Whoa. What the Hell Happened to Maldini?
By: Martha | September 20th, 2007
Paolo Maldini, normally among the calmest men on earth, is really, really pissed off today. And it’s not at, say, Ronaldo for being fat, or Gila for being useless. Instead, he’s furious with Milan supporters, who he feels don’t actually live up to that whole “support” thing.
The immediate motivation for his mini-rant was apparently the relative silence at the San Siro during the Benfica match (it better be only that, and not the ovation they gave Rui Costa), but Maldini’s statement is very broad, taking in pretty much ALL home matches, and actually blames the fans for the team’s failure to win the the home leg of the Milan derby last season. Damn. Basically, this is Roy Keane’s rant against Man U fans — without the prawn sandwiches, perhaps, but with the same amount of intense anger. Maldini’s pissed at everyone, from the Ultras in the Curva to the folks in the boxes: Everyone who sings “We have Milan in our hearts” and then settles down to quietly take in match, making the San Siro feel like “a neutral pitch.”
Wow. Something we don’t know about much have gone down to motivate this — I mean, Maldini’s not made a rash, thoughtless move in 20 years, and he’s sure not going to start now. And It’s not as if this was a post-match press conference in which he was super amped up or something: He went to the press to put it out there, so the whole thing was clearly very calculated. Thoughts, Milan fans?
Also: Milan host Parma on Saturday. Do you think this rant will be enough to sell the San Siro out? That’s a lotta seats, and a not particularly exciting opponent.
Edit: For what it’s worth, those in the know suggest this is connected to the Ultra leaders who were arrested ahead of last year’s Champions League final and not allowed to travel to Athens. Their reaction has apparently been to stop leading chants, trying to punish the club for having the nerve to want “just football.” It’s so rare for teams to publicly contradict their major fan groups that it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to this (clearly very authorized) confrontation.
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