was then relegated to the third place match against Roger Federer. Nadal dominated the first set, and Federer made an attempt to claim the second set but failed, winning the match with a score of 6–1, 7–5.

2012

Rivalries

Nadal vs. Federer

Federer and Nadal have been playing each other since 2004, and their rivalry is a significant part of both men's careers.

They held the top two rankings on the ATP Tour from July 2005 until 14 September 2009, when Nadal fell to World No. 3 (Andy Murray became the new No. 2). They are the only pair of men to have ever finished four consecutive calendar years at the top. Federer was ranked number 1 for a record 237 consecutive weeks beginning in February 2004. Nadal, who is five years younger, ascended to No. 2 in July 2005 and held this spot for a record 160 consecutive weeks before surpassing Federer in August 2008.

They have played 28 times, and Nadal leads their head-to-head series 18–10 overall and 8-2 in Grand Slam tournaments. Fourteen of their matches have been on clay, which is statistically Nadal's best surface and statistically Federer's worst surface. Federer has a winning record on grass (2–1) and indoor hard courts (4–0) while Nadal leads the outdoor hard courts by 5–2 and clay by 12–2. Because tournament seedings are based on rankings, 19 of their matches have been in tournament finals, including an all-time record 8 Grand Slam finals. From 2006 to 2008 they played in every French Open and Wimbledon final, and then they met in the 2009 Australian Open final and the 2011 French Open final. Nadal won six of the eight, losing the first two Wimbledons. Three of these matches were five set-matches (2007 and 2008 Wimbledon, 2009 Australian Open), and the 2008 Wimbledon final has been lauded as the greatest match ever by many long-time tennis analysts. They have also played in a record 9 Masters Series finals, including their lone five hour match at the 2006 Rome Masters which Nadal won in a fifth-set tie-break having saved two match points.

Both Federer and Nadal have won Grand Slam events on three different surfaces successively (2008 French Open, 2008 Wimbledon, 2009 Australian Open for Nadal and 2008 US Open, 2009 French Open, 2009 Wimbledon for Federer).

Nadal vs. Djokovic

Djokovic and Nadal have met 31 times (which is the sixth-most head-to-head meetings in the Open Era) with Nadal having a 17–14 advantage. Nadal leads on grass 2–1 and clay 10–2, but Djokovic leads on hard courts 11–5. This rivalry is listed as the third greatest rivalry in the last decade by ATPworldtour.com and is considered by many to be the emerging rivalry. Djokovic is the only player to have at least ten match wins against Nadal and the only person to defeat Nadal seven times consecutively and two times consecutively on clay. The two share the record for the longest match played in a best of three sets (4 hours and 3 minutes), at the 2009 Mutua Madrid Open semi-finals. In the 2011 Wimbledon final, Djokovic won in four sets 6–4, 6–1, 1–6, 6–3, which was his first victory over Nadal in a Major in six attempts. By doing so, he became the only person other than Federer to defeat Nadal in a Grand Slam tournament final. Djokovic also defeated Nadal in the 2011 US Open Final to capture his third major title of the year and fourth slam overall. By beating Nadal at the US Open, Djokovic became the second player to defeat Nadal in more than one Grand Slam final (the other being Federer), the only player to beat Nadal in a Slam final on a surface other than grass, and the only player to hand Nadal six ATP finals losses in a year. In 2012, Djokovic defeated Nadal in the Australian Open final which made Nadal the first player to lose in three consecutive Grand Slam finals. This was the longest Grand Slam final in Open era history at 5 hrs, 53 mins. After losing seven times in a row against Djokovic, Nadal won their last meeting in the final of Monte Carlo in April 2012.

Major Titles

Grand Slam performance timeline

''To prevent confusion and double counting, information in this table is updated only once a tournament or the player's participation in the tournament has concluded. This table is current through the 2012 Australian Open.

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center !Tournament!!2003!!2004!!2005!!2006!!2007!!2008!!2009!!2010!!2011!!2012!!SR!!W–L!!Win % |- |colspan=15 align=left|'''Grand Slam Tournaments |- |bgcolor=#efefef align=left|Australian Open |A |bgcolor=#afeeee|3R |bgcolor=#afeeee|4R |A |bgcolor=#ffebcd|QF |bgcolor=yellow|SF |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=#ffebcd|QF |bgcolor=#ffebcd|QF |bgcolor=thistle|F |bgcolor=#efefef|1 / 8 |bgcolor=#efefef|35–7 |bgcolor=#efefef|83.33 |- |bgcolor=#efefef align=left|French Open |A |A |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=#afeeee|4R |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=lime|'''W | |bgcolor=#efefef|6 / 7 |bgcolor=#efefef|45–1 |bgcolor=#efefef|97.83 |- |bgcolor=#efefef align=left|Wimbledon |bgcolor=#afeeee|3R |A |bgcolor=#afeeee|2R |bgcolor=thistle|F |bgcolor=thistle|F |bgcolor=lime|'''W |A |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=thistle|F | |bgcolor=#efefef|2 / 7 |bgcolor=#efefef|35–5 |bgcolor=#efefef|87.50 |- |bgcolor=#efefef align=left|US Open |bgcolor=#afeeee|2R |bgcolor=#afeeee|2R |bgcolor=#afeeee|3R |bgcolor=#ffebcd|QF |bgcolor=#afeeee|4R |bgcolor=yellow|SF |bgcolor=yellow|SF |bgcolor=lime|'''W |bgcolor=thistle|F | |bgcolor=#efefef|1 / 9 |bgcolor=#efefef|34–8 |bgcolor=#efefef|80.95 |- !style=text-align:left|Win–Loss !3–2 !3–2 !13–3 !17–2 !20–3 !24–2 !15–2 !25–1 !23–3 !6–1 !10 / 31 !149–21 !87.65 |}

Grand Slam Finals

Singles: 15 (10 titles, 5 runner-ups)

{|class="sortable wikitable" !width=100|Outcome !width=50|Year !width=200|Championship !width=75|Surface !width=200|Opponent in the final !width=200|Score in the final |-bgcolor=#ebc2af |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2005||French Open||Clay|| Mariano Puerta||6–7^(6–8), 6–3, 6–1, 7–5 |-bgcolor=#ebc2af |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2006||French Open (2)||Clay|| Roger Federer||1–6, 6–1, 6–4, 7–6(7–4) |-bgcolor=#ccffcc |bgcolor=#ffa07a|Runner-up||2006||Wimbledon||Grass|| Roger Federer||0–6, 6–7^(5–7), 7–6^(7–2), 3–6 |-bgcolor=#ebc2af |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2007||French Open (3)||Clay|| Roger Federer||6–3, 4–6, 6–3, 6–4 |-bgcolor=#ccffcc |bgcolor=#ffa07a|Runner-up||2007||Wimbledon (2)||Grass|| Roger Federer||6–7^(7–9), 6–4, 6–7^(3–7), 6–2, 2–6 |-bgcolor=#ebc2af |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2008||French Open (4)||Clay|| Roger Federer||6–1, 6–3, 6–0 |-bgcolor=#ccffcc |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2008||Wimbledon||Grass|| Roger Federer||6–4, 6–4, 6–7^(5–7), 6–7^(8–10), 9–7 |-bgcolor=#ffffcc |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2009||Australian Open||Hard|| Roger Federer||7–5, 3–6, 7–6^(7–3), 3–6, 6–2 |-bgcolor=#ebc2af |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2010||French Open (5)||Clay|| Robin Söderling||6–4, 6–2, 6–4 |-bgcolor=#ccffcc |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2010||Wimbledon (2)||Grass|| Tomáš Berdych||6–3, 7–5, 6–4 |-bgcolor=#ccccff |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2010||US Open||Hard|| Novak Djokovic||6–4, 5–7, 6–4, 6–2 |-bgcolor=#ebc2af |bgcolor=#98fb98|Winner||2011||French Open (6)||Clay|| Roger Federer||7–5, 7–6^(7–3), 5–7, 6–1 |-bgcolor=#ccffcc |bgcolor=#ffa07a|Runner-up||2011||Wimbledon (3)||Grass|| Novak Djokovic||4–6, 1–6, 6–1, 3–6 |-bgcolor=#ccccff |bgcolor=#ffa07a|Runner-up||2011||US Open||Hard|| Novak Djokovic||2–6, 4–6, 7–6^(7–3), 1–6 |-bgcolor=#ffffcc |bgcolor=#ffa07a|Runner-up||2012||Australian Open||Hard|| Novak Djokovic||7–5, 4–6, 2–6, 7–6^(7–5), 5–7 |}

Year-End Championships

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center;font-size:97% |- !Tournament!!2002!!2003!!2004!!2005!!2006!!2007!!2008!!2009!!2010!!2011!!2012!!SR!!W–L!!Win % |- | colspan="18" style="text-align:left;"|'''Year-End Championship Tournaments |- | style="background:#efefef; text-align:left;"|YEC |A |A |A |A | style="background:yellow;"|SF | style="background:yellow;"|SF |A | style="background:#afeeee;"|RR | style="background:thistle;"|F | style="background:#afeeee;"|RR | !0 / 5 !9–10 !47.37 |}

Singles: 1 Runner-up

{|class="sortable wikitable" |- !width=100|Outcome !width=50|Year !width=200|Championship !width=75|Surface !width=200|Opponent in the final !width=200|Score in the final |-bgcolor=ffffcc | style="background:#ffa07a;"|Runner-up||2010||2010 ATP World Tour Finals||Hard|| Roger Federer||3–6, 6–3, 1–6 |}

Olympic finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

{|class="sortable wikitable" |- !width=100|Outcome !width=50|Year !width=200|Championship !width=75|Surface !width=200|Opponent in the final !width=200|Score in the final |- style="background:gold;" | style="background:#98fb98;"|Winner||2008||Beijing Olympics||Hard|| Fernando González||6–3, 7–6^(7–2), 6–3 |}

Career statistics

Records

All-time tournament records

align=center>1877 align=center align=center align=center align=center

		!Since	!Record accomplished	!Players matched
List_of_non-Grand_Slam_tennis_statistics_and_records#Most_titles_at_a_particular_tournament	All	|	8 consecutive titles at any single tournament	Stands alone
Monte_Carlo_Masters#Men.27s_Singles	Monte Carlo Masters	1897 ||	8 men's singles titles	Stands alone
List_of_French_Open_Men%27s_Singles_champions#French_Championships	French Open	1925 ||	6 men's singles titles	Björn Borg
Rome_Masters#Men.27s_singles_finals	Rome Masters	1930 ||	5 men's singles titles	Stands alone
Torneo_Godó#Singles	Barcelona Open	1953 ||	7 men's singles titles	Stands alone

Grand Slam tournament records

These records were attained in the Open Era of tennis (since 1968).

