You can talk about every ex (or should I say former) football player here !!

...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Djorkaeff announces retirement
Monday 30 October, 2006

Former Inter ace Youri Djorkaeff has announced his retirement from football at the age of 38.

The Nerazzurri legend began his career at Grenoble and was part of France’s 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 winning teams.

He joined MLS outfit New York Red Bulls in 2005, but they were recently defeated by DC United in the second leg of the Major League Eastern Conference semi-final.

“I felt that the time had come to call it a day,” said the midfielder, who was forced to watch the match from the stands because of an ankle injury.

“Physically I feel I am still on top of my game but mentally it's more difficult.

“I have no regrets and I achieved what I wanted to achieve in my career playing in all the top
Leagues of Europe.

“As to the World Cup win, that definitely was my biggest achievement – there was something magical about the team.”

Djorkaeff moved to the Serie A in 1996 when he joined Inter, where he scored 30 goals in 87 Serie A matches.

He also had a spell in England after leaving German outfit Kaiserslautern, playing for Bolton and Blackburn, before joining the New York Red Bulls in April 2005 for a single season.


Football Italia

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Won't cry ... nevertheless he was a good player !! Good luck !!

Leonardo, a legend with big plans and high ideals
(FIFA.com) 25 Apr 2006

As a player, Leonardo Nascimento de Araujo was always committed to social causes, and noted as much for his intellect as for his gifted left foot.

After hanging up his boots to become a director with Italian giants AC Milan, he founded the Fondazione Milan, an organization dedicated to community action, which he currently runs. Impressive enough on its own, but all the more so when one considers that, for the past eight years, he and former Selecao star Rai have managed a foundation in their homeland that now serves as an example to which other Brazilian NGOs aspire.
During his playing days, Leonardo won an impressive array of titles and turned out for some of the world's greatest clubs, including Flamengo, Sao Paulo, Paris St Germain and AC Milan. He also reached the heights in the green and gold of Brazil, lifting the FIFA World Cupâ„¢ at USA 1994 and finishing runner-up at France 1998.

In this exclusive interview with FIFA.com, the 36-year-old discusses current and future projects, the situation of sports administration in Brazil, and his greatest triumphs and disappointments. He also explains why Kaka's success at Milan has been such a pleasant surprise.

FIFA.com: Can you tell us about your work with the Fondazione Milan?
Leonardo: I'm a director with AC Milan, but I function as an ambassador for the club around the world. It's a wide-ranging role in which I represent Milan alongside institutional as well as commercial organisations. I do a great deal of marketing, and I'm also the General Secretary of the Fondazione Milan.

The Foundation was created in February 2003 and is 100% owned by AC Milan.
It draws on funds provided by Milan and other stakeholders in the club, such as fans, sponsors and officials. We try to make sure that each of the club's commercial areas gets involved.

In the last three years, the foundation has raised nearly two million Euros and financed around 25 projects in Italy and the rest of the world. The projects include the creation of a park for blind and deaf children in Ancona, the financing of games rooms in hospitals and the building of a creche for 150 kids in the Mare shantytown in Rio. We have donated a bus and several vans to the handicapped, and have also collaborated with UNICEF, donating 350,000 Euros to a campaign to vaccinate children in the Congo against diseases that are under control in most other parts of the world.

Our biggest project involved the construction of an entire emergency hospital in the Lombardia region. The Fondazione Milan emergency hospital is one of the best equipped in the area, and treats close to 25,000 people every year.

Were you surprised when Milan asked you to become active in this area?
They didn't really ask me. Rai (another member of Brazil's FIFA World Cupâ„¢-winning side of 1994) and I were already working with the Gol de Letra Foundation, which we created eight years ago and which is now a model for similar organizations in Brazil.

For a while Milan supported the Gol de Letra foundation, donating more than 200,000 Euros' worth of materials, and that gave me the idea of putting together a project for Milan. The club already gave us, and others, a lot of support, but in a sporadic rather than a regular manner. We decided it would be a good idea to create a structure for this initiative, and that's how the Fondazione Milan was born. Today, the Fondazione Milan no longer helps Gol de Letra, although it does continue to support other institutions in several countries.

Can you talk about your other project, the Gol de Letra Foundation?
It's a completely different concept from the Fondazione Milan. Gol de Letra works in the educational sector. We have two open centres for 1,150 children aged between 6 and 14, and 52 officials and 25 educators who provide supplementary schooling to children who are at risk.

Today, our supplementary teaching methods are being approved by government bodies, starting in the Niteroi area. This project has the potential to expand to meet the needs of a huge number of young people. Our dream has always been to design a project with the capacity to grow.

