Barcelona

Barcelona (/bɑːrsəˈloʊnə/, Catalan: [bəɾsəˈlonə], Spanish: [barθeˈlona]) is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia in Spain and Spain's second most populated city, with a population of 1.6 million within its administrative limits. Its urban area extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of around 4.7 million people, being the seventh-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris, London, Madrid, the Ruhr area, Berlin and Milan. It is the largest metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, and bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range, the tallest peak of which is 512 metres (1,680 ft) high.

Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. After merging with the Kingdom of Aragon, Barcelona continued to be an important city in the Crown of Aragon as an economical and administrative center of this Crown and the capital of the Principality of Catalonia. Besieged several times during its history, Barcelona has a rich cultural heritage and is today an important cultural center and a major tourist destination. Particularly renowned are the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona. The city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments.

Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi]; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and rated by many in the sport as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only football player in history to win the FIFA Ballon d'Or five times, four of which he won consecutively, and the first player to win three European Golden Shoes. With Barcelona he has won seven La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles, as well as three Copa del Rey titles. A prolific goalscorer, Messi holds the records for most goals scored in La Liga (299), a La Liga season (50), a calendar year (91), a Champions League match (five), and most Champions League seasons (five).

Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. After a fast progression through Barcelona's youth academy, Messi made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. Despite being injury-prone during his early career, he established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, finishing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. His first uninterrupted campaign came in the 2008–09 season, during which he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award by record voting margins.

Athletic Bilbao

Athletic Club; (Basque: Athletic Kluba), also commonly known as Athletic de Bilbao; (Basque: Bilboko Athletic Kluba), is a professional football club, based in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.

They are known as Los Leones (The Lions) because their stadium was built near a church called San Mamés (Saint Mammes). Mammes was a semi-legendary early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans. Mammes pacified the lions and was later made a saint.

The club is one of three founding members of the Primera División that have never been relegated from the top division, the others being Real Madrid and Barcelona. Athletic have won the league on eight occasions and in the historical classification of La Liga, Athletic are in fourth place. In the table of Copa del Rey titles, Athletic is second only to Barcelona, having won the Cup 23 times. The club also has a women's team, which has won four championships in the Primera División Femenina.

The club is known for its cantera policy of bringing young Basque players through the ranks, as well as recruiting top Basque players from other clubs (like Joseba Etxeberria and Javi Martínez). Athletic official policy is signing professional players native to or trained in football in the greater Basque Country, including Biscay, Gipuzkoa, Álava and Navarre (in Spain); and Labourd, Soule and Lower Navarre (in France). Since its foundation, Athletic has played exclusively with players meeting the criteria to be deemed as Basque players, and has been one of the most successful teams of La Liga. This can be seen as a unique case in European football; it has gained Athletic both admirers and critics. The club has been praised for promoting home grown players and club loyalty. Athletic is one of only three professional clubs in Spain in La Liga (the others being Real Madrid, and Barcelona) that is not a sports corporation; it is owned and operated by its club members.

Nicola Sansone

Nicola Domenico Sansone (born 10 September 1991) is an Italian-German footballer who plays as a forward and winger for Serie A club Sassuolo and the Italian national team.

Club career

Sansone was born in Munich in Germany and his first club was SV Neuperlach. At the age of 10, he transferred to Bayern Munich, where he progressed through the Junior Team. He made his debut for Bayern's reserve team in January 2010, in a 3. Liga match against Dynamo Dresden. He made three more appearances in the 2009–10 season, and was a regular in the team during the 2010–11 season. In October 2010, he was named on the substitutes bench for the first-team in a Bundesliga match against SC Freiburg. He was released in June 2011 after Bayern's reserves were relegated from the 3. Liga.

Sassuolo

On 21 January 2014, Sansone along with teammates Pedro Mendes and Aleandro Rosi joined Sassuolo from fellow Serie A club Parma. Sansone and Mendes both signed co-ownership deals, for €2.5 million and €500,000 respectively. Rosi however made a loan switch from Parma to Sassuolo, as part of the swap with Jonathan Rossini also in temporary deal.

Villarreal

Villarreal (Spanish: [ˈbiʎareˈal]), officially Vila-real (Valencian: [ˈvila reˈaɫ]), is a city in the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Community, Spain.

The city is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital (Castelló de la Plana), which it is separate from by the Mijares (or Millars) River. it has 51,367 inhabitants (2010 data), most of them living in the urban area that covers about 10.72% of its comarca's 55.4 km² surface. Ranked by population, it is the second-largest city in the province (after the capital), and fifteenth in the Valencian Community.

The city was founded with royal status by King James I of Aragon in 1274 during his campaign to regain Muslim territory in present-day Valencia during the Reconquista. It later became an agricultural centre for orange cultivation, and more recently a centre for the ceramics industry.

Name

Both the Castilian Spanish Villarreal and Valencian Catalan Vila-real are cognates meaning 'Royal Village', due to the city's foundation by King James I of Aragon. Throughout the Middle Ages, as were most European settlements, it was known by its Latinised name Villae Regalis. A 1592 tapestry of the Valencian Parliament shows the city's representative with the old Valencian name Vilareal. It was in the late 18th century, as Spain became more centralised, that the Castilian name took over. The city was renamed in 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, as Villarreal de los Infantes (Royal Town of the Infantes), to avoid confusion with other Spanish localities with the same name. It is sometimes still referred to under this extended version.