Records in bold indicate peer-less achievements.

Records in ''italics'' are currently active streaks.

{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |- !Time span !Selected Grand Slam tournament records !Players matched |- |2005 French Open — 2010 US Open||Career Golden Slam|| Andre Agassi |- |2005 French Open — 2010 US Open||Career Grand Slam||Rod LaverAndre AgassiRoger Federer |- |2005 French Open — 2010 US Open||At least two Majors on grass, clay, and hard courts||Mats Wilander |- |2005 French Open — 2010 US Open||Youngest to achieve a Career Grand Slam (24)||'''Stands alone |- |2010 French Open — 2010 US Open||Winner of Majors on clay, grass, and hard court in calendar year||'''Stands alone |- |2010 French Open — 2010 US Open||Winner of three consecutive Majors in calendar year||Rod Laver |- |2007 French Open — 2010 US Open||4 finals reached without losing a set (2007–08, 2010 French Open & 2010 US Open)||Bjorn Borg |- |2010 French Open — 2010 US Open||Simultaneous holder of Majors on clay, grass, and hard court||Roger Federer |- |2008 Olympics — 2010 US Open||Simultaneous holder of Olympic singles gold medal and Majors on clay, grass, and hard court||'''Stands alone |- |2008 Wimbledon — 2008 Olympics||Simultaneous holder of Olympic singles gold medal and Wimbledon||'''Stands alone |- |2008 French Open — 2009 Australian Open||Simultaneous holder of Olympic singles gold medal and three Majors||Andre Agassi |- |2008 Olympics — 2010 US Open||Simultaneous holder of Olympic singles gold medal and clay & hard court Majors|| Andre Agassi |- |2011 Wimbledon — 2012 Australian Open||''Three consecutive runner-up finishes||'''Stands alone |}

{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |- !Grand Slam tournaments !Time Span !Records at each Grand Slam tournament !Players matched |- |French Open||2005–2011||6 titles overall||Björn Borg |- |French Open||2005–2011||6 titles in 7 years||Stands alone |- |French Open||2005–2008||4 consecutive titles||Björn Borg |- |French Open||2005–2008,2010–2011||6 finals overall||Björn Borg |- |French Open||2005–2008||4 consecutive finals||Björn BorgIvan LendlRoger Federer |- |French Open||2005–2009||31 consecutive match wins||Stands alone |- |French Open||2005–2011||97.83% (45–1) match winning percentage||Stands alone |- |French Open||2008, 2010||2 wins without losing a set||Björn Borg |- |French Open||2005||Won title on the first attempt||Mats Wilander |- |French Open—Wimbledon||2008, 2010||Accomplished a "Channel Slam": Winning both tournaments in the same year|| Rod LaverBjörn BorgRoger Federer |}

ATP Masters records

Grand Prix Championship Series began in 1970.

ATP Masters Series was introduced in 1990.

Renamed ATP Masters 1000 in 2009.

{|class="wikitable" |- !Time span !Selected Masters tournament records !Players matched |- |2005–2012||20 Masters 1000 titles overall||'''Stands alone |- |2005–2012||15 Masters 1000 clay court titles||'''Stands alone |- |2005–2012||82.96% (224–46) winning percentage||'''Stands alone |- |2010||Clay Slam (Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid and French Open)||'''Stands alone |}

Other selected records

{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |- !Time span !Other selected records !Players matched |- |2005–2007||81 consecutive clay court match victories||'''Stands alone |- |2002–2012||92.91% (236–18) clay court match winning percentage||'''Stands alone |- |2002–2012||85.02% (511–90) outdoor court match winning percentage||'''Stands alone |- |2005–2012||7+ titles at 2 different tournaments||'''Stands alone |- |2005–2012||8 titles overall at a single tournament (Monte Carlo)||Guillermo Vilas |- |2005–2012||8 consecutive titles at a single tournament (Monte Carlo)||'''Stands alone |}

Playing style

Nadal generally plays an aggressive, behind-the-baseline game founded on heavy topspin groundstrokes, consistency, speedy footwork and tenacious court coverage thus making him an aggressive counterpuncher. Known for his athleticism and speed around the court, Nadal is an excellent defender who hits well on the run, constructing winning plays from seemingly defensive positions. He also plays very fine dropshots, which work especially well because his heavy topspin often forces opponents to the back of the court.

Nadal employs a full western grip forehand, often with a "lasso-whip" follow through, where his left arm hits through the ball and finishes above his left shoulder – as opposed to a more traditional finish across the body or around his opposite shoulder. Nadal's forehand groundstroke form allows him to hit shots with heavy topspin – more so than many of his contemporaries. San Francisco tennis researcher John Yandell used a high-speed video camera and special software to count the average number of revolutions of a tennis ball hit full force by Nadal. "The first guys we did were Sampras and Agassi. They were hitting forehands that in general were spinning about 1,800 to 1,900 revolutions per minute. Federer is hitting with an amazing amount of spin, too, right? 2,700 revolutions per minute. Well, we measured one forehand Nadal hit at 4,900. His average was 3,200." While Nadal's shots tend to land short of the baseline, the characteristically high bounces his forehands achieve tend to mitigate the advantage an opponent would normally gain from capitalizing on a short ball. Although his forehand is based on heavy topspin, he can hit the ball deep and flat with a more orthodox follow through for clean winners.

Nadal's serve was initially considered a weak point in his game, although his improvements in both first-serve points won and break points saved since 2005 have allowed him to consistently compete for and win major titles on faster surfaces. Nadal relies on the consistency of his serve to gain a strategic advantage in points, rather than going for service winners. However, before the 2010 season, he altered his service motion, arriving in the trophy pose earlier and pulling the racket lower during the trophy pose. Before the 2010 U.S. Open, Nadal modified his service grip to a more continental one. These two changes in his serve have increased its average speed by around 10 mph, maxing out at 135 mph (217 km), allowing him to win more free points on his serve.

Nadal is a clay court specialist in the sense that he has been extremely successful on that surface. Since 2005, he won six times at Roland Garros, seven times at Monte Carlo and five at Rome. However, Nadal has shed that label due to his success on other surfaces, including holding Grand Slams simultaneously on grass, hard courts, and clay on two separate occasions, winning five Masters series titles on hardcourt, and winning the Olympic gold medal on hardcourt. Despite praise for Nadal's talent and skill, some have questioned his longevity in the sport, citing his build and playing style as conducive to injury. Nadal himself has admitted to the physical toll hard courts place on ATP Tour players, calling for a reevaluated tour schedule featuring fewer hard court tournaments.

Public image

Equipment and endorsements

Nadal has appeared in advertising campaigns for Kia Motors as a global ambassador for the company. In May 2008, Kia released a claymation viral ad featuring Nadal in a tennis match with an alien. Nadal also has an endorsement agreement with Universal DVDs.

Nike serves as Nadal's clothing and shoe sponsor. Nadal's signature on-court attire entailed a variety of sleeveless shirts paired with 3/4 length capri pants. For the 2009 season, Nadal adopted more-traditional on-court apparel. Nike encouraged Nadal to update his look in order to reflect his new status as the sport's top player at that time and associate Nadal with a style that, while less distinctive than his "pirate" look, would be more widely emulated by consumers. At warmup tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Doha, Nadal played matches in a polo shirt specifically designed for him by Nike, paired with shorts cut above the knee. Nadal's new, more conventional style carried over to the 2009 Australian Open, where he was outfitted with Nike's Bold Crew Men's Tee and Nadal Long Check Shorts. Nadal wears Nike's Air CourtBallistec 2.3 tennis shoes, bearing various customizations throughout the season, including his nickname "Rafa" on the right shoe and a stylized bull logo on the left.

Becomes the face of Lanvin's ''L'Homme Sport'' cologne, launched April 2009.

Nadal uses an AeroPro Drive racquet with a 4-inch L2 grip. , Nadal's racquets are painted to resemble the new Babolat AeroPro Drive with Cortex GT racquet in order to market a current model which Babolat sells. Nadal uses no replacement grip, and instead wraps two overgrips around the handle. He used Duralast 15L strings until the 2010 season, when he switched to Babolat's new, black-colored, RPM Blast string. Nadal's rackets are always strung at , regardless of which surface or conditions he is playing on.

, Nadal is the international ambassador for Quely, a company from his native Majorca that manufactures biscuits, bakery and chocolate coated products; he has consumed their products ever since he was a young child.

In 2010, luxury watchmaker Richard Mille announced that he had developed an ultra-light wristwatch in collaboration with Nadal called the Richard Mille RM027 Tourbillon watch. The watch is made of titanium and lithium and is valued at US$525,000; Nadal was involved in the design and testing of the watch on the tennis court. During the 2010 French Open, Men's Fitness reported that Nadal wore the Richard Mille watch on the court as part of a sponsorship deal with the Swiss watchmaker.

Nadal replaced Cristiano Ronaldo as the new face of Emporio Armani Underwear and Armani Jeans for the spring/summer 2011 collection. This is the first time that the label has chosen a tennis player for the job; association football has ruled lately prior to Ronaldo, David Beckham graced the ads since 2008. Armani said that he selected Nadal as his latest male underwear model because "...he is ideal as he represents a healthy and positive model for youngsters."

In popular culture

In February 2010, Rafael Nadal was featured in the music video of Shakira's "Gypsy". and part of her album release ''She Wolf''. In explaining why she chose Nadal for the video, Shakira was quoted as saying in an interview with the ''Latin American Herald Tribune'': "I thought that maybe I needed someone I could in some way identify with. And Rafael Nadal is a person who has been totally committed to his career since he was very young. Since he was 17, I believe." She added about "Gypsy": "I've been on the road since I was very, very young, so that's where the gypsy metaphor comes from."

