Throughout the month of February, www.puma.com/football is digging deep into the French international’s mind, to get some answers to the questions that so many fans are eager to hear. Every weekday on www.puma.com/football, video interviews will explore what really makes the French legend tick, how it feels to return to the London club where he made his name as a world class footballer and why he is so adverse to Tomato Ketchup!

Different interviews will run each day from the 1^st February and continue throughout the month. Check www.puma.com/football for your daily dose of Thierry Henry.

Now EA SPORTS™ have announced a new feature in FIFA Street called the Street Network* that will encourage social competition among players when the game launches at retail stores (in South Africa on March 16, 2012) for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system. Through the Street Network, players will be able to capture video of their best tricks and share them in-game with friends, showing off their personal favorites and embarrassing their opponents.  In addition, friends will be able to track and compare each other’s progress throughout the game, including World Tour story mode and Head-to-Head Online Seasons, and follow each other’s status in EA SPORTS Football Club.

“Street football is all about the one-on-one battle, when you pull off a trick to roast your opponent,” said producer Sid Misra. “The Street Network brings that real-world swagger into the game by enabling players to capture video of those moments and share them with everyone in their street network to see, and providing friends with a way to compare each other throughout the game.”

The Street Network will enrich the World Tour story mode, where gamers create a team of friends and compete in a connected world against other FIFA Street gamers’ teams. Players will be able to follow each other’s status as they build their squads, unlock new tricks, and progress through the story of their journey to street football glory. Players will be able to share and compare progress with friends directly in the Street Network and it will also broadcast in-game videos like “Goals of the Week”, and alert friends to each other’s accomplishments throughout the game.

Featuring Barcelona and Argentina superstar Lionel Messi on the cover, fans who pre-order FIFA Street from leading retailers around the world will receive exclusive in-game access to an adidas™ all-star team featuring Messi and 12 of the greatest footballers in the world. The pre-order offer also includes exclusive access to the Lionel Messi Barcelona venue, an environment inspired by street footballers playing in and around the Plaça de Catalunya in the historic center of Barcelona, that Messi helped design. Fans with EA SPORTS Season Ticket will get full-game digital access to FIFA Street three days in advance of launch.

For the latest news on FIFA Street join almost seven million fans in the EA SPORTS FIFA community at http://www.facebook.com/easportsfifa or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/easportsfifa. For more information you can also visit: http://www.ea.com/uk/football/fifa-street.

The African Cup of Nations kicked off in earnest this past weekend as sixteen countries began the quest for glory, to be crowned the Champions of Africa. Ivory Coast and Arsenal’s mercurial winger Gervinho, Queens Park Rangers and Moroccan dribbling sensation Adel Taarabt, Ghanaian powerhouse midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah who plies his trade in Italy with Udinese and Marseille’s Andre Ayew, also of Ghana, are aiming to make history.

These four footballers are all household names. They are no strangers to football fans from around the world. We watch them produce the goods week in, week out at the highest level of European football. They dominate the headlines in England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1 but it’s about more than that. For too long African football has remained in the shadows. It’s time that the continent becomes the force that it is capable of becoming. It’s about Africa.

Africa has produced wonderfully talented footballers who have forged amazing careers in the game, and now it’s time for the new generation of footballers to claim victory.

Nike will stand behind their players Gervinho, Taraabt, Asamoah and Ayew as they represent a new African footballer, an African footballer that is tired of celebrating mediocrity and done with being average. With a new focus, drive and determination these players are ready to inspire a continent and ready to claim glory for their country, a relentless pursuit of victory.

Africa can dream… It’s the end of hope, the beginning of belief and the new generation are determined to deliver.

Interviews with PUMA players participating in the tournament will run each day on www.puma.com/football, including Asamoah Gyan of Ghana, Yaya Touré of Ivory Coast, Kadar Mangane of Senegal, Didier Ovono of Gabon and Jonathan Pitroipa of Burkina Faso. These interviews will give viewers an insight into African football through the experiences of the players, both past and present.

Through a series of interlinking themes, the content will give viewers a unique perspective into what African Football is really about, what is so special about the African Cup of Nations, how it feels for a star African player to return to their home continent and the atmosphere and experience you can expect in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea this year.

Follow the African Football story of Gyan, Touré, Gabon, Mangane and Pitriopa and experience the tournament as it progresses on www.puma.com/football. The new programme kicks off with Manchester City star Yaya Toure of Cote D’Ivoire. Check out ‘The African Football Interview, Part 1/5: Growing Up.’

