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Arrivederci Paolo Maldini

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    Arrivederci Paolo Maldini



    Paolo Maldini's last home Serie A game for Milan was spoiled by a late Francesco Totti goal that gave Roma a 3-2 win at the San Siro. The win secures a Europa League place for Roma and means Milan must play fourth-placed Fiorentina next week for the third automatic Champions League place.

    Martin Jorgensen's last-minute equaliser for Fiorentina at Lecce means his side cannot be overtaken by Genoa, who won 3-2 at Torino, Juventus won 3-0 at Siena, putting them into second place behind champions Internazionale.

    Maldini, who made his Milan debut as a 16-year-old substitute back in 1985, has won seven Italian league titles and five European Cups with the club. John Arne Riise opened the scoring for Roma just before halftime, but Massimo Ambrosini brought Milan level in the 75th. Jeremy Menez restored Roma's lead five minutes later, Ambrosini drew Milan level again, but Totti stepped up to score the winner. Ambrosini, who had kept his side in the game, was then sent off two minutes from time for arguing with referee Andrea De Marco.

    Their coach Carlo Ancelotti refused to be drawn on his future, despite regularly being linked with a move to Chelsea in the summer when Guus Hiddink steps down.

    "Today was Maldini's goodbye and it is not the moment to talk about my future," Ancelotti said. "We have still got to qualify for the Champions League. We had it in our hands and we are nearly there."

    All Serie A matches were preceded by a minute's silence for a 19-year-old Vicenza fan who died overnight after falling six meters from a barrier during his side's 4-0 loss at Parma. The supporter was leaning over the barrier when he slipped into a gap between sections of the ageing Stadio Tardini. The match was held up for several minutes while he was taken away by ambulance. There was no suggestion anyone else was involved in the fall.

    #2

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      #3
      He will be back as the manager soon IMO. He was born to do it.

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        #4
        Posted by Amy Lawrence Friday 22 May 2009 14.23 BST Guardian



        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.

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          #5
          he's an absolute legend. respect for him.

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            #6
            Arrivederci capitano and grazie mille!
            One of the last of the greats of Serie A... one of the last of a dying breed of footballers to whom loyalty and team pride means more than one's own ego. Love you to bits and good luck

            Try and get back second next week for your capitano Rossoneri!

            PAOLO MALDINI'S TROPHIES
            · 7 SCUDETTI
            · 5 CHAMPIONS CUP/CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
            · 3 INTERCONTINENTALI CUPS/FIFA WORLD CUP
            · 5 EUROPEAN CUPS
            · 5 ITALIAN SUPER CUPS
            · 1 COPPA ITALIA

            PAOLO MALDINI'S RECORDS
            · MILAN APPEARANCES IN OFFICIAL GAMES: 900
            · APPEARANCES IN SERIE A: 646
            · APPEARANCES IN UEFA CLUB COMPETITIONS: 174
            · APPEARANCES WITH THE AZZURRI: 126
            · INTERNATIONAL TROPHIES: 13
            · CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALS: 8
            · QUICKEST GOAL IN A CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL: 53’’, ISTANBUL 2005
            · TOGETHER WITH CESARE, ONLY FATHER AND SON TO WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AS CAPTAINS, WITH THE SAME SHIRT (CESARE 1963, PAOLO 2003 AND 2007)

            ALL OF PAOLO MALDINI'S DATES
            20 January 1985 - Serie A debut
            21 August 1985 - Coppa Italia debut
            18 September 1985 - European Cups debut
            12 November 1986 - Under 21 National team debut
            4 January 1987 - First goal in Serie A
            11 February 1987 - First goal with Under 21 National TEam
            28 October 1987 - Olympic national team debut
            31 March 1988 - National team debut
            19 February 1989 - 100th match in Serie A
            4 October 1992 - 200th match in Serie A
            20 January 1993 - First goal with National team
            17 February 1995 - 300th match in Serie A
            29 March 1997 - Symbolic goal of Paolo Maldini with the national team: at Triese with the Azzurri coached by Cesare Maldini
            25 April 1999 - 400th match in Serie A
            15 March 2003 - 500th match in Serie A
            22 March 2003 - 501st match in Serie A
            13 May 2007 - 600th match in Serie A
            16 February 2008 - 1000th official game between Milan and national team
            16 May 2009 - 900th official match with Milan shirt

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              #7
              Originally posted by liverpooltj View Post
              He will be back as the manager soon IMO. He was born to do it.
              He does not want to manage - he's already said: management in football brings together all that is bad about the game...

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                #8
                omg, embarassing stuff from their fans.

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                  #9
                  Indeed

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                    #10
                    absolute legend, one of the best in the game ever.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by lickedlollipop View Post
                      omg, embarassing stuff from their fans.

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                        #12












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                          #13
                          Those banners from the Ultras were disgraceful

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                            #14
                            That's ****ing terrible

                            Maldini
                            Like blood on iron

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                              #15
                              What's the story behind the banners and animosity?
                              .
                              Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.



                              May the Lord bless this post.

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