[acid911]

My point, exactly. I mean if you have the wrong pose, you can make people like Heidi Klum and Angeline Jolie look ugly. All in all, spoiled my day when I saw that link. Anyway, I was looking around my hard disk, and saw some pages on Paolo. Here are some extracts: (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

* Best known social past time: A meal in a good restaurant with family or friends, and then an early bed.
* The Giorgio Armani story: When the fashion designer attended one of the Italian team's training sessions prior to its departure for USA 94, he was asked if he would have liked to use any of the Italian squad as models for his clothes range. His unhesitating reply was inevitable --- "Maldini".
Excerpts from "Maldini, too good to be true" by Paddy Agnew:
* Milan and Italy left-back Paolo Maldini is almost too good to be true. Successful, glamorous, good looking and with estimated annual earnings in excess of 1.5 million pounds, he is not only one of Italian soccer's undisputed world class talents but also highly respected and liked within the Italian soccer community.
* The problem with Paolo... is that he's faultless. Maldini is a model pro. He is a model, yes, in his professional and serious attitude, in the fact that he is not a player to cause problems for team mates, his coach, his club, or indeed for himself. He is, however, much more than just a model professional. He is God's greatest gift to the pressurised team coach.
* Nonetheless, the point had been made. Class is no water, as Italians say, and Paolo Maldini has lots of it.

[dst]

Maldini a beast?? He is been voted as the sexiest player in Serie A every single season...

**** YOU!! (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[whoarethepatriot...]

I was flicking through some forums and found some discussions on Il Capitano. I think every single one of them was positive

Here are some comments

In the rather fetid pit that is Italian football, Maldini has been a shining light for years now - one of football's great ambassadors and one who will be deeply missed in the game.

Absolute legend - saw him play twice at the San Siro, against Roma for the title and against Barca in the Champions League. Even in his late 30's, and with no pace left, he was there marshalling the defence, and if you looked carefully he did not run after the ball but ran to where he knew the striker wanted to take it! Experience, poise, grace and talent in the most magnificent defender of my lifetime.

A true embodiment of the word LEGEND, and a true testament to what the term 'world class' means. Many salivate over performances of Premier League players today and label them the legends and world class, Maldini has played the best and beat them, from Maradona to Ronaldo. A true role model for not just budding footballers, but human beings as well.

All comments from English people btw

Edit: this atricle - bolded important/interesting bits. (its from the Telegraph (?) UK paper)

Paolo Maldini bids 'arrivederci Milan'
By Tony Francis

For a modest chap who prefers mum's pasta to Carluccio's finest, Paolo Maldini made quite a splash when he stepped into Serie A 23 years ago. He, more than Gunnar Nordahl, Gianni Rivera or Ruud Gullit, became the symbol of AC Milan. Not bad for a full-back, but then Italy reinvented the breed.

So what kind of man is this who can dispossess Diego Maradona and force Zinedine Zidane to seek refuge on the other side of the park? Maldini shrugs his shoulders as if to say: "Just doing my job." His acceptance speech after winning World Soccer magazine's player of the year award in 1996 went something like: "What, me? I'm a defender."

Most women would risk their long-term relationships for half an hour with him. He's impossibly good-looking, even by Italian standards; he's captain of the world club champions; a euro-billionaire and a male model. If pushed, he'll host your disco.

All right, where's the catch? Cocaine problem? Serial philanderer? Well, no, actually. Paolo Maldini is like one of those infuriating swots who wins all the school prizes and stars in the nativity play. Blemish-free. By his mid-teens he was DJ at a local radio station, where he fell in love with a stunning young model of Italo-Venezuelan origin called Adriana Fossa, later to become his wife. Italian footballers don't do ugly.

Giorgio Armani desperately wanted Maldini to model his clothes when he kitted out the Azzurri for the 1998 World Cup. The player declined. With a more acquisitive temperament and a pushy partner he'd have out-Beckhamed David Beckham by now. Can't you just see him as the new Marcello Mastroianni in a remake of La Dolce Vita?

