Aidan Knight

Aidan Knight (born October 23, 1986) is a Victoria-based songwriter and namesake for Canadian experimental folk band, Aidan Knight. Knight has also performed and recorded with The Zolas, Hannah Georgas, Dan Mangan, and We Are the City.

Musical beginnings

Knight grew up in Victoria, British Columbia. Prior to forming his own musical project in 2008, Knight was a member of the bands Maurice, Toco & Jorge, Vegan Holocaust and Counting Heartbeats. He also recorded and performed with Hannah Georgas, The Zolas, Dan Mangan, Karkwa, Jeremy Fisher and David Vertesi.

Knight helped establish the record label Adventure Boys Club, with founder Tyler Bancroft of the band Said the Whale. Its first release was Knight's debut album, Versicolour, on March 2, 2010. Previous digital EPs include Hi There and First Takes, a collection of demos and field recordings from 2007–2008. Versicolour was recorded in Langley at Buena Vista over the course of two years with producer Jonathan Anderson of Jonathan Inc.

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.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, GOIH (born 5 February 1985), known as Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾɨʃtiˈɐnu ʁuˈnaɫdu]), is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Portugal. By the age of 22, Ronaldo had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2008, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He then won the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2013 and 2014. In September 2015, Ronaldo scored his 500th senior career goal for club and country.

Often ranked as the best player in the world and rated by some in the sport as the greatest of all time, in 2015 Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation, during its 100th anniversary celebrations. He is the first player to win four European Golden Shoe awards. With Manchester United and Real Madrid, Ronaldo has won three Premier Leagues, one La Liga, one FA Cup, two Football League Cups, two Copas del Rey, two UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA Super Cup and two FIFA Club World Cups.

Football

Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called 'football' in certain places include: association football (known as soccer in some countries); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby football (either rugby league or rugby union); and Gaelic football. These different variations of football are known as football codes.

Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century. The expanse of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage. In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world.

Ballon d'Or (1956–2009)

The Ballon d'Or (French pronunciation: ​[balɔ̃ dɔʁ]; "Golden Ball"), often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award, was an annual association football award presented by France Football between 1956 and 2009. Conceived by chief magazine writer Gabriel Hanot, the award honoured the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on a voting by Europe-based journalists. Originally, only European players were in contention for the Ballon d'Or, but from 1995 all players at European clubs were eligible.

Stanley Matthews of Blackpool was the inaugural winner of the Ballon d'Or.Milan's George Weah, the only African recipient, became the first non-European to win the award in the year the rules of eligibility were changed.Ronaldo of Internazionale became the first South American winner two years later. The final recipient of the Ballon d'Or was Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Three players won the award three times each: Johan Cruyff of Ajax and Barcelona, Michel Platini of Juventus, and Marco van Basten of Milan. With seven awards each, Dutch and German players won the most Ballons d'Or. Italian clubs Juventus and Milan had the most winners respectively; six players won eight awards while playing for each club.