Quick Facts
- Name
- Cesc Fàbregas
- Occupation
- Soccer Player
- Birth Date
- May 4, 1987
- Place of Birth
- Arenys de Mar, Spain
- Full Name
- Francesc Fàbregas Soler
Soccer
player Cesc Fàbregas has starred for the Arsenal and FC Barcelona clubs
and led Spain to multiple championships in international competition.
Synopsis
Cesc
Fàbregas was born on May 4, 1987, in Arenys de Mar, Spain. A talented
midfielder, he became the youngest player to appear for the Arsenal
soccer club as well as a Spanish World Cup team. Fàbregas spent nine
seasons with Arsenal before transferring to FC Barcelona, and served as a
key member of the Spanish teams that won Euro 2008 and 2012 and the
2010 World Cup.
Early Life
Professional
soccer player Francesc "Cesc" Fàbregas Soler was born on May 4, 1987,
in the Spanish port town of Arenys de Mar. Fàbregas came from a modest
background. His mother, Nuria, worked as a caterer for a time, while his
father, Francesc Fàbregas Sr., kept his family fed by laboring as a
construction worker. Soccer was also a large part of his father's life;
Francesc Sr. continued to play soccer even after his son was born, and
when it came time for young Fàbregas to take the field, it was his dad
who served as his first coach.
From an early age, Fàbregas
demonstrated the mental toughness and dedication to the game that set
him apart as a true professional. At the age of 8, with dreams of
playing professionally very much on his mind, Fàbregas was already
training hard and becoming careful about his diet, opting for fish and
vegetables over fast food. At age 10, he joined soccer club FC
Barcelona's youth academy, a renowned training ground for some of the
sport's most promising young players.
In the summer of 2003,
Fàbregas showcased his impressive talent in the FIFA U-17 World
Championship in Finland, where the playmaker led Spain to a second-place
finish, captured the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player and
received the Golden Boot award for becoming the tournament's top scorer.
First Professional Contract
Just
a few months later, Fàbregas signed his first professional contract,
with the Premier League club Arsenal. For Fàbregas, the decision to
leave home and jump to England was a big one. But Arsenal, a club that
cultivated a reputation for developing young players under the direction
of manager Arsene Wenger, was more than willing to work with the
midfielder and lessen the chance for any homesickness.
He moved
into a home in Barnet, Hertfordshire, that was run by a woman who looked
after some of Arsenal's younger players. There, Fàbregas lived a fairly
simple life, with days dominated by practice time and English lessons.
"I had a stereo, some clothes, a computer, a tiny television, which was
hooked up to my PlayStation," he later recalled. "I'd think about my
friends back home, who were out clubbing and having a good time and
there I was, all by myself, in front of the computer, wondering what the
hell I was doing. It was tough, but it was a choice I made."
Club Stardom
It
wasn't long before Fàbregas saw the benefits of his social sacrifices.
In October 2003, the midfielder made his debut with Arsenal, giving him
the distinction of becoming the youngest player ever to step onto the
field for the club. That same year, he helped Arsenal take home the
Premier League championship. In 2005, with Fàbregas getting more playing
time, Arsenal repeated its 2003 title turn and finished as the Premier
League's top team.
Fàbregas won the PFA Young Player of the Year
Award in 2008, and later that year he was named captain of the Arsenal
squad. But despite his standing with the club that groomed him to become
a star, the lure of playing in his home country proved too powerful to
ignore, and Fàbregas returned to FC Barcelona in August 2011 for a
transfer fee of approximately $56 million. Fàbregas enjoyed immediate
success with the powerful Barcelona team, which won the Spanish Super
Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and Copa Del Rey in his
first season.
Spanish Kings
In
addition to his club successes, Fàbregas has starred for his country's
national team. The youngest player to appear in a World Cup game for
Spain, Fàbregas distinguished himself on soccer's biggest stage in 2006,
when he came off the bench to spark a comeback win over Tunisia and
vault his countrymen into the knockout stage. His performance drew
praise from former Argentina captain Diego Maradona, who told a Spanish
television station that "Cesc gave Spain the final ball that it was
lacking in the first half."
Although Spain fell short of the
ultimate prize in that year's tournament, they soon proved indomitable
in world play. In Euro 2008, Fàbregas netted the deciding penalty kick
in a quarter-final win over Italy, a key moment in Spain's march to the
title. In 2010, Fàbregas provided the assist for the lone goal scored in
Spain's World Cup final victory over the Netherlands. Two years later,
history repeated itself as Fàbregas again nailed a deciding penalty
kick, this time in a semifinal victory over Portugal, to help Spain
claim Euro 2012 and become the first team to win three consecutive
international competitions.
