While not as modern or famous as previous entrants Scholes, Maldini and Ronaldo, the fourth living legend is more important and remarkable than them all. After all, not many players are capped for three different countries… [Read the rest of this entry »]

After over 1,000 senior appearances, five European Cups, 126 caps for the Azzurri and nearly a quarter of a century at Ac Milan, Paolo Maldini considered retiring. The world was ready to pay tribute to one of the world’s greatest defenders and a beacon of the word “loyalty”. Maldini had other plans. As Ac Milan were knocked out of the Champions League by Arsenal in March this year, Maldini decided to play on for one more season. World football was glad of another 12 months from the legend.

The son of another Italian legend, Cesare Maldini, Paolo was destined to play for one team only. Born in Milan, he was snapped up by the AC youth set-up aged only 10. He stayed there until he made his senior debut, aged just 16, against Udinese. He worked his way into the starting eleven and, coinciding with the club’s first Scudetto in nearly 10 years, became first-choice at left-back.

AC Milan grew from strength-to-strength with the young Maldini, and the influence of Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard helped to win back-to-back European Cups, a feat that has not been repeated since. The team would go on to win the trophy three more times in Maldini’s career, two as captain, with two different generations of squad, showing his influence, adaptability and determination.

He has played on the biggest stages and won the biggest accolades. He was the first defender to ever win the World Soccer Player of the Year award, previously held for attackers. If ever a modern player was worthy of being listed amongst such greats as Beckenbauer, Pele, Maradona or Puskas, it is Maldini.

He has maintained a great value to AC Milan, even as he approached his 40th birthday. He has given so much to the club that they plan to retire his number 3 jersey when he finally calls it a day. It will only come out of the shadows for another Maldini.

That goes to show the level of respect the club has for its favourite son. And it is fair reward for something that is all too absent in todays game: loyalty.

It’s not every day that a book goes on sale which really encapsulates what it means to support a football team. The most famous one is perhaps Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, where the author relates Arsenal’s success and failures to his own personal life.

Up until this point, there has been very little to rival this 1992 bestseller, despite several attempts to imitate the above, using other football clubs in place of Arsenal. It’s therefore refreshing to pick up a copy of “Here We Go Gathering Cups in May”, a book written by seven hardcore Liverpool fans, recounting various European Cup final adventures that they undertook.

One of the excerpts is written by playwright Dave Kirby, who COS recently caught up with to hear his thoughts on the publication and all things Liverpool. He explained how HWGGCIM came about:

“My mate Nicky Allt, author of the LFC best selling book, ‘Boys from the Mersey’ came up with the idea. He wanted a unique format of seven authentic, diverse scouse voices. Each author was cherry-picked by Nicky and I with a prerequisite that they must have been to the final that they were writing about (no third voices) and that their stories were cutting-edge…no nicey, nicey shite.”

Cutting-edge is certainly the way to describe it, especially when you read about Kirby’s desperate attempts to raise enough money for his trip to Rome in 1977. This was of course Liverpool’s first European Cup triumph and, for the author, the five-day round trip from hell was more than worth it to see the mighty Reds win the trophy.

“Thousands of Reds made the trip by train without any change of clothing, no food or drink and no sleeping facilities. The trip is often referred to in Liverpool as ‘the five day nightmare’, which it would have been if we’d have lost the match – but for me…winning ‘Big Ears’ for the first time turned the nightmare into a magical dream and epic adventure.”

The other contributors to the book also tell some fascinating tales, while you may recognise some of the names involved. Author Kevin Sampson has the tough job of covering the Heysel disaster, Farm singer writes a fantastic account of Rome in 1984, while John Maguire and Tony Barrett’s stories of Istanbul and Athens will appeal to the younger Liverpool fans.

The book is published by Canongate Books Limited and should be available at all good bookstores (along with the likes of Amazon online). Even Everton fans will be gripped by the seven stories, while the red half of Merseyside will enjoy the nostalgia trip provided by “Here We Go Gathering Cups in May”.