crazy4milan
Exotic Stevie G
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2003
- Messages
- 16,345
- Reaction score
- 2
- Fav. Players
- Maldini,Weah,Nesta,Dida
BTW, from El Pais, Spain, a week ago (all the things in italics are personal thoughts, sorry for the grammar/spelling mistakes):
“Being a defender at Milan is fun” (I guess not so literally translated means the best thing).
He has worn the Milan shirt for 23 seasons, he will leave football next season and he is clear that he won’t become a coach. The Italian defender remembers Baresi as an example, Nils Liedholm as the coach he learned the
most from and Maradona as the best player ever.
Paolo Maldini has 39 years and has been playing 23 years in Milan. He has
played 830 games with the red&black shirt and has won many titles. But in his face there’s no trait of battles. He doesn’t even have a wrinckle. He walks in the little room for interviews in Milanillo, he is wearing jeans, a shirt and a color scarf (I love color scarfs!). He looks like a 25 year old. Next to him, the photographer is adjusting the lights to regulate the intensity of it. Something must be going wrong, cause the room is left in darkness. “It’s broken, we have to change rooms,” suggest an employee of the club. Maldini gets close to the lights and after several try outs he is able to get the light back on . “You are the captain!”, the employee tells him. “It’s not a matter of being the captain, it’s about not giving up the first time!”, he answers (take the advice people).
Q. ¿What’s the first thing you think of when you just wake up?
A. If there’s sun or not. For me it’s important because if it’s raining my knees and articulations feel it. They hurt (ok, so he is old). So I wake up, open the window blind to see if I can start the day with good vibes. If I have them, I dedicate the morning to my stuff because now we train in the afternoon.
Q. What stuff?
A. When I wake up soon, I take the kids to school. If not, I enjoy the house or do my personal stuff (totally get him).
Q. Football has never been your first thought of the day?
A. Just indirectly. I’m more focus on the weather, from it depends if I can train better or worse.
Q. Milan isn’t exactly the most sunny city in the world. How have you been able to sep in such a high level for 23 years?
A. Playing in a big team helps a lot cause you play in important competitions and that stimulate you constantly. In a small team I would probably not lasted that long because without goals it’s impossible to keep going on. But I believe that the secret lies in how much you want to play and above everything the pleasure that is for you to play.
Q. You started playing at a really young age. Did you had time to study?
A. I had it till I became a professional. I debuted at age 16 and the first season I try to divide myself between football and school. But I only lasted for 6 months: that was impossible. I left it to dedicate myself entirely to football. If it’s already hard for a 16 year old kid, it was even more if yoy have to divide it with school. I had to wake up early, take the subway cause I did not have a drivers license, take the book bag, and a bag with the training cloth. It was too hard.
Q. Did you ever regret not having study?
A. TBH, no. I think one has time to read, inform, and get knowledge. Having become a footballer I don’t think I’m missing a piece of paper.
Q. Your older son has follow the family tradition and plays (as a LB) in the youth squads. When he comes back from training does he tells you the same stories you told your father?
A. More or less they are the same. There’s just one difference: the personality. I was really closed, I didn’t like to talk. My son, thankfully, is different and I don’t even have to ask him, he just tells me everything. It’s an advantage for me, cause that way I can help him out. Generally when he comes back from training he is more relaxed than when he comes from school cause he has understood that at 11 the preoccupations are not in the football field but in the classroom.
Q. Was it hard to have a father who was a both a coach and a player?
A. Yes, cause they talked a lot about my last name. The most incredible thing is that Cesare has not only been a father and a footballer, he was also my coach in the under-21, in the NT and even at Milan. So 15 years after my debut in Serie A, I still saw him there. I couldn’t free myself. However I believe that it was harder for me in the beggining, when some years pass, neither him nor I had anything to demonstrate.
Q. Some months ago, your father confesad that he did not gave you everything you deserved cause he was afraid that people would have talked about you as a daddy’s boy. Did you notice it?
A. It’s normal that he thought that. But I didn’t suffer. In fact, I prefer that he treated me with some coldness. In some way it was me who wanted to protect him. People talk without knowing. For example in the under 21 I had already played before my dad was the coach, so I didn’t had to demonstrate that I deserved to be there.
Q. Your father retired before you were born. What did he told you about that Milan?
A. Very little, eventhough he was the first Milan player to lift the European Cup. I haven’t been able to inform myself too much either: firstly because when I was little I had lots of curiosity ( I guess it was a typo in el Pais and he said he wasn’t curious) and secondly because there’s no many images from that time. He did talk to me about his teammates..
Q. Who did he talked about the most?
A. Nils Liedholm. They were teammates and he told me he was a great footballer, that placed everywhere in the field and everyone fell in love with his personality. I understood that years later when he was my coach. He was incredible.
Q. Why?
A. Cause he was an extremely important person for football. He was the coach I learned the most from. He taught me that to be a footballer you need technique, personality and most importantly, that football is a game.
Q. Liedholm made you debut. Do you remember what he said that day in 1985?
A. To be calmed. He knew perfectly that I had a lot of preassure because I was the “son of”. He confesed me that he would have made me debut 5 months earlier but he saw all the crazyness the media started and he prefer to save me from it. I had played a friendly on thursday and the media were waiting for me to debut the next sunday. Liedholm wanted to wait, I think he got scared a little and he tried to made me feel confortable. To the point that no one was waiting for my debut and he send me to get ready to come in and asked me were I prefer to play.
Q. It was in the RB. You never played that position afterwards.
A. Yes, but that day there wasn’t an alternative. He subbed the RB.
Q. You had placed all your life as a LB being right footed. Has it been hard to adapt?
A. A little yes. But it’s a matter of getting used to it. Besides, even if I didn’t had Ambidexterity, I was close to have it. In the youth teams I always played in the right, but I always tried to use both legs. I got better with the years
“Being a defender at Milan is fun” (I guess not so literally translated means the best thing).
