[whoarethepatriot...]

Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta has announced that he will retire from football at the end of the season.

The player, who will turn 41 in April, is in his 20th campaign with the club and has confirmed that he is preparing to say goodbye to the game and the club he loves.

“This will be my last year as a player, in five months I will definitely hang up my boots,” declared the stopper on Thursday.

The former Italian international had already been close to retiring two years ago, but Vice-President Adriano Galliani convinced him to extend his contract with the Via Turati outfit.

In his long career with Milan, Costacurta has won seven Scudetti and four Champions League titles in 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003. He has also won one Coppa Italia and five Italian Super Cups.

In the AEK Athens game on November 21, he became the oldest man ever to play in the Champions League, breaking the record previously set by Belgian goalkeeper Danny Verlinden.

Costacurta was capped 59 times by the Nazionale between 1991 and 1998, appearing in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups – although he was forced to miss the Pasadena Final because of injury.

Paolo Maldini, the only other player remaining from the glorious Milan squad guided by Arrigo Sacchi at the end of the ‘80s, has also stated that he might retire in June.

[Tennie]

Sad, but inevitable. I'm glad I had the good fortune to see him play in his prime (World Cup 1994).

Another of the legends is going.