Football Fever

A thread where all football "fanatics" are welcome...



On account of recent events, the foreword to this thread could hardly go without mentioning one of the all-time best players - Paolo Maldini (A.C. Milan, Italy), retiring at the end of season after an exceptional career, 25 successful years and over 1000 competitive matches.

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Paolo Cesare Maldini (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpaːolo malˈdiːni]; born June 26, 1968 in Milan) is a seven time Italian Serie A, five time Champions League, five time UEFA Super Cup and one time FIFA World Club Cup winning Italian footballer who is often considered to be one of the greatest defenders to have ever played the game. Having spent his entire club career at Milan, Maldini still to play at the very highest levels of international club football at the age of 40, an extremely rare feat in football. He is well known for his electric pace, the ability to execute precision tackles and his leadership influence on and off the pitch. The son of Cesare Maldini, he is the most-selected player in the history of the Milan Club, the Italian Serie A league and the Italian national team. He is the most capped player for the Italian national team with 126 caps.

Maldini became the first defender ever to win World Soccer magazine's annual World Player of the Year Award. During his acceptance speech, Maldini called his milestone "a particular matter of pride because defenders generally receive so much less attention from fans and the media than goalscorers. We are more in the engine room rather than taking the glory."


On May 17, in the Friuli stadium Maldini played his 900th official match for Milan in a league game against Udinese. Maldini's last match in San Siro was on May 24, in a game lost 3-2 against Roma. His last appearance for Milan, and his last game as an active player is due on May 31, 2009, in the last match of the season, against Fiorentina.

Milan plans to retire his number 3 shirt, but it will be bequeathed to one of his sons if one makes the club's senior side. His eldest son, Christian, currently plays for the Milan youth squad.

P.S.:
Long awaited European Champions League final is due today.

With Manchester United and F.C. Barcelona both cultivating an attacking approach, this is most likely going to be a cookie. Yummy...

ftw i thought u were talking about american football...

alex_xiong wrote:

ftw i thought u were talking about american football...

Nah, I'm talking about real football...

Hah admit it, Turkey's legendary win against Croatia (Last year) was epic...

Cross747 wrote:

Hah admit it, Turkey's legendary win against Croatia (Last year) was epic...

Yes, Cross. There should be a book written about that victory, such was it's epicness...

Who do you guys think is better?
Cause really... i prefer Ronaldinho!!!!!!

MçNutNut wrote:

Who do you guys think is better?
Cause really... i prefer Ronaldinho!!!!!!

I prefer neither.

My opinion is that in his best years Ronaldinho used to be a world class player, inspiring other players and football fans worldwide. The fame didn't do him much good, though - his love for joys of night life (and I have no doubts that he was tasting those joys with gigantic spoon since he was so popular) caused that he was absent from majority of club trainings during his last season at Barcelona. Since he was inspiring his side even to such degree that he became a playmaker, the whole team had suffered when he lost his magic touch and fitness due to unprofessional lifestyle. Thanks to him, Barca paid a heavy price in that season with fairly average performances and at the end Rijkaard was blamed for the whole farce Ronaldinho's unprofessional approach had caused. So it was that Rijkaard lost his job and Ronaldinho left.

Now "reborn" Barca is celebrating a treble this season (spanish league + spanish cup + champions cup) and much praise goes to Guardiola, but I personally believe it has more to do with Ronaldinho's departure to Milan and not so much with Rijkaard getting fired or Guardiola building the team for honours.

Same story with Ronaldo - he's (still) a great player, but unprofessional. Despite having a contract with Manchester United, which legally keeps him at the club for agreed period of time and that for outrageous weekly salary, he keeps whining about Real Madrid and his desire to be transferred there, bringing unrest to both his side and manager Ferguson. Very well, if his wish is to swap one of the most trophied and renowned clubs in the world for a team of overrated harlequins which Real is becoming, that's fine for me.

Out of these two, I prefer Messi...

Ya lol Messi is my favorite player i just wanted to see who people would prefer...

MçNutNut wrote:

Ya lol Messi is my favorite player i just wanted to see who people would prefer...

Messi's got an amazing potential. No wonder many are comparing him to Maradona himself.

So Confederations Cup winners are now known - it's Brazil with a tight 3-2 (0-2 at the end of the first half) victory over USA.

Nice match. Americans turned out to be a major surprise of the competition. Incredible determination.

Fenerbahçe won their match with Beşiktaş and got the Turkish Super cup...yay!
http://fotogaleri.ntvmsnbc.com/NewVersion/galeri.aspx?galleryId=1273

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Quote from NTV sports:Beşiktaş was the most successful team of the last season.Beşiktaş had eliminated both of its important rivals in the Championship league.

Fenerbahçe had a bad season.When it was just about to get some good points,it started losing them.When they needed to get rid of the Bresilians,was it a good tactic to again rely on them?

YES IT WAS!!!

why couldn't you just put soccer(football) fever to save me the embarrassment of almost posting American football stuff here lol.

Cool Coyote wrote:

Cross747 wrote:

Hah admit it, Turkey's legendary win against Croatia (Last year) was epic...

Yes, Cross. There should be a book written about that victory, such was it's epicness...

forgive me but what was so epic about it!!! anything that epic is something i must know about or forever ponder it in my mind for ages...