A tribute to the Greatest Rossonero Ever

[The MAN]

As the dreaded moment for every Milanista, or all football fans for that matter, draws ever closer, the moment the best defender football has seen graces the pitch for the final time, we can only be thankful that Milan has been blessed to witness such a glorious player with a magnificent career that cannot be possibly replicated....the word "legend" is a massive understatement, I really do not know what my reaction will be, it is unthinkable about to unfold, I have been a Milan fan for a long time, but I have never witnessed a Milan without Paolo, it will indeed be very strange when the roster is released next year with no #3

Forza Paolo per sempre

[SuperPippo9]

Maldini has been at Milan all my life and then some, I literally dont know football without him, I grew up looking up to this guy. I remember in the 94 world cup watching him missing 1st grade classes then 98 I got some perspective on how big of an idol this man is. Now to see him retire is just weird, I cant imagine the emotions that will be going through the San Siro when he has his last home game, i really do think tears will be flowing much like when baggio had his farewell.

[San Paolo]

Maldini has played for Milan longer than iv been alive!! This man is my hero and i can honestly say there has been no better gentleman like player than Maldini he is the model pro, i cant put into words how much of a legend the man is!

[RomaShield27]

I consider myself fortunate and privileged to have witnessed the great Paolo Maldini playing live. He is one of the great players of our time (and indeed, of all time) and it is players like this who we should strive to see playing before our eyes to truly appreciate what they represent. In that sense I compare him to Totti – both have different qualities and characteristics, naturally – but both have been one-club men and bandiera's to their clubs for their entire careers, both more than mere players to the fans and peoples of the clubs. There aren't too many players like them around anymore and in the money-dominated game we have today you can't see a whole load of them in the future (well, Roma has De Rossi, Milan has, er, Luca Antonini). Maldini is one the greatest players ever to play the game and he will be missed, its just too bad he will have to lose his last ever (competitive) match in the Giuseppe Meazza.

[RomaShield27]

Here's a top notch article (which Shinpin posted in the main thread) from the Run of Play:

The Tuesday Portrait: Paolo Maldini
RunofPlay.com – by Brian Phillips on May 12, 2009



More than any other footballer he seems to have sprung from the serious imagination of a child. The world he belongs to is not the rough, touchy, deceiving world of grown-up risks and chances but a world of lucid justice and simplicity. And just as a child's prayerbook suggests a high-up fairness in the external order of things, a cloudlike God at the roof of the cosmos dispensing rewards to the virtuous, so his career seems to have unfolded at the center of a halo inside which blessings fall on those who deserve them, power emanates from wisdom, and the beautiful is a manifestation of the good.

Now, there's a sense in which football is always giving off intimations of this sort of world, and in that sense the feeling it gives us resembles not so much a childish sense of right as a peasant's consent to hierarchy, doomed to exalt the bearers of an unfathomable grace. There's a danger in that feeling, which may explain why, in a democracy, the press is always set against footballers and against that exaltation—the more angrily and vulgarly against it the more of the people the press styles itself to be. So in a way the innocence of football is cowed on both sides and awakens a terrific resentment. But in Maldini's case none of that seems to apply. He's simply permitted a space of innocence, as if the system needed one true shining prince, as a bathtub drain, so to speak.

Fancifully, because who knows whether philosophy matters to the body's moving parts, I've always thought it was this forthrightness, this way of living directly and without the frictions and reverses of a life of unclear purpose, that accounted for his amazing longevity. At almost 41 he plays like a 28-year-old and looks permanently established in the main of light. He made his first senior start for Milan on the day Ronald Reagan was sworn in for his second term in office, two weeks before the current king of derided tabloid idols was even born. Cristiano Ronaldo was named after Ronald Reagan, whom his father adored, but Maldini (whose middle name is Cesare, his father's name) was named after a dynasty. And belongs to one.

