A number of players can stake a claim for being part of the best team in the world at this early period of the European domestic leagues. However, very few players standout the way those listed below have in terms of their contribution to their team, their role as leaders, and certainly their crucial involvement in their respective clubs.

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Helen Svedin (Figo's wifey) looks gorgeous; shills jewelery for at Chamilla's new collection at the Santo Mauro Hotel in Madrid.
Becks trims his beard, takes off his shirt. Son Cruz continues his reign of family superstar.
Want a kiss from Gerard Pique? Just ask for it (on a cardboard sign) and you shall receive.

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Helen Svedin (Figo's wifey) looks gorgeous; shills jewelery for at Chamilla's new collection at the Santo Mauro Hotel in Madrid.
Becks trims his beard, takes off his shirt. Son Cruz continues his reign of family superstar.
Want a kiss from Gerard Pique? Just ask for it (on a cardboard sign) and you shall receive.

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Last week, I asked you to vote for you favourite 20 players of the decade, here in this very post, are the Top 100 players of the last 10 years, voted for by you, the readers and bloggers of the offside. First thing I want to say is thank you, everyone for the absolutely amazing response [...] Click to continue reading...

Seven stories from The Offside and World Cup Blog this week: Nominate your player/manager football ubermen Gigi's Buffon's incredible Champions League save Ballon d'Or or FIFA World Player of the Year: Which is shinier? Norwegian homage to Brazilian airport ad The return of Johan Cruyff. To Catalonia. Click to continue reading...

With much of the qualification process almost complete and South Africa 2010 looming large, it would make sense to assess some of the world's best custodians who will be present during the World Cup. Goalkeepers such as Petr Cech will be excluded from the discussion since their nation failed to qualify for next summer's big event.

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No wonder Sir Alex Ferguson admires him so much. Igor Akinfeev may have conceded three goals though none of them was his fault but he had pulled off a number of world-class saves which had frustrated Manchester United.

He is only 23, but he has been first choice 'keeper at CSKA Moscow for six years now, and was just 17 when he broke into the Russian side making him the youngest ever.

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Según el diario italiano Tuttosport, el Bayern Munich estaría a la búsqueda de un portero consagrado para este mercado invernal.

Se habla nada más y nada menos que de Gianluigi Buffon, considerado por muchos como el mejor portero del mundo en la actualidad.

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Hospitals across Europe have seen a lot of action over the last seven days. Warm wishes go to the following parents and their family and friends (whom we would hope purchased all the items from their baby registries). Here's a quick update:

Juve keeper Gigi Buffon and his long-time gal Alena Seredova (pictured last month at her 2010 calendar launch) are the proud parents of another healthy baby boy.

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Hospitals across Europe have seen a lot of action over the last seven days. Warm wishes go to the following parents and their family and friends (whom we would hope purchased all the items from their baby registries). Here's a quick update:

Juve keeper Gigi Buffon and his long-time gal Alena Seredova (pictured last month at her 2010 calendar launch) are the proud parents of another healthy baby boy.

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Two large Italian clubs received huge injury news today as they sought to climb up the Serie A table.

Juventus star and striker Vincent Iaquinta revealed today that he has a torn meniscus and will have surgery on his knee Tuesday. He injured it during training Saturday and did not play this Sunday against Siena.

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....and the few after it? Evening Gooners. I hope you are feeling a lot better 24 hours or so later. My disappointment of our Sunday performance was tangible. So much so that I forgot to talk about the goalkeeping issue. However after applying some bonjela , following yesterday's write up, it is time to discuss this.

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That was an oddly hard game to find. I had to watch it on tape delay on Arsenal.com.
Two quick goals in the first half from Van Persie and Diaby were enough for the points.
Walcott started ahead of Arshavin, but Walcott went off injured in the first half, and Arshavin played the last hour, scoring the third in the 85th minute, I think it was. Click to continue reading...

First off, Ryan B. is departing The Spoiler. He's been doing some great work for a while and I wish him the best.
Now the best of the rest:

• Grant Wahl was robbed in Honduras. WTF. [SI]
  
• New Armani underwear model: Ronaldo. [TOW]
  
• Arsenal needs trophies ASAP.

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So FourFourTwo have released their list for the top 100 players in the world today. We all know who the top two will be but in which order? And how many spanish players will make the top 20 following their Euro 2008 triumph and 100% World Cup qualification record?

I cant be bothered to put the full list on here because personally I couldn't give a toss if Darijno Srna is the 66th best player in the world.

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The Republic of Ireland almost won against World Champions Italy at Croke Park tonight.The Irish took the lead twice, first from a great goal by Glenn Whelan from a Liam Lawrence corner only to be pegged back by a goal from Camoranesi from an Andre Pirlo corner.The Irish matched the Italians throughout the game and it looked like it was heading for a 1-1 draw until Sean St Ledger nodded a free-kick past Buffon in the 87th minute and it looked like Trappatoni's team were going to beat Italy for a famous victory. Click to continue reading...

Bayern Munich vs Juventus:

Definitely the most anticipated match of this week's Champions League play, this is a meeting that we have seen many times over the years. They do not usually live up to expectations as you can see from their previous score lines:

19.10.04 Juventus 1 Bayern 0

3.

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I always like to watch videos of bloopers, and this time I've found a Serie A blooper video from the early 2000's. Always entertaining, and it includes a mistake from Buffon!! (how often do you see those?)

Video after the jump.