Misc

128036 Rafaelnadal is a Main belt asteroid discovered in 2003 at the Observatorio Astronómico de Mallorca, Spain and named after Rafael Nadal.

Off the court

Involvement in football

Nadal is an avid fan of association football club Real Madrid. On 8 July 2010, it was reported that he had become a shareholder of RCD Mallorca, his local club by birth, in an attempt to assist the club from debt. Rafa reportedly owns 10 percent and was offered the role of vice president, but he rejected that offer. His uncle Miguel Ángel Nadal, became assistant coach under Michael Laudrup. Nadal remains a passionate Real Madrid supporter; ''ESPN.com'' writer Graham Hunter wrote, "He's as ''Merengue'' as [Real Madrid icons] Raúl, Iker Casillas and Alfredo Di Stéfano." Shortly after acquiring his interest in Mallorca, he called out UEFA for apparent hypocrisy in ejecting the club from the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League for excessive debts, saying through a club spokesperson, "Well, if those are the criteria upon which UEFA is operating, then European competition will only comprise two or three clubs because all the rest are in debt, too."

He is a fervent supporter of the Spanish national team, one of only six people not affiliated with the team or the national federation allowed into the team's locker room immediately following Spain's victory in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final.

Philanthropy

Rafael Nadal took part in Thailand's 'A Million Trees For The King' project, planting a tree in honour of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on a visit to Hua Hin during his Thailand Open 2010. "For me it's an honour to part of this project," said Nadal. "It's a very good project. I want to congratulate the Thai people and congratulate the King for this unbelievable day. I wish all the best for this idea. It's very, very nice."

Fundación Rafa Nadal

The creation of the Fundación Rafa Nadal took place in November 2007, and its official presentation was in February 2008, at the Manacor Tennis Club in Mallorca, Spain. The foundation will focus on social work and development aid particularly on childhood and youth. On deciding why to start a foundation, Nadal said "This can be the beginning of my future, when I retire and have more time, [...] I am doing very well and I owe society, [...] A month-and-a-half ago I was in Chennai, in India. The truth is we live great here....I can contribute something with my image..." Nadal was inspired by the Red Cross benefit match against malaria with Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, recalling, "We raised an amount of money that we would never have imagined. I have to thank Iker, my project partner, who went all out for it, [...] That is why the time has come to set up my own foundation and determine the destination of the money." Ana Maria Parera, Rafa's mom, chairs the organization and father Sebastian is vice-chairman. Coach and uncle Toni Nadal and his agent, former tennis player Carlos Costa, are also involved. Roger Federer has been giving Nadal advice on getting involved in philanthropy. Despite the fact that poverty in India struck him particularly hard, Nadal wants to start by helping "people close by, in the Balearic Islands, in Spain, and then, if possible, abroad."

On 16 October 2010, Nadal traveled to India for the first time to assist in the transformation of one of the poorest and most needy areas of India, Andhra Pradesh. He has an academy in the south of the country, in the state of Andhra Pradesh. His foundation has also worked in the Anantapur Educational Center project, in collaboration with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation.

Personal life

Nadal owns an Aston Martin DBS. He lived with his parents and younger sister Maria Isabel in a five-story apartment building in their hometown of Manacor, Mallorca. In June 2009, Spanish newspaper ''La Vanguardia'', and then ''The New York Times'', reported that his parents, Ana Maria and Sebastian, had separated. This news came after weeks of speculation in Internet posts and message boards over Nadal's personal issues as the cause of his setback. He has revealed himself to be Agnostic. When a young boy, he would run home from school to watch Goku in his favorite Japanese anime, Dragon Ball. ''CNN'' released an article about Nadal's childhood inspiration, and called him "the Dragon Ball of tennis" due to his unorthodox style "from another planet."

Nadal's autobiography, ''Rafa'', written with assistance from John Carlin, was published in August 2011. Since 2005, Rafael Nadal has been dating Maria Francisca Perello (Xisca). In addition to tennis and association football, Nadal enjoys playing golf.

See also

ATP World Tour records

List of ATP number 1 ranked players

List of Grand Slam men's singles champions

List of non-Grand Slam tennis statistics and records

128036 Rafaelnadal asteroid

List of open era tennis records

ATP Awards

References

External links

Zen and the Art of Rafael Nadal

{{navboxes|title=Rafael Nadal in the Grand Slam Tournaments |list1= }} {{navboxes|title=Rafael Nadal Achievements |list1= }}

Category:1986 births Category:Australian Open champions Category:French Open champions Category:Laureus World Sports Awards winners Category:Living people Category:Olympic gold medalists for Spain Category:Olympic medalists in tennis Category:Olympic tennis players of Spain Category:People from Manacor Category:Spanish agnostics Category:Spanish football chairmen and investors Category:Spanish male tennis players Category:Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Category:Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:US Open (tennis) champions Category:Wimbledon champions Category:World No. 1 tennis players

af:Rafael Nadal ar:رافاييل نادال an:Rafael Nadal ast:Rafael Nadal az:Rafael Nadal bn:রাফায়েল নাদাল zh-min-nan:Rafael Nadal be:Рафаэль Надаль be-x-old:Рафаэль Надаль bg:Рафаел Надал bs:Rafael Nadal br:Rafael Nadal ca:Rafael Nadal Parera cv:Рафаэль Надаль cs:Rafael Nadal cy:Rafael Nadal da:Rafael Nadal de:Rafael Nadal et:Rafael Nadal el:Ραφαέλ Ναδάλ es:Rafael Nadal eo:Rafael Nadal eu:Rafael Nadal fa:رافائل نادال fr:Rafael Nadal ga:Rafael Nadal gv:Rafael Nadal gl:Rafael Nadal gu:રફેલ નડાલ ko:라파엘 나달 hy:Ռաֆայել Նադալ hi:रफ़ाएल नडाल hr:Rafael Nadal io:Rafael Nadal id:Rafael Nadal is:Rafael Nadal it:Rafael Nadal he:רפאל נדאל ka:რაფაელ ნადალი lv:Rafaels Nadals lt:Rafael Nadal hu:Rafael Nadal mk:Рафаел Надал mg:Rafael Nadal ml:റാഫേൽ നദാൽ mr:रफायेल नदाल arz:رافاييل نادال ms:Rafael Nadal mn:Рафаэл Надал my:ရာဖယ် နာဒယ် nl:Rafael Nadal ja:ラファエル・ナダル no:Rafael Nadal oc:Rafael Nadal nds:Rafael Nadal pl:Rafael Nadal pt:Rafael Nadal ro:Rafael Nadal rm:Rafael Nadal ru:Надаль, Рафаэль sq:Rafael Nadal scn:Rafael Nadal simple:Rafael Nadal sk:Rafael Nadal sl:Rafael Nadal sr:Рафаел Надал sh:Rafael Nadal fi:Rafael Nadal sv:Rafael Nadal tl:Rafael Nadal ta:ரஃபயெல் நதால் te:రాఫెల్ నాదల్ th:ราฟาเอล นาดาล tr:Rafael Nadal uk:Рафаель Надаль ur:رافیل نڈال vi:Rafael Nadal yo:Rafael Nadal zh:拉斐爾·拿度

name	Eric Koston
fullname	Eric Koston
nickname	Frosty, Champ, Froston
nationality	American, Thai
birth date	April 29, 1975
birth place	Bangkok, Thailand
height
weight
country
sports	Skateboarding and Basketball
event	StreetStreet Best TrickRailBank to BankStair SetPark
team	Girl Skateboards, Spitfire Wheels, Nike SB, Independent Trucks
turnedpro	1993
worlds	2000 Globe World Contest: 1st place2000 X Games: 1st place2000 Gravity Games: 1st place2002 Gravity Games Street: 1st place2003 X Games Street Competition: 1st place2003 X Games Global Championship: 1st place2003 Gravity Games: 1st place
regionals	2007 Tampa Pro: 1st place
nationals	2005 Canadian Open: 1st place
show-medals	}}

Eric Koston (born April 29, 1975) is a Thai American professional skateboarder who grew up in San Bernardino, California. He began skating in 1986 and remains active. He was first sponsored in 1991 and turned pro in 1993. He has been featured in the "Tony Hawk" video game series and "EA" Skate 2 and Skate 3. Koston co-owns Fourstar Clothing and also co-owns the skatepark "The Philo-Thai Centre" with professional skater Gavin Davies.

Career

Skateboarding

Eric Koston is currently sponsored by Girl Skateboards, Independent Trucks, Spitfire Wheels, Nike SB shoes, Four Star clothing, Oakley sunglasses, Skullcandy Headphones and Jessup Griptape. Koston has had many other high-level sponsors over the years such as éS and Lakai Footwear. He has designed many pro model shoes such as the Lakai Koston Select and the éS Koston. He is considered by many the Billy Ruff of street skateboarding. He is co-founder of The Berrics along with Steve Berra.

Films and television

Koston also been featured on television and in a number of films and video games.