What are your plans for the future? You're a good example of a Brazilian 'big hitter', and your name has been put forward as a potential director of Flamengo or the Clube dos 13 (the organization responsible for representing Brazil's 20 biggest football clubs). Are you intending to run either of these organizations?
I have several plans. My relationship with Milan gives me a great deal of satisfaction, but lots of things have happened and I've received quite a few exciting offers.

Brazilian football needs a structural revamping. There's no use thinking about a job until that structure is in place. Nowadays, after years of poor administration, Brazilian clubs are in a tough predicament. The lack of structure makes it impossible to create new opportunities.

Those who are able to invest lack the confidence to do so, and even when they decide to go ahead, they have difficulty getting started as they don't have the power to make autonomous decisions. They end up getting entangled in very complicated politics, and all of that acts as a spanner in the works. I can't be part of a structure that functions like that. The aim today is to open all of this up to discussion.

Can you give an example of an offer you have received that interests you?
I can't deny my links with Flamengo. I was born there and I have a very strong relationship with the club, which is quite apart from any management role I might be considering. I believe that Flamengo could be the catalyst that sparks off the discussion I want to take place.

If a big club uses its management and partnerships successfully, a lot of good work could be done, including in the area of social development. If a city like Rio finds someone with the right communication skills and acumen, a person capable of shaking up the daily workings of a team like Flamengo, the club would be transformed from a symbol of failure into an emblem of success for the city. Nowadays, when you look at Flamengo and the city of Rio, you could say that they are mirror images of each other.

A well-run, successful, profitable, motivated Flamengo football club would go a long way to improving social conditions in the city and the state. That's my dream, but I think we're still some way from seeing it happen. I'm happy here in Europe, and my ideas and views are still developing. I still have a lot to do here.

You were one of those responsible for bringing Kaka to Milan. Did you expect him to become so successful so quickly?
In all honesty, no. It was impossible to predict. He had all the makings of someone who would become a key figure, not just because of the way he played, but also the way he conducts himself. He has a way about him, and a charisma, that people like.

Of course, what matters is his talent, his performance on the pitch, but everything fell in place for him at Milan, and he hit it off straightaway with the fans. All of that was utterly impossible to predict.

Who was your footballing idol?
My great hero was Zico. He was a role model in that he was a family idol, a decent, upright man and someone who made sacrifices. That was something we valued.

Zico was a talented player who pushed himself hard, a man with tremendous self-discipline who trained tirelessly. And, since I was a Flamengo fan, I used to go to see him at the Maracana stadium.

What was your happiest moment in football? Was it winning the FIFA World Cup in 1994?
No. I would say it was when I started out. Nothing compares to the early days of your career, especially if you're just 17, part of a dream line-up in the team you love and, to top it all, you end up winning the Brazilian league.

There's nothing like the 'rapture of youth'. You don't really know what's going on, and at the same time you're walking on air.

And what has been your greatest disappointment?
People will think it was when I got sent off during the finals of USA '94, but my saddest moment was losing the Final of France '98. It was much sadder, more frustrating and more complicated than the sending-off. Getting sent off was terrible too, but it was a personal matter. It was a sad chapter in a happy story.

Is getting sent off what you most regret in your career?
If I could have avoided it, I swear to God, I wouldn't have done what I did.

How did you react when you were effectively eliminated from the FIFA World Cup?
It was tough for me, but something curious happened. I was sent off after 43 minutes. When the team came back to the dressing room, I was there crying, but that somehow ended up motivating the team. Bebeto came up to me and said he was going to score, and he did. Then Branco took my place and became a critical factor in the win against Holland. After that, it was something I managed to get over.

However, the reverse in 1998 wasn't. That defeat was strange, horrible to experience, and frustrating, what with the Ronaldo situation, about which everyone knows all there is to know… but it was hard to explain afterwards. The whole thing stunk, and it affected us deeply.

And for me, that Final was special as I had a great relationship with France. It ended up being a nightmare, a terrible day.

But do you think France could have beaten Brazil even if the Ronaldo episode had not happened?
France were a great team, and what's more, they were playing at home. For them, it was the perfect Final. Hosting the last World Cup of the century, playing in the Final against Brazil, it was everything they wanted.

And it was a team made up of players already established at the best clubs in the world, and who demonstrated their quality on many subsequent occasions, not least when they won the European Championship (in 2000). Zidane was the best player in the world for several seasons, not to mention Blanc, Deschamps, Desailly, Bartez, Lizarazu, Petit... it was a fantastic team.