The Ultra's treatment of Maldini

[Snookie]

How the f*** could you treat one of the greatest players to ever play the game like this?

 

 

 

Paolo Maldini bows out at Milan with jeers in his ears

Five European Cups, seven Scudetti, three intercontinental titles, five European Super Cups, and a Coppa Italia. Over the course of 25 years (30 if you include his apprenticeship), Paolo Maldini has helped Milan win everything there is to win. And then to do it all over again. Few have drawn such widespread admiration from team-mates and opponents alike. "Quite simply the best there is," was the description used by the Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero this week. Last month Sir Alex Ferguson named the defender as his "favourite" player on any team that he had managed against.

 

Sadly it seems that the only place such opinions are not shared is on San Siro's own curva sud. Yesterday Maldini made his 900th appearance for Milan, leading them out against Roma in his last match at San Siro and perhaps also his last anywhere. At the outset he was applauded by a capacity crowd, while Roma's players emerged from the tunnel in shirts carrying the slogan "Thanks Paolo, great captain". But by the end the voices of dissent had begun to make themselves heard.

 

"Thanks captain. On the pitch you were an undying champion but you had no respect for those who made you rich," read one of the banners prepared by Ultras. "For your 25 years of glorious service you have the thanks of those who you called mercenaries and misers," read another. If the message was not necessarily scathing, it was certainly pointed. Next came a giant Milan shirt bearing the number six and accompanied by the words "There is only one captain, [Franco] Baresi".

 

What was supposed to be a day of festivity quickly soured. Milan were beaten 3-2, and could yet lose third place to next weekend's opponents Fiorentina, but it was not for the result that Maldini left the pitch with a face like thunder. "I am proud to be nothing like them," he said of the supporters who had goaded him – a small minority, it must be said, but enough to make themselves heard – as he departed. Exactly 20 years earlier, on 24 May 1989, many of those same fans would have been praising Maldini as he collected his first European Cup winners' medal after a 4-0 trouncing of Steaua Bucharest.

 

Gazzetta dello Sport described the scene as surreal but to those unfamiliar with the finer points of Milan's recent history, it might even have seemed an outright shocking one. Maldini, after all, is everything a supporter could wish for – the longest-serving one-club man in history, talented but also a grafter and a man who only ever appears in the newspapers for the right reasons. Just about the only things known about his private life is that he is married to his sweetheart from his teenage years, Adriana Fossa, and that he owns over 100 pairs of jeans.

 

Nor does Maldini carry around any great sense of self-importance. Many commentators and pundits have lamented the fact that he never won a Ballon D'or, but the player himself has always shrugged and acknowledged that such awards usually go to forwards. His reaction to being named player of the year by World Soccer magazine in 1996 was one of faint bewilderment. Indeed, he actually named Baresi, Milan's captain at the time, in his acceptance speech as the one defender who truly did deserve such an accolade.

 

But the one thing that Maldini has never done is kowtow to fan opinion, and it is for this alone that a more selfish element resent him. When Milan supporters caused a game between the Rossoneri and Parma to be suspended for more than five minutes by throwing oranges and other objects on to the field during their miserable 1997–98 season, Maldini was publicly critical of their behaviour. After Milan won the league the following year, he retired quickly to the dressing room to celebrate with Alessandro Costacurta instead of staying out to thank the fans.

 

That was not the only occasion on which he refused to condone supporter protests, but the fact that such instances are remembered at all reflects only on the pettiness of such fans. Maldini has only ever been interested in winning, and if anything his objection to such actions is a reflection of his belief that they do nothing to help his team do exactly that.

 

Maldini wasn't the only one to come under attack at San Siro, however, and the fact that he did at all was undoubtedly also an indicator of the growing frustration among supporters about the general direction in which the club is currently moving. A far greater percentage of the critical banners on display at San Siro were aimed at Silvio Berlusconi rather than Maldini, as the club's owner was criticised for wasting his money on "cons and trading cards". It is no secret that Milan are in significant debt, and the fear that they will sell Kakà to Real Madrid this summer is palpable.

 

Such a departure would doubtless be a disaster for a side that have leaned heavily on the Brazilian this season. But not nearly as sad as seeing one of the greatest defenders of all-time leave the club he dedicated his entire career to with taunts and whistles in his ears.

 

 

 

 

 

here

Edited May 25, 2009 by Snookie

[stressederic]

What a bunch of c****

[Rory Fitzgerald]

Amazing, absolutely amazing.