Select filmography

"H-Street - Next"

"Lick" (1991)

"Falling down" (1992)

"Goldfish" (1994)

''Mouse'' (1996) (V)

''The Chocolate Tour'' (1999) (V)

''Ultimate X: The Movie'' (2002)

''Menikmati'' (2002) (V)

''Jackass Backyard BBQ'' (2002) (TV)

''Gigantic Skate Park Tour: Summer 2002'' (2002) (TV)

''Jackass: The Movie'' (2002)

''Harsh Euro Barge'' (2002) (V)

''Yeah Right!'' (2003) (V)

''Cribs'' (1 episode, 2003) (TV)

''Trippin'' (2 episodes, 2005) (TV)

''Super Champion Funzone'' (2005)

''Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi'' (2006)

''The Global Assault!!!'' (2006) (TV)

''Fully Flared'' (2007) (V)

''Maloof Money Cup'' (2008) (TV)

''Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory'' (3 episodes, 2009,2010) (TV)

Video games

''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2'' (2000)

''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' (2001)

''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002)

''Tony Hawk's Underground'' (2003)

''Tony Hawk's Underground 2'' (2004)

''Tony Hawk's American Wasteland'' (2005)

''Skate 2'' (2009)

''Skate 3'' (2010)

Skateboard competitions and rankings: 1996-2008

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Event ! 1996 ! 1997 ! 2000 ! 2001 ! 2002 ! 2003 ! 2004 ! 2005 ! 2006 ! 2007 ! 2008 |- | Summer X Games 1, "park" || align="center" | 4th || || || || || || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 2, "park" || || align="center" | 23rd || || || || || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 5, "park" || || | | align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 6, "street" || || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 6, "park" || || || || align="center" | 13th || || || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 6, "best trick" || || || || align="center" bgcolor="CC9966" | 3rd || || || || || || || |- | Melbourne Global World Cup, "street" || || || || || align="center" | 12th || || || || || || |- | Vancouver Slam City Jam, "street" || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || || || |- | Cleveland Gravity Games, "street" || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 7, "park" || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="CC9966" | 3rd || || || || || || |- | Vancouver Slam City Jam/VTC#1, "street" || || || || || || align="center" | 35th || || || || || |- | Boost Mobile Vegas Pro Invitational, "street" || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || || |- | Cleveland Gravity Games, "street" || || || || || || align="center" | 4th || || || || || |- | X Games 8 Global, "park" || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 8, "street" || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 8, "park" || || || || || || align="center" | 20th || || || || || |- | Summer X Games 8, "best trick" || || || || || || align="center" | 9th || || || || || |- | Goofy VS Regular, "street" || || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="silver" | 2nd || || || || |- | X Games 9, "street" || || || || || || || align="center" | 5th || || || || |- | World Cup Season Ender, "street" || || || || || || || || align="center" | 31st || || || |- | Dew Tour Season Ender, "street" || || || || || || || || align="center" | 8th || || || |- | Dew Action Sports Tour, "park" || || || || || || || || align="center" | 11th || || || |- | Van's Downtown Showdown, "stair set" || || || || || || || || align="center" | 13th || || || |- | Van's Downtown Showdown, "bank to bank" || || || || || || || || align="center" | 10th || || || |- | West 49 Canadian Open, "street" || || || || || || || || align="center" | 8th || || || |- | West 49 Canadian Open, "rail" || || || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || || || |- | Dew Tour, "park" || || || || || || || || || align="center" | 5th || || |- | X Games 11, "street" || || || || || || || || || align="center" | 7th || || |- | Tampa Pro Games, "street" || || || || || || || || || || align="center" bgcolor="gold" | 1st || |- | X Games 12, "street" || || || || || || || || || || align="center" | 5th || |- ! Event ! 1996 ! 1997 ! 2000 ! 2001 ! 2002 ! 2003 ! 2004 ! 2005 ! 2006 ! 2007 ! 2008 |- |}

References

External links

Eric K's Page

solecollector.com, Eric Koston interview

Eric Koston at Review Centre

Eric Koston's Skatepark

Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:American skateboarders Category:American sportspeople of Thai descent Category:People from San Bernardino, California Category:Sportspeople from Bangkok Category:Thai emigrants to the United States

de:Eric Koston es:Eric Koston fr:Eric Koston nl:Eric Koston no:Eric Koston pt:Eric Koston sl:Eric Koston fi:Eric Koston sv:Eric Koston

name	Pep Guardiola
fullname	Josep Guardiola i Sala
dateofbirth	January 18, 1971
cityofbirth	Santpedor
countryofbirth	Spain
height
position	Defensive midfielder
currentclub	Barcelona (Manager)
youthyears1	| youthclubs1 Gimnàstic Manresa
youthyears2	1983–1990 | youthclubs2 Barcelona
years1	1990–1992 | clubs1 Barcelona B | caps1 59 | goals1 5
years2	1990–2001 | clubs2 Barcelona | caps2 263 | goals2 6
years3	2001–2002 | clubs3 Brescia | caps3 11 | goals3 2
years4	2002–2003 | clubs4 Roma | caps4 4 | goals4 0
years5	2003 | clubs5 Brescia | caps5 13 | goals5 1
years6	2003–2005 | clubs6 Al-Ahli | caps6 18 | goals6 2
years7	2005–2006 | clubs7 Dorados | caps7 10 | goals7 1
totalcaps	378 | totalgoals 17
nationalyears1	1991 | nationalteam1 Spain U21 | nationalcaps1 2 | nationalgoals1 0
nationalyears2	1991–1992 | nationalteam2 Spain U23 | nationalcaps2 12 | nationalgoals2 2
nationalyears3	1992–2001 | nationalteam3 Spain | nationalcaps3 47 | nationalgoals3 5
nationalyears4	1995–2005 | nationalteam4 Catalonia | nationalcaps4 7 | nationalgoals4 0
medaltemplates	}}

| manageryears1 = 2007–2008 | managerclubs1 = Barcelona B | manageryears2 = 2008–2012 | managerclubs2 = Barcelona }} Josep "Pep" Guardiola i Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish football manager and former player. As a player, Guardiola played as a defensive midfielder and spent the majority of his playing career with FC Barcelona. He was part of Johan Cruyff's "dream team" that won Barcelona's first European Cup. He also played for Brescia and Roma in Italy; Al-Ahli in Qatar; and for Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico while attending managing school. While playing in Italy, he served a four-month ban for a positive drug test although he was cleared of wrongdoing twice on appeal in 2009 before the Courts of Justice of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and the Federal Anti-Doping Courts of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI). As an international, he played for Spain, and in friendly matches for Catalonia.

After retiring as a player, Guardiola became coach of FC Barcelona B. On 8 May 2008, Barcelona President Joan Laporta announced that Guardiola would succeed Frank Rijkaard as the first team manager. He signed his contract on 5 June 2008. In his first season as manager, Barcelona won the treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. In doing so, Guardiola became the youngest UEFA Champions League-winning manager ever. The following season, Guardiola and Barcelona won the Supercopa de España, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup, bringing the manager's tally to the maximum of six trophies in six competitions in one year, thus completing the first ever sextuple.

On 8 September 2011, Guardiola was awarded the Catalan parliament's Gold Medal, the highest honour. On 9 January 2012, Guardiola received the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football award, with 42% of the votes, ahead of Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson, who received 16%, and José Mourinho, coach of Real Madrid, who had 12%.

On 27 April 2012, Guardiola announced he would quit as Barcelona manager on 30 June, after achieving 13 titles in four years at charge of the club. He stated he was experiencing severe physical and mental stress, and he left the team's management to his second-in-charge and good friend Tito Vilanova.

Club career

FC Barcelona

Born in Santpedor, Barcelona, Catalonia, Guardiola joined La Masia at the age of 13 and rose through the ranks at the youth academy of Barcelona for six years, making his début in 1990 against Cádiz CF. As Phil Ball writes in ''Morbo'', Johan Cruyff utilised the young defensive midfielder in the absence of the suspended Guillermo Amor. He became a first team regular in the 1991–92 season and at only 20 years old was a key component of a side that won La Liga and the European Cup. The prestigious Italian magazine ''Guerin Sportivo'' heralded Guardiola as the finest player in the world under the age of 21.

Cruyff's Dream Team went on to retain the La Liga title in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons. The side was strengthened by the recent signing of Romário, again reached the UEFA Champions League Final, but were humbled by Fabio Capello's Milan in Athens, and lost the match 0–4.

Cruyff left in 1996, with Barcelona finishing fourth in the 1994–95 season and third in the 1995–96 season, but Guardiola retained his position at the center of Barcelona's midfield. In the 1996–97 season, Barcelona, this time led by Bobby Robson, won three cups – the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de España and the Cup Winners' Cup. Much of the Dream Team had by this time left, with new signings such as Luís Figo and Ronaldo taking over from Hristo Stoichkov and Michael Laudrup. At the end of the 1997–98 season, Barcelona rejected offers from Roma and Parma (of around 300 million pesetas) for Guardiola. After prolonged and complicated contract talks, Guardiola signed a new contract with the Catalan club which extended his stay until 2001.

A calf muscle injury ruled Guardiola out of most of the 1997–98 season, in which Barcelona won a league and cup double under new manager Louis van Gaal. He returned to action the following season and Barcelona once again won the league thanks largely to the performances of Rivaldo and Luís Figo. On 8 June 1998, Guardiola underwent surgery to try to solve once and for all the problems that he was experiencing with his calf which had led to him missing the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Spain. A largely disappointing 1999–2000 season ended once again in surgery as Guardiola missed the last three months of the season due to a serious ankle injury.

Barcelona didn't win any silverware during the 2000–01 season and finished fourth place in the league, but qualifying for the Champions League. On 11 April 2001, Barcelona's captain announced his intention to leave the club after 17 years of service. He stated that it was a personal decision and, in part, a response to what he perceived as football heading in a new, more physical, direction. On 24 June 2001, Guardiola played his last match with Barça in the last game of the season against Celta Vigo.

Guardiola played 479 games for the club, in 12 seasons in the Barcelona first team, winning 16 trophies. At the press conference after the Celtic game, he said, "It's been a long journey. I'm happy, proud, happy with the way people treated me and I have made many friends. I cannot ask for more. I have had many years in the elite. I did not come to make history but to make my own history." Guardiola was slow, but intelligently gifted with skill and foresight, rarely scored goals but set up from difficult positions on the field, he won six league titles, a European Cup and Olympic gold, amongst other numerous trophies. Born in the Catalan town of Santpedor, schooled barely 100 metres from Camp Nou and resident at La Masia, the traditional farmhouse that stands incongruously in its shadow, he was a part of a gifted side Barcelona produced, ordering, constructing, constantly moving the ball. He has been called the hero of a number of Spain's current midfielders, as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas have all stated that Guardiola was their role model and hero.

Serie A

After leaving Barcelona in 2001 at the age of 30, Guardiola was linked with several clubs such as Newcastle United, Manchester United, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool, plus both Milanese clubs of Milan and Internazionale. But Guardiola joined Italian side Brescia and then Roma in the Italian Serie A. His time in Italy, however, was unhappy and included a four month ban after testing positive for Nandrolone. Six years later, on 23 October 2007, Guardiola was cleared on appeal of all charges that had led to the ban. However, CONI reopened the case against the player, because it considered the argumentation of the absolution unacceptable, but he was cleared once again on 29 September 2009. His time in Italy was not nearly as successful as his career at Barcelona. He played a number of Coppa Italia games and UEFA Champions League games, finishing with 71 games in Italy.

