on gaetano scirea

[applegnat]

I think it's fair to say that the constitution of the spine of the football team has changed in the last two decades. The libero, the regista, the enganche, even the traditional goal-hanging centre-forward - these are no longer tactical positions as profitable to teams today as they once were. Of the last three there are still fine examples

Comments

[stickmarionette]

What a brilliant post. I went into it knowing nothing about Scirea, but was still completely absorbed by it. He had an amazing career, didn't he?

Thank you for this. ♥

[applegnat]

Oh, I'm so glad! I didn't know anything about him myself, until I started digging a little deeper into the careers of old Milan hands and found him looming large over the Azzurri pantheon of legendary defenders. It's a shame there isn't more material about him on the Internet. He really deserves to be better-known. [But perhaps there's also a kind of dignity to knowing that his tragic death hasn't been manipulated the way it could have been.]

Thank you, Lee, thank you.

[stickmarionette]

[I can imagine, God.] I'm sure the hardcore Juve faithful love him, though. It's funny how even with these big clubs with their massive stars, the ones who are truly loved and remembered by the fans are sometimes the more inconspicuous ones. [Alright, I'm totally thinking of the results of that massive poll of Barca fans conducted a couple of years ago to find the club's best ever 11. Pep was the midfielder with the most votes by an insane margin, which was pretty telling, I thought, given the other potential candidates. From what I've seen, it's the same at other clubs too, although I can't quite cite the same kind of evidence for it. *g*]

[applegnat]

[Oooh. It'd be interesting to see what sort of results the rest of the poll threw up as well. I've definitely found what you say to be true, though -- and perhaps it's even easier in big, 'family' clubs in Spain and Italy, where so many of them retire into positions upstairs and stay associated with their clubs in some way. ]

[stickmarionette]

I went and found the results: Zubizarreta; Puyol, Koeman, Sergi Barjuan; Guardiola, Maradona, Deco, Laudrup; Ronaldinho, Cruyff, Romario

(This poll was conducted at the beginning of 2007. The presence of Deco and Ronaldinho on there really does put their departure into perspective, doesn't it? *sighs*)

You're right, I think the continued association with the club (you never really leave clubs like that, do you?) does help.

[applegnat]

OMG! Please tell me Rivaldo and Stoichkov at least got a spot on the bench? And I'm so pleased to see Laudrup on there [although much less so for Maradona, genius and all].

It really hasn't sunk in for me, the fact that Deco will be gone next year. And I have a tiny flicker of hope for Ronnie that just won't die out, in spite of the myriad of reasonabe doubts he awakens in the mind at the moment.

[stickmarionette]

From memory, Stoichkov did, but there were just so many candidates for the forward positions [no place for Ronaldo, even], they ended up splitting the vote pretty evenly.

Puyol got by far the most number of votes, and I remember him saying in his interview that he wished Rivaldo got more recognition - ah, here.

[Personally I think Rivaldo's just brilliant, one of the best players of the last generation, but he never really convinced the faithful that he was one of them, and even I have to admit he's a bit of a jerk.]

Laudrup is a weird case - the fans were so, so angry when he left to go to Real, but I think that bitterness has pretty much dissipated after all these years, so he's quite well-regarded these days.

Seeing Deco in a Chelsea kit will be so jarring. [I'm just angry about Ronnie now, not sad, but I'm sure when he goes I'll watch some clips and really mourn him properly then.]

[applegnat]

It's too bad Rivaldo's personality did him so much damage -- can you imagine anyone else doing the things he did and not making it into the hearts of his fans? Why, that hat-trick against Valencia alone is enough to make grown adults weep, and after all these years.

And it's interesting, about Laudrup -- I wonder if there ever was a definite turning point, or if things just somehow melted away? If Figo goes to the Camp Nou in an Inter jersey I wonder what it will be like, now.

Seeing Deco in a Chelsea kit will be so jarring.

*makes Deco face of pain in agreement* I'm so happy that I will get to see him every week on my TV, but the fact that it won't be in blaugrana. Ulp.

[stickmarionette]

The fans of both Barca and Real can be awful like that - I can't think of any other club where a legend like Hierro would get abused the way he did by the fans for getting slower because he was getting on in age, for example.

[I still watch the clips of that hat-trick sometimes. God, he was so awesome.]

Things do seem to be better now re: Figo, but I think it will be some years yet before he can be easily found drinking coffee with Pep on the waterfront in Barcelona. *g*