Michael Lintorn

I shun legendary sportsmen like Lionel Messi, Rafael Nadal and Michael Schumacher and instead opt to idolise the goods-but-not-greats of the world like Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gael Monfils and Robert Kubica, the logic being that there is more joy to be had celebrating the scarce highs of their careers.

There are two pretty large exceptions to that rule though: my all-time favourite player Alessandro Nesta holding a genuine claim to being the best defender of my limited lifetime and my clubs of choice West Ham and Lazio spending most of their existence being neither good nor great!

The first bet I remember winning came backing Brazil to win 2-0 with Ronaldo scoring first in the 2002 World Cup Final. Approximately three of my ten thousand scorecasts since have come good.

My greatest ever win was supposed to come backing Dimitar Berbatov to be Premier League top goalscorer in 2010-11 at 40/1, but the dead-heat finish proved a bit of a choker.

Sport is, rather sadly, my life, with my main “achievement” of recent years being to make it to each of West Ham’s 48 games in 2010-11. I had started off describing the plan as “the perfect season”, though oddly that title didn’t seem quite so appropriate come May!