Association football is a national sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association football clubs, England has more clubs involved in the code than any other country.
England is home to, amongst others, the world's oldest association football club (Sheffield F.C.), the oldest national governing body (The Football Association), the first national team, the oldest national knockout competition (the FA Cup) and the oldest national league (The Football League). Today England's top domestic league, the Premier League, is one of the most popular and richest sports leagues in the world, and is home to some of the world's most famous football clubs.
The modern global game of association football was first codified in 1863 in London. The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university football games.
Football was played in England as far back as medieval times. The first written evidence of a football match came in about 1170, when William Fitzstephen wrote of his visit to London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." He also went on to mention that each trade had their own team, "The elders, the fathers, and the men of wealth come on horseback to view the contests of their juniors, and in their fashion sport with the young men; and there seems to be aroused in these elders a stirring of natural heat by viewing so much activity and by participation in the joys of unrestrained youth." Kicking ball games are described in England from 1280.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro,OIH, (born 5 February 1985), commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team. Ronaldo became the most expensive footballer in history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid in a transfer worth £80 million (€93.9 million/$131.6 million). In addition, his contract with Real Madrid, in which he is paid €12 million per year, makes him one of the highest-paid footballers in the world, and his buyout clause is valued at €1 billion as per his contract.
Ronaldo began his career as a youth player for Andorinha, where he played for two years, before moving to C.D. Nacional. In 1997, he made a move to Portuguese giants Sporting Clube de Portugal. Ronaldo's precocious talent caught the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who signed him for £12.24 million (€15 million) in 2003. The following season, Ronaldo won his first club honour, the FA Cup. He also played at Euro 2004 with Portugal and scored his first international goal in the opening game of the tournament against Greece, in addition to helping Portugal reach the final. He was featured in the UEFA Euro All-Star Team of this competition.
Daniel Munthe Agger (Danish: [dæˀnjəl ˈɑɡ̊ʌ]; born 12 December 1984) is a Danish footballer who plays as a defender for Liverpool and captains the Denmark national football team. He started his senior career at Danish club Brøndby IF in July 2004, with whom he won the 2005 Danish Superliga championship. The Liverpool fans have created a song for him to the tune of Agadoo.
In July 2004, he was moved from the youth squad to the first team, following the departure of Swedish international defender Andreas Jakobsson. Daniel Agger quickly established himself not only as a first team regular, but as one of the key components in the team that won the 2004–05 Danish Superliga championship. Despite his relative youth, he played with great authority and class under the guidance of Brøndby team captain Per Nielsen, and after the first half of the season Agger was named 2004 "talent of the year" by Spillerforeningen (the Danish equivalent of the English PFA).
After the successful Superliga 2004–05 season, Agger was called up to the senior Danish national football team for the 1–0 friendly win against Finland on 2 June 2005, playing the full match. Agger spent the next national team match on the bench before playing the full 4–1 friendly win on 17 August 2005 over England alongside Per Nielsen, where he caused problems for the English forwards, most notably Wayne Rooney. He played the whole 90 minutes in the next two national team matches, before an injury sustained in the 2005–06 Danish Superliga season in September forced him out for the remainder of 2005. Only 20 years of age, Daniel Agger was awarded the Danish "talent of the year" of all sports on 6 December 2005.