Name	Patrick Vieira
Height	6' 3
Naionality	French
Date of Birth	23 June 1976
Place of Birth	Dakar, Senegal
Famous for

1 Senior club appearances and goalscounted for the domestic league only andcorrect as of 21:15, 21 October 2007 (UTC).2 National team caps and goals correctas of October 13, 2007.* Appearances (Goals)

Patrick Donalé Vieira (born June 23, 1976 in Dakar, Senegal) is a French football midfielder who currently plays for Internazionale Milano. He came to prominence during his time at Arsenal between 1996 and 2005, where he won three FA Premier League titles and four FA Cups, and eventually became club captain. He spent a single season at Juventus before joining Inter in 2006, after Juventus were relegated due to their part in a match-fixing scandal. He has 104 caps for France, and was part of their 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winning sides and is now the team captain.

Vieira's earlier years at Arsenal were beset by disciplinary problems - in 2000-01 he was sent off twice in two consecutive matches (the opening matches of the season), though after returning he did not receive another card for 28 matches. In all he has been sent off twelve times in his career (nine times with Arsenal and once each with Juventus, France and Internazionale).

In 2003-04 at Arsenal, he captained the side on an historic unbeaten season in the Premier League. At the beginning of this campaign he was in and out of the side because of a hamstring injury, with Ray Parlour replacing him in the side. However, Vieira returned for the Champions League match against Lokomotiv Moscow, with the Gunners winning 2-0 and qualifying for the 1st Knockout round. At the end of this season Vieira was heavily linked with moves to Real Madrid and Chelsea who were reportedly ready to offer around £30 million for his services. Then in the 2005 FA Cup Final he scored the winning kick in a penalty shoot-out with his final kick in Arsenal colours, after a 0-0 draw with Manchester United. In total, Vieira played 407 times for Arsenal and scored 34 times.

In his time at Arsenal, Vieira engaged in many key individual battles to help his team, most notably against his fierce rival Roy Keane who possessed similar qualities to Vieira. The roots of this rivalry were partly due to both players' competitiveness and also the growing rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United who consistently battled each other for the Premier League title.

Madrid reportedly offered Arsenal £23 million for him, so he could fill the role of the departed Claude Makelele in the holding midfielder position, which was reluctantly accepted. However at the last moment after much deliberation Vieira decided to stay at the club where he made his name. Others suggest that the deal failed because Madrid president Florentino Pérez had refused to pay high wages for defensive players. A year later, Vieira did move away from Highbury. Arsenal accepted a bid of £13.7m from Italian giants Juventus on July 14, 2005, and Vieira agreed a five-year contract with the Serie A side the following day. In his autobiography, he cited the main reason for his leaving Arsenal as the board's "neutral" position over the Juventus bid. One of the reasons for his transfer was also the emergence of teenager Cesc Fàbregas, who had played in place of Vieira when the latter was injured.

The then Juventus coach Fabio Capello used Vieira in a midfield consisting of Brazilian Emerson and Czech Pavel Nedvěd. He helped Juventus to record their best ever start to a league season. Despite his performances dipping as the result of a persistent groin injury and a reported training ground bust-up with team mate Zlatan Ibrahimović, Vieira helped Juventus retain the Italian Championship.

Vieira was appointed national team captain on Zinedine Zidane's retirement from international football. Nonetheless, he and veteran defender Lilian Thuram were instrumental in convincing Zidane to end his retirement and help the flagging campaign to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Vieira even handed back the captaincy of the team to Zidane.

On June 23, 2006, his birthday 30th, Vieira took the captain's armband for the match in place of the suspended Zidane, whom he shared the birthday with, scoring the first goal when France defeated Togo 2-0 in the group stages of the FIFA World Cup 2006; Vieira set up Thierry Henry for France's second. This win helped France advance to the knockout stages, coming second behind Switzerland, and it prolonged Zidane's international career. In the round of sixteen, Vieira scored the second goal in France's 3-1 defeat of Spain; France went on to beat favourites Brazil 1-0 in the quarter-finals, and Portugal by the same score in the semi-finals, which gave them a place in the final against Italy. Vieira was one of the best midfielders at the tournament with a string of fine dominant performances. Vieira has received criticism in the past over his international performances, with both fans and pundits commenting that he does not play for France as he did for Arsenal, Thierry Henry has also received similar criticism in the past. Having played in every match up to the final, Vieira started the match but was substituted due to injury in the second half, likely sustained when he collided with Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro. Italy won 5-3 on penalties after the game finished 1-1 after extra time. As of November 23, 2006 Vieira has appeared 100 times for France, scoring 6 goals.