Al-Ahli

After his career with Brescia and Roma, in 2003 Guardiola chose to play in Qatar with Al-Ahli from Doha in the Qatar Stars League, where many fellow greats were playing, such as Gabriel Batistuta. He had rejected another offer from Manchester United, as he wanted to play elsewhere. He became a regular in the Qatar Stars League, often cited as one of the best players in the League. In 2005–06, he turned down offers from a number European sides, such as Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea, as he felt his playing career was coming to a close.

Dorados de Sinaloa

In 2006, when Juan Manuel Lillo was appointed manager of Mexican club Dorados de Sinaloa, he recruited Guardiola to play for the club, while he was in managing school in Axocopán, Atlixco, Puebla. He subsequently played for six months, before retiring definitively.

International career

Spain

Guardiola made his senior debut on 14 October 1992 in 0–0 draw with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in a World Cup qualifier. In the same year, Guardiola captained Spain when they won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games. It was in this year when he won the Bravo Award, voted the world's best player under the age of 21. Between 1992 and 2001, Guardiola was a regular midfield maestro, playing over 47 times and scoring five goals for the senior Spain team, as a midfield player. He was a member of the Spain team during the 1994 World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing to Italy 2–1. He fell out of favour with Javier Clemente, the Spain manager, due to difference and disagreement between the two, and missed out on Euro 1996. He suffered a career-threatening injury in 1998, which kept him out of the 1998 World Cup, but he later played at Euro 2000, where he led Spain to yet another quarter-final appearance, this time losing to France by the same margin, 2–1. He led the Spain midfield until his final appearance for Spain, in 1–0 win in a friendly against Mexico on 14 November 2001, and scoring his last international goal against Sweden in a 1–1 draw, in his 45th appearance.

Catalonia

Guardiola has also played for and been a strong advocate of the Catalonia national football team. Between 1995 and 2005, he played seven friendly games for the national team of Catalonia.

Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán 27 June 1994 14 December 1996 12 February 1997 3 June 2000

+ International goals	# !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition
1.	16 December 1992	Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Seville, Spain ||		2–0	5–0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA – Group 3)>1994 World Cup qualification
2.	|	Soldier Field, Chicago, United States		0–1	1–3	1994 FIFA World Cup Group C>1994 World Cup
3.	| Mestalla, Valencia, Spain ||		1–0	2–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)#Group 6>1998 World Cup qualification
4.	|	Estadio José Rico Pérez>José Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain		1–0	4–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)#Group 6>1998 World Cup qualification
5.	|	Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden		0–1	1–1	Exhibition game>Friendly

Coaching career

Barcelona B

Guardiola was appointed coach of FC Barcelona B on 21 June 2007 with Francesc Vilanova his assistant. Under his guidance, the team subsequently won their ''Tercera División'' group and qualified for the 2008 Segunda División B playoffs, which the team won, thereby achieving promotion. FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta announced before the end of the 2007–08 season that Guardiola would be appointed manager of FC Barcelona to replace Frank Rijkaard at the end of the season.

Barcelona

2008–09 season

Upon being appointed, Guardiola revealed that Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto'o and others were not part of his plans for the coming season. By the time of the announcement, Guardiola had already offloaded full back Gianluca Zambrotta to Milan, attacking midfielder Giovani dos Santos to Tottenham Hotspur, and midfielder Edmílson to Villarreal. Deco went to Chelsea, while Ronaldinho joined Zambrotta in Milan. Lilian Thuram was initially going to join Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer but the discovery of a heart condition put a stop to the move, and the veteran retired to tend to his health. Oleguer Presas signed with Ajax, Santiago Ezquerro was released by Barça and Marc Crosas was sold to Celtic. The fate of Samuel Eto'o took much of the summer to unravel, with the Cameroonian linked with several clubs, but Guardiola finally declared that he would stay after his dedication in training and participation in the pre-season.

In association with Barça's director of sport, Txiki Begiristain, several new signings were made by Guardiola: Daniel Alves and Seydou Keita arrived from Sevilla, Martín Cáceres from Villarreal by way of Recreativo, Gerard Piqué returned from Manchester United, and Alexander Hleb was signed from Arsenal. Henrique was also signed from Palmeiras, but was immediately loaned out to Bayer Leverkusen. In interviews with the press, Guardiola stressed a harder work ethic than before, but also a more personal approach during training and a closer relationship with his players. Along with the new signings, Guardiola promoted ''canteranos'' Sergio Busquets, Pedro Rodríguez and Jeffrén Suárez to the first team squad. His influences as a coach include mostly Johan Cruyff, but also Louis van Gaal, Juan Manuel Lillo and Marcelo Bielsa.

Guardiola's first competitive game as coach was in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, in which Barça comfortably beat Polish club Wisła Kraków 4–0 at home. They then lost 1–0 in Kraków, but progressed with a 4–1 aggregate victory. Promoted Numancia also defeated Barcelona in the opening match-day of the La Liga, but the team then went on an undefeated streak for over 20 matches to move to the top of the league. Barça maintained their spot atop La Liga's table, securing their first league title since 2006 when rivals Real Madrid lost at Villarreal on 16 May 2009. The most important match however was on 2 May when they defeated Real Madrid 2–6 at the Santiago Bernabéu. thumb|right|Guardiola celebrating Barcelona's 2009 UEFA Champions League Final with Manuel EstiarteThe league title was the second piece of silverware in Guardiola's first season at the Camp Nou. On 13 May 2009, Barcelona won the Copa del Rey, defeating Athletic Bilbao 4–1.

Guardiola finished the season by leading Barça to the final of the Champions League, where they beat Manchester United 2–0. In doing so, they became the first Spanish club to win the domestic cup, league, and European club titles (the treble) in the same season. Furthermore, Guardiola became the youngest man to coach a Champions League winning team.

2009–10 season

During Guardiola's second season as manager Barcelona traded Samuel Eto'o and €49 million for Zlatan Ibrahimović. The club also signed Maxwell from Internazionale and Dmytro Chygrynskiy from Shakhtar Donetsk. Many players left the club on the same transfer window; Eiður Guðjohnsen was sold to Monaco, Sylvinho and Albert Jorquera's contracts ended and other players were loaned out, including Alexander Hleb to Stuttgart, Martín Cáceres to Juventus, Alberto Botía to Sporting de Gijón and Víctor Sánchez to Xerez.

Barcelona started the season defeating Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish SuperCup and Shakhtar Donetsk in the European SuperCup. On 25 September 2009, Barcelona gave Guardiola his 50th professional victory, away against Málaga and on 19 December, they were crowned Club World Cup champions for the first time in their history. Guardiola finished the calendar year 2009 with a record six trophies, the Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, and Club World Cup, becoming the first manager in history to do so.

After winning every trophy they competed for in 2009, Barcelona suffered their first elimination under Guardiola in January 2010 against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey. January 2010 also saw Guardiola become Barcelona's longest serving Spanish coach, overtaking the record previously held by Josep Samitier. That same month, on the 20th, he agreed to a one-year contract extension to keep him with Barcelona until the end of the 2010–11 season. February of the same year saw Guardiola coach his one hundredth match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 71 wins, 19 draws and 10 losses with 242 goals for and 76 against. On 10 April 2010, he became the first manager in Barcelona's history to beat Real Madrid four times in a row in ''El Clásico''.

Barcelona reached the semi-finals of the 2009–10 Champions League, but lost 3–2 on aggregate to Internazionale. Despite this they managed to win their 20th La Liga title with 99 points by beating Real Valladolid 4–0 at home. The highest points total ever gained amongst any of Europe's major leagues. The La Liga title was Guardiola's seventh trophy as manager of the club, tying Ferdinand Daučík for second behind Johan Cruyff and his 11 trophies.

On 8 June 2010, the Royal Spanish Football Federation fined Guardiola €15,000, following a formal inquiry opened by the Competition Committee regarding his actions and comments during and after a match against Almeria on 6 March 2010. Guardiola approached the fourth official with, according to the official report, malicious intent, berating the official and speaking into his microphone with phrases such as, "You are calling everything wrong." Following the match, Guardiola accused Carlos Clos Gomez and his assistant Jose Luis Gallego Galdino of "lying" in their match report. Barcelona were given 10 days to appeal the sanction. TV replays supported Guardiola's assertions. The game ended 2–2.

2010–11 season

Guardiola's third season in charge saw the departure of two players who had arrived last season, Dmytro Chygrynskiy returned to Shakhtar Donetsk and Zlatan Ibrahimović moved to Milan. Rafael Márquez and Thierry Henry were released from their contracts and moved to New York Red Bulls, Yaya Touré also left the team and moved to Manchester City. The club signed Adriano from Sevilla, David Villa from Valencia CF and Javier Mascherano from Liverpool.

On 14 July 2010, Guardiola signed a new contract to stay with Barcelona until June 2011. On 21 August, Barcelona beat Sevilla 5–3 on aggregate to win the 2010 Spanish Supercup, his second in a row. On 29 November 2010, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5–0, giving Guardiola five straight wins in as many matches in El Clásico. On 8 February 2011, Guardiola accepted the club's offer for a one-year deal extension, signing a contract until June 2012. On 16 February, in the first leg of the Champions League First Knockout Round, Barcelona were defeated by Arsenal 1–2 at the Emirates Stadium. The defeat prolonged Guardiola's record of never having won the away leg of a Champions League knockout tie. On 8 March, in the second leg of the Champions League First Knockout Round, Barcelona defeated Arsenal 3–1 thus winning 4–3 on aggregate, moving them into the quarter-finals.

Early April saw Barcelona move eight points clear of second placed Real Madrid in their domestic league, after a key away win against Villareal CF, making the most of Real Madrid's home loss against Sporting Gijón earlier on the same day. Barcelona managed to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the fourth year (three last under Guardiola) in a row after thrashing Shakhtar Donetsk 6–1 on aggregate.

Following the Champions League campaign, Barcelona continued their La Liga crusades for the second El Clásico in Santiago Bernabéu which ended 1–1. Messi scored for his team from penalty spot after Raúl Albiol was sent off. It was later replied by Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo from a penalty kick in the 80th minute of the match.