And since we're on the topic of Buffon mistakes, here's another one I remember from a couple of years ago:

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- The Azzurrini (U-20) were held to a 0-0 draw vs. Paraguay at the U-20 World Cup in Egypt. Next-Buffon Vincenzo Fiorillo held off a few good chances from Paraguay. The Azzurini still face Trinidad & Tobago and Egypt to round out group play.

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I am really curious about the Livorno players' high jersey numbers. They started with only Nico Pulzetti sporting a single digit number. It reminded me of a spring training baseball team loaded with minor leaguers trying to make the big squad.  The game featured lots of end to end action in this game, and the teams were relatively evenly matched, save for two players: Gianlugi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi.

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For those who spent Saturday and Sunday away from the television and internet, or were too busy watching the Manchester Derby, here are some lessons we have learned (or in some cases relearned) from this past weekend's Serie A action:

Gianluigi Buffon is the key for a Juve scudetto: Although he has some mileage between his numerous Serie A and international matches, and the Juventus attack is quite good, the 2-0 Juventus win over Livorno shows that Buffon still dominates matches for his team.

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There is no doubt in my mind as to who the best goalie is world football is today. Not Cech, not Van Der Sar, and not Casillas. Buffon stands alone as the best goalie of the modern era, and maybe even all time.

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Looking at the Serie A table going into last weekend, the Lazio/Juventus matchup presented the most promise. Each team had won its first two games. Would this game produce beautiful, flowing football that might serve to entice a Serie A neophyte? In a word, no.

The first half was almost completely forgettable.

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International week is boring. There's really no news from Serie A, and we get a week of Lippi dodging questions about Mourinho and Cassano. Here's the highlights from today's game. Italy won 2-0, finally a decent performance. Pirlo excelled as a trequartista, Zambrotta actually ran up and down the wing, De Rossi is the most important part of our midfield, Iaquinta and Gila actually had pretty good chemistry, Grosso is still awesome, Buffon is back to being Buffon, Marchisio put in a good performance, and Simone Pepe still manages to fall over his own two feet.

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E una è andata. La Georgia, tra le squadre di calcio insidiose del girone, è stata superata (due gol a zero il risultato finale), non senza difficoltà , e soprattutto grazie ad una buona dose di "fattore C", anzi K, visto che è stato il capitano georgiano Kaladze ad essere in serata di vena "realizzativa" (due, o un autogol e mezzo nella serata, un record o quasi). Click to continue reading...

La Serie A riposa, è tempo di parlare di Nazionale e di due match fondamentali per la qualificazione ai Mondiali del 2010. Stasera l'Italia affronta il primo impegno importante, la Georgia, allenata da una vecchia conoscenza della Serie A e del calcio italiano, l'ex allenatore interista Hector Cuper. Click to continue reading...

As we predicted few weeks ago on these pages, Juventus got off to a great start in Serie A. Two wins are a clear sign of the difference in the quality between Inter and Juventus has been significantly reduced and the biggest Italian club might regain domination in Serie A.

Excellent transfer campaign was supported by Lippi's might shadow hidden behind his pupil Ciro Ferrara.

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The Weekend Round-up will be up tomorrow since today was the last day of the summer transfer market and teams made last minute deals. Many clubs were scrambling until the very last minute to get contracts deposited into the league offices and some transfers had to be canceled because they weren't completed in time.

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So Shevchenko has finally ended his Chelsea nightmare and rejoined Dynamo Kiev. Once the most feared striker in the world, he never really made an impact at Chelsea, which is a shame because it has tainted his once fearsome reputation, and he seemed to deal with the whole situation with some dignity. Click to continue reading...

The 2009 Peace Cup concluded on Sunday with English side Aston Villa taking on Italian side Juventus. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Aston Villa Edges Juventus 0-0 (4-3 on penalties) Video Highlights

Aston Villa outlasted Juventus after it had to go to penalties to win the 2009 Peace Cup.

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Un solo gol preso in tutto il torneo (da Cristiano Ronaldo in semifinale), nei 90 minuti. E questa grande prestazione difensiva e di squadra non è bastata per portare a Torino il trofeo. C'è rammarico, in casa dei bianconeri per non essere riusciti, per un soffio, ad aggiudicarsi la Peace Cup, prestigioso torneo di calcio organizzato dal Siviglia. Click to continue reading...

The highly-anticipated Peace Cup title came down to a shootout between Italian power Juventus and EPL side Aston Villa recently.
Gigi Buffon versus Brad Guzan.
Advantage: the young American, who made three saves to lead his team to the win.
So in the last week or so, we'll seen the USMNT's No. Click to continue reading...

Ci si attende molto dalla stagione della Juventus. E' il destino delle Grandi. Per una Signora squadra, costruita sempre per vincere, la stagione passata, l'ultima di Ranieri in panchina, è stata fallimentare, nonostante la conquista della Champions diretta, con il secondo posto raggiunto nella Serie A di Calcio. Click to continue reading...

Her ne kadar kaledeki Buffon'da olsa bir kere Rui Costa ölmüş topun başına geçti mi diğer futbolcular için santraya dönme vakti gelmiş demekti. Özledim lan seni Rui Costa! Click to continue reading...

(Juventus-Vicenza 1-1)
Altri risultati di calcio non particolarmente incoraggianti per la Juventus che chiude il ritiro di Pinzolo pareggiando 1-1 contro il Vicenza al Briamasco di Trento.
E' pur vero che ancora si trattano di gare amichevoli, e soprattutto di sgambate nelle quali ricominciare a correre, oliare i meccanismi e trovare l'amalgama in vista delle gare che contano. Click to continue reading...