As it is, Maldini is content to be a legend in his own dressing room. Even that can be embarrassing. He was surprised that an English journalist would think him important enough to write home about. Surely his forthcoming retirement didn't deserve the Sinatra treatment? On Saturday he played his 1,000th game for club and country when he came on as substitute in Milan's 0-0 draw at Parma, yet when I reminded him that he was the longest-serving one-club man in history, he had no idea. Maybe he is as institutionalised in his way as Rudolf Hess was in Spandau Prison. Or maybe AC Milan really is the greatest place on God's earth.

"Fantastic facilities," says Ray Wilkins, a team-mate of Maldini in the mid-Eighties. "When you consider that Milanello, the training camp, was probably built half a century before Arsenal's and Manchester United's you realise how advanced they are. The players' restaurant is the best in Milan."

If it hadn't been for the flashing smile, eyes the colour of Colombian coffee beans and that trademark central parting, the world's most decorated footballer would have been indistinguishable from the tifosi waiting for a glimpse of him at Milanello. The crumpled jeans, lived-in leather bolero and workaday trainers were regulation issue. At least they were designed to look like that. Apart from his collection of 100 pairs of jeans, most things about Paolo Maldini are understated: his outfit; his public persona; his football and his lifestyle.

He says: "There's nothing unusual about serving the same employer for 23 years." That might have been true in a Scunthorpe iron foundry but not turn-of-the-millennium football, where transfer bonuses buy you that villa in Dubai and loyalty is an indication that you were breast-fed too long.

In any case, he has been at Milan for 29 years if you include his apprenticeship. I asked Maldini whether he had been tempted in all that time to join Manchester United, Real Madrid or another big European club. "Not once," he replied unhesitatingly. "I have great respect for the Premier League, but why leave Milan? I've got everything I want here. Il Milan e la mia famiglia." We haven't heard an Englishman utter those sentiments since Pongo Waring was banging in goals for Aston Villa between the wars.

Maldini resisted my invitation to speak English, claiming he hadn't progressed beyond his aunt's pen turning up on his uncle's desk. I knew that was a porky because of a television interview I did with him during Euro '96. But I hadn't come to Milanello to argue, so Italian it was. I heard about his voluntary 30 per cent pay cut when the Milan president Silvio Berlusconi was feeling the pinch, and how he agreed to halve his salary from €5?million to €2.5?million for this, his final season, knowing that his troublesome knees would reduce his availability. "Despite the occasional pain," he said, "I still get pleasure from training and playing. Just as important, I still enjoy the camaraderie in the dressing room." Then he gazed out of the window at the manicured lawns of Milanello, edged with distant, snowcapped mountains and sighed: "I shall miss this place."

Why did he stay on after winning the World Club Cup against Boca Juniors last December? Wasn't that a more natural "out" than his 40th birthday in June? He replied: "They asked me to." Milan have a habit of looking after their ageing gems.

His father, Cesare, who captained Milan to their first European Cup title in 1963 and coached his son in the Italian national side from 1996 to 1998, told me that Sir Alex Ferguson spoke to Paolo when he was already in his thirties about the possibility of a lucrative swansong at Old Trafford. Paolo barely flinched.

Said Cesare: "He grew up at AC Milan. You can't change your birth sign." With five Champions League medals and goodness knows how many scudettos in his cabinet, who cares about being institutionalised? Curiously, in 126 appearances for Italy, he never won a title. Brazil beat them on penalties in that mind-numbing 1994 World Cup final and France squeaked past them in the European Championship final six years later.

He says: "They were my biggest disappointments. It's funny that as soon as I retired from international football, Italy won the World Cup."

It's a tribute, not to say a bloody miracle, that he's navigated paparazzi-infested waters and endured almost daily intrusions into his life without the merest hint of scandal. Not even a boozy night out. What's his problem?

"My father instilled in me the need to behave correctly on and off the pitch. I don't remember him as a player but he coached me as a boy and taught me how to be a man." He was evidently a good student. According to Wilkins: "Not only is Paolo a lovely fella, he also had the intelligence and humility to handle any situation. They're vital qualities for a superstar."

Just when we thought it was safe, there's a third Maldini in the Milan academy. And wouldn't you know, Paolo's 11-year-old son, Christian, is a full-back, too. I wondered about a possible repeat of last month's episode at Inter, where Robert Mancini gave his 17-year-old son, Filippo, a first-team debut in the Coppa Italia?

