London tube names stations after Olympics’ legends

Several well-known Argentine football players will have the honour of lending their names to the London Underground to pay homage to the sports icons during the Olympic games to be held between July 27 to August 12.

Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and Ángel Di María are some of the Argentine players who get the honour after being the champions of the Beijing Olympics Games 2008, when they were coached by talented Marcelo Bielsa.

The tube will have a new look with Transport for London's Olympic Legends Map. Instead of Picadilly Circus, Baker Street and Knightsbridge, the map has changed the names of 361 stations to celebrate Olympic athletes.

The measure was triggered by sports and underground authorities in the British capital as a prize for the athletes who were champions in the Olympics.

Another national icon is Bahía Blanca’s Emanuel Ginobili, emblematic player of the basketball gold medal in Athens 2004.

The Olympic Legends Map includes Spain’s tennis player Rafael Nadal and Swiss Roger Federer, Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt and US swimming champion Michael Phelps.

Also US athlete Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals in Berlin 1936, Rumanian gymnastic Nadia Comaneci, five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain and 1992 Dream Team players Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

“We love sports, we love the lists and we love London, so what’s better than choosing the best 361 athletes that the world has ever seen to include them in our map,” map designers Alex Trickett and David Brooks said in a statement.

"There were heated debates and a few late changes of heart, but we are happy with the result: dozens of nations represented, all 2012 Olympic sports accounted for, and Ali and Phelps, two of the greatest Olympians of all time, guarding the Stratford gateways to the games," map designers Alex Trickett and David Brooks said in a joint statement.

Among the main London stations, Liverpool Street will be renamed as US athlete Carl Lewis and Oxford Circus will be named Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, as Leicester Square will be US basketball icon Lebron James.