Happy Birthday Alessandro Nesta and Kolo Touré

Alessandro Nesta was born in Rome, Italy and turns 32 today. He plays centre back and is one of the best players in the world. He joined Lazio's youth academy when he was 9 years old and joined their professional team in 1993 when he was 17. He played on Lazio until 2002 and made over 190 appearances including a goal. He helped them win Serie A in 2000 and Coppa Italia in 1998 and 2000. He joined AC Milan in 2002 and has been there ever since. Nesta has made over 150 appearances for Milan including 3 goals. He helped AC win Serie A in 2004, Coppa Italia in 2003 and the Champions League in 2003 and 2007.

Nesta represented his country in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. He has capped for Italy 78 times and was a member of the World Cup winning squad in 2006. He was also on the Italian squad that won the 1996 Under-21 European Championship.

He was named to the FIFA 100 list which was a list that Pelé made of the 125 greatest living players. He was named to the UEFA Team of the Year in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007. He was the Serie A defender of the year in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and the Serie A young player of the year in 1998.

Kolo Touré was born in Bouake, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and turns 27 today. Touré played on ASEC Mimosas's youth team from 2000 to 2002. ASEC Mimosas is in the Ivory Coast and is known as one of the best youth academies in Africa. It has produced stars like Emmanuel Eboué (Arsenal), Salomon Kalou (Chelsea), Yaya Touré (Barcelonas) and others. Kolo was bought by Arsenal in 2002 for £150,000.

He has capped for the Gunners over 270 times scoring 13 goals. Kolo plays centre back for Arsenal. He has also capped for his country over 40 times and represented them in the 2006 World Cup. He has too younger brothers who play professionally as well. Yaya Touré is on Barcelona and Ibrahim Touré is on Metalurh Donetsk (Ukraine).

Happy Birthday Clint Dempsey, Youri Djorkaeff and Roy Makaay

Clint Dempsey turns 25 today. The American forward played on the New England Revolution from 2004 to 2007 before being bought by Fulham for $4 million. At that time that was the largest transfer fee for an MLS player. Dempsey has also capped for the United States over 30 times. He was the 2006 Honda Player of the Year (best U.S. mens footballer). He also won the 2007 U.S. Football (soccer) Athlete of the Year. He has scored 9 goals for the U.S., including their only goal at the 2006 World Cup (Our other goal was an own goal against Italy).

Youri Djorkaeff turns 40 today. The Frenchmen started his career at Grenoble Foot 38 in 1984 and he would stay there until 1989. He then went to RC Strasbourg (1989-1991), AS Monaco (1991-95) and PSG (1995-96). He left the French League to go to Inter Milan and he played there from 1996 to 1999. Youri then played with German club FC Kaiserslautern from 1999 to 2002. He played at English sides Bolton Wanderers from 2002 to 2004 and Blackburn Rovers in 2004. He then played for thee MetroStars from 2005 until his retirement in 2006. He was Metro's player of the year in 2005. He played 49 games for Metro and scored 13 goals.

Youri also played for France at the 1998 and 2002 World Cup. He scored in a group match against Denmark at the 1998 World Cup. France would go on to win the Cup that year.

Roy Makaay turns 33 today. The Dutch striker started his career at the Dutch club Vitesse in 1995 and remained there until 1997. He played in over 100 games and scored over 40 goals while at Vitesse. He then transfered to Spanish side CD Tenerife and played there from 1997 to 1999. Makaay played at Deportivo La Coruña from 1999 to 2003 and played over 130 games; scoring more than 75 goals. Roy then left Spain and played for Bayern Munich from 2003 to 2007. While with the German powerhouse, he played in over 125 games and scored more than 75 goals. He won the European Golden Boot in the 2002-03 season for scoring the most goals in Europe. He came back to the Netherlands in 2007 to play for Feyenoord. He has played in over 25 games and scored over 10 goals for the Dutch side.

Makaay played for his country 43 times and scored 6 goals. Due to an abundance of Dutch strikers, he has never played in the World Cup but played in Euro 2000 and 2004.

Jesper Parnevik Turns 43 Today

The Swedish golfer was born in Stockholm, Sweden on this day in 1965.

As an amateur; he represented Continental Europe at the 1986 St Andrews Trophy and he represented Sweden at the 1984 and 1986 Eisenhower Trophy. Those are two of the best Amateur team golf tournaments in the world.

Parnevik turned pro in 1986 and started playing on the European Tour. He became a full member on tour in 1989 by winning the 1988 European Tour Qualifying School Tournament. Two fourth place finishes on tour in 1989 helped him finish 50th on the money list. He earned £55,538 on tour that year. He also played on minor tours early in his career and won the 1988 Ramlosa Trophy, 1998 Odensa Open (both in Sweden), 1998 Open Passing Shot (France) and the 1990 Swedish Open International Stroke Play. Parnevik finished in second at the 1994 British Open; only one stroke behind Nick Price.

He won his first European Tour tournament at the Bell's Scottish Open in 1993. He won by a margin of 5 strokes over American Payne Stewart. Parnevik picked up his second European Tour win at the Volvo Scandinavian Masters in 1995. Jesper split time between the PGA and European Tour in 1994 and 1995. Since 1996 he has played on the PGA Tour full time and only plays on the European Tour occasionally. His last two wins on the European Tour was at the 1996 Trophée Lancôme and the 1998 Volvo Scandinavian Masters. He finished 17th on the money list in 1993, 26th in 1994 and 17th in 1995.

Parnevik's great performances led to him to be selected to the European Ryder Cup team in 1997, 1999 and 2002. They won in 1997 and 2002. His overall record at the Ryder Cup is 4-4-3 (W-T-L) and he tied Tiger Woods in match play in 2002. Jesper also represented Sweden at the 1994 and 1995 World Cup as well as the 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997 Alfred Dunhill Cup.

Parnevik has won 5 tournaments on the PGA Tour in his career. He won the 1998 Phoenix Open, 1999 Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic, 2000 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, 2000 GTE Byron Nelson Classic and the 2001 Honda Classic. Parnevik has spent 38 weeks in the Official World Golf Rankings Top Ten. 37 of them were in 2000 and the other was in 2001.

Jesper has earned $14,625,854 on the PGA Tour in his career making him the 41st on the list of all-time money winners (NOTE: That number can be misleading because tournament payouts have risen drastically over the years). The only European to earn more than him on the PGA Tour is Sergio García,.

Parnevik has done well in majors as well. His best finish in the Masters was T-20 in 2001 and his best finish in the U.S. Open was T-14 in 1998. He has done much better in the other two majors though. In the British his best finishes are 2nd (1994), T-2 (1997), T-4 (1998), T-10 (1999), T-9 (2001). In the PGA Championship he finished T-5 in 1996 and T-10 in 1999. But since the 2002 British Open he has only made the cut in two majors. The last major he played in was the 2006 PGA Championship but he missed the cut.

More recently Jesper lost in a playoff to Justin Leonard at the 2007 Valero Texas Open in October. He missed the cut in the PODS Championship today.

On tour Jesper is known for his odd dress choice. He is married with 4 kids. One of them is named Pebble Beach, after the famous course in California. Tiger Woods met his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren when she was babysitting Jesper's kids. By the way, I never understood this. Why would a model be a babysitter?

Jesper resides in Jupiter, Florida and his nickname on tour is Spaceman.