Athletes at all levels of fitness — from the elite to the everyday — now have a way to measure progress toward their goals and compare with others: the NIKE+ FuelBand. It’s an innovative wristband that tracks movement throughout the day, designed to motivate and inspire users to be more active.

“The NIKE+ FuelBand is a way for Nike to further evolve the exciting possibilities of merging the physical and digital worlds,” said NIKE, Inc. President & CEO Mark Parker at the NIKE+ FuelBand launch event in New York. “Nike has always been about inspiring athletes, and the NIKE+ FuelBand will help motivate them in a simple, fun and intuitive way.”

NikeFuel: A new metric to measure movement
The ergonomic NIKE+ FuelBand captures and displays four different metrics: time, calories, steps and NikeFuel – a new metric that will be the ultimate measure of your athletic activity. NikeFuel is a proprietary technology that measures your activity through the movement of your wrist. NikeFuel motivates athletes to do more with a NikeFuel score that makes movement fun, meaningful and comparable, letting you compete with athletes of all levels in most activities. The more you move, the more NikeFuel you earn, whether you’re playing basketball, throwing a Frisbee or going for a run.

Nike worked with some of the world’s top experts in science and sports to engineer NikeFuel algorithms based on oxygen kinetics. Unlike calorie counts — which vary based on someone’s gender and body type — NikeFuel is a normalized score that awards all participants equal scoring for the same activity regardless of their physical makeup. A user can also choose to also receive a calorie count to understand how many calories are burned versus how much NikeFuel is earned.

How the NIKE+ FuelBand makes it count
As you wear the FuelBand throughout the day, the built-in three-axis accelerometer measures your motion and translates it into NikeFuel. Each day you can set your goal for activity and the level of NikeFuel you want to achieve. As you move closer to your goal, the band’s series of 20 LED lights go from red to green. The user-friendly interface provides encouragement and motivation as you hit and exceed your goals.

The NIKE+ FuelBand experience doesn’t end on your wrist. All of the data you capture on your wristband connects to a rich web and mobile experience. It syncs with the Nike+ website, through a built-in USB, or wirelessly through Bluetooth to a free iPhone app to record activity each day and track progress.

The NIKE+ FuelBand is available for preorder at Nikestore.com for a suggested retail price of $149 (U.S.).

To use Nike+ FuelBand, the following is needed:

- A Macintosh or PC with built-in USB. Mac OS v 10.4 or later, Windows 7 or Windows Vista (SP2) or Windows XP (SP2).

- Internet access. Broadband is recommended.

- Optional mobile app available in the iTunes App store; for updates on compatible mobile devices, visit Nikeplus.com.

Following Lionel Messi’s 3rd consecutive win of the Ballon d’Or, Adidas have compiled a video of Messi, their main F50 AdiZero wearer, interacting, playing and growing up. The video is voiced over by the man himself and is all about him thanking the fans for everything he has achieved.

Last night saw the annual FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala hosted in the luxurious Swiss city of Zurich. All eyes were on who would this year lift the FIFA Ballon d’Or; FIFA Coach of the Year; FIFA Puskas Award; FIFA Presidential Award; FIFA Fair Play Award and the Women’s Player of the Year and Coach of the Year as well as who would be named in the FIFA/FIFPro World XI.

FIFA Ballon d’Or – Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

It was hardly a surprise that Argentina and Barcelona star Lionel Messi received the award for the third year in a row. He beat out teammate Xavi and archrival Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid).

FIFA Coach of the Year – Pep Guardiola (Barcelona)

Pep lead his star studded Barcelona side to another La Liga title, the UEFA Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup success so and received the honor ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) and arch-rival Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid)

FIFA Puskas Award – Neymar (Santos)

“Goal of the Year” has awarded to £40 million Brazilian wonder kid Neymar for his brilliant solo effort against Flamengo last July. Wayne Rooney’s (Manchester United) stunning bicycle kick against Manchester City last February and Lionel Messi’s (Barcelona) flick against Arsenal in last season’s Champions League were the other contenders.

FIFA Presedential Award – Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)

Sir Alex was once again honored for his contribution to football as he celebrated his 70th Birthday, 25 years at the helm of Manchester United and a 12th Premier League title under his reign and a 3rd Champions League final in just four years.

FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year – Norio Sasaki (Japan)

Norio Sasaki received the award after leading Japan to victory in last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup held in Germany. Pia Sundhage (USA) and Bruno Bini (France) were the other nominees.

Japan’s head coach Norio Sasaki (left) and and captain Homare Sawa (right).

FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year – Homare Sawa (Japan)

Japan’s captain Homare Sawa claimed her FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year prize ahead of Marta (Brazil) and Abby Wambach (USA).

