HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Joao Vieira Pinto, Roberto Abbondanzieri, Marco Materazzi, Alessandro Matri, Ryan Taylor, Nico Hülkenberg

João Vieira Pinto



João Vieira Pinto is 42 today. He is a is a Portuguese retired footballer who played mostly as a forward. He will be infamously remembered for hitting Argentine referee Ángel Sánchez (in the third group stage game, against South Korea, at the 2002 World Cup), who had sent him off after a bad tackle early in the match. He was suspended for six months; he also got the reputation of being a diver, but he began to foul less in his later years.

Roberto Abbondanzieri



Roberto Abbondanzieri is 41 today. He is an Argentine former football goalkeeper who had a successful career at Boca Juniors. El Pato as he's widely known made 290 appearances for the Argentine club.

Marco Materazzi



Marco Materazzi is 40 today. He is an Italian retired footballer who spent most of his playing career as a defender in Inter Milan. He had over 40 caps to his name but widely remembered for receiving a head butt from Zinidene Zidane in the 2006 world cup final. Materazzi claimed that after he had grabbed Zidane's jersey during extra time of the match, Zidane sarcastically said to him "If you want my shirt, I will give to you afterwards". Materazzi then revealed that he replied, "Preferisco la puttana di tua sorella" (I would prefer your whore of a sister), which resulted in the head-butt

Alessandro Matri



Alessandro Matri is 29 today. He is an Italian footballer who plays as a striker for Italian Serie A club Juventus F.C. He's just 8 goals short of 100 career goals.

Ryan Taylor



Ryan Taylor is 29 today. He is an English footballer from Liverpool who plays for Newcastle United of the Premier League. He is a versatile player who can operate as a fullback or as a winger. He is known to be a dead ball specialist, often scoring from free kicks.

Nico Hülkenberg



Nico Hülkenberg is 26 today. He is a German professional racing driver. He was the 2009 champion of the GP2 Series. He is one of three drivers since 2005 to win the GP2 series championship in his debut season, the others being Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.