Guardiola suffered his first final defeat during Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only goal for in the 103rd minute of the match during extra time, giving the club the first title since 2008, as well as José Mourinho's first title in his new club.

In the Champions League, however, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2–0 at the Santiago Bernabéu in the semi-final first leg, and after a 1–1 draw at Camp Nou they proceeded to Guardiola's second Champions League final in three years as coach for Barcelona. On 11 May 2011, Barcelona won the title and third in a row after a 1–1 draw with Levante UD. On 28 May, Barcelona beat Manchester United 3–1 to win the Champions League.

2011–12 season

Guardiola's fourth season in charge started with the departure of three players who had been part of the team for a long time, Gabriel Milito moved back to Independiente, Jeffrén Suárez was sold to Sporting CP and Bojan Krkić was sold to Roma. Two big signings were made: Alexis Sánchez came from Udinese for €26m plus bonuses and Cesc Fàbregas, a former La Masia graduate, returned from Arsenal for €29m plus bonuses. To complete the squad two players where promoted from the youth system: Thiago Alcântara and Andreu Fontàs.

The season started with a 5–4 aggregate win over Real Madrid for the Spanish Super Cup. Barcelona won their second trophy of the season on 26 August beating Porto in the UEFA Super Cup final 2–0. With the trophy won against Porto he became all-time record holder of most titles won as a coach at FC Barcelona. He has won now 12 trophies in only three years. November of the same year saw Guardiola coach his two hundredth match for Barcelona's first team. His record stood at 144 wins, 39 draws and 17 losses with 500 goals for and 143 against.

Barcelona ended the 2011 calendar year winning the Club World Cup, beating Santos 4-0, the widest margin in a Intercontinental Cup/Club World Cup final since changing to a single match format. This was Guardiola's 13th title of only 16 tournaments played.

On 9 January 2012, he was named FIFA Mens World Coach of the Year. On his 41st birthday, he led his side to a 2-1 victory over arch-rivals Real Madrid in El Clasico, ensuring that he remained unbeaten against Real Madrid in regular time as a manager.

On 21 April, Guardiola conceded the league title to leaders Real Madrid, after they beat Barcelona 2-1 and extended their lead in the table to seven points with four matches remaining. "We have to congratulate Madrid for their win and the title that they have also won tonight," said Guardiola, after what was his side's first loss at home all season. Three days later, a 2-2 draw at home against Chelsea in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final knocked Barcelona out of the competition on a 2-3 aggregate score. That effectively left the team with only the Copa del Rey to play for.

On 27 April 2012, Guardiola announced he would step down as Barcelona's coach at the end of the 2011–12 season. Stating tiredeness as the main reason for his decision. He also commented that four years at a club like Barça felt like an eternity. His record of 13 trophies in 4 seasons has made him the most succesful coach in Barcelona's history. On 27 April 2012, at the press conference in which FC Barcelona confirmed Pep Guardiola's exit, the team also announced that he would be succeeded by current assistant Tito Vilanova, who would begin leading the first team at the start of the 2012-13 season.

Tactics

Under Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona were known for a 4–3–3 with plenty of flair with Ronaldinho being the centre point of the attack. Under Guardiola the team has become more disciplined with a greater focus on possession and a far more disciplined and aggressive pressing style. He often plays a high defensive line with the full backs (particularly Daniel Alves) pushing high up down their respective sides while relying on the metronomic passing of Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta to retain possession whilst employing an extraordinarily aggressive pressing style without the ball.

During Samuel Eto'o's time at Barcelona, Lionel Messi was deployed on the right hand side, however, since his departure Messi has largely played in the centre forward role fulfilling a false nine capacity.

During the 2011-12 season Guardiola made increasing use of the 3-4-3 system, especially when facing two attackers. Using Cesc Fàbregas as an attacking midfielder and Javier Mascherano or Sergio Busquets as pivot on the midfield. Johan Cruyff used this system as a basic tactical approach when Guardiola played for Barcelona. Guardiola used this system in a 5-0 win against Villarreal CF because he was short on defenders, and in a later Champions League game against Milan, he employed this tactic with most of his players available. "In Barcelona it is understood that you can win a thousand ways. All are valid. All work. There's little more to say," Guardiola wrote in a column for ''El Pais'' in March 2007, when Rijkaard experimented with a three-man backline of his own. "But in Barcelona it is also understood that you can never win and repeat in a way that does not feel right to you—that does not feel right to the directors, coaches, players, friends of the press and the people who go every week to see them."

Coaching stats

''As of 24 April 2012 {|class=wikitable style=text-align:center |- ! rowspan="2!" style="width:80px;"|Team ! rowspan="2!" style="width:60px;"|Season !colspan=3|League !colspan=3|Cup !colspan=3|Europe !colspan=3|Other !colspan=8|Total |- !width=30|W !width=30|D !width=30|L !width=30|W !width=30|D !width=30|L !width=30|W !width=30|D !width=30|L !width=30|W !width=30|D !width=30|L !width=30|GP !width=30|W !width=30|D !width=30|L !width=50|Win % !width=40|GF !width=40|GA !width=40|GD |- | rowspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|Barcelona |2008–09 |27||6||5||7||2||0||7||5||1||1||0||1||62||42||13||7||67.74%||158||55||+103 |- |2009–10 |31||6||1||3||0||1||6||4||2||5||0||0||59||45||10||4||76.27%||138||39||+99 |- |2010–11 |30||6||2||5||2||2||9||3||1||1||0||1||62||45||11||6||72.58%||152||39||+113 |- |2011–12 |26||6||3||6||2||0||8||3||1||4||1||0||60||44||12||4 |73.33%||177||45||+132 |- !colspan=2|Career totals !114!!24!!11!!21!!6!!3!!30!!15!!5!!11!!1!!2!!243!!176!!46!!21!!72.42%||625||178||+447 |}

Personal life

Pep Guardiola was born in Santpedor, to Dolors and Valentí. He has two older sisters, Francesca and Olga, and younger brother, Pere who is an agent for Liverpool striker Luis Suárez. Guardiola has a wife, Cristina Serra, whom he met the first time in a clothing store when he was 18. The couple have three children: Maria (born 28 December 2003), Màrius (born 2001) and Valentina (born 5 May 2008).

Honours

Player

;Barcelona B

Segunda División B (1): 1990-91

;Barcelona

La Liga (6): 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1998–99

Copa del Rey (2): 1996–97, 1997–98

Supercopa de España (4): 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996

European Cup (1): 1991–92

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1996–97

UEFA Super Cup (2): 1992, 1997

;Spain

Olympic Gold Medal (1): 1992

Individual

Bravo Award (1): 1992

UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament (2): 1992, 2000

Olympics – Spain Best Player (1): 1992

Manager

;Barcelona B

Tercera División (1): 2007–08

;Barcelona

La Liga (3): 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11

Copa del Rey (1): 2008–09

Supercopa de España (3): 2009, 2010, 2011

UEFA Champions League (2): 2008–09, 2010–11

UEFA Super Cup (2): 2009, 2011

FIFA Club World Cup (2): 2009, 2011

Individual

IFFHS World's Best Club Coach of the Year (2): 2009, 2011

Don Balon Award for Best Coach of the Year (3): 2009, 2010, 2011

Onze d'Or Coach of the Year (2): 2009, 2011

Miguel Muñoz Trophy (2): 2008–09, 2009–10

World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year (2): 2009, 2011

UEFA Team of the Year Best Coach (2): 2008–09, 2010–11

La Liga Coach of the Year (3): 2009, 2010, 2011

Catalan of the Year Award (1): 2009

FIFA Ballon d'Or Best Coach (1): 2011

Orders and special awards

Gold Medal of the Royal Order of Sporting Merit : 2010

Career statistics

|- |1990–91||rowspan=11|Barcelona||rowspan=11|La Liga||4||0||1||0||0||0||5||0 |- |1991–92||26||0||3||0||11||0||40||0 |- |1992–93||28||0||5||1||6||0||39||1 |- |1993–94||34||0||5||0||9||0||48||0 |- |1994–95||24||2||4||0||6||0||34||2 |- |1995–96||32||1||7||0||7||1||46||2 |- |1996–97||38||0||8||0||7||1||53||1 |- |1997–98||6||0||3||0||5||0||14||0 |- |1998–99||22||1||3||0||1||0||26||1 |- |1999–2000||25||0||0||0||0||0||25||0 |- |2000–01||28||2||4||3||8||0||40||4 |- |2001–02||Brescia||rowspan=3|Serie A||11||2||2||0||-||-||13||2 |- |rowspan=2|2002–03||Roma||4||0||3||1||1||0||8||1 |- |Brescia||13||1||3||1||-||-||16||2 |- |2003–05||Al-Ahli|||Qatar Stars League ||18||2||9||3||9||2||36||7 |- |2005–06||Sinaloa|||Primera División ||10||1||6||1||4||0||20||2 263||6||43||4||71||2||384||11 28||3||8||2||1||0||37||5 18||2||9||3||9||2||36||7 10||1||6||1||4||0||20||2 319||12||66||10||85||4||470||26

|- |1992||2||1 |- |1993||5||0 |- |1994||7||1 |- |1995||0||0 |- |1996||5||1 |- |1997||4||1 |- |1998||0||0 |- |1999||9||0 |- |2000||8||1 |- |2001||7||0 |- !Total||47||5 |}

Bibliography

Josep Guardiola, ''La meva gent, el meu futbol'', with Miguel Rico and Luís Martín, Edecasa (Grupo Z), Colección Sport, 2001 Jaume Collell, ''Pep Guardiola: de Santpedor al banquillo del Barça'', Península, 2009 Josep Riera Font, ''Escoltant Guardiola: el pensament futbolistic i vital de l'entrenador del Barça en 150 frases'', Cossetania, 2009 Several authors, ''Paraula de Pep'', Ara Llibres, 2009 Several authors, ''Barça de las 6 Copas'', Edecasa (Grupo Z), Colección Sport, 2009