His retirement, which is now only days away, strikes me as having an actual tragedy in it, because it's the one accommodation he's ever had to make to the indifference of the world to meaning. If meaning were everything he could go on playing forever, racing marvelously down the left side of the pitch to pluck the ball from attackers half his age, keeping his cool and keeping his team alert to the objective. But meaning has no purchase on the sinews, and virtue has no existence in the physical world, and he, too, will be tossed upon rough seas. His pace is already gone, and his unassuming lightness of touch, always so strange and breathtaking in a defender as powerful as he was, would only be a little easier to sustain than the strength that, through innumerable scuffles, supported it.

And the tragedy of this is that his growing old gives the lie to the vision of the world that his career almost made us believe in. Beauty isn't goodness and power isn't wisdom, even if, in the world's haphazard mergings, they might briefly coexist. Blessings are arbitrary, even if they sometimes fall where they're deserved. Still, illusory though it may have been, the fullness of the congruence he achieved made him a consolation, and we'll remember him for that, and it will color what we mean when we say he was better at what he did than anyone who ever played the game. Almost without trying, he made us perceive a world that was better than the world we knew.

[Carlo Romano]

The first time I paid serious attention to Paolo Maldini was at the 1988 Euro Championships in Germany where he excelled with our Azzurri!

From there he went from strength to strength and it's a shame the biggie escaped him, a World Cup winner's gold medal...he's achieved everything else!

[red]

I think this thread title is disrespectful to some other Milan players.

[RomaShield27]

Like Beckham?

[stefano]

I think he means Shevchenko version 2.0.

[red]

Aye.

Beckham, Shevchencko, Ronaldinho, Ba, Brocchi and numerous other legends.

[RomaShield27]

Check out the video of Maldini's son, Daniel, tackling Seedorf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXpPD3FpxIg

He makes Seedorf look like a punk. Oh wait... The legacy shall continue, no doubt.

[p_maldini_3]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... retirement


Maldini the one and only bows out

The Milan legend retires at the end of the season with records in the game that will go unmatched



Paolo Maldini after Milan's victory over Liverfekkin'wankscum in the 2007 Champions League final

Paolo Maldini, Milan legend, is about to wave goodbye for the last time as a player. Photograph: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images Sport

The year is 1985. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev are figureheads of the cold war. At Heysel Stadium 39 spectators are killed at the European Cup final. Live Aid concerts raise £50m for victims of famine in Ethiopia. DNA is first used in a criminal case. Roger Moore steps down as James Bond. And a 16-year-old coltish defender with a famous name makes his debut for Milan at half-time in a Serie A match at Udinese.

He is the son of Cesare Maldini, a former European Cup-winning captain for the club. He trots on at half-time and glides through his overture on impressively long, strong, limbs. He looks calm, classy, eminently comfortable. Milan's fans reckon young Paolo is a chip off the old block. Some 25 seasons later, his footballing achievements beggar belief.

This weekend the 41-year-old pulls on the shirt of the club he joined at the age of 10 for the 901st time. With more than 1,000 professional matches under his belt – every single one of them in the rossonero of Milan or the azzurro of Italy – Maldini will make his farewell bow at San Siro. His career has cranked on and on, past so many milestones (they announced they would retire his No3 shirt several years ago) it is hard to know where to begin honouring the end. The club's official website has tried to sum it up with a simple tribute that has run all week long: 25 SEASONS. 900 GAMES. ALWAYS AND ONLY MILAN. GRAZIE PAOLO!

A quarter of a century in the first team of any club is a staggering enough feat. To do it at one of the world's elite teams, sweeping up five European Cup medals and seven Serie A titles along the way, sets a benchmark that looks unmatchable. To put it into perspective, 35-year-old Ryan Giggs would have to play on for Manchester United for another seven years to equal Maldini's length of service. Real Madrid's Raúl, who turns 32 in the summer, will need to continue for another 10 years. This is a man who has won the European Cup in three different decades.

There will be no special party. It is his choice. He just wants to use the last two games of the season to say goodbye, first to the people who love him at San Siro, then to the greater family of Italian football with an away game at Fiorentina. The man has always done things with irresistible, understated charm.

