Football and Music

After winning the World Club Championship the AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini announced that he is finally retiring from playing.

I wanted to pay tribute to the footballing legend who was always one of the first names I added in my fantasy football selections.

Maldini played for 22 years for the same club and look what he won in that time:

Serie A: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004
Coppa Italia: 2003
Italian Super Cup: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2005
UEFA Champions League: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, 2007
European Super Cup: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, 2007
Intercontinental Cup: 1989, 1990
FIFA Club World Cup: 2007

Sadly no European or World Cup medals, but look at how many Serie A titles. Look at how many Champions League trophies. He will be unmatched by anybody for a long time.

I would imagine he’ll follow his Dad and go into coaching.
There is another generation of Maldini by the way - his 12 year old son plays for the Milan youth team.

- Henri Winter in the Telegraph did a good write up about him in this article dated 4th December 2007.

I wanted to find an appropriate song to accompany this tribute (Simply The Best obviously ruled out and banned straight away) and the one I thought of is from Pink Floyd who actually wrote it in tribute to Syd Barrett.

Taken from a live concert in Madison Square Garden in 1977:

» Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Live at Madison Square Garden)

Maybe not the best one. If you can think of a more fitting song post it in the comments.

I’m going to beat them to the punch by posting the obvious song which the red tops will use punningly in their upcoming battles with Capello.

Oh and of course they’ll throw in The Italian Job too.

- For the tabloid journo’s plus Fabio and his backroom staff - to help you improve your Inglese/Italian, you’d better bookmark this site.

It is sad that there was no decent English born candidate for the job, but what’s even sadder is that there isn’t any on the horizon either. Looking at the list of current managers in the football leagues, there are a few names coaching in the lower divisions that I hope will flourish in the future, but for now… Benvenuto Fabio !

Edit: I’m worried about the amount of cash the FA has wasted on all this - They gave £2 million to McSven for his failure to qualify for Euro2008 and now they are paying Capello £6.5 mill per year…

» Bananarama - Robert De Niro’s Waiting

Bonus song: - from The Italian Job soundtrack:

» Matt Monro - On Days Like These