2010 heralds some of the biggest, back to back, sporting events across the globe. We return to some of the most memorable moments in previous sporting tournaments…

Curtis – Setchell has had the privilege of interviewing the top names in sport in the build up to previous World Cups, being the first woman in South Africa to have her own rugby and cricket “Player’s Kingdom” show and the first to introduce a free DVD giveaway sport series in a national newspaper. Inspired by this year’s sporting deluge, she has tracked down legends beyond the field, in their own countries, pursuing their favourite leisure activity. The following are among those featured in her forthcoming DVD series.

GIANLUCA VIALLI: ITALIAN STRIKER

– PLAYED FOR JUVENTUS AND CHELSEA, MANAGED CHELSEA AND PLAYED IN 2 WORLD CUPS.

The name “Luca Vialli” may not resonate quite as loudly as the vuvuzela in South Africa, yet it rings Big Ben bells in England where the Chelsea cognoscenti vie to shake his hand and in Italy, where the Milanese revere every square inch of his shaven head and shiny Armani suit. Not only is Vialli a trendsetter, he is the man who broke the soccer mould for “Calcio” – the colloquial term for Italian football. Whereas most Italian soccer players hail from the back streets of the industrial north, Vialli emerged from a 15th Century, 50 room chateau in Lombardy. He self deprecatingly dismisses this distinction: “I was just a regular middle class kid, who mucked in with everyone else and played football from the minute I could walk.”

Yet there is nothing ordinary about this Italian blue blood. In a country, where the first rule of football is “do not concede a goal”, the most capped player is a goalkeeper, Zoff and the Italians traditionally play more defensive soccer on the world stage. Vialli was the first real Italian striker to burst from obscurity in the early 1980s and to powerfully attack the goal from any position on the field, off both feet, hitting masterful overhead kicks and spectacular headers.

Shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Gianfranco Zola and Del Piero, he won every domestic trophy for Sampdoria and Juventus, played in the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, then in 1996 led the first player’s strike, before heading to England to garner more gold for Chelsea.

I meet Luca early on an overcast May morning at the West London Aero Club in Berkshire, where he is learning to fly. Both the club and Calcio, boast a strong military history.

I mention to Luca, that the only other sports star I have interviewed in a plane pursuing his pilot’s licence was South African rugby star Joel Stransky, and that perhaps team players resort to solo quests to escape the maddening crowds? He laughs: “ No Deborah, I thrive on pressure and believe me learning to fly is maybe more pressure than managing a top flight Premier League team, but actually it is more for practical reasons. I travel extensively” (he commutes every week between Milan and London commentating for Sky Sports) “and on holiday in Namibia, cramped into a friend’s light aircraft, I decided I wanted to be able to fly independently with my wife, Catherine and our two daughters.” Perhaps illustrated by the fact that he caught chicken pox from his youngest daughter skiing in St Moritz this year and had to charter a plane to fly the two of them home under quarantine.

Again it was Vialli who bravely led the Italian charge of talent across the Channel first to play for Chelsea and then to manage the team. Fabio Capello famously commented it was tantamount to putting a learner driver in a Formula One car. If his learner antics in the cockpit are anything to go by, Vialli was a soaring success and the Androttis and Capellos followed in their droves.

JONNY WILKINSON: ENGLISH FLY HALF

– CLUBS TOULON AND NEWCASTLE – PLAYED IN TWO WORLD CUPS

Telling a redhead “You cannot!” – is tantamount to dangling a piece of meat in front of a Piranha. When every British rugby authority told me it would be impossible to interview Johnny Wilkinson, I drove the length and breadth of Britain, through the night and through ferocious rainstorms to hunt down rugby’s most elusive hero.

I found him at an early morning practice session with ball in hand. Newcastle may lurk in the tough grey industrial north, proverbial soccer country, however its greatest exports have been World Cup rugby stars Rob Andrews and Jonny Wilkinson.

And Jonny, like Rob, is the consummate professional. As much as he hates talking to the press: “I resent any distraction which takes me away from the field, such is my desire to kick a ball around, I’ll often pull complete strangers off the bleachers just to throw a ball to me if my brother or mates are unavailable” – once his green eyes glare into the lens, his desire “to be perfect at whatever I am doing” takes over.

Few would know, he also loves playing the guitar and my request for Queen’s “We Are The Champions” raises a rare smile. Although he points out his guitar playing was a spin off from being injured and needing something to keep his mind off the urge to prematurely race back onto the field. He appreciates my comparison between himself and Welsh great, Gareth Edwards, the only other player obsessed with kicking a ball around from dawn till dusk for the sheer unadulterated joy of it.

The flip side of this fanatical coin is that you do not allow mother nature or serious injuries slow you down, on the contrary Wilkinson tells me: “As the professional game becomes more brutal and the injuries more numerous, modern science must keep up and find better and faster ways to fix these injuries.”

“What about simply making the game safer?” I ask on behalf of hundreds of anxious mothers, whose beloved sons rush to school every day to emulate Jonny Wilkinson’s fearless tackling and distinctive kicking stance. Their only hope is that Jonny agrees with my long term observation that Rugby Union is marching steadily in the direction of American Football, with more separation of defence and attack and, the introduction of impact players, etc, which suggests junior Jonnies may not have to linger on the field for as long as 80 minutes…

ABE SEGAL

– FORMER NO 1 DAVIS CUP PLAYER AND TWICE FRENCH OPEN DOUBLES FINALIST.

It is a blistering day in the Californian desert and among the cactus and the cowboy hats, one expects Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to gallop through the gates of the Indian Wells Masters, but instead contemporary characters reign supreme. Former South African hippy and Davis Cup player is welcoming his legendary doubles mentor, former South African No1, Abe Segal, onto the outdoor arena stage to appear live on the Bud Collins show.

Sitting in the front row, among 50 000 straw sucking Americans, are former champs Rod Laver, Roy Emmerson, Tommy Tucker (Clint Eastwood’s tennis coach) and Charlie Pasarel, co-owner of Indian Wells and famous for his marathon Wimbledon match against Pancho Gonzales. This is as heavyweight a tennis line up, as one can get and they are all hanging on Segal’s every hilarious word, given that Segal has a reputation for mixing up his words.

Moore reminds the audience that Segal, in addition to making it to two French Open doubles finals, beat World No1 Monola Santana in straight sets singles at Wimbledon and then shocked the world beating not only Arthur Ashe, but Alex Olmeda, who had just won Wimbledon and the Davis Cup for America, ruining Olmeda’s contract to turn pro with the famous Jack Kramer circus. Segal laconically takes the microphone from Moore.

“Well I can see your hair has calmed down a bit now that you’ve got some money in your back pocket! It was looking a lot more nervous the day I took you to tea with the Chicago mobsters!” ( Segal is referring firstly to Moore and Pasarel’s recent deal selling the hugely successful Indian Wells Tournament to an American entrepreneur for about 100 million dollars and secondly to how he showed his rookie afro haired doubles partner the ropes on Moore’s first tour to America.)

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