<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>THIS IS MY JERSEY</span>

Daniele Bonera spent his youth dreaming of someday sporting Milan’s jersey and now that he has it on he doesn’t every want to take it off


Daniele Bonera spoke about his passion for Milan from the afternoon press conference at Milanello.

Champions league draw: ‘After yesterday night, we have every reason to believe that we can reach the Champions League final. There were some surprise, like Barcelona’s elimination, but nevertheless there are great squads remaining. I believe that this group has the strength to be able to win. Honestly, Roma are great team and I would avoid them, Liverpool and Manchester UTD are also teams to be feared.’

The derby: ‘We will prepare for this really important game starting today. It has been a really intense week with Chievo and then the 120 minutes yesterday. We must recover the right mental energy and in this respect we have one day less than Inter, but four days should be enough. Inter will certainly be very angry because they didn’t play poorly in Valencia, they just lacked the goal. It is an exciting game and we want to demonstrate that there is nothing to the thirty points between them and us. Anything can happen, but I am only hoping for a great show.’

Bonera and Milan: ‘This has always been my team in heart and, now that I wear this jersey, I want to do all that I can to be able to remain here as long as possible. I had to adjust to the new environment and other things, after my move here from Parma. Everyone really supported me during that time and they didn’t pressure me but instead allowed me to work at my own pace. I have always believed in my potential and all of this has helped me grow. I am going through a period of good form and I want to continue on this path.’

His position: ‘I was born to play central defender. I also played full-back with Parma, but believe me when I say that there is a difference in playing that position with an average team like Parma and a great team like Milan. Ancelotti’s approach takes a certain kind of push on the flanks and in this sense I don’t think I can give what my team-mates in that position can.’

Bonera and national duty: ‘Not to be presumptuous, but I think I will be called up. I started playing for the Azzurri Italian national side when I was very young. I think that being able to be part of this group here with Milan will help me to develop to my full potential. In this sense, my model remains Paolo Maldini. He is great to learn from. He played an extraordinary game against Celtic even though he was still experiencing some physical problems. Maldini is fundamental for us.’

I'm dating myself a bit in saying this, but I've been struck by a bit of nostalgia after watching Bonera's play the last few games. He reminds me more than a little of the old days of Gli Invincibili of the early 1990s. And he's just getting better.

We got a great CB for the next ten years!

Definately one of the best buys we've made in a long time.

His tackling remind me of Nesta at times, and he's still 25.

He was a good player at Parma but he exceeded all expectations and grew up more and he is still improving.

He is living the dream

We need one more Bonera...to be precise in the 2009 transfer window. And then we are set.

i think that bonera and maldini or kaladze make are v.gd together but i cant wait to see him and nesta!!

He's a good player and give him time and he will be GR8 and Maldini said : he's Milan Future

Bonera has been called up for the NT

Yup. Really nice for him.

Yeah go bony GOOD luck and remember no red cards

Happy Birthday!! Hope you will continue to improve...

He is 26 now. If he continues to improve as he did last year, we won't have to look for someone to replace Maldini.

He couldn't have been born then.. That'd make him 21.

Yes, it should be 1981

Hope he has a successful career at Milan

source

Why is this stupid ***** so extravagant in her articles? I'm not even going to bother about what she says as long as she keeps expressing herself in this manner.

...



the boy is quality and that's final.

That blog is ridiculously harsh on him. Yes it was a rash and reckless tackle, but it was the first and probably last time he will do it for Milan

OMG i want to see a blog on Materazzi if she thinks that tackle was harsh look what he does "Susy Campanale urges Milan and Italy to drop Daniele Bonera" Where the hell does she get off saying stuff like this how bout drop her from Channel 4 .com

(from the ticker on gazzetta dello sport)

MILANO - Il giudice sportivo ha inflitto due giornate di squalifica a Daniele Bonera (Milan), espulso sabato sera nel corso dell'anticipo della trentatreesima giornata del campionato di Serie A perso dai rossoneri per 3-2 contro la Juventus a Torino.

[Two game ban for Bonera for the red. Could have been a lot harsher.]

SHOULD have been a lot harsher in my opinion. It was an utterly reckless tackle.

If they banned him for three games, I'd have been pretty much okay with that. Something that makes him think twice before making such fierce tackles again. You don't associate these sorts of tackles with the red part of Milan - only the blue one.

Plus, I hope the kid (is that the right word for a 27-year-old) lears from his mistakes. We could use his skills. There aren't many good CBs you can find these days, let alone great ones. Just ask dst about Kaladze.

I guess they understood that it wasn't intentional.

Bonera is not the kind of player who makes those kind of tackles, like somebody mentioned Materazzi, or Roy Keane in the past used to do.

He isn't that type of person who would injure someone out of anger like matrix. He mad e a mistake and he realised it and appologized to momo after the game. Matrix kills sheva and torres and then says the red was BS. I doubt this will happen again.

