Alexandre Pato Fans

Ac Milan’s Alexandre Pato was voted best youngster at Italy’s annual football oscars.

Fabio Quagliarella scored the best goal of 2009. The video below shows his strike.

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As expected, Milan have managed to sign Monaco’s GoalKeeper Flavio Roma, who has signed a contract until the 30th of June 2010. Milan signed him for free, after he and Moanco agreed to cancel his contract

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This news emerged from the Official Milan website, with the news that Milan’s GoalKeeper Zeljko Kalac has agreed with the Milan managment to rescind his contrat. We wish Kalac the best in the rest of his career, and thank him for his hard work in the previous years.

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Looking back at the last game of the previous season, no one would have imagined that that was the last time we see Milan with out some serious changes. Sure, everyone knew it was Maldini’s last game, but it turned out to be the farewell game for Ricardo Kaka’ and Carlo Ancelotti as well.

It was obvious after that game that Milan were keen on a rejuvenation stage, and so it would prove to be.

Milan decided to let go of their coach Carlo Ancelotti, whose replacment was Milan’s very own Leonardo. Milan also sold their star player, Kaka’, for a whooping price that helped cover the debt. Unfortunately for Milan, one of their very hot prospects Yoann Gourcoff decided to stay in Bordeaux which is a big loss for the Rossoneri. Of course, also Maldini left the team after he retired, and hopefully he’ll rejoin Milan occupying a staff spot. Milan also lost the services of the likes of Shevchenko, Beckham, Senderos, and Mattioni who all went back to their respective clubs after their loan contracts expired. Milan extended the co-ownership for Paloschi with Parma for one more year, which will help the young Italian gain some needed Serie A experience. Milan sold Romano Perticone to Livorno and also loaned Livorno Marcos Diniz, and loaned out their young italian defender, Darmian, to Padova for one year hoping he can gain some more experience. In addition to those, Milan also loaned out Pierre Aubameyang to Lille

As far as paying is concerned, Milan didn’t pay much to get a few players. Their recent aquisition, Klass-Jan Huntelaar was their most expensive buy of the summer, costing a reported price of about 15 million dollars.

Two other aquisitions came in the form of two young forwards, Zigoni and Berreta, who Milan hope will develop in the youth teams in order to help the first team later on in the competitions. Milan also bought the other half of Di gennaro’s contract from Genoa, and now they own all his contract; so was the case with Abate who Milan bought the rest of his contract from Torino. The other sigining was the American defender, Oguchi Onyewu, who came for free as his contract with his previou team ran out. There were also some players coming back from loan like Marco Storari and Massimo Oddo, two veterans who will hope to give Milan a push towards the titles. Thiago Silva, Milan’s ,Winter signing, can also be considered as a new signing since he didn’t get to play when he was signed due to the NON-EU regulations.

Thiago Da Silva

Milan do not look set to stop now, as Galliani has said that Milan are working on cancelling Kalac’s contract and bringing in Monaco’s 35 year old Goal keeper Roma instead. Milan also look set to buy one or two young fullbacks, with Lazio’s Di Silvestre and Spurs’ Gareth Bale look like the nearest targets, but buyin a new fullback may depend on the sale of Massimo Oddo who Milan believe may do them no good this season. Galliani also promised the Milan fans he would buy a young Brazilian midfielder; with most reports claiming it will be Hernanes.

With the Transfer window still open, and Leonardo assuring Milan have their eyes set on a few players, and with one NON-EU spot still free, one would want to wait and see to find out which players will wear the Rossoneri shirt next season.

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Below is a clip of the marriage of Alexandre Pato and Stephany Brito.

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As the end draws near, reality strikes every single Milan fan out there. Yes, possibly the best defender to have ever stepped a foot on the green pitch will retire and leave this beautiful game, but he will not leave alone as million hearts will accompany him even after he ends his career; the watery eyes, the goose-bumps, and the Maldini chants will see him off the San Siro pitch on Sunday, in his last official game on the Milan Home-Ground.

Memory brings us back to Baresi’s last game, and how can one forget the thousands fans applauding for Franco as he took the pitch for that last time, and then as Baresi left the field practically in tears as he got possibly one of the most outstanding standing ovations one would ever witness. Memory also brings us to another legend, Marco Van Basten, the most memorable seen at “his night” was the emotional few moments that Capello went through as he saw himself cry as the Van Basten was preparing himself to close the curtains on his career. Then memory brings us to Billy, who retired just a couple of years ago, and took a part of the Milan Soul with him; a legend who can easily categorize into a “Milan Symbol”.

