Nemanja Vidic

-
Nemanja Vidic
Nemanja Vidić signed for Manchester United for a reported fee of around £7 million on January 5, 2006; two and a half years after Manchester United's reported interest in him. He was assigned the number 15 shirt and made his debut for Manchester United as a substitute for Ruud van Nistelrooy in the dying minutes of Manchester United's 2-1 win in the Carling Cup semi-final second leg against Blackburn Rovers on January 25, 2006.
During the 2006-07 Premier league season, Vidić formed a partnership with Rio Ferdinand in the centre of defence, which has since become one of the most prominent partnerships in English football, and has become an established first team player. In his first full season playing for Manchester United he made 25 appearances in the Premier league and ended the season winning his first league medal.
The Serbian began his career with boyhood club Red Star Belgrade, joining their youth programme at 14. His first-team debut didn't arrive until 2001 but he went on to make 22 appearances in his first season.

He eventually ended his stay with Red Star by leading them to Serbia's domestic league and cup double before switching to Russian outfit Spartak Moscow in August 2004. Just 39 games and four goals later, United came calling.

The Reds announced his signing on Christmas Day, 2005. He hadn’t played for two months as the Russian season had recently ended, so it took time for his true ability to shine. But after completing an intensive training programme, Vida began to show his class.A collar-bone injury sustained at the end of March 2007 kept Vidic out of the bulk of United's title run-in that season, but his performances until that point had been strong enough to help the Reds to the top of the league. His play also inspired a rousing song among the matchgoing faithful.

The Serbian’s impressive performances continued and earned him a contract extension in 2007.
He said of the improved deal:
“Playing in this team is a great privilege. This is such a great club, I am delighted to be able to extend my stay here. The fans and everyone at the club have been very special to me. I hope I can do my bit to bring the club even more trophies in the years ahead.”

True to his word, he did just that in 2008/09, helping the Reds to an 18th league title, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Carling Cup. Much of the success could be attributed to Vidic's fine form, a fact not lost on his team-mates, who voted the towering Serbian defender the players' player of the year at the Reds' end-of-season awards. He was also the fans' choice, picking up the coveted Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award.

Injury and an ever-changing back four prevented Nemanja from bettering those achievements in 2009/10, although he still played a key role in the Reds' charge towards glory both at home and abroad. His influence on other defenders, most notably Jonny Evans, was also significant and will ensure United's back four remains tight for years to come.

He penned a new four-year deal with the club in the summer of 2010 which will keep him at Old Trafford until at least 2014.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sir Alex Salutes his side "Back four"

-
Image
With Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand outstanding in the centre of defence, aided and abetted by full-backs Rafael and Patrice Evra, plus defensive midfielder Michael Carrick, Edwin van der Sar scarcely had a shot to save. Sir Alex Ferguson was highly satisfied to depart White Hart Lane with a valuable point, and quickly heaped praise on the manner with which his side kept Tottenham at arm’s length throughout. “It was a tough game,” Sir Alex told Sky Sports. “ Tottenham are in great form but they really didn’t make many chances against us. We take credit for that. I thought our defenders were particularly good. Defensively we kept our nerve. “They never really troubled us. Considering the goals they’ve scored, at home particularly, and the performances they’ve shown at home, I think we can take real credit for that. “I thought we were a bit careless with our use of the ball, particularly in the period just before half-time and in periods of the second half, but it’s a
Read more

Neville: Why I retired

-
Gary Neville sat down for an exclusive interview with MUTV to talk about his decision to retire, and to look back on some of his best moments in his career. In the first of a three-part serialisation of that interview, Gary explains how he came to make his decision... You caught a lot of people by surprise, can you take us through the chain of events that led to your announcement? It wasn’t just on the day; something like that doesn’t come as immediately as that. It’s been a combination of events over the last few months and I’ve known for the last few weeks having spoken to the manager. You don’t go and do something like that so quickly. I went away for a week and still came to the same conclusion: it just felt like the right thing to do and that my time was up. When your time’s up, your time’s up. You could have played until the end of the season. Why stop mid-season? Sometimes you just go off gut instinct, it’s the type of person I am. I felt it was right.
Read more

Dimitar Berbatov

-
Image
Dimitar Berbatov B erbatov was born in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria . His father was a professional footballer with local outfit Pirin Blagoevgrad, and his mother Margarita was a professional handball player. Dimitar Berbatov is a classy and complete centre-forward, pairing the ability to ruthlessly and regularly find the net inside the box with the aptitude to create moments of sheer magic outside it. Sir Alex likes players with plenty of charisma in the way they play, and the Bulgarian’s languid style is instantly recognisable on the field. It’s also an approach that has drawn comparisons with former United talisman Eric Cantona. Like the captivating Frenchman, Berbatov loves to entertain with the ball at his feet, and he also shares Cantona's happy knack for scoring important (often late) goals. Berbatov started out at Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia. He joined The Armymen aged 17, following in the footsteps of his father, Ivan, who also played for the club.He was
Read more