Friday, August 26, 2011

Pepe Reina



Pepe Reina's Best Saves (HD)



José Manuel "Pepe" Reina Páez (Spanish pronunciation:born 31 August 1982), is a Spanish footballer who is currently playing as a goalkeeper for the English Premier League side Liverpool. Reina is well known for his distribution, and ability to save penalties. Pepe is the 2nd vice-captain for Liverpool in the absence of Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard. In the 2010-11 season he made his 100th Premier League clean sheet for Liverpool, in a 3-0 win against Aston Villa

The son of famed FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Miguel Reina, Reina began his career with the FC Barcelona youth team and made his La Liga debut in the 2000–01 season. He signed for Villarreal in 2004. However, he soon moved on to Liverpool and making his debut in 2005. He instantly became first-choice goalkeeper and won his first major honour in 2006, the FA Cup. He saved three out of four West Ham United penalties in the final to help win the trophy. In 2007, Liverpool reached the Champions League Final, matching the feat achieved by his father in 1974, but they lost to A.C. Milan. Reina has set a number of goalkeeping records for Liverpool and he won the Premier League Golden Glove award for clean sheets in first three seasons at the club and is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the premier league and the world.

At international level, Reina played for Spain's youth team, winning the UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship in 1999. He made his senior debut in 2005, and has generally been selected as the second-choice keeper behind Iker Casillas. He was part of the Spain squad for the 2006 World Cup and made one appearance in their victorious Euro 2008 campaign, earning him his first international honour. In 2010 he won FIFA World Cup with Spain, despite not making an appearance in the competition.



Reina has been an ever-present fixture for Liverpool in the league since the start of the 2007-08 season. He is also the record holder for appearances by a Spanish player in the Premier League, with more than 200 appearances in just the first five seasons, 108 of the 219 appearances being cleen sheets.

Son of the former FC Barcelona goalkeeper, Miguel Reina, Pepe began his football career in the youth academy of Barcelona, La Masia. From 1997 he played as a first-choice goalkeeper for the Barcelona reserve side, which then competed in the third tier in the Spanish football pyramid. In 2000 Aged 18 he was called up for the Barcelona first-team, after the first and second choice goalkeepers, Richard Dutruel and Francesc Arnau, suffered injuries. According to the first-team coach Serra Ferrer, who had called up Reina, the keeper showed great promise, but after a couple of months Ferrer was himself fired and Reina demoted from first team action. Two years later, in 2002, he was loaned out Villareal, becoming their first-choice goalkeeper. Following some good performances, he caught the attention of Leeds utd .

Reina was signed by Liverpool from Villarreal in July 2005, with manager Rafael Benítez hailing him as "the best goalkeeper in Spain". Reina made his Liverpool debut against Total Network Solutions, now known as The New Saints, in the first qualifying round for the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League.



For the 2005–06 season, Reina took over as Liverpool's first-choice goalkeeper, relegating 2005 Champions League hero Jerzy Dudek to the bench. At the start of the same season, on 17 August 2005, Reina made his international debut for Spain in a friendly match against Uruguay. Spain won 2–0.

he season turned out to be a successful one for Liverpool as they improved upon the previous year's league placing and won the FA Cup. It was also a huge success personally for Reina as he notched up various new Liverpool records. On 3 December 2005, Reina kept his sixth consecutive clean sheet, against Wigan Athletic in the Premier League, to break the Liverpool club record for successive clean sheets in the Premiership era. He surpassed David James' record of five games, from the 1996–97 season. Reina's incredible run ended at eight league games, when Everton's James Beattie headed past him into the Liverpool net in Liverpool's 3–1 win over their Merseyside rivals, on 28 December 2005. Reina also broke Liverpool FC's consecutive clean-sheet record, with 11 between October and December 2005. Mineiro, of São Paulo, finally scored past him on 18 December 2005, during the FIFA Club World Cup Final.

A big talking point in the season occurred on 5 February 2006, in a league game against Chelsea. Reina, having made a challenge on Eiður Guðjohnsen moments earlier, was controversially sent off for patting the face of Arjen Robben, who fell down theatrically.,described as "going down like he'd been sledgehammered" by pundit (and ex-Liverpool player) Alan Hansen. Liverpool ended up losing the game 2–0 and Reina was given a three match ban.



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