FIFA Fair Play Award – Japan

This award is giving to a federation who has achieved success in troubled times and Japan couldn’t be anymore deserving.

A devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the country in March last year yet Japan found success in an AFC Asian Cup; hosting the FIFA Club World Cup and winning the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany all while celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Japan Football Association.

FIFA/FIFPro World XI

50,000 professional footballers vote for their best players and the result proved have a distinct Spanish feeling with 6 Spanish internationals while Wayne Rooney and teammate Nemanja Vidic the only players to play outside of La Liga.

GK: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid)

DF: Dani Alves (Barcelona), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)

MF: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Xavi (Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)

FW: Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)

New Years Eve saw Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo kick off Nike’s newest campaign as he made his pledge to #MakeItCount via Twitter.

2012 promises to be one of the great years in sport. Throughout the year, athletes around the world in some of sport’s greatest arenas will be delivering career defining moments. To inspire themselves, each other and every athlete at every level, Nike and some of the greatest athletes are challenging you to bring your best, and then better it, in 2012.

Athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lance Armstrong have been pledging on Twitter on how they will #makeitcount in the next 12 months. While the athletes tell us about their goals, Nike is also asking everybody to join them and pledge how they will #makeitcount over the next twelve months.

With the campaign centered around Twitter it is no wonder Rio Ferdinand has a part to play. The Manchester United defender has played over 250 games and has won the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, the League Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Ferdinand has been joined by other top Nike athletes such as Paula Radcliffe, Mo Farah, Mark Cavendish, Jack Wilshere and Perri Shakes-Drayton. We can look forward to seeing them tell us how they will #makeitcount in 2012 in a series of web-films breaking over the New Year.

Along with the campaign Nike, have wet our appetite by promising a special, ‘game-changing’ announcement to be made on 19.1.12.

Scouring the nation for the fastest 11 amateur footballers in the land, Adidas ask you to upload your stats from the AdiZero MiCoach and the players who with fastest times each week will be rewarded with a place in the fastest team ever assembled.

This week Adam Smialy and Chris Gomes had the fastest, most impressive stats and got the opportunity to go head to head with Chelsea star Salomon Kalou.

Are you the fastest player at your club? Prove it. Along with some of the quickest pros in the world, adidas will be watching. Sign up to The Hunt For Fast campaign at www.adidas.com/football Find out more and get exclusive adidas content by signing up to http://www.facebook.com/adidasfootball

UEFA EURO 2012 sponsor, Castrol EDGE has revealed that Fabio Capello’s England side has  a 8.8% chance of winning UEFA EURO 2012 and are 4th most likely to be crowned European Champions. The insight comes from the new Castrol EDGE Calculator tool which launched yesterday.

England were drawn in Group D alongside France, Sweden and hosts, the Ukraine at the UEFA EURO 2012 draw which took place in Kiev last Friday. Using the latest technology and data analysis techniques to identify which nations have the strongest chance of success at UEFA EURO 2012, the Castrol EDGE Calculator shows that England are most likely to progress to the quarter final stages (64%), with a strong chance of making the Semi Finals (33.8%).

Looking more closely at England’s group, the Castrol EDGE Calculator predicts that England should win the group, but the other three teams will hotly contest the coveted second place spot- with the Ukraine on 49.2%, France on 45% and Sweden on 41.7%.

The Castrol EDGE Calculator shows that the eight teams with the strongest chance of making it to the knock out stages of the competition are; Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, and  France.

The Castrol EDGE Calculator shows that Spain and the Netherlands-two of Europe’s strongest football nations are favourites to go head to head in the UEFA EURO 2012 Final on 1^st July in Kiev, with Spain most likely to be crowned Champions of Europe. Portugal are perhaps the surprise package, who despite struggling in qualification, are still statistical considered to have a strong chance of success, at 8.4% and 5^th favorites to lift the trophy.

First launched for the 2010 FIFA World Cup where it accurately predicted nearly 70% of teams’ progression, Castrol EDGE has applied the same expertise they apply to the development of their strongest ever oil to create the Castrol EDGE Calculator.

Created by the same team of Castrol EDGE Performance Analysts behind the Castrol EDGE Rankings, it calculates the attack and defence ratings of each nation. Then by simulating the tournament over 100,000 times, and taking into account the draw groupings, the Calculator can predict how successful nations will be in their groups, whether or not they’ll progress to the knock out stages, and ultimately each nation’s chance of winning the tournament.

Fans can find the Castrol EDGE Calculator on castroledge.com/euro2012, where it will be updated after each UEFA EURO 2012 game so they can see the impact of every match result on their nation’s chances.