Tribute to Billy Costacurta

Dear Billy,

Thank you for everything. You are with me when I started to know Milan, and to me, you are Milan. The last game in San Siro, to end our season which start horribly enough, and not just for this season, thank you for coming back when we need you back in 03'. Thank you for captaining Milan through back in September. Will be really glad to see your familiar face next season.

Seriously man, thank you for everything.

Thank you Billy, surely one of the greatest players ever in Milan.

When I go back in time, I reacall him leaving/retiring in 2001/2002 and we offered him a new contract,cuz basicly we had to (Italian Teams had their crises back than with the TV rights and the lack of cash).he came back and lasted for 5 more years to lead the team to one of the best moments of its history.....

True Legend.... Thank you

I will miss him. A true legend
One of the great things apart from his defensive qualities was that he was the best friend of Jon Dahl Tomasson in AC Milan

A Bad News
for those who dislike Paolo Maldini playing for AC Milan these days bcoz of his age ( ) I was watching the Uefa Champions League Magzine show on Ten Sports last night ( http://www.tensports.com ) They showed Paolo Maldini's interview abt the final and life in Milan. Paolo said that he wanted to play one more Final after this one in Athens , in Amsterdam next season but next season WILL be his last one I know most of fans won't like it but now u have to sit back and watch the best ever Milan player for one more season along side Nesta I LOVE watching them playing them both together. He is still hungary for more trophies , thats what I call the '2nd best player of all time' after Maradona

Plus Franco Baresi told abt his best defenders of this season's Champions League
2-Jamie Carrager
1-Paolo Maldini

According to him Paolo can play as a center back at the highest level even at 39. If Franco Baresi doesn' think that Paolo should not play bcoz he is aged then I just wonder why some AC Milan fans here don't wana see Maldini playing giving the reason of his age and blah blah..................

^ Why the hell are you posting off-topic nonsense in this thread?

Originally Posted by BMWTaylor

^ Why the hell are you posting off-topic nonsense in this thread?

Let me explain this one more time to you
Maldini is a romantic goodlooking boy
Constaurta is a romantic goodlooking boy
Don't you think it makes sense that we keep all the romantic goodlooking boys together ?
In my perfect world all romantic goodlooking boys will be [i]together

Ahhh Alessandro, Alessandro...Since the day I started watching the azzurri and Milan, what has struck me the most about Billy is his class. The man wreaks of Dior and cashmere! He carries himself with such style and grace....and I'm talking about out on the pitch!

I do have a story to share about Billy. I've been to Milanello twice to watch practice and at one point I could say I've met most of the team. Billy is one of the exceptions! Had 2 "experiences" with him on our first visit that to this day make me laugh...

On our--mine and my roomie's-- first visit, our friend Angelo said, as we pulled into the parking lot, that the players would not be there yet, we were half an hour early. We walk into the main building, meet Antore the classy old gent who runs the place, and he tells the 3 of us to go into the main room to wait. Imagine our shock when we walk in to find the entire team there, reading the sports papers, having coffee or juice, or playing pool or video games. Behind the bar helping himself to orange juice and rinsing out glasses other players had returned (yes, he was actually rinsing out glasses!) was Billy Costacurta. He was the second player I spotted in the first 2 seconds, and I think my jaw may have hit the floor to see him doing some menial task. Anyway, we looked at each other and he nodded and gave a quick smile, then he quickly moved from behind the bar to some other vantage point, put on a pair of sunglasses and proceeded to...STARE. Angelo introduced us to Zaccheroni who looked positively stunned to meet American fans. Then while Angelo and Antore were talking we decided to speak to Demetrio b/c my roomie had a tee shirt for him. All the while, yes, Billy continued to stare from his vantage point. When Demetrio left us, eying his new tee shirt, to go into the pool room where Paolo was shooting pool with a couple other guys, Billy took off like a shot to follow him! Later after practice, we were just hanging out by one of the 2 driveways that leads up from the gym/locker room building getting some autographs. Billy actually did stroll up near us but as he approached he pulled out his cell phone and started talking. Angelo just rolled his eyes and said he had seen Billy do that far too often around fans, pretending to be deep in conversation on his cell phone.

So when I think of Billy Costacurta, along with his great and steady abilities, I also think of him washing dishes and pretending to be on the phone to aviod giving an autograph or even just saying hello. He's just Billy...irrascible and amusing ol' Billy Boy!

This is what I love about Milan players in general. As persons they are very humble, even if our football style is very arrogant . As a fan that is one of the most heartwarming things you can ever witness in your heroes (and that's also partly why I can't stand Gila...mabye I'm judging him wrongly but could you imagine Gila doing the dishes like Billy did...but I digress ) It was a sad day when Billy said that he was going (although we were all mad with him for sending in a through ball for the other striker to score after our anger had subsided we realized that the one most hurt over what happened was our champ who himself was most disappointed by what happened. This is why contrary to all the rubbish mzk57 constantly spews out, I want Maldini to retire sooner than later. I want him to ride off into the sunset without a single blemish on his record. I don't want history to ever have to write :" After his appaling performance in ..... Milan's former Mr dependable decided to hang up his boots"
I want to tell my kids that "...After Leading Milan to their 8th CL trophy San Paolo retired...good night kids......yes the horrible Gila Monster was traded to the evil Juve and they all lived happily ever after"

Originally Posted by drucurl

Let me explain this one more time to you
Maldini is a romantic goodlooking boy
Constaurta is a romantic goodlooking boy
Don't you think it makes sense that we keep all the romantic goodlooking boys together ?
In my perfect world all romantic goodlooking boys will be [i]together

Should we talk about Shakespeare here?

Originally Posted by Samuca

Should we talk about Shakespeare here?

