On Sunday he passed the captain of AC Milan, Paolo Maldini, in his nine hundred and first Game for the Rossoneri from his audience and his stadium. Maldini was eight times for his club in the finals of the European Cup of Champions and UEFA Champions League five times, he could lift the most important trophy in European football in the air. Seven Italian Cups, five European Super Cups. two World Cups, five Italian Super Cups and one Cup victory mark the 25 seasons that he went through with AC Milan. Much has changed since 1985, when he for the first time for the same team as his father Cesare Maldini aground: Christian Klar and Brigitte Mohnhaupt were then sentenced, Bangemann will succeed Genscher Chairman of the FDP, sunk by the French secret service, the Greenpeace ship " Rainbow Warrior "in Auckland Harbour and Sat 1 is the first time on the air. And Paolo Maldini is still playing football, next Sunday for the last time as the successor of captain Franco Baresi.

There should be a special day. At 30 degrees in the shade was filling the San Siro stadium long before the game starts, Panini gave away a special edition of the sticker album with all 24 frames Maldini, 70,000 white Maldini scarves provided prior to the start of a creepy atmosphere, dozens of hand-painted banners bore witness to the importance of this player for a club that has won with Maldini everything there is to win the European club football. The players entered the AS Roma with a T-shirt honoring the place of AC Milan with a new shirt for the 2009/2010 season, the first without "Il Capitano", since I'm a fan. Everything was ready for a moving soccer game, a proper party for one of the few remaining football players from another era, another generation. Zanetti and Alex Del Piero had already expressed himself respectfully before the game, Roma icon Francesco Totti took him after the game in the arm. Sign of respect for Maldini, the 10th since its Age plays for Milan - from opposing fans, sporting rivals, referees and journalists. Never heard a derogatory remark, or an outburst of rage against the enemy, no stories of visiting disco or fun evenings with photo models, no club changes, no change of rumors, no "home stories". Paolo Maldini was an exceptional athlete who has 41 years, still one of the best defenders in Serie A, not without reason he urged coaches and club owners to the last, but still a season to be extended.

A player who has written Milan's history, the colors of a football has kept his loyal and long experience has led the team in 24 years in 8 Champions-League/Landesmeisterpokal-Finals and 7 championships. Respect? Such a player would need in the era of modern football, where a team for each player is only the springboard for the next, highly doped contract and keep the fans as the true guardians of color and tradition. Just those it has managed to ruin the farewell of Maldini. Even the much-hated city rivals Inter fans honored Maldini in the last derby with applause and a beautiful banner. Even the local Curva Sud, the