On 2 January 2011, Xavi made his 549th appearance for Barcelona, tying the club record set by Migueli in 1988.
The midfielder joined the club as a youth player in 1991 at the age of 11, then started his professional career there in 1997. One year later, he cracked the first team, making a total of 27 appearances in the 1998-99 season.
His record-tying match was at home against Levante. The visitors were coming off an 8-0 mauling by Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey, so few people expected them to trouble the hosts, who had camped out at the top of table since late November.
But it turned out to be a scrappy match, with a scoreless first half. Barça eventually took the lead with a 47th-minute goal from forward Pedro, who then extended it with a second strike in the 59th. Ten minutes after that, Levante striker Christian Stuani scored to halve the deficit, but they could not find another and the match ended as a 2-1 Barcelona win. After the final whistle, the club surprised Xavi with a ceremony to recognize his accomplishment.
He later took sole possession of the appearances record, extending his tally to 767 across all competitions before leaving the club in 2015.
On 1 January 2005, Newcastle bought defender Jean-Alain Boumsong from Rangers in a deal widely regarded as one of the worst January transfers in history.
A French international, Boumsoung had played for Le Havre (1997-2000) and Auxerre (2000-04) before moving to Rangers on a free transfer in the summer of 2004. Although he signed a 5-year deal with the Glasgow club, his strong performances there attracted the interest of Newcastle manager Graeme Souness, who lodged an £8M bid that December, with the clubs finalizing the deal on the first day of 2005.
Although his time at St. James' Park started well, he struggled in the 2005-06 season, often shouldering the blame for defensive lapses that led Newcastle to concede 42 goals en route to a seventh-place finish. By the end of that season, new manager Glenn Roeder, who had replaced Souness in February 2006, sold the center back to Juventus for just £3.3M, taking a loss of almost £5M on the deal (though the agreement included performance-incentives).
Boumsong stayed with Juventus for one season, then played three seasons for Lyon before joining Panathinaikos in July 2010. For his time on Tyneside, a 2008 Times poll rated him the Premier League's worst January transfer. Since then, however, polls have dropped him down behind more recent transfers, including Andy Carroll's £35M move from Newcastle to Liverpool in 2011 and Chelsea's £50M purchase of Fernando Torres from Liverpool.
On 31 December 1921, Tércio Mariano de Rezende, the Guinness record holder as the world's oldest footballer, was born in Brazil.
A right back, Mariano started playing for his local club, Goiandira Esporte Clube, in 1973 when he was 52 years old. He was still playing there in 2008 when, at the age of 87, the Guinness Book of World Records listed him as the world's oldest footballer.
A farmer who walks 10 kilometers every morning, Mariano rejected suggestions that he was too old to continue, saying "as long as I have legs, I will play." And even though sidelined at times by injuries, including a dislocated shoulder and surgeries to his neck and back, he continued to play until he passed away in March 2015 at the age of 93.
On 30 December 1999, the British government finally decorated the "forgotten five" from England's World Cup-winning team, awarding them all MBEs.
Over the years following England's win over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final, most of the players from that match, along with manager Alf Ramsey, received official recognition from the British government, starting in 1967 with Ramsey's knighthood and captain Bobby Moore becoming an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Bobby Charlton received his OBE in 1969 (then became a Commander of the Order (CBE) in 1974 and received a knighthood in 1994), followed by OBEs for Gordon Banks in 1970 and Jack Charlton in 1974. In 1978, Martin Peters became a Member of the Order (MBE), as did Geoff Hurst in 1979 (Hurst was later knighted in 1998).
By 1999, however, five players from the 1966 final--Nobby Stiles, Alan Ball, Roger Hunt, Ray Wilson, and George Cohen--had not been honored, even though all of them but Ball had appeared in every match of the tournament (Ball missed the last two games in the group stage), and Hunt had scored three goals. But thanks to a push driven in part by the football media, those omissions were corrected at the end of 1999, with all five being made Members of the Order.
On 29 December 2001, Xabi Alonso made his full international debut. And it wasn't for Spain.
The 20-year old midfielder, then in his second season with Real Sociedad, had played for the Spanish U-18s, making a solitary appearance in 2000. Although he had not taken the pitch for them since then, Alonso, who was born in the Basque city of Tolosa, also qualified to play for the Basque Country national team. And in 2001, manager José Ángel Iribar called Alonso up for a friendly against Ghana.
The teams met at the Estadio San Mamés in Bilbao, where the visitors took an early lead with a goal from midfielder Derek Boateng in the 13th minute. Alonso remained on the bench for the first half, then came on at the start of the second with the Basques still down 0-1.
Alonso's entrance, along with several other subs made at the same time, turned the tide for the home side. They equalized in the 46th minute with a strike from Jon Pérez, then got two goals from Óscar de Paula (60', 67') to lead 3-1. Ghana's Alex Takyi-Mensah pulled one back in the 70th minute, but that was the last of the day's goals and the Basques won 3-2.
Although he played primarily for Spain, with 114 appearances between 2003 and 2014, he made four other appearances for the Basque Country, most recently in 2012.
On 28 December 1971, a brace from striker Luis Artime helped Nacional claim their first Intercontinental Cup, beating Panathinaikos 2-1.
Nacional qualified for the competition by winning the 1971 Copa Libertadores and were scheduled to play European Cup holders Ajax. But they Dutch declined, so Panathinaikos, who lost to Ajax in the European Cup final, took their place.
They played the first leg in Greece on 15 December, where a second-half equalizer from Artime (pictured) secured a 1-1 draw. The teams then met thirteen days later in Uruguay for the second leg.
Playing in front of a crowd of about 63,000, Artime continued to find the net for Nacional, putting them up 2-0 with goals in the 34th and 74th minutes. Antonis Antoniadis scored for Panathinaikos in the 89th minute, but it was too late for a rally and the series ended 3-1 to Nacional on aggregate.
It was the first of three Intercontinental Cups for Nacional, who won it again in 1980 and 1988.
On 27 December 2009, Hibernian's Anthony Stokes scored the SPL's fastest goal, but it did not help them much.
The well-traveled striker, who had spent time at five different clubs over the previous four years, was in his first season with Hibs after joining them from Sunderland that August. By mid-December, he had helped the club to a 12-game unbeaten streak that saw them take the table's third spot.
They were hoping to extend the run to 13 when they hosted first-place Rangers at Easter Road. And Stokes gave those hopes a boost when he found the back of the net after just 12.4 seconds, setting an SPL record.
But Rangers took command of the game and were leading 1-2 at the break with goals from Kenny Miller (21') and Kris Boyd (37'). They continued to dominate in the second half, with Nacho Novo extending the visitors' lead to 1-3 in the 53rd minute before Miller's second goal of the day (66') completed the rout at 1-4.
Stokes went on to have a fantastic year, scoring 21 goals in 37 league appearances.
