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LUIS FIGO

Luis Figo is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder for Sporting CP, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan before retiring on 31 May 2009. He won 127 caps for the Portugal national team, a record at the time but later broken by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Renowned for his creativity and ability to get past defenders as a winger, Figo is regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation. His 106 assists are the second-most in La Liga history, behind Lionel Messi. He won the 2000 Ballon d’Or, 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year, and in 2004 Pelé named him in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players. Figo is one of the few football players to have played for both Spanish rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. His controversial transfer in 2000 from Barcelona to bitter rivals Real Madrid set a world record fee of €62 million.

Figo had a successful career highlighted by several trophy wins, including the Portuguese Cup, four La Liga titles, two Spanish Cups, three Spanish Super Cups, one UEFA Champions League title, one UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, four Serie A titles, one Italian Cup and three Italian Super Cups. On the international level, he scored 32 goals for Portugal, representing the nation at three European Championships and two World Cups, helping them reach the final but finish as runners-up at Euro 2004.

The only child of António Caeiro Figo and Maria Joana Pestana Madeira who moved from Alentejo to Lisbon in the early 1970s, Figo grew up in the working-class district of Cova da Piedade, Almada. He began his career as a street footballer at U.F.C. Os Pastilhas, before joining the academy of Sporting Clube de Portugal at the age of 12.  In his youth, Figo played futsal from which he learned a lot of skills that helped him later in his career

CAMERON VAN DER BERGH

Cameron is a retired South African competitive swimmer and hedge fund analyst. He is Africa’s first home-trained world record holder and individual male Olympic Champion. He is married to long time partner Nefeli.

He has represented South Africa at the 2008 Summer Olympics, at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he won the gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke in a new world record, and the 2016 Olympics. He has won numerous World Championship medals since his debut in 2007 when he took a bronze medal. Three times he has won the FINA overall World Cup.

Van der Burgh set his first world long-course record (27.06s) in the 50 m breaststroke in the semifinals at South African nationals in April 2009, cutting 0.12 of a second from Oleg Lisogor’s old world record set in 2002. He won the world title in the same year at the Rome championship, also in the 50 m breaststroke.

He won the 50m breaststroke at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in a time of 27.18 seconds in a new games record and the 100m world title at the 2010 short course world championships. He won the 100m breaststroke gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in a new world record time of 58.46 seconds,and paid tribute to late world champion Alexander Dale Oen afterwards.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he won the gold in the men’s 50 m breaststroke in a new games record. He won silver in the 100 m breaststroke behind Adam Peaty, and was part of the South African team that won bronze in the men’s 4 x 100 m relay. The 2014 Commonwealth Games marked the beginning of his major rivalry with World and Olympic champion Adam Peaty. Although Peaty has maintained the upper hand at Olympic and World level, especially in the 100 metres breaststroke, Van Der Burgh has remained his main international rival, and remains the only swimmer to have beaten him since his breakthrough, on both occasions denying Peaty the only major silverware missing from his collection, the Commonwealth Games 50 metre breaststroke title (a race not on the Olympic calendar).

In 2015 Cameron went on to Break the World Record in the heats of the 50m Breaststroke at the World Championships but settled for silver in the final. He went on further to earn another silver in the 100m Breaststroke. Later that year he went on to record a 24 race unbeaten streak to win the overall men’s World Cup, the third of his career.

SCARRA NTUBENI

Scarra is a South African rugby union footballer who plays as hooker for the Stormers in Super Rugby and Western Province in the Currie Cup and in the Rugby Challenge.

Ntubeni debuted for both Western Province and the Stormers in 2011, however it wasn’t until the 2012 Currie Cup that he really established himself as a first team member. He featured in all of Province’s 12 games during that campaign and was instrumental as his side lifted the Currie Cup for the 33rd time. Ntubeni was a starter as Western Province triumphed 25–19 over the Sharks in Durban.

2013 got off to a slow start as injury ruled him out of the first half of the Stormers season, but he did return for the final 8 games and this coincided with an upturn in his sides fortunes following a lacklustre first half of the season. He again made a big impact in the 2013 Currie Cup, taking advantage of Tiaan Liebenberg’s injury and skipper Deon Fourie’s switch to the flank to again be an ever present member of the side. He started 11 games and made 1 substitute appearance as Province reached the Currie Cup Final for the second year in succession, this time going down 33–19 to the Sharks in Cape Town

On 28 October 2013, SARU announced that Ntubeni was included in the 30-man squad for South Africa’s 2013 end-of-year rugby union tests against France, Scotland and Wales in November 2013; however, he did not play in any of the matches.

On 28 May 2016, Ntubeni was included in a 31-man South Africa squad for their three-test match series against a touring Ireland team. After training with the national team for a few days, he joined the South Africa ‘A’ squad for their two-match series against a touring England Saxons team. He was named in the starting line-up for their first match in Bloemfontein, but ended on the losing side as the visitors ran out 32–24 winners.

Highlights