Part 1: Player Profile – Diego Milito
Diego Milito, the 31-year old Argentinean can be compared to wine; he gets better with age. Usually people of his age are struggling to find their feet as they are leaving big clubs or usually sitting on benches, the Argentinean striker is busy writing his name in the first team of the Champions League winning team and in the history books.
Diego Milito started his career from Genoa and the amazing change from Genoa to Inter Milan was a big step but he was able to adapt to it as he joined Inter Milan right before his 30th birthday. Some fans raised doubts about the “newly signed” striker but he was the player who scored goals in Spain against Italy. Diego Milito was the player who finished at number 2 in the Capocannoniere charts; behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But the problems came in when people raised the questions about his form in his “first ever” big club.
The questions were well answered by his goal scoring. He scored 30 goals in all competitions and they were enough to give a shut-up call to his critics. Later, many even treated him as the “best striker in Europe.” With David Villa being the “purest” scorer in Europe, Milito is definitely second; as he proved with his amazing goal scoring form, last season. He can score against small teams and even the ones that have a big name in the history of the game.
Inter Milan had a 4-2-3-1 formation when Jose Mourinho was in charge and it was Diego Milito who was playing as the main striker of the team. With players like Samuel Eto’o and Mario Belotelli in the squad, it was still Diego Milito who was given the role of being the “soul striker” of the team. While Milito was busy scoring goals upfront, it was Wesley Sneijder, Smuel Eto’o and Goran Pandev right behind him to help with amazing assists. These four would score amazing goals throughout the season as Milito was able to score 22 goals in only 33 Serie A starts while he also gave 4 assists during the season.
Milito did not manage a hat-trick throughout the season but he did score a lot of important goals for the Serie A winners. He managed to bag himself a goal against AC Milan while he provided two useful assists when they thrashed their Milan rivals with a 4-0 victory over them. He even scored against Rossoneri in a 2-0 win and also against Siena in mid-May as he was the only player who scored in that match to help his team win.
Inter Milan faced tough competition during the Champions League and it was Diego Milito who helped his team by scoring amazing goals. This was the first time in his career that he was playing at such a high level and he still managed to impress his fans and came out on top while he scored on six different occasions. It couldn’t have been better for the Argentinean man as he scored against the English Champions, Chelsea, the Spanish Champions, Barcelona, and also against the German Champions, Bayern Munich.
The amazing 31 year old was able to score in all the important matches that his team had as he found the net against all the teams that Inter Milan faced during the knockout stages of the Champions League. It was benefitting for Inter Milan and Milito, both as he found the net twice and scored a brace against Bayern Munich in the final match of the Champions League which was taking place in the home of Real Madrid, Santiago Bernabeu. He helped his team win the match 2-0 while both the goals came from his right foot.
It was after 45 years that Inter Milan won a European competition and it was all with the help of their “new” signing, Diego Milito. Later on, Milito also scored a goal in the final of the Coppa Italia against Roma which took place in early may, as he played a huge role in the Italian club’s historic treble winning season in 2009-2010.
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