And that is the real legacy of Maldini. The statistics only tell part of the story. They don't tell you anything about the elegance and gallantry with which he played. All the negative stereotypes of Italian defensive arts – niggling and pinching and sly shirt tugging – were unnecessary for Maldini. Probably the best left-back ever created played purely as well as powerfully.

He has so much going for him it is hard to know if he is more adored by the men or women of Italy. But Maldini has never been big-headed. Always professional. His reaction to his landmark 1,000th game (a 0–0 draw at Parma) said it all: "These are numbers which will remain in history – too bad we did not get the three points."

So what next for Il Capitano? Milan are almost certain to find a role for him within the club if he wants it. Likewise the Italian Football Federation. But he will take a well-deserved summer holiday. "I want to pull the plug out for a little while, at least until September. Only then will I think about what to do with my future." That is unlikely to be in coaching, though, which he describes as "the job which unites all the things that I don't like about football together".

The end of the fairytale? Not necessarily. The third generation of Milan's Maldini dynasty, Paolo's 13-year-old son Christian, plays for the club's junior ranks, and over one million people have viewed a video of his youngest, Daniel, effortlessly dispossessing Clarence Seedorf on YouTube.

If Paolo gets half as much contentment watching his boys as Cesare did, it won't just be Milan who are the lucky ones. Watching the recordman throughout his extraordinary career has been a pleasure for all of us.
[/img]

[p_maldini_3]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... =si_latest



all these stories of Paolo. its bringing tears to my eyes, i can't believe that his time is finally here. ill be watching the game in a public setting, i might end up making a fool of myself...

[Pauly W. Nuts]

Grazie Maldini! The absolute best!

[p_maldini_3]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 89683.html

Chris McGrath: For all its riches, the beautiful game will be poorer for loss of Milan's marvel

Saturday, 23 May 2009

It does not always feel like an especially beautiful game.

The final weekend of the Premiershit season brings dread, recrimination and no little schadenfreude. Then, once tomorrow is out of the way, the agents will start sending their strumpets back onto the street corners for the summer – some of them, no doubt, mutually persuaded that "this is the opportunity you deserve to take your career to the next level"; others, flagrant in their rapacity.

And that, make no mistake, is just the way some people like it. They find a comforting symmetry between the grotesque wealth of football, and the vulgarity of its undeserving beneficiaries. For who then remains as the true custodians of a club's legacy? These preening mercenaries on the pitch? The latest bunch of carpetbaggers in the boardroom? Or the stoical fans, whose loyalty becomes more marvellous with each new betrayal?

Eating from football's tree of knowledge, however, does tend to make you somewhat dyspeptic. You see a young lad in Torquay or Thailand wearing his Ronaldo replica shirt and identify another naive victim of some huge, cynical machine. Poor kid, you say. He little knows that football lost its innocence long ago. Sooner or later, he will have to do the same.

Well, not so fast. Tomorrow afternoon, one of the most luminous footballers in history makes his final home appearance for a club he has served since before Cristiano Ronaldo was even born. Paolo Maldini was 16 when he made his first-team debut for Milan, in January 1985. Against Roma he will be making his 900th subsequent appearance in the same cause, excluding friendlies. In the meantime, he has won the Scudetto seven times, and the Champions' League five times from eight finals. He is also Italy's most capped player, having played 74 of his 126 games as captain.

Now, just a month short of his 41st birthday, il Capitano is finally yielding to the creaking knees that apparently rendered him accountable for both goals in a 2-1 defeat at Udinese last week. Tomorrow he takes his bow at a tearful San Siro; then, a week later, there will be one last appearance, at Fiorentina. After that, this miracle of footballing monogamy will finally dissolve into the daydream he has made incarnate for so many of us, for so many years.

For women, of course, that daydream was seldom especially monogamous. Even now he remains the most impossibly seraphic of men. It was a face such as this that taught Renaissance artists how to paint the soul into the eyes of Christ, or St John. But for those of us who became resigned to sudden gasps of interest, from otherwise apathetic witnesses of the game's greatest dramas, there were still more grievous jealousies to bear.

Very few have caressed a football quite like Maldini, and surely no other defender. He learned from the examples of his father, Cesare, another stalwart of club and country; and Franco Baresi, the cornerstone of the inviolable Milan back four completed by Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti. But he seemed to owe his own touch to Eros himself.