That blogger is just an idiot. Some people know nothing of football and are just ignorant and talk thinking their oppinion weighs in the overall situation. The two match ban was the correct choice because he wasn't doing it intentionally and he had probably made the mistake and couldn't pull out in time. They are human afterall not machines you can say oh they are not allowed to do these kinds of things.

And who's gonna disagree with him? I think of all the footballers I've ever seen, Matrix is the last person I'd want to cross, the guy is about 10 foot tall, and crazy!

are you kidding me? if i were pro i would cross him everytime i saw him. Hes a coward and a p*ssy. Zidane showed the world how much of a piece of trash he is.

Well, I think most people would have gone down after what Zidane did. I certainly would of, if only to get him sent off. And Matrix a coward? Why do you think Zidane is the only one to react to things he does?

Matrix is a big guy, I couldn't believe how huge he really was when I saw him live. And what he does isn't cheating or anything anyway. If he makes a foul and gets away with it, it's bad refereeing. If he makes a foul and gives away a free-kick or gets a card, then he's received his punishment. It's a part of football!

If ones does something like that intentionally then in my opinion he should be banned from playing football for at least one year!

Bonera should have been given a 4 match ban. At least that's what I think.


Provocation happens in every football match, if players reacted at it then football would be a war zone...

When you intentionally try to kick someone out of the game (and you can do that without getting red carded) it is cheating in my opinion. I don't think Materazzi did anything wrong in the WC Final since we're talking about it but he's a disgusting figure for many other things he has done.

I think it's a case of "if the refs are doing anything, why stop?". He is also punished for what he does, because of his name. Do you think if any other Inter player did what he did at Anfield that they would have been sent off? Not a chance. The fact that he's Materazzi the refs autmatically jump to the conclusion that there's intent and such.

Then again, I am a huge fan of the guy, so I am a little biased.


I think Arsene Wenger has hacked onto dst's account!

You are right about that.

Anyway I don't have any problem with the guy now. He's just another average defender and he's calmed down. But what he did in the past (not only against Milan)... boy I think I even wished he died.


You should get help!


I disagree with 90% of what Wenger says. But if he said that, I'm with him. To intentionally do something that could risk another athlete's career is prohibitive and should be heavily punished!

in that incident materrazzi did what almost every footballer does even zidane. ive' seen when i played played, i see it with little kids in my brother's U12 team! it's part part of the game whether you like it or not. the only thing cowardly was zidanes reaction, it takes a bigger man to just ignore it and zidane din't.

I think the funniest thing is not what Matrix does, but when people try to do stuff to Matrix, he just completely blanks them. It winds them up so much.


Nah, nothing wrong with liking a player.

You guys may want to tar and feather me for saying this, but I don't hate Materazzi. I think he's a thug and a wind-up-merchant, but he's a very effective one and players like that can be very useful to teams. I won't cheer for him when he's wearing the evil jersey, but I absolutely support him when he plays for the Azzurri. I'll also add that he gets points from me for doing a good bit of charity work in his spare time.

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I poop my pants when i see Materazzi he is giant, like a big ogre who is determined to p!ss off a player enough to get them kicked out (Zidane) but i do agree also with tennie above when he plays for italy and scores goals (WC) i am forced to like him

ya i agree. we can easily get carried away with hating players but we forget theres a person wearing that jersey.

Okay, back on topic.

Bonera must've been incredibly repentant.

Gazzetta's ticker is incorrect; I just checked on the Lega Calcio site and Bonera's ban is for ONE game, not two.

link

Bonera's ban explanation is at the bottom of page 2.

That's incredible, I agree with dst on the 4 game ban. But 1!? We got away with it this time, let's hope that's not the only good thing to come!

I have been a big fan of Bonera since his Parma days, and as a Bonera lover i think the ban is fairly lenient. Two is acceptable, three may have been preferable

Will he be available for the derby now?

Yup. He (and Ambro) will only sit out the Reggina game.

Come on....it's not like he's 2 meters tall. It's only 1,93 meters, that's tall but he's not a giant like Jan Koller.
Besides that....never liked Matrix too much....

ONLY 1.93, I'm tall, but not that tall! He's one of the bigges guys I've seen play football, that's for sure. Definitly as big as Carew.

in football maybe but 1.93 is not that tall.

Bonera is 6ft 3/4, which is a very good height for a defender

Still not as tall as Kalac though...

I've seen bigger guys but not many that's true. But when I take a look at the German NT for example 1, 93 is not that extraordinary as Mertesacker (1,98) and Borowski (1,96) are taller than him with Ballack (1,90), Kießling (1,91), Rolfes (1,89) and Gomez (1,89) playing in his league.
But on another point of view you're right as Matrix definetely looks a lot taller than Ballack for example cause of his "unnormal" body form (just like Crouch does).

You must either come from a land of giants or watch too much NBA!


Yeah, that's true.

Maybe Bluesummers is agiant himself. I would say I'm tall (so do others ) but 1,93 m is definetely tall as the average european male is about 1,80 m.

I'm 6 foot 2/3. so thats maybe i donno 188 cm sorry in NA we go by feet inches