VALENTINO ROSSI Valentino Rossi (born February 16, 1979 in Urbino, Italy) is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is widely considered one of the best motorcycle racers of all time. According to Sports Illustrated, Rossi is the 7th best-compensated athlete in the world, earning an estimated $30 million a year.[1] Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Rossi started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category, again with Aprilia, and won the World Championship in 1999. He won the 500cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 MotoGP World Championship after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. He is the reigning World Champion and won his seventh World Championship (5th consecutive) in the 2005 MotoGP series. At the end of the 2005 season, Valentino Rossi held 79 Grand Prix victories which makes him the third winningest rider of the Grand Prix series, third only to legendary rider Giacomo Agostini, who has 122 Grand Prix victories and Angel Nieto.