THE THREE KINGS

FRANK LAMPARD

HIS one superstition involves his watches. He has 11 of them and uses a rotation system so that if he has a bad day he relegates the watch he was wearing that day to the bottom of the pile.

HE is harshly taunted about his weight (listed as 14st 1lb) by fans of his previous club West Ham. But the fact is, if he were allowed one last meal on earth it would be burger and chips.

FRANK is learning Spanish — not surprising as his fiancée Elen Rives, the mother of his fourmonthdaughter Luna, is from Spain. The couple are buying a house on the outskirts of Barcelona. ■ HIS temper has often got him into trouble and after a three-match ban while playing for Real Mallorca, he placated the fans by laying on a gigantic paella for them at a cost of 30,000 euros. ■ TO help the poor in his native Cameroon, Eto’o runs a scheme under which he buys taxis for his compatriots who, when they can afford it, pay back the cost of the vehicle. ■ WHEN asked what he thought of David Beckham following his move to Real Madrid in 2003, Eto’o famously replied with a wry smile: ‘He’s prettier than me, but I’m a better footballer.’ SAMUEL ETO’O ■ WHEN he was eight years old, his father Joao drowned in the family swimming pool which was a gift from Brazilian side Gremio, the club for which Ronaldinho and his older brother Roberto played. ■ HE honed his prodigious footwork in the family home in the southern city of Porto Alegre by dribbling a football around the furniture, much to the annoyance of his mother Miguelina. ■ BORN Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, he is a big fan of the Brazilian music known as ‘pagode’, a kind of mellow samba, and loves nothing more than to sing and dance to its rhythm. RONALDINHO