One-Club Men of European football (Part I) – Paolo Maldini, Ryan Giggs
The European football arena is a market, managers buy players, sell them and try to keep important players from being put on the market. However, loyal players are rare in today’s football, but there are several who are considered loyal to their clubs.
The general ‘rule’ for the ‘one-club man’ is that the player needs to be with a club for at least 10 years. Here we discuss a couple of such top European footballers.
Paolo Maldini – AC Milan:
Paolo Maldini has served AC Milan for 25 seasons and is one of their most-respected stars. In his long career with AC Milan, he has played 647 Serie A league games and scored 29 goals. In all, he has played 902 games for Milan and has scored 33 times. Maldini
was undoubtedly the best left-back in Europe during his prime. He has also played as centre-back but his primary job was to secure the left wing.
He started his career with AC Milan at the age of 16 in the season of 1984-1985. Later in his career, he was promoted as captain and served his club and the international Italian team as skipper. He was considered the best leader in Milan and was nicknamed
‘Ill Capitano’, Italian for ‘the captain’. In his playing days with AC Milan, he helped the club win seven Serie A titles and five UEFA Champions League titles. He was part of the International team when Italy was runners-up in the FIFA World Cup 1994.
He was the first defender in the world to win World Soccer magazine’s annual World Player of the Year Award. In his acceptance speech he said, “A particular matter of pride because defenders generally receive so much less attention from fans and the media
than goal scorers. We are more in the engine room rather than taking the glory.”
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ryan-Giggs-c31985 – Manchester United:
Ryan Giggs is certainly one loyal Red Devil. He has played 20 successful seasons with Manchester United. He started his career as a left winger, but developed himself as an accomplished midfielder. His untiring efforts and high determination has helped Manchester
United win 11 English Premier League titles. Originally from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wales-c3041, Ryan Giggs joined the Manchester United senior team in 1990 and even with the greying beard, he is geared up to play for the team. He has made the most number of appearances for Manchester
United and was the first player to score 100 league goals for his team.
Over the span of 20 years, the mercurial star has featured in 605 EPL fixtures and has scored 110 goals. In total, he has played 862 games as a Red Devil and has scored 158 goals. His most successful Premier League season was in his early career when he
played 38 games and netted 13 goals in 1993-1994. So far in his career, he has won 11 league titles, two UEFA Champions League cups and many other honours. Even as a veteran in 2009, he won the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year Award.
Twice (1996, 2009), he was declared the BBC Sports’ Personality of the Year.
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