If all the romantic good looking boys in the world,
were one romantic goodlooking boy,
What a romantic good looking boy that would be!

If all the mzk57's in the world
were one mzk57.
What an amazingly mzk57 that would be

You bring up a few good points, drucurl.

Back when Bierhoff was with us, people felt justified in being as boorish and rude as they could about him. At least about his playing b/c hardly anyone had ever met him. I had the chance to meet him twice and found him to be an incredibly kind and decent man. The second time we were at Milanello was during his last season with us, when people were on his every move and nothing was going right for him. He saw fans and started towards his car with his head down, till he saw that I was taking his picture and then he came over and shook my hand and said "I remember you from last year--I'm sorry DC United lost." Pure class, I don't care what anyone says. So sometimes we ARE too quick to judge players, thinking they are a certain way b/c of what we see on the field. That's one reason I'm so dead-set against anyone makign personal trheats to any player--you don't know them, and would you have the guts to say even have the stuff you post here to their faces??

As for Maldini retiring now or next year. Any year that he decides to retire will be too soon. Who has been trained by him to lead this team as magnificently as he does? I don't mean now so much by his speed and his skills, but by his ability to direct the play and the players from his vantage point. I've been watching alot of Maldini clips lately and once again I was hit hard by the command he has out there. You might as well call him our on-field coach!

None of us has a crystal ball we can use to forsee Paolo's future, ie how he'll play next season. I'm one of his biggest fans and even I can't decide if I want him to retire or continue on. I do know that when he does hang up the boots, the squad will miss the very essence of Paolo Maldini--the calmnees he displays in the storm of competition, while awaiting the hugest of games, while answering questions about the very existence of the team. No one else has that paricular quality yet, that I can see. Maybe there is someone, maybe Rino, maybe Nesta...

Originally Posted by Debs

You bring up a few good points, drucurl.

Back when Bierhoff was with us, people felt justified in being as boorish and rude as they could about him. At least about his playing b/c hardly anyone had ever met him. I had the chance to meet him twice and found him to be an incredibly kind and decent man. The second time we were at Milanello was during his last season with us, when people were on his every move and nothing was going right for him. He saw fans and started towards his car with his head down, till he saw that I was taking his picture and then he came over and shook my hand and said "I remember you from last year--I'm sorry DC United lost." Pure class, I don't care what anyone says. So sometimes we ARE too quick to judge players, thinking they are a certain way b/c of what we see on the field. That's one reason I'm so dead-set against anyone makign personal trheats to any player--you don't know them, and would you have the guts to say even have the stuff you post here to their faces??

As for Maldini retiring now or next year. Any year that he decides to retire will be too soon. Who has been trained by him to lead this team as magnificently as he does? I don't mean now so much by his speed and his skills, but by his ability to direct the play and the players from his vantage point. I've been watching alot of Maldini clips lately and once again I was hit hard by the command he has out there. You might as well call him our on-field coach!

None of us has a crystal ball we can use to forsee Paolo's future, ie how he'll play next season. I'm one of his biggest fans and even I can't decide if I want him to retire or continue on. I do know that when he does hang up the boots, the squad will miss the very essence of Paolo Maldini--the calmnees he displays in the storm of competition, while awaiting the hugest of games, while answering questions about the very existence of the team. No one else has that paricular quality yet, that I can see. Maybe there is someone, maybe Rino, maybe Nesta...

I'm pretty sure that I'll tell Gila a thing or two if I ever meet him Of course I won't be as animated as I am here but I think I at least need to know what is his problem if he does have one. I never had anbything against Bierhoff, although I thought he wasn't playing up to potential. At least I saw him working his ass off. I just don't see that in Gila. Maybe I'm wrong...I just don't see it.

About Maldini, I know his heart bleeds red and black but really his legs are being taxed to the limit. Knee injuries tend to decide the way you will play. As much as Maldini's mind is unquestioned, his physical abilities are. We should never downplay the importance of that. For instance, few minds are as brilliant as stephen hawkings but you woulnd't expect him to be able to direct any team on a pitch would you. I am not in any way trying to be insulting to San Paolo but there comes a time in every man's life when he is no longer physically able to do certain things. We have to care for him as a man too. Do we want to tax Maldini's body to the point where he can't be of proper use to his family? He has a wife and kids....surely they must come first.

It is true that Nesta doesn't exactly have his charisma/ intelligence/abilities and Gattuso surely doens't have his class or temparament. But Milan is a GRAND club and leaders always arise within our ranks. Personally I think Kaka would be a brilliant captain, although ideally it should be another Italian

Costacurta and Michael Jordan retired as legends of the game. But they each sullied their otherwise stellar career by trying to compete at a level their bodies simply did not allow for. Let this not happen with Paolo. If he decides to stay on I am glad. Maldini's decline is not as drastic as Costacurta's and he presently is better than almost anyone.

Originally Posted by drucurl

I'm pretty sure that I'll tell Gila a thing or two if I ever meet him Of course I won't be as animated as I am here but I think I at least need to know what is his problem if he does have one. I never had anbything against Bierhoff, although I thought he wasn't playing up to potential. At least I saw him working his ass off. I just don't see that in Gila. Maybe I'm wrong...I just don't see it.

Listen, these guys know what the fans think and what the fans are saying. Yeah, I want to see any one of you sitting behind a keyboard making your armchair quarterback pronouncements about someone's ability walk up to that person and say it to their faces. You'd be better off taking the stand I take when it comes to Ancelotti--if Angelo ever offers to introduce me to him I'll just say "I pass!"

I don't think you get it. I WANT to know what the problem is. Until then i'll only be as you described. Maybe he has a family problem or some kind of physical problem. This is why I WANT to meet him. Maybe he really does give it his all. But nothing can be more concrete than hearing it from Gila himself