The common thing about all those players retirement is that there was always someone who came from that generation that was able to keep that torch high and lit; a player that witnessed all those moments, and will soon follow their lead. Only problem is that now one asks himself who will take the torch from here? Maldini is the last fruit of the most fruitful football tree one has ever witnessed. The likes of Rino, Ambro, and Kaka’ will most probably hold the torch together to continue Milan’s Journey, but there will always be a part of Milan that will remain missing as long as Maldini isn’t there; at least that will remain the case until Christian, Maldini’s eldest son, steps on the San Siro pitch as only then will the gap be filled and Paolo will again be present on the field.

Much has been said about Maldini’s defensive abilities, leadership qualities, and his amazing presence on the field that basically it has been carved in the heart of every Milanista out there; so I decided to narrate it in somehow a different way. As I watched those millions compilations that were dedicated to those defensive abilities and amazing offensive runs, I didn’t see the Maldini that I still see week in –week out in the Milan shirt. There was something different, despite all the music, despite all those amazing shots, those videos were just below quality; something no one would even imagine as those videos would make a player like Darmian look as good as someone in the caliber of Billy Costacurta. Those videos just couldn’t show his presence on the field, couldn’t show the atmosphere he created, couldn’t record him cheering up his team mates and trying his all to keep Milan as a unit on the field; those videos were just never good enough; as Maldini’s qualities were never only those a very talented player possesses. Maldini was just much better to be shown in a video, his career was far more impressive to be “summarize” in a clip.

Now we come to what has Maldini achieved, I was reading the other day the number of trophies he had won, and quite frankly I laughed my way through them. How can a player have more Champions League (Champions Cup as well) trophies than teams in the caliber of Barcelona, Manchester United, and say Inter Milan. Then, I remembered it was Maldini I was reading about, not just any normal player, he was just a gift from God.

Then when we come to the number of games he has played in the Milan shirt, yeah the number 900 for some might not seem all that, but I ask those people to close their eyes for a second and just imagine being in the dressing room for 900 times, wearing the same jersey, seeing people come and go, being there through the bad and the good, those numbers would seem like the months a married couple would stay in love with each other; yeah at times one would think that Maldini is married to Milan.

There’s even more to this story, Maldini was able to play with and against the best players of the past 25 years or so. Maldini played along side Van Basten, Baresi, Billy, Sheva, Weah, Cafu, and many other players who have achieved stuff one would only dream about. There’s also the players Maldini has faced, names that were capable of doing the impossible. Maradona, Ronaldo, and Zidane are among the whole lot of great players Maldini has played against.

What can more one say about a player who was praised by someone like Ronaldo who said that Maldini is the greatest defender he has ever played against? What can a person say about a player that terrified the best strikers to have ever played football?

Waiting for next Sunday, as hard as it is, one would think of what the Milan fans have prepared for that night? What might those fans do to honor such a player? Well, one thing for sure is that no matter how creative they are, the eyes will only be set on Paolo from the start of the match till Maldini leaves the stadium.

To think of someone who has served a team for 24 years, and has ever since been a Milan favorite, is something beyond one’s ability to understand.

As the curtains prepare to close on one of the most glorious football careers ever, every fan out there prepares a box of tissue next to him, knowing that the next time they watch Milan in the San Siro it’ll be without Paolo Maldini.

Bye Bye Il Capitano!

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Player ratings:
Dida - N/A. Can you really rate him when he was rarely tested?Nevertheless, he did show signs of increasing self confidence.

Jankolvski - 6 - Had some good runs there and here, made some good moves, but at times didn’t click well on the defensive side, and his tackles were not always accurate.

Maldini - 7.5 - Maldini showed yet another great display. His tackles and interceptions were all at time. He barely did any mistake in the game.

Favalli - 6 - Favalli was quite good today, nothing great, but was good. He almost scored an own goal, but the post saved that.

Zambrotta -6.5- The Normal Zambrotta I must say, usual runs, usual penetrations, pretty normal. Nothing outstanding, but was no were near being bad.

Beckham -5.5 - Beckham wasn’t clicking today. His crosses were awful and never lead to anything good. His tackles were bad as well, and his temper got to him.

Pirlo - 7 - Yet another solid display by the playmaker. His movement was great, and most of his passes were intelligent, accurate, and fast.

Ambrosini 5.5 - I’d compare him to Becks today. He was no where near his form, and his tackles were no good. Nothing much to add.

Kaka -8- We saw the old glimpses of Kaka’, great runs and great penetrations. Although, today the most impressive thing about him were his 1-touch passes. Solid performance by Kaka’.

Seedorf - 6.5 - His passing was good. nothing much to add.

Inzaghi - 6.5- He takes the credit for scoring the goal, with a very nice one touch, but he should have got at least one more goal.

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We are looking for contributors  to keep the site updated with the latest topicalities.
Contributors don’t need much time, but they must above all be fans of Alexandre Pato. You can help us by placing pictures, writing articles and placing video’s.

Please send an e-mail to jd5550 [at] hotmail.com if you’re interested.

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