Part 2: Player Profile – Diego Milito
Since we already talked about Diego Milito and his abilities of scoring goals at European club level (in part 1), we now look further into his International career in part 2 as his profile continues. Diego Milito, the 31 year old is amazing at goal scoring and has scored very important goals for his club, Inter Milan and told the world that Jose Mourinho didn’t sign him for nothing. He scored an important brace for his club during the match against Bayern Munich, which was in the final match of the UEFA Champion League (the most important match for European football clubs).
Even though he was amazing at goal scoring, which is actually what a striker is supposed to do; the coach of Argentina, Diego Armando Maradona, did not give him a change at the FIFA World Cup 2010. The reasons why he wasn’t the “first choice” for the Argentinean legend were obvious; Diego Maradona preferred the Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain because he is young and has quick feet.
Higuain is only 22 and he is more versatile as he can play out wide and cut in with devastating results. With so much talent in the Argentinean youngster, Gonzalo Higuain, Milito was still just an option for Diego Maradona. As Milito had such a good goal scoring record in Italy, Diego Maradona called him up right before his amazing performance at the Champions League final. Diego Milito was a part of the Argentinean squad who went to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup 2010 but he was not included in the first team until their spot wasn’t clear in the pre quarter final stages.
Milito featured in the starting line-up when the Argentineans the European underdogs, Greece. Even though Milito did not score a goal, he still managed to pull off a great performance. Diego Milito was a part of the Argentinean squad with his brother Diego Milito (Barcelona defender) left behind.
Diego Milito has great goal scoring abilities, but he still did not really get a fair chance in the Argentinean squad just because of his age and because there was a lot of competition up front. However, Diego Maradona was later criticized for not letting his brother Gabriel Milito play, as he was left behind for no apparent reasons. Later on he realized his mistake when Argentina faced a humiliating 4-0 defeat against Germany; as all the young Argentinean strikers failed to score even a single goal and left South Africa in tears.
There are many fans in the world who still think that if Diego Milito was a part of the squad, he might have made a difference in the match against Germany, as he is more experienced than the young stars who featured in the match. Even though he does not have very quick feet, he still has the ability to finish a good through ball and he can combine well with the midfielders to make put his name on the score board.
Just because he was not a part of the squad, many questions were left unanswered as people pondered over the fact that he was not a part of the first team in South Africa. As his team failed to qualify for the semi finals and he was left on the bench as an anonymous player, the 31 year old even failed to qualify for the most prestigious award for a footballer, the FIFA player of the year and the golden boot; as his chances of winning these two awards were thrown out of the window by the Argentinean coach, Diego Armando Maradona, who recently lost his post as the manager of the Argentinean team.
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