See also

List of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winning managers

List of sportspeople cleared of doping charges

Notes

References

External links

Josep Guardiola (2008–) FC Barcelona

Player profile – Josep Guardiola Sala BDFutbol

Manager profile – Josep Guardiola Sala BDFutbol

Pep Guardiola – Performance data Transfermarkt

Guardiola – National team data Fútbol en la Red

Mythical players – Josep Guardiola FC Barcelona

|- |- Alex Ferguson Manchester United}} Barcelona|years=2008–2009}} José Mourinho Internazionale}} |- Manuel Pellegrini}} José Mourinho}}

|- Gheorghe Popescu| title=FC Barcelona captain| years=1997–2001| after= Sergi Barjuán}} Frank Rijkaard| title=FC Barcelona manager| years=2008–2012| after= Tito Vilanova}}

Category:1971 births Category:Al-Ahly Doha players Category:A.S. Roma players Category:Association football midfielders Category:Brescia Calcio players Category:Catalan footballers Category:Doping cases in association football Category:Dorados de Sinaloa players Category:Expatriate footballers in Italy Category:Expatriate footballers in Mexico Category:Expatriate footballers in Qatar Category:FC Barcelona footballers Category:FC Barcelona managers Category:FC Barcelona B managers Category:FC Barcelona Atlètic footballers Category:Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Category:La Liga footballers Category:La Liga managers Category:Living people Category:Olympic footballers of Spain Category:Olympic gold medalists for Spain Category:Olympic medalists in football Category:People from Bages Category:Primera División de México players Category:Serie A footballers Category:Spain international footballers Category:Spain under-21 international footballers Category:Spain under-23 international footballers Category:Spanish expatriate footballers Category:Spanish footballers Category:Spanish football managers Category:Spanish sportspeople in doping cases Category:UEFA Champions League winning managers Category:UEFA Euro 2000 players Category:1994 FIFA World Cup players

ar:جوسيب غوارديولا az:Xosep Qvardiola bg:Хосеп Гуардиола ca:Josep Guardiola i Sala cs:Josep Guardiola da:Josep Guardiola de:Josep Guardiola el:Χοσέπ Γκουαρντιόλα es:Pep Guardiola eu:Josep Guardiola fa:جوزپ گواردیولا fr:Josep Guardiola gl:Josep Guardiola ko:주제프 과르디올라 hr:Josep Guardiola id:Josep Guardiola it:Josep Guardiola he:ז'וזפ גוארדיולה jv:Josép Guardiola lv:Hoseps Gvardiola lt:Josep Guardiola hu:Josep Guardiola mk:Жузеп Гвардиола ms:Josep Guardiola mn:Хосеп Гуардиола nl:Josep Guardiola ja:ジョゼップ・グアルディオラ no:Josep Guardiola pl:Josep Guardiola pt:Josep Guardiola ro:Josep Guardiola ru:Гвардиола, Хосеп sq:Josep Guardiola simple:Josep Guardiola sk:Josep Guardiola sl:Josep Guardiola ckb:جۆسێپ گواردیۆلا fi:Josep Guardiola sv:Josep Guardiola th:ชูเซบ กวาร์ดีโอลา tr:Josep Guardiola uk:Жузеп Гвардіола vi:Josep Guardiola zh:何塞普·瓜迪奥拉

playername	Laurent Blanc
fullname	Laurent Robert Blanc
dateofbirth	November 19, 1965
cityofbirth	Alès
countryofbirth	France
height
position	Midfielder, then sweeper
currentclub	France (manager)
youthyears1	1981–1983 |youthclubs1 Montpellier
years1	1983–1991 |clubs1 Montpellier |caps1 251 |goals1 76
years2	1991–1992 |clubs2 Napoli |caps2 31 |goals2 6
years3	1992–1993 |clubs3 Nîmes |caps3 29 |goals3 1
years4	1993–1995 |clubs4 Saint-Étienne |caps4 70 |goals4 18
years5	1995–1996 |clubs5 Auxerre |caps5 24 |goals5 2
years6	1996–1997 |clubs6 Barcelona |caps6 28 |goals6 1
years7	1997–1999 |clubs7 Marseille |caps7 63 |goals7 14
years8	1999–2001 |clubs8 Internazionale |caps8 67 |goals8 6
years9	2001–2003 |clubs9 Manchester United |caps9 48 |goals9 1
totalcaps	627 |totalgoals 134
nationalyears1	1989–2000 |nationalteam1 France |nationalcaps1 97 |nationalgoals1 16
manageryears1	2007–2010 |managerclubs1 Bordeaux
manageryears2	2010– |managerclubs2 France }}

Laurent Robert Blanc (; born 19 November 1965 in Alès) is a French association football manager and former player. He is the head coach of the French national team, having replaced Raymond Domenech in the wake of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He was previously the manager of Bordeaux.

Blanc formerly played professional football for numerous clubs, notably Montpellier, Napoli, Barcelona, Marseille, Internazionale, and Manchester United, often operating in the sweeper position. He is also a former French international, playing in several international tournaments, which includes the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000, both of which France won. On 28 June 1998, Blanc scored the first golden goal in World Cup history against Paraguay.

Blanc has the nickname ''Le Président'', which was given to him following his stint at Marseille in tribute to his leadership skills.

Club career

Early years

Laurent Blanc's career started in Montpellier, where he signed his first professional contract in 1983. A very technical player, he played as an offensive midfielder and helped Montpellier get promoted to Division 1 in 1987. Only a few years later did he settle as a defender following the advice from Michel Mézy, a position in which his physical stature (1.91 m, 82 kg) and his temper would prove invaluable. His game being perfectly fitted for the French league, he managed to score at least 12 goals in every season at Montpellier, for the most part penalties and headers. He also won the Coupe de France in 1990, scoring a goal in the final. Blanc became, and remains, Montpellier's all-time leading goal scorer, with 84 in all competitions (76 in league play).

Domestic success

In 1991, Blanc tried a first experience abroad when he left Montpellier for Napoli in the Italian Serie A. Despite a decent season during which he managed to score six goals, he felt like he could not fully express his potential and returned to France after just one year, to Nîmes and then Saint Étienne, where again he not only imposed himself as one of the best defenders in the league, but also scored goals (13 in his last season with Saint-Étienne). Saint-Étienne, however, were struggling at the time and got almost relegated, only staying up because Marseille were not allowed to return to Division 1 because of their financial difficulties.

Guy Roux, impressed by Blanc and looking for a replacement for Dutch international Frank Verlaat, convinced him to join Auxerre in 1995. Despite injuring himself early in the season, Blanc came back strongly and played a great part in Auxerre's double that year.

Barcelona

Laurent Blanc's performances on the pitch, emphasized by Auxerre's success, drew the attention of several big European clubs. He finally signed for Barcelona. That second abroad experience turned out not to be as successful as he could have hoped. Johan Cruyff, who had wanted Blanc and persuaded him to sign for Barça, was sacked on the very day Blanc agreed to join the club. Blanc won the Supercopa de España against Atlético Madrid, but injured himself quickly afterwards. He came back and played regularly but was sent off during the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final against AIK, then injured himself again against Extremadura, which forced him to miss the ''Clásico'' and the Cup Winners' Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain. After this disappointing season and only one year away from the World Cup, he decided to leave.

''"Le Président"''

Rolland Courbis managed to convince Blanc to join Marseille, which proved beneficial for both Marseille and Blanc. Blanc quickly became a leader in a Marseille side desperately lacking confidence, and helped them reach an honourable fourth place for his first season, scoring 11 goals and earning the nickname ''Le Président'' (the President) in the process. The season following the World Cup was both successful and frustrating for Blanc and Marseille, as they finished runners-up in the championship, only one point shy of Bordeaux, and reached the UEFA Cup final, only to lose 3–0 to Parma, with Hernán Crespo intercepting Blanc's back pass to Stéphane Porato to score the opener.

He then left Marseille for Internazionale, where he enjoyed some success in defence, even winning the ''Pirata d'Oro'' (Inter Player of the Year) in 2000.

Manchester United

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had attempted to lure Blanc several times since 1996 and finally succeeded in 2001. Despite his age of 35 years, Blanc was brought in to replace the departing Jaap Stam. He was criticised for poor performances in the early months of his stay at Old Trafford. This was compounded when United suffered their first five losses of the season to Bolton Wanderers, Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle United, and Chelsea (coincidentally, the first letters of each team spell out "BLANC"; however, Blanc did not play in the games against Bolton Wanderers or Liverpool.) He retired two years later, having helped his club to the 2002–03 Premier League crown. He scored four goals during his time at Manchester United. One of these came in the league against Tottenham Hotspur, and the other three all came in the Champions League in games against Olympiacos and Boavista (both home and away). During his time in Manchester, he was known by fans as "Larry White".

International career

Laurent Blanc won the 1988 European Under-21 Championship, beating Greece in the final. On 7 February 1989, he made his debut for the national team against Ireland.

France, then in reconstruction after the retirement of numerous key players, did not manage to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. Shortly after that, they started an impressive 19-game unbeaten streak, including eight wins out of eight in Euro 1992 qualifying, making them one of the favorites to win the competition. They would, however, get knocked out in the pool stage by eventual winners Denmark.

After France failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, Laurent Blanc was heavily criticised, as well the rest of the team, and he subsequently decided to retire from international football. Aimé Jacquet, after taking over the managerial position of the national team, made it one of his priorities to convince Blanc to change his mind.

France then entered the 1998 World Cup, which was held on home soil. Blanc was exemplary during the competition and, on 28 June 1998, scored against Paraguay in the Round of 16, the first ever golden goal in World Cup history. He missed the final after being sent off in the semi-final against Croatia for elbowing Slaven Bilić, although replays showed that Bilić had clearly feigned the injury, earning the Croat heavy criticism afterwards. The sending off was the first (and only) red card of Blanc's professional career.

Blanc was also part of the team that won Euro 2000 during which, despite having been criticised for his age and lack of speed during the qualifications, he proved reliable in defence and even scored a goal against Denmark in the group stage.

He announced his retirement from international football after Euro 2000, following the example of his captain Didier Deschamps.

Blanc was also well known for kissing good friend and goalkeeper Fabien Barthez's head before the start of every match, supposedly for good luck (the two did repeat this ritual when they played together for Manchester United, but only for Champions League matches). Overall, he recorded 97 caps and scored 16 goals.

