Captain (association football)

The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles, four Olympic gold medals, and nine CONCACAF Gold Cups. It medaled in every World Cup and Olympic tournament in women's soccer from 1991 to 2015, before being knocked out in the quarterfinal of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The team is governed by United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF.

Mary Abigail Wambach is an American retired soccer player, coach, and member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. A six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award, Wambach was a regular on the U.S. women's national soccer team from 2003 to 2015, earning her first cap in 2001. As a forward, she currently stands as the highest all-time goal scorer for the national team and is second in international goals for both female and male soccer players with 184 goals, behind Canadian Christine Sinclair. Wambach was awarded the 2012 FIFA World Player of the Year, becoming the first American woman to win the award in ten years. She was included on the 2015 Time 100 list as one of the most influential people in the world.

The England women's national football team, also known as the Lionesses, have been governed by the Football Association (FA) since 1993, having been previously administered by the Women's Football Association (WFA). England played its first international match in November 1972 against Scotland. Although most national football teams represent a sovereign state, England is permitted by FIFA statutes, as a member of the United Kingdom's Home Nations, to maintain a national side that competes in all major tournaments, with the exception of the Women's Olympic Football Tournament.

Stephanie Jayne Darby is an English professional footballer who plays for Women's Super League club Manchester City and the England women's national team. At club level, Houghton started at Sunderland in her native North East England before moving on to Leeds United in 2007 then Arsenal Ladies in 2010. She broke into the Sunderland team as a striker before moving back into midfield and later into defence.

Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is the practice of throwing a coin in the air and checking which side is showing when it lands, in order to choose between two alternatives, heads or tails, sometimes used to resolve a dispute between two parties. It is a form of sortition which inherently has two possible outcomes. The party who calls the side that is facing up when the coin lands wins.

A kick-off is the method of starting and, in some cases, restarting play in a game of association football. The rules concerning the kick-off are part of Law 8 of the Laws of the Game.

In association football, the referee is the person responsible for interpreting and enforcing the Laws of the Game during a match. The referee is the final decision-making authority on all facts connected with play, and is the match official with the authority to start and stop play and impose disciplinary action against players and coaches during a match.

In association football, the manager is the person who runs a football club or a national team. They have wide-ranging responsibilities, including selecting the team, choosing the tactics, recruiting and transferring players, negotiating player contracts, and speaking to the media.

Francesco Totti is an Italian former professional footballer who played solely for Roma and the Italy national team. He is often referred to as Er Bimbo de Oro, L'Ottavo Re di Roma, Er Pupone, and Il Capitano by the Italian sports media. A creative offensive playmaker who could play as an attacking midfielder and as a forward, renowned for his vision, technique, and goalscoring ability, Totti is considered to be one of the best players of his generation.

Associazione Sportiva Romacode: ita promoted to code: it , commonly referred to as Roma, is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for the 1951–52 season. Roma has won Serie A three times, in 1941–42, 1982–83 and 2000–01, as well as nine Coppa Italiacode: ita promoted to code: it titles and two Supercoppa Italianacode: ita promoted to code: it titles. In European competitions, Roma won the UEFA Europa Conference League in 2021–22, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1960–61 and was runner-up in the 1983–84 European Cup and the 1990–91 UEFA Cup.

The 2007–08 Coppa Italia was the 61st edition of the tournament. Fixtures were announced at 16:00 CET, July 25, 2007. The tournament began on August 14, 2007, and ended on May 24, 2008 with a single-match final to be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. For the fourth consecutive season, Roma and Internazionale were the finalists. Roma won the tournament by a score of 2–1 in the final.

Peter Bolesław Schmeichel is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. During eight seasons at English club Manchester United, he captained the club to victory in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final to complete the Treble. He also won the UEFA Euro 1992 with his country Denmark.

Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United, or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division in the English football league system. Nicknamed the Red Devils, it was founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed its name to Manchester United in 1902. After a spell playing in Clayton, Manchester, the club moved to its current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910.

Roy Maurice Keane is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during his time at English club Manchester United. Regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players in 2004. Noted for his hardened and brash demeanour, he was ranked at No. 11 on The Times' list of the 50 "hardest" footballers in history in 2007. Keane was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2021.

Frank James Lampard is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Premier League club Everton. He is widely regarded as one of Chelsea’s greatest ever players, and one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. He has the record of the most goals by a midfielder in the Premier League and of scoring the highest number of goals from outside the box (41). He ranked highly on a number of statistics for Premier League players for the ten years from 1 December 2000, including most games and most wins.

Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. They won their first major honour, the League championship, in 1955. The club won the FA Cup for the first time in 1970, their first European honour, the Cup Winners' Cup, in 1971, and became the third English club to win the Club World Cup in 2022.

John George Terry is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the assistant head coach at the latter. Regarded as one of the best defenders in the world at his peak, he is considered to be one of the greatest central defenders of his generation, as well as one of the best English and Premier League defenders ever.

Gary Alexander Neville is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a commentator for Sky Sports, until he took over the head coach position at Valencia in 2015. After being sacked by the club in 2016, he returned to his position as a pundit for Sky Sports later that year. He was also assistant manager for the England national team from 2012 to 2016.

Rio Gavin Ferdinand is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and was a member of three FIFA World Cup squads. He is one of the most decorated English footballers of all time and regarded by many as one of England's greatest ever players.

Ryan Joseph Giggs is a Welsh football coach and former player. Regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Giggs played his entire professional career for Manchester United and briefly served as the club's interim manager.

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Professional League club Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals (118), and joint-most international appearances (196). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances, and has scored over 800 official senior career goals for club and country.

Lionel Andrés Messi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record seven Ballon d'Or awards, a record six European Golden Shoes, and in 2020 was named to the Ballon d'Or Dream Team. Until leaving the club in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won a club-record 34 trophies, including 10 La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues. With his country, he won the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (eight), and most assists in La Liga (192) and the Copa América (17). He also has the most international goals by a South American male (98). Messi has scored over 795 senior career goals for club and country, and has the most goals by a player for a single club (672).

The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so, and resigned in 1982. Mexico was selected as the new host in May 1983, and became the first country to host the World Cup more than once, after previously hosting in 1970.

Bryan Robson OBE is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in 1981, where he became the longest-serving captain in the club's history and won two Premier League winners' medals, three FA Cups, one Football League Cup, two FA Charity Shields and a European Cup Winners' Cup. In August 2011, Robson was voted as the greatest ever Manchester United player in a poll of the club's former players as part of a book, 19, released to celebrate the club's record-breaking 19th league title.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup, also branded as South Africa 2010, was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. The bidding process for hosting the tournament finals was open only to African nations. In 2004, the international football federation, FIFA, selected South Africa over Egypt and Morocco to become the first African nation to host the finals.

Michael Ballack is a German former professional footballer. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of the Germany national team. Ballack wore the number 13 shirt for every team he has played for, except 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA's 100 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Ballack was known for his passing range, powerful shot, physical strength and commanding presence in midfield.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is a German former professional footballer who usually played as a central midfielder. Earlier in his career, he primarily played as a wide midfielder. Schweinsteiger is regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, due to his tactical awareness, positioning, passing and also due to his ability to read and control the flow of the game. Former Germany national team manager Joachim Löw has referred to Schweinsteiger as one of the greatest players the country has ever produced.

Oliver Bierhoff is a German football official and former player who played as a forward. He has previously served as the national team director of the German Football Association.

Jordi Alba Ramos is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for La Liga club Barcelona and captains the Spain national team. He is often regarded as one of the best left-backs of his generation.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup was an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations and 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, making it the first World Cup held in the Arab world and Muslim world, and the second held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.