[Sion]

Favourite non-Liverpool player ever. Absolutely brilliant professional.

[Snookie]

love this clip of his son tackling Clarence Seedorf

[Kahnee]

  Snookie said:

love this clip of his son tackling Clarence Seedorf

 

Been meaning to look for that after listening to Thursday's Football Weekly Extra

[R A Softlad]

Bloody heel, what a shame.

[Snookie]

  Kahnee said:

Been meaning to look for that after listening to Thursday's Football Weekly Extra

 

Wonder what playing football in the back garden is like in that family. So Cesare, Paulo and his son all line up in defence and play in father and son games against the neighbours?

[Frosty Jack]

Was intending to go the game, would've confused the f*** out of me if I had. I didn't know anything about the history behind this. f***ing embarrassing.

[matty]

Typical Milan. Losers.

[Cam]

  Snookie said:

love this clip of his son tackling Clarence Seedorf

Get the kid in to coach Dossena.

 

If there is to be a full-time European League then the English clubs must utilise their current enormous power and insist such scumbags, fascists & racists are barred.

 

The Premier League may not always be the perfect family entertainment that Sky & the sponsors would have us believe but imagine playing at places like Lazio on a regular basis; places that are 30 years behind us...

 

"What's your run-in for the Euro-title?"

"Lyon at home, Bayern and then Millwall circa 1982".

[Nerik]

Clip of it here:

 

http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/SerieA/Milan...444419234.shtml

[New York Red]

What a bunch of scumbags. That is absolutely awful. Treating a legend like that?

 

Still it is to be expected. Despite all of the grief English fans get on the continent, the Italian fans are far worse IMO, for a lot of different reasons.

Edited May 26, 2009 by New York Red

[cymrococh]

Something to do with his autobiography as well apparently.

 

Absolutely disgusting.

[fyds]

What a total bunch of c*nts. Words cannot describe the amount of shyte that should fall on that club and their so called fans.

[Stevie H]

takes the cake in terms of football fan ingrates really doesn't it? interesting that they idolise baresi above maldini, given that baresi began his career at inter and was an inter fan (i think).

[cymrococh]

The difference between his goodbye and Sami's is just ridiculous, and great as Sami is, he's no Maldini.

 

I would be absolutely blind with rage if I was Maldini.

[New York Red]

  Stevie H said:

takes the cake in terms of football fan ingrates really doesn't it? interesting that they idolise baresi above maldini, given that baresi began his career at inter and was an inter fan (i think).

 

It's no knock on Baresi though. Baresi was total class. Quiet dignity. I hated seeing him miss the penalty in the World Cup Final. He just didn't deserve that and he was absolutely gutted. Just walking aroud the field in agony while all the rest of it was going on. Way worse than Baggio certainly.

 

Nevertheless. Treating Maldini like that? He played 900+ f*cking games for them, 100% effort, total honor . One of the total, all-time legends. No question.

 

F*ck them.

Edited May 26, 2009 by New York Red

[New York Red]

  Paul Caruso said:

The difference between his goodbye and Sami's is just ridiculous, and great as Sami is, he's no Maldini.

 

I would be absolutely blind with rage if I was Maldini.

 

Too right.

[Stevie H]

  Paul Caruso said:

The difference between his goodbye and Sami's is just ridiculous, and great as Sami is, he's no Maldini.

 

I would be absolutely blind with rage if I was Maldini.

he should attend inter's title-winning party just to piss them off further.

 

think i read that he was born right-footed but taught himself to kick just as well with his left when he was a kid. likewise when he was in his late 20s he decided to learn to speak english, just because he wanted to. amazing footballer.

[Snookie]

Wonder if his son will move on. He's recently got into their youth team.

[Stevie H]

  Snookie said:

Wonder if his son will move on. He's recently got into their youth team.

get him in.

[Knox_Harrington]

  Stevie H said:

get him in.

YES! Another for the eugenics programme - get him to go with Kelly Dalglish once Gerrard's got a son out of her.

[Swipe]

Staggering. Wasn't aware of any of that.

 

Awesome footballer. Best defender of his generation and seems to be a top, top bloke.

[Stevie H]

  Knox_Harrington said:

YES! Another for the eugenics programme - get him to go with Kelly Dalglish once Gerrard's got a son out of her.

it's the same maldini junior we debated on here a while back who actually wanted to become an architect or fashion designer. father and grandfather decreed that he would become a stylish but laconic left-back-come-centre-back who was a master of the non-contact sliding tackle and f***ing well like it.