In 2006, the readers of ''France Football'' magazine voted him the fourth best French player of all time behind Michel Platini, Zinedine Zidane, and Raymond Kopa.

Coaching and management

Bordeaux

On 8 June 2007, Blanc was named the new manager of Bordeaux, replacing Brazilian Ricardo. For his first season on the bench, he led Bordeaux to a very good second place in the league and won the Manager of the Year award. His second season was extremely successful, as Bordeaux won the final 11 games of the season, setting a new French record for consecutive wins, and clinched the 2008–09 Ligue 1 championship title, three points clear of Marseille, having already won the Coupe de la Ligue that year. Blanc was again nominated for Manager of the Year but lost to Marseille's Eric Gerets.

France

On 16 May 2010, Blanc confirmed his departure from Bordeaux after three seasons in charge of the French outfit. After resigning from his position, Blanc contacted the French Football Federation to inquire about the France national team job, which was eventually vacated by Raymond Domenech following the 2010 World Cup. Later that day, FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalettes confirmed that Blanc was a candidate for the position. On 18 May 2010, with Blanc's appointment to the position becoming more probable, Bordeaux chairman Jean-Louis Triaud demanded compensation from the Federation. On 20 May 2010, the club reached an agreement with the Federation for €1.5 million. On 26 June, French media confirmed that Blanc had signed a two-year contract with the Federation to lead the team to UEFA Euro 2012. The deal was finalized a week later and Blanc was officially named as manager of the team on 2 July.

Blanc's first move as manager was to suspend all 23 players from the 2010 World Cup squad from his first game, as collective punishment for a number of negative incidents involving the squad, which had occurred during the course of the competition. He also reversed the policy on providing only halal meat at team lunches. On 11 August, in his first game as manager, France lost 1–2 to Norway at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo. However, Blanc's team soon managed to top their Euro 2012 qualifying group while also achieving friendly wins over England, Brazil and Germany.

Controversy

On 28 April 2011, French investigative website Mediapart released a story which claimed that the French Football Federation had been attempting to secretly put in place a race-quota system in order to limit the number of dual-nationality players in its national academies. Quoting a senior figure in the FFF, the organization was said to have wanted to set a cap of 30% on the number of players of non-white origin by limiting places in the academies in the 12–13 age bracket. On 29 April, Blanc, who, in the report, was claimed to have agreed with the decision to implement the quotas, held a personal press conference at the l'Hôtel Le Régent in Bordeaux, in which he also denied the report declaring that he had "not heard of such a project". On the following day, after Mediapart announced that it had a taped audio recording of the November 2010 meeting, Blanc released a statement on the FFF's website in which he apologized for possible offending comments he made during the meeting, while also declaring he was misquoted and denying he was racist stating "I do not withdraw the remarks I made yesterday. I admit that some terms used during a meeting on a sensitive subject can be ambiguous, out of context, and, if in my case, I've hurt some feelings, I apologize. But being suspected of racism or xenophobia, which I am against all forms of discrimination, I do not support it".

Former national team player Lilian Thuram said of the allegations, "Initially I thought this was a joke. I'm so stunned I don't know what to say", while Patrick Vieira declared that the comments Blanc allegedly made at the meeting were "serious and scandalous". Blanc was defended by several former players, most notably his 1998 FIFA World Cup-winning teammates Christophe Dugarry, Bixente Lizarazu, Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane, Marcel Desailly, and Emmanuel Petit, current players, such as current national team captain Alou Diarra, and external sources, which included Pathé Diba, the president of L’Association Soutien aux Handicapés Africains (). On 9 May, Blanc gave testimony at a hearing set up by the federation to investigate the quota matter. On 10 May, the results of the inquiry was revealed and Blanc was cleared of any wrongdoing by the federation.

Honours

Player

Club

;Montpellier

Coupe de France (1): 1989–90

;Auxerre

Division 1 (1): 1995–96

Coupe de France (1): 1995–96

;Barcelona

Supercopa de España (1): 1996

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1996–97

Copa del Rey (1): 1996-97

;Manchester United

Premier League (1): 2002–03

International

;France U-21

UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship (1): 1988

;France

FIFA World Cup (1): 1998

UEFA European Football Championship (1): 2000

Individual

1990 French Player of the Year

1996 UEFA Euro All-Star Team

1998 ''Chevalier'' (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur 2000 Internazionale Player of the Year (Pirata d'oro)

2000 UEFA Euro All-Star Team

2004 Trophée d'honneur UNFP

2009 French Manager of the Year

Manager

;Bordeaux

Ligue 1 (1): 2008–09

Coupe de la Ligue (1): 2008–09

Trophée des Champions (2): 2008, 2009

Statistics

Player

|- |1983–84||rowspan="8"|Montpellier||rowspan="4"|Division 2||15||0||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1984–85||32||5||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1985–86||29||6||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1986–87||34||18||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1987–88||rowspan="4"|Division 1||24||6||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1988–89||35||15||||||||||2||0|||| |- |1989–90||36||12||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1990–91||38||14||||||||||6||1|||| |- |1991–92||Napoli||Serie A||31||6||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1992–93||Nîmes||Division 1||29||1||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1993–94||rowspan="2"|Saint-Étienne||rowspan="2"|Division 1||33||5||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1994–95||37||13||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1995–96||Auxerre||Division 1||23||2||||||||||1||0|||| |- |1996–97||Barcelona||La Liga||28||1||5||0||colspan="2"|-||5||0||38||1 |- |1997–98||rowspan="2"|Marseille||rowspan="2"|Division 1||31||11||||||||||colspan="2"|-|||| |- |1998–99||32||2||||||||||10||1|||| |- |1999–2000||rowspan="2"|Internazionale||rowspan="2"|Serie A||34||3||7||0||-||-||colspan="2"|-||41||3 |- |2000–01||33||3||0||0||-||-||9||0||42||3 |- |2001–02||rowspan="2"|Manchester United||rowspan="2"|Premier League||29||1||2||0||0||0||15||2||46||3 |- |2002–03||19||0||1||0||0||0||9||1||29||1 428||110||||||||||19||1|||| 98||12||||||||||9||0|||| 28||1||5||0||0||0||5||0||38||1 48||1||3||0||0||0||24||3||75||4 602||124||||||||||57||4||||

|- |1989||6||1 |- |1990||7||1 |- |1991||6||2 |- |1992||8||0 |- |1993||8||3 |- |1994||7||0 |- |1995||4||1 |- |1996||10||3 |- |1997||7||0 |- |1998||13||3 |- |1999||9||0 |- |2000||12||2 |- !Total||97||16 |}

International goals

Stadium Municipal, Toulouse, France 21 January 1990 20 February 1991 14 August 1991 17 February 1993 17 February 1993 8 September 1993 26 April 1995 1 June 1996 18 June 1996 9 October 1996 25 February 1998 29 May 1998 28 June 1998 26 April 2000 11 June 2000

Goal !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition
1	18 November 1989	|		2 – 0	2–0	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)#Group 5>1990 World Cup Qualification
2	|	Kazma SC Stadium, Kuwait City, Kuwait		0 – 1	0–1	Exhibition game>Friendly
3	|	Parc des Princes, Paris, France		3 – 1	3–1	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying>Euro '92 Qualification
4	|	Stadion Miejski in Poznań>Stadion Miejski, Poznań, Poland		1 – 4	1–5	Exhibition game>Friendly
5	|	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel		0 – 2	0–4	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)#Group 6>1994 World Cup Qualification
6	|	Ramat Gan Stadium, Ramat Gan, Israel		0 – 3	0–4	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)#Group 6>1994 World Cup Qualification
7	|	Ratina Stadion, Tampere, Finland		0 – 1	0–2	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)#Group 6>1994 World Cup Qualification
8	|	Stade de la Beaujoire, Nantes, France		3 – 0	4–0	UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying#Group 1>Euro '96 Qualification
9	|	Mercedes-Benz Arena>Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart, Germany		0 – 1	0–1	Exhibition game>Friendly
10	| St James' Park, Newcastle, England ||		1 – 0	3–1	UEFA Euro 1996#Group B>Euro '96 Group Stage
11	|	Parc des Princes, Paris, France		1 – 0	4–0	Exhibition game>Friendly
12	|	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France		1 – 1	3–3	Exhibition game>Friendly
13	|	Stade Mohamed V, Casablanca, Morocco		1 – 1	2–2	Hassan II Trophy
14	|	Stade Félix-Bollaert, Lens, Pas-de-Calais>Lens, France		1 – 0	1–0	1998 FIFA World Cup#Round of 16>1998 World Cup Round of 16
15	|	Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France		2 – 2	3–2	Exhibition game>Friendly
16	|	Jan Breydel Stadium, Bruges, Belgium		1 – 0	3–0	UEFA Euro 2000#Group D>Euro 2000 Group Stage

Managerial stats

90 12

Team

Nat

From

To

Record

!G!!W!!D!!L!!Win %!!GF!!GA!!+/-

align="left"

Bordeaux

150

|

28

32

248

153

+95

align="left"

France

20

|

6

2

29

9

+20

Total

!170!!102!!34!!34!!!!277!!162!!+115

References

External links

Category:1965 births Category:Living people Category:People from Alès Category:French footballers Category:France international footballers Category:Association football central defenders Category:Montpellier HSC players Category:S.S.C. Napoli players Category:Nîmes Olympique players Category:AS Saint-Étienne players Category:AJ Auxerre players Category:FC Barcelona footballers Category:Olympique de Marseille players Category:F.C. Internazionale Milano players Category:Manchester United F.C. players Category:La Liga footballers Category:Premier League players Category:FIFA World Cup-winning players Category:1998 FIFA World Cup players Category:UEFA Euro 1992 players Category:UEFA Euro 1996 players Category:UEFA Euro 2000 players Category:UEFA European Football Championship-winning players Category:Serie A footballers Category:Ligue 1 players Category:Ligue 2 players Category:French expatriate footballers Category:Expatriate footballers in Spain Category:Expatriate footballers in Italy Category:Expatriate footballers in England Category:French football managers Category:FC Girondins de Bordeaux managers Category:France national football team managers Category:Ligue 1 managers Category:Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur

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