Thank You Paolo Maldini!This morning I watched Paolo Maldini's final game as AC Milan beat Fiorentina 2-nil. Here is an excerpt from a recent Canadian paper on Maldini and his career:
This is a player who learned his trade alongside Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Alessandro Costacurta, and helped set a national record of 929 minutes without conceding a goal.
In recent years Milan's other world-class defender, Alessandro Nesta, has spent more time on the treatment table than on the pitch and at a time when Maldini should have been winding down he has been playing more than ever.
He is now due to play his 902nd and final match next week at Fiorentina, bringing to an end his outstanding career. When coach Nils Liedholm handed Maldini, the son of club legend Cesare, his debut at Udinese in January 1985, few would have predicted that the rangy, 16-year-old leftback would still be going more than 24 years later.
He has straddled two periods of Milan greatness, the first under Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello, when the side won three Champions League trophies and five Serie A titles. Though Alberto Zaccheroni's spell in charge included another league title in 1999, there was a real renaissance under Carlo Ancelotti that included a pair of Champions League titles in 2003 and 2007, Maldini's seventh Italian championship in 2004 and a World Club Cup in 2007.
In that time he has changed from a coltish leftback to an ultra-dependable central defender, captain of both club and country.
Despite age and knee injuries taking their toll, he has refused to change his style, relying on stealth and intelligence to win the ball in such a way that the striker doesn't actually realize it's gone. He has been as far from the stereotyped Italian defender as it is possible to be. He has no need for the ankle taps, shirt pulling and all-around cynicism that personified the likes of Claudio Gentile and even Baresi.
It is on the international stage that Maldini's career remains unfulfilled, though it is doubtful he could have gone any closer. Maldini holds the unenviable record of being a losing finalist at both the World Cup and European Championship, both times by the narrowest of margins. It's open to question what hurt the most, a loss on penalties to Brazil in 1994 or David Trezeguet's decisive 'golden goal' that won the continental crown for France in 2000 after the Azzurri had dominated the match.
His 126 caps show how important he was to the national side from his debut against Yugoslavia in March 1988 to retirement at the end of the 2002 World Cup. Despite a 'golden goal' loss to South Korea signalling the end of his career, Maldini kept a dignified, quiet counsel, whilst many Italy fans blamed referee Byron Moreno and FIFA for joint-host nation South Korea's progression to the quarter-finals.
Earlier this year fans launched a campaign to give Maldini one more farewell cap.
Typical of the man, though, he thanked the fans for the idea, but said it would hinder the development of the team ahead of the 2010 World Cup, which to him was worth far more than any number of sentimental farewells.
The man himself is unsure of what the future holds, but says whilst he followed his father to Milan, he won't be following him into coaching. "I won't be a coach, because it is a role that brings out all the things that I don't like about football," he said. "The excessive exposure to the media, moving to different cities and having to work with difficult presidents."
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Discovered a couple of podcasts:
World Football Phone In http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wf/
World Soccer Daily http://www.worldsoccerdaily.com/
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