Chris Smalling is a defender who plays for English side Manchester United. Smalling arrived from Fulham after the 2009-10 season, after having been signed already in the January transfer window. He played two seasons for Fulham and the club reached the UEFA Cup final in his last season there, at the age of 20.
Smalling made his Manchester United debut in July, in a friendly against Celtic. He scored his first United goal in a friendly against CD Guadalajara later the same month. In September Smalling was brought on for competitive matches in the Premier League and Champions League. He also scored his first competive goal for United in a 5-2 win against Scunthorpe in the 3rd round of the League Cup. Despite his limited experience from his time at Fulham, Smalling has quickly settled into the Manchester United team. On November 2nd he was given the chance to start in a Champions League match away at Bursaspor in Turkey. Smalling impressed and earned lavish praise from his fellow players and manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Chris Smalling has represented England at U-21 level.

Aleksandar Kolarov is a Serbian left-back who plays for Manchester City. He arrived before the 2010/11 season from Italian side Lazio for €20.5 million. The 24 year old had his debut in the first Premier League match of the season, in a 0-0 draw at Tottenham. Kolarov picked up an ankle ligament injury and has been out since then but is due to return in October. The Manchester City fans will look forward to his return as Kolarov also is happy to play in midfield and charge on the left wing. Roberto Mancini would be looking towards Kolarov to provide similar cover on the left flank as Gareth Bale successfully does at Tottenham.

Massimo Oddo is a 34 year old right-back who plays for AC Milan. He signed a new one year contract in July 2010. Oddo has also played 34 times for Italy and was part of the squad winning the 2006 FIFA World Championship.

Alessandro Nesta is a centre back who plays for Italian side AC Milan. He has also been capped 76 times for Italy. After coming up through Lazio’s youth system Nesta moved to AC Milan in 2002, when Lazio were in serious financial trouble. Nesta won several titles with Lazio, including the 1999 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the 2000 Italian double. With AC Milan he has won the Serie A, the Coppa Italia and twice the UEFA Champions League.
Nesta retired from the Italian national team after the 2006 FIFA World Championship, after ten years of service. Nesta will be 35 years old at the end of the 2010-11 season but is still capable of making an impact at the highest level for AC Milan.

Oguchi Onyewu is an American defender who plays for Portuguese side Sporting Clube de Portugal and the USA. Onyewu played college soccer in the United States before moving to French club Metz in 2002. He struggled to get play time at Metz and was put on loan to Belgian clubs La Louvière in 203, and to Standard Liège the following year. He made his breakthrough at Liège and was voted best foreign player in the Belgian league. In his home country he was also voted 2006 US Soccer Athlete of the Year. In 2007 he had a brief loan spell with English side Newcastle in the Premier League. The Newcastle wasn’t a great success and Onyewu returned to Standard Liège, where he continued playing well and won two consecutive league titles.
In July 2009 Onyewu signed with AC Milan. Unfortunately he got injured early in the season, while playing for his country, and missed the remainder of the 2009-10 season. For the last half of the 2010-11 season Onyewu was on loan to Dutch side Twente. In June 2011 he was sold to Sporting Clube de Portugal where he signed a three year deal.
Onyewu made his debut for the United States national team in 2003. He played in both the 2006 and the 2010 FIFA World Championships.