Paolo smiled: "That won't happen with Christian because I have no intention of becoming a coach. If he makes it, I'll be there to support him as a proud father." He continued: "I would like to stay with the club in some capacity but that's still to be decided."

The dynasty, you suspect, will go on and on. It could have been so different. Paolo was a Juventus fan at school.

This post has been edited by whoarethepatriots: Mar 1 2008, 01:00 AM

[Tennie]

(IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif) (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif) (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif) Forza Maldini!

Lovely quotes and a lovely article. Thanks for posting it!

(I always get a little smile when I see your sig, whoarethepatrios. I was at the game where that picture was taken).

[dst]

Why does it have to end?? It hurts me so much! (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

The dynasty, you suspect, will go on and on. It could have been so different. Paolo was a Juventus fan at school.

This, maybe surprisingly, puts a smile on my face every time I think of it. I really hope with all my heart that the dynasty will go on, it will make my life a lot happier!

We haven't heard an Englishman utter those sentiments since Pongo Waring was banging in goals for Aston Villa between the wars.

And here come Villa! (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)


...


Damn! I'm so sad right now... (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[misha]

What a great article (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/king.gif) Somebody like this is born only once in about 50 years (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[dst]

It was His last European game... I was crying like a ****ing ***** last night... **** me!! what the **** does the future hold for us? I can't imagine a Milan without Maldini... ever since I was born he was there... I have not seen Milan without Maldini... I saw his last European game and his last game for Milan will also come is a couple of months... **** **** **** I'm so sad right now... and I'm sniffling like a little child again as I type this...

[dst]

Wish I could turn back ****ing time...

(IMG:http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2681/maldiniis5.jpg)

[Zed.D]

It was His last European game... I was crying like a ****ing ***** last night... **** me!! what the **** does the future hold for us? I can't imagine a Milan without Maldini... ever since I was born he was there... I have not seen Milan without Maldini... I saw his last European game and his last game for Milan will also come is a couple of months... **** **** **** I'm so sad right now... and I'm sniffling like a little child again as I type this...

Calm down, man (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

[dst]

In his last European game:

Maldini - 7.0: Along with Nesta, the only Milan player to come out of this game with any credit. At the age of nearly 40 he put the rest of his team-mates to shame. Not the ending to his European career he was hoping for. A true legend.

... (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

[LaPalma]

Diashow with pictures from Paolos entire career (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
In an article the "kicker" (Germanys biggest magazine for football) finds only the best words for "Il capitano".
"If the entire team would have been as passionated as he was it would have enough against Arsenal."
"He's untouchable"

The article also says that on his debut against Udine in January 1985 Maldini had to wear the shoes of another player. They were to small for him so he was full of pain for the entire match. Didn't know that.
It's all so sad.....

[dst]

Diashow with pictures from Paolos entire career (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
In an article the "kicker" (Germanys biggest magazine for football) finds only the best words for "Il capitano".
"If the entire team would have been as passionated as he was it would have enough against Arsenal."
"He's untouchable"

The article also says that on his debut against Udine in January 1985 Maldini had to wear the shoes of another player. They were to small for him so he was full of pain for the entire match. Didn't know that.
It's all so sad.....

Thanks!! To me he is the greatest player of all time. You can't imagine how much I admire him!!!

[acid911]

Maldini - 7.0: Along with Nesta, the only Milan player to come out of this game with any credit. At the age of nearly 40 he put the rest of his team-mates to shame. Not the ending to his European career he was hoping for. A true legend.

(IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif) (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif) (IMG:http://cyrus.medialayer.net/~m1ke/milanfan.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/cry.gif)

[LaPalma]

Maldini is one of the very few players I don't only respect for his skills but for his personality too. He's not just a great football player, he's a great man too!

[whoarethepatriot...]

Its a shame his last match had to end like that, if everyone played out their hearts like Maldini did, we would be would conquer the world

(IMG:http://mediadb.kicker.de/news/1000/1020/1100/9000/slideshow/588251/image_slshow_einzel_0_7.jpg)

Grazie Mille