1st September – Jose Antonio Reyes

With Arsenal fans desperate for their club to sign a striker on transfer deadline day, it is the birthday of one of their former forwards Jose Antonio Reyes.

Now at the age of 31 he may not have been prolific but was he a better option than their current crop of strikers? With Olivier Giroud out injured, they only have Yaya Sanogo as a recognised a striker and then others in Lukas Podolski, Theo Walcott, Joel Campbell and Alexis Sanchez that can play upfront. Reyes may not have quite worked out as well for Arsenal as they hoped and maybe that is a warning to Arsenal fans who are begging for a signing.

The forward started his career at Sevilla and signed his first full contract in 1999, making his debut as a 16 year old against Real Zaragoza. Over the next four seasons he became well known around Europe as someone that can play in any of the forward positions and score from any angle. In his 86 league appearances for the club he scored 21 times.

Arsenal signed Reyes in the January transfer window of the 2003-04 season and made his debut in a 2-1 win against Manchester City. In his first half a season he scored five times in 21 games, helping Arsenal go unbeaten in the Premier League. In his first full season he started off brilliantly and many people thought that he was going to lead Arsenal to the title but midway through the season he began to struggle and remained inconsistent.

In early 2005 there were claims that Reyes was homesick and wanted to return to Spain and despite and helping Arsenal win the FA Cup in 2005 and then reach the final of the Champions League in 2006, he was very inconsistent and could not reproduce his best form. After 69 Premier League appearances and 16 goals he was included in a swap deal with Real Madrid.

Reyes was a regular for Madrid and scored some important goals, including his first on the 17th September 2006 with a free kick against Real Sociedad. More importantly he scored twice on the final day against Mallorca to help Madrid come from behind and not only win the game but also the league.

Despite this success he did not sign permanently and instead joined city rivals Atletico Madrid. He got off to a very poor start as he could not force his way into the side and failed to score in his 26 league appearances. After just one season it seemed like his time at the club was over as he left for Benfica on loan and had a better time scoring four goals in 26 games and producing better performances.

After returning to Atletico, he was reunited with his manager from Benfica Quique Flores and became one of the most important members of the team. Over the next two seasons he played 90 games but after the manager left he lost his consistency and had a falling out with new manager Gregorio Manzano which led to him leaving the club and on the 5th January 2012 he rejoined Sevilla.

Although he is not as much a goalscoring threat for Sevilla, he does still play an important role and helped them win last season’s Europa League by scoring twice in nine games.

The final word can go to Arsene Wenger. “Jose Reyes is a fantastic signing. He can play in midfield or as a supporting striker. He can play on the left or on the right, in fact, anywhere as an offensive player. Jose will be a great asset to our squad.”

2nd May – David Beckham

One of the most recognisable footballers ever has not only had a good career on the pitch but off it too with his name known all round the world.

David Beckham turns 39 today and to some people he is more known for what he has done off the pitch due to him becoming a fashion icon and being married to Victoria Adams a member of the girl band Spice Girls. But his playing career has sometimes been overlooked and a lot of people have missed how good he was on the pitch.

Beckham started his career at Manchester United and after playing a few games for the club he was ready to play more first team football and had an impressive five game spell at Preston North End where he scored two goals including one directly from a corner. But he had to wait until the opening day of the 1996-97 season to become centre stage as he scored from the halfway line in a victory over Wimbledon and from there his season just got better as the club won the title and he won the PFA Young Player of the Year.

The following season after Eric Cantona retired, Beckham was given the famous number 7 shirt and in 1998-99 he had arguably his greatest season ever in terms of trophies as he won the treble and sent in both the corners in which they scored from in the Champions League final. He went on to win another three Premier League titles before the famous boot kicking incident with Sir Alex Ferguson led to speculation that he was going to leave the club.

In the summer of 2003 he was transferred to Real Madrid in a move that seemed to fit all parties involved. It wasn’t as easy as the player had hoped at Madrid with the club unable to win any trophies until his final season at the club when he had already announced that he was leaving for America. They ended up piping Barcelona to the title on the final game of the season but it was Beckham being taken off that changed the game, they were losing 1-0 and his replacement Jose Antonio Reyes scored twice to win them the game and La Liga.

Beckham signed a huge contract for LA Galaxy and some would argue that he was too good to go there and should have continued to play at a higher level but others argue that he was trying to grow the name of ‘soccer’ in America and surely this was a good thing. With the MLS running at different times to European competitions it did allow him to join other teams on loan. He decided to join Italian side AC Milan and he fit into their team pretty well with them having a slower pace and he played 20 games scoring 2 goals for the club in his first spell there.

Upon returning to LA Galaxy he was disliked by a section of the supporters telling him to go home and that he was only a part time player. However he played a key role in helping the club win the Western Conference final. This did not stop him signing for AC Milan for a second time, this time however it ended badly as he suffered an injury which would keep him out for around six months.

When he did return playing for Galaxy he scored in 2-1 win over Dallas which secured them their second successive Western Conference title. At the end of his contract he signed for PSG on a five month deal and decided to donate all his wages during this period to a local children’s charity. At the end of the season he became the first English player to win titles in four different countries as he helped them clinch the Ligue 1 championship. On the 16th May he announced that he was retiring from football.

The final word can go to his manager at Real Madrid and England Fabio Capello. “At Madrid I left him out of the squad because he had signed a contract with Los Angeles but he continued to come on the field and train and I put him back in the team. He is a very serious lad, very sensible, a professional. People think he is a playboy off the field, it’s not true at all.”