Football Media

2010 saw a FIFA World Cup of firsts: the first on African soil, the first won by Spain and the first to be assessed second-by-second by the Castrol Index. Using advanced technology and objective analysis to evaluate every single player movement, the FIFA World Cup(TM) now has Sergio Ramos as its first Castrol Index winner.

1 SERGIO RAMOS DF SPAIN 9.79
2 JOAN CAPDEVILA DF SPAIN 9.74
3 CARLES PUYOL DF SPAIN 9.70
4 PHILIPP LAHM DF GERMANY 9.66
5 GERARD PIQUE DF SPAIN 9.63
6 DAVID VILLA FW SPAIN 9.59
7 WESLEY SNEIJDER MF NETHERLANDS 9.56
8 LUIS SUAREZ FW URUGUAY 9.53
9 THOMAS MUELLER MF GERMANY 9.51
10 MANUEL NEUER GK GERMANY 9.48
11 SERGIO BUSQUETS MF SPAIN 9.46
12 JOHN PANTSIL DF GHANA 9.43
13 MARK VAN BOMMEL MF NETHERLANDS 9.41
14 BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER MF GERMANY 9.39
15 PAULO DA SILVA DF PARAGUAY 9.36
16 XABI ALONSO MF SPAIN 9.34
17 ARNE FRIEDRICH DF GERMANY 9.32
18 GREGORY VAN DER WIEL DF NETHERLANDS 9.30
19 JORIS MATHIJSEN DF NETHERLANDS 9.28
20 MAXIMILIANO PEREIRA DF URUGUAY 9.26

Source: FIFA.com/castrolindex

Raul Gonzales, the Real Madrid legend, is finally switching clubs for Schalke 04, according to a lot of reports.

Here are some important things to know about the legendary striker.

1. He is 33 years old. He was born on June 27, 1977.

2. He has 102 caps for Spain. He has scored 44 goals for the national team.

3. Even if he played for Atletico Madrid in his youth career, he moved to rivals Real early on, in 1992. He has only played for Real since.

4. Since 1994, he has played for the senior team. He has a whopping 550 appearances for the club, scoring 228 times.

5. He is third in the all-time La Liga top goalscorers charts.

6. He is also the top active La Liga goalscorer.

7. He has scored 66 times for Real Madrid in European competitions.

8. Raul has been the captain of Real Madrid since 2003.

9. He has five children: four sons and a daughter.

10. After a fabulous Real Madrid career, he will move to German club Schalke 04, for a Euro 4 million per season contract. The deal has not been confirmed yet, but has a huge chance of materializing.

“Bafana Bafana are out of the World Cup but they won the hearts and minds of all South Africans and the whole world tonight,” said 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa (OC) CEO Danny Jordaan after South Africa’s final group stage match against France in Mangaung/Bloemfontein.

South Africa won the match but it was not enough for the host nation to progress past the group stage of the tournament.

“Yes they did not make it past the group stage but they did what the country asked of them – they played with pride, passion, skill and commitment, they gave their best. They did the national team jersey and every single South African proud and we want to thank them for what they’ve done for this country,” he added.

Jordaan also thanked South Africans for the tremendous support they have shown for the South African team.

“The passion and enthusiasm we have seen across the length and breadth of South Africa in recent weeks has made this tournament truly come alive for locals and visitors alike,” he said.

Jordaan does not believe that South Africa’s exit will affect the overall success of the tournament.

“It may be over for Bafana Bafana but it is not over for South Africa. This is still South Africa’s World Cup. We are not going home, the World Cup is happening in our home,” he said.

“South Africans have already proven their support for Team South Africa. Without millions of them we would not have delivered ten world-class stadiums, opened new airports, highways and train stations in record time or welcomed hundreds of thousands of new visitors to our country. We would not have already hosted more than half of the World Cup matches successfully,” he explained.

“I remain confident that South Africans will continue to be fantastic hosts for the next two and a half weeks and make the most of this incredible time in our country’s history, which has already seen us achieve so much,” said Jordaan.

Jordaan said that support for the tournament to date has met all expectations with a total of 1 570 447 people attending the first 32 matches (an average of 49,076). More than a million people have watched the matches at the ten FIFA Fan Fests in South Africa and hundreds of thousands more have watched the games in public viewing areas around the country, with World Cup matches also shattering television audience records in the country.

Durban has proved to be the most popular FIFA Fan Fest with 238,546 visitors from the start of the tournament until 20 June.