The 2,000 Guineas Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 1 mile (1,609 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in late April or early May.

It is one of Britain's five Classic races, and at present it is the first to be run in the year. It also serves as the opening leg of the Triple Crown, followed by the Derby and the St Leger, although the feat of winning all three has been rarely attempted in recent decades.

The 2,000 Guineas was first run on 18 April 1809, and it preceded the introduction of a version for fillies only, the 1,000 Guineas, by five years. Both races were established by the Jockey Club under the direction of Sir Charles Bunbury, who had earlier co-founded the Derby at Epsom. The races were named according to their original prize funds (a guinea amounted to 21 shillings, or £1.05).

By the mid-1860s, the 2,000 Guineas was regarded as one of Britain's most prestigious races for three-year-olds. The five leading events for this age group, characterised by increasing distances as the season progressed, began to be known as "Classics". The concept was later adopted in many other countries.

Eduardo Alves da Silva (born 25 February 1983), commonly known as Eduardo, sometimes nicknamed as Dudu, is a Brazilian-born Croatian footballer who plays for Ukrainian Premier League club Shakhtar Donetsk and the Croatia national team. With 22 goals, Eduardo is currently the second most prolific striker that has ever played for Croatia, currently only behind Davor Šuker on 45 goals.

Eduardo grew up in the Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Bangu and made his first steps in club football with CBF Nova Kennedy and Bangu Atlético Clube, although he did not play regularly in the youth categories. He was later noticed by Dinamo Zagreb's scouts and joined the club's youth squad in September 1999. Eduardo stayed at Dinamo on trial until December 1999 and returned to the club in February 2000, starting to play regularly for their under-17 squad. Eduardo found his way to the first team in the summer of 2001, despite suffering some injuries early in his career.

After making his first-team debut with Dinamo in the 2001–02 season, Eduardo was loaned for one season to Croatian second division side Inker Zaprešić (now Inter Zaprešić) in 2002–03 to see more first-team action, scoring 10 goals in 15 league appearances for the club.

Adam Maher (born 20 July 1993 in Ait Izzou) is a Dutch-Moroccan professional football player who plays for AZ.

He made his professional debut for AZ on 15 December 2010 in a 2010–11 UEFA Europa League game against FC BATE Borisov and scored a goal on his debut. He was the youngest player playing for a Dutch football club ever to score a goal in the Europa League and UEFA Cup. Maher, who was voted Holland's young player of the year, would be open to a move away from the club, Manchester City, AC Milan and Barcelona are reportedly interested in the 18-year-old.(13 May 2012)

He was a member of the Netherlands squad for the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup. In February 2012 Adam Maher was called at the preselection of the Dutch team by Bert van Marwijk. On 7 May 2012, he was named in the provisional list of 36 players for the Euro 2012 tournament, one of nine uncapped players to be chosen by Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk as part of the preliminary squad. He made his debut for the Netherlands in a friendly match against Bayern Munich.

Metin Tekin (born 1964 in İzmit, Turkey) is a retired Turkish professional football player. His parents are Tarık and İnci Tekin. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in business. He married to Şevval Sam in 1993. From this marriage he has a son and divorced in 2000.

He started his football career in Kocaelispor. His first accomplishment was the selection to U-18 National Team.

In the 1982-1983 season, he transferred to Beşiktaş by Dorde Miliç before he becoming a member of Kocaelispor's first team. On January 2, 1983, he scored his first goal for Beşiktaş to Adana Demirspor in İnönü Stadium.

He usually played as a right winger (#7 Uniform). Occasionally he played as a forward too. Beşiktaş fans called him "Sarı Fırtına" and his name also mentioned with other prominent players such as Ali Gültiken and Feyyaz Uçar. Between 1982 to 1997 he played 320 games and scored 47 goals. In 1997 Metin Tekin was loaned to Vanspor. Later in the year Beşiktaş vs Fenerbahçe was his final game as a professional football player.

Suleyman "Sulley" Ali Muntari (born 27 August 1984 in Konongo) is a Ghanaian professional footballer who currently plays as a central midfielder for Serie A club Milan on loan from fellow Serie A club Internazionale in Italy. Muntari is a member of the Ghana national team. With his career at Internazionale, he has won the Champions League, in 2009–10, and also the Serie A title in 2008–09 and 2009-10.

Muntari's abilities first came to light in youth tournaments, while he was playing for Liberty Professionals youth team. He became a regular member of Ghana's U20 team at the age of 16 as they finished runners-up at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina, losing out to the hosts in the final. Despite impressing during a trial with Manchester United after the tournament, he ended up joining Italian club Udinese.

He joined Udinese in 2001, where his first season was spent in the reserves. He made his first-team debut on 6 November 2002, against Milan. The Rossoneri proved too strong on the day, yet Udinese's young newcomer left an instant impression. "Muntari was immense against Milan," enthused monthly magazine Football Italia, "showing himself to possess the touch of Kaká and the combativeness of Edgar Davids, he is definitely a player to keep a close eye on."