He has worn the Milan shirt for 23 seasons, he will leave football next season and he is clear that he won’t become a coach. The Italian defender remembers Baresi as an example, Nils Liedholm as the coach he learned the
most from and Maradona as the best player ever.
Paolo Maldini has 39 years and has been playing 23 years in Milan. He has
played 830 games with the red&black shirt and has won many titles. But in his face there’s no trait of battles. He doesn’t even have a wrinckle. He walks in the little room for interviews in Milanillo, he is wearing jeans, a shirt and a color scarf (I love color scarfs!). He looks like a 25 year old. Next to him, the photographer is adjusting the lights to regulate the intensity of it. Something must be going wrong, cause the room is left in darkness. “It’s broken, we have to change rooms,” suggest an employee of the club. Maldini gets close to the lights and after several try outs he is able to get the light back on . “You are the captain!”, the employee tells him. “It’s not a matter of being the captain, it’s about not giving up the first time!”, he answers (take the advice people).
Q. ¿What’s the first thing you think of when you just wake up?
A. If there’s sun or not. For me it’s important because if it’s raining my knees and articulations feel it. They hurt (ok, so he is old). So I wake up, open the window blind to see if I can start the day with good vibes. If I have them, I dedicate the morning to my stuff because now we train in the afternoon.
Q. What stuff?
A. When I wake up soon, I take the kids to school. If not, I enjoy the house or do my personal stuff (totally get him).
Q. Football has never been your first thought of the day?
A. Just indirectly. I’m more focus on the weather, from it depends if I can train better or worse.
Q. Milan isn’t exactly the most sunny city in the world. How have you been able to sep in such a high level for 23 years?
A. Playing in a big team helps a lot cause you play in important competitions and that stimulate you constantly. In a small team I would probably not lasted that long because without goals it’s impossible to keep going on. But I believe that the secret lies in how much you want to play and above everything the pleasure that is for you to play.
Q. You started playing at a really young age. Did you had time to study?
A. I had it till I became a professional. I debuted at age 16 and the first season I try to divide myself between football and school. But I only lasted for 6 months: that was impossible. I left it to dedicate myself entirely to football. If it’s already hard for a 16 year old kid, it was even more if yoy have to divide it with school. I had to wake up early, take the subway cause I did not have a drivers license, take the book bag, and a bag with the training cloth. It was too hard.
Q. Did you ever regret not having study?
A. TBH, no. I think one has time to read, inform, and get knowledge. Having become a footballer I don’t think I’m missing a piece of paper.
Q. Your older son has follow the family tradition and plays (as a LB) in the youth squads. When he comes back from training does he tells you the same stories you told your father?
A. More or less they are the same. There’s just one difference: the personality. I was really closed, I didn’t like to talk. My son, thankfully, is different and I don’t even have to ask him, he just tells me everything. It’s an advantage for me, cause that way I can help him out. Generally when he comes back from training he is more relaxed than when he comes from school cause he has understood that at 11 the preoccupations are not in the football field but in the classroom.
Q. Was it hard to have a father who was a both a coach and a player?
A. Yes, cause they talked a lot about my last name. The most incredible thing is that Cesare has not only been a father and a footballer, he was also my coach in the under-21, in the NT and even at Milan. So 15 years after my debut in Serie A, I still saw him there. I couldn’t free myself. However I believe that it was harder for me in the beggining, when some years pass, neither him nor I had anything to demonstrate.
Q. Some months ago, your father confesad that he did not gave you everything you deserved cause he was afraid that people would have talked about you as a daddy’s boy. Did you notice it?
A. It’s normal that he thought that. But I didn’t suffer. In fact, I prefer that he treated me with some coldness. In some way it was me who wanted to protect him. People talk without knowing. For example in the under 21 I had already played before my dad was the coach, so I didn’t had to demonstrate that I deserved to be there.
Q. Your father retired before you were born. What did he told you about that Milan?
A. Very little, eventhough he was the first Milan player to lift the European Cup. I haven’t been able to inform myself too much either: firstly because when I was little I had lots of curiosity ( I guess it was a typo in el Pais and he said he wasn’t curious) and secondly because there’s no many images from that time. He did talk to me about his teammates..
Q. Who did he talked about the most?
A. Nils Liedholm. They were teammates and he told me he was a great footballer, that placed everywhere in the field and everyone fell in love with his personality. I understood that years later when he was my coach. He was incredible.
Q. Why?
A. Cause he was an extremely important person for football. He was the coach I learned the most from. He taught me that to be a footballer you need technique, personality and most importantly, that football is a game.
Q. Liedholm made you debut. Do you remember what he said that day in 1985?
A. To be calmed. He knew perfectly that I had a lot of preassure because I was the “son of”. He confesed me that he would have made me debut 5 months earlier but he saw all the crazyness the media started and he prefer to save me from it. I had played a friendly on thursday and the media were waiting for me to debut the next sunday. Liedholm wanted to wait, I think he got scared a little and he tried to made me feel confortable. To the point that no one was waiting for my debut and he send me to get ready to come in and asked me were I prefer to play.
Q. It was in the RB. You never played that position afterwards.
A. Yes, but that day there wasn’t an alternative. He subbed the RB.
Q. You had placed all your life as a LB being right footed. Has it been hard to adapt?
A. A little yes. But it’s a matter of getting used to it. Besides, even if I didn’t had Ambidexterity, I was close to have it. In the youth teams I always played in the right, but I always tried to use both legs. I got better with the years
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hope he does not retire!!!!