The foundations of his game unquestionably lay in power and pace, as there would otherwise have been little point to his panache. But no left-back has ever been able to slide into a tackle with the same blend of precision, grace and purpose; or rise to his feet in the same supple, seamless moment, already sensing where to curl the ball next. In most formidable defenders, you have a sense that the engine is driven by furious pistons, but Maldini's engine purred like a Ferrari. Zinedine The Bald Algerian himself admitted that he would always end up seeking sanctuary on the left side of the field, so exasperated was he to find a defender equal to his every feint.

Maldini gilded even the most physical of footballing duties with the tenderness of genius. And there are other, no less pleasing paradoxes. For in the modern game no other player could be more readily pardoned the vanity that besets so many of his inferiors. Yet Maldini has always had impeccable humility, has never been seduced by flatterers or sirens.

One beautiful woman was enough, he reasoned; likewise, one beautiful club. He has always called Milan "la mia famiglia" and the common dynasty may well be sustained, with his 12-year-old son already featuring in the club's academy team. (Milan plan to retire his No 3 shirt, and will only restore it should his son make the senior squad.) Once, when the club was in financial trouble, he volunteered for a 30 per cent pay cut. Naturally, he could have named his price to any of the great clubs of Europe. But as Sir tender Alex Ferguson once discovered, Maldini has never needed the ingratiation of the transfer market.

Lesser players might argue that one who declines fresh challenges must be complacent, or even timid. But it is they who lack ardour and conviction. Their self-regard is constantly in need of renewal – whether it takes a stupendous transfer fee, or a less uxorious profile in the scandal sheets.

Maldini is one of those rare players whose greatness seems a due benediction. Life is not really like that, of course. And some will duly ask what kind of paragon would serve a master as worldly as Silvio Berlusconi. Yet Maldini's career credibly persuaded many of us that there was some corner of a foreign field – a football field, no less – that is forever Eden. The beautiful game will be rather less beautiful, without him. But Maldini was never a mere daydream, and nor is the enchantment he distilled. Addio, Paolo. E grazie.

[Amedio]

Words can't describe how much I respect this man. He's undoubtedly a true legend who will be missed by all Calcio fans.

I wish him all the best in his life.

Bye bye, Paolo Maldini.

[SuperPippo9]

Is it just me or do other people want Maldini to stay for just one more year...I promise this is last one then you can go.

[RomaShield27]

FANS SOUR MALDINI SEND OFF
www.sportinglife.com

AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini reacted with fury at the negative treatment he received in his final game at the San Siro by a small section of his club's fans. Maldini, who criticised fans earlier this year when telling them to get behind the team during their struggles, was stung by some of the banners in the stands.

One in the south stand read: "Thanks captain: on the pitch you have been an infinite champion but you have lacked the respect of those that have made you rich".

Another one read: "For your 25-year glorious career our deepest thanks from those you defined as mercenaries".

That banner was accompanied by a big jersey of Franco Baresi, who Maldini replaced as captain, and with chants of "There's only one captain". Maldini said of the fans who hung the banners: "I am proud not to be one of them."

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti was equally disenchanted by what happened. "It was only a minor section of the crowd," he said. "But they could have avoided that in what was supposed to be a special day for Paolo." Roma won the game 3-2 to make it a very disappointing send off for Maldini.

--------

Its too bad this little incident from a few idiots has tinted what was a momentous occasion for Milan and for Maldini. Does anyone know anymore background info or can shed anymore light on exactly what the problem was? You can see the incident when he was doing his lap of honour here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGk8WFdsRH8

EDIT:P.S. If anyone wants Maldini's last home game, its in the Roma MM thread.

[Amedio]

Those idiotic fans are utterly disgusting.

[p_maldini_3]

shield, the curva had some beef with Maldini a looooong time ago, im talking about nearly 10 years ago i think. it was at a point where they were asking for him to be sold etc. i dont know the finer details, maybe tec or the man know about it more than i do.