Paul Scholes ( /ˈpɔːl ˈskoʊlz/; born 16 November 1974) is an English footballer, a one-club man who has played his entire professional career for Manchester United.
Born in Salford, but later moving to Langley, Scholes excelled in both cricket and football whilst at school. He first trained with Manchester United at the age of 14 after being spotted by a scout visiting his school, signing for them as an apprentice on leaving school in 1991, and turning professional in 1993. He made his full debut for United in the 1994–95 season. He went on to play a key part in the club's Treble-winning success in the 1998-99 season, and has won ten Premier League, three FA Cup and two UEFA Champions League winners medals.
Scholes represented the England national team from 1997 to 2004, gaining 66 caps and participating in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, as well as the UEFA Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 tournaments.
Cited by some of his footballing peers as one of the best midfielders of his generation, Scholes has also been criticised for his discliplinary record, amassing over 120 bookings in all competitions during his career and being sent off ten times.
Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979 in Chester) is an English professional footballer who is currently a free agent after being released by Manchester United in June 2012.
The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997. In his first full season in the Premier League he finished as joint top scorer with 18 goals. He repeated this the following year and was Liverpool's top goal scorer from 1997–2004, despite a recurring hamstring injury. In 2001, Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Football League Cup, and Owen was the recipient of the Ballon d'Or. He went on to score 118 goals in 216 appearances in the Premier League for Liverpool.
Owen moved to Real Madrid for £8 million in mid-2004; he was frequently used as a substitute. He scored 13 goals in La Liga and had the season's highest ratio of goals scored to number of minutes played. He returned to England the following season, joining Newcastle United for £16 million. After a promising start to the 2005–06 season, injuries largely ruled him out over the next 18 months. After his return he became team captain and was the team's top scorer for the 2007–08 season. After the final season of his four-year contract, Newcastle were relegated, and Owen moved to Manchester United as a free agent.
Owen Paul (born Owen Paul McGee, 1 May 1962, Glasgow), is a Scottish singer, best known in the UK for his 1986 #3 hit single, "My Favourite Waste of Time", a cover version of a song that was originally written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw. The track featured an appearance from future Thunder bass player, Mark 'Snake' Luckhurst.
As a youngster Paul was taken on as an apprentice with Celtic Football Club, but after hearing the Sex Pistols he decided to pursue a career in music. In 1989 he produced Japanese rock band Buck-Tick's album Taboo. After releasing a couple of singles he had a fall-out with his record label resulting in him leaving the music industry for 15 years.
Paul has made two television appearances to forget: the first was on the BBC live programme Pebble Mill, when he was meant to mime to "My Favourite Waste Of Time", but due to a technician's mistake, he missed his cue. The second came much later, as the unfortunate guest of a neighbour to The Osbournes, when as a result of playing music in a neighbouring garden, he provoked Ozzy and the rest of his dysfunctional family into throwing food.
David William Moyes (born 25 April 1963) is a Scottish former footballer and the current manager of English Premier League club Everton. He was the 2003, 2005 and 2009 League Managers Association Manager of the Year. He is also on the Committee for the League Managers Association in an executive capacity.
Moyes made over 550 league appearances as a centre half in a playing career that began with Celtic, where he won a championship medal. He then played for Dunfermline Athletic and ended his playing career with Preston North End. He became a coach at Preston, working his way up to assistant manager before eventually taking over as manager in 1998, his first managerial position.
Moyes became manager of Everton in March 2002 and under him the club qualified for the Champions League in 2005 and reached the FA Cup final in 2009. Upon reaching his tenth anniversary at the club Moyes received praise from many fellow managers including Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Kenny Dalglish for his achievements at Everton, despite operating with a limited budget. His service to Everton was also raised in Parliament by Steve Rotheram MP. Moyes is the third-longest serving manager in the Premier League and the English football league system as a whole, behind Ferguson and Wenger.
Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English former footballer. He is England's most capped right-back and was Manchester United's club captain for five years.
Neville spent his entire playing career at Old Trafford, making him a rare one-club man. At the time of his retirement in 2011, he was United's second longest serving player in the squad, behind his long-time team-mate Ryan Giggs. He made his international debut in 1995 and was first-choice right-back for club and country for more than ten years.
He is the older brother of Premier League footballer and Everton captain Phil Neville, who was also a Manchester United player (from 1993 until 2005). His sister Tracey Neville plays netball for England, his mother Jill is a receptionist for Bury.
Since retiring from football at the end of the 2010-11 season, Neville has gone into punditry and is a commentator for Sky Sports. On 14 May 2012, Neville was appointed as a coach at England by new manager Roy Hodgson.
The older of the Neville brothers joined Manchester United as an apprentice upon leaving school in 1991, and captained the youth side to FA Youth Cup glory in his first season. He made his senior debut for United in September 1992 against Torpedo Moscow in the UEFA Cup. Neville emerged as part of Alex Ferguson's youth-oriented side of the 1990s (nicknamed Fergie's Fledglings, an updated take on the 1950s equivalent Busby Babes) that included his brother Phil, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes. In the 1994–95 season, he became first-choice right-back when Paul Parker was ruled out by injury, and remained so until his retirment, although in his first season as a regular player he often found himself on the sidelines as Denis Irwin was switched to right back with Lee Sharpe (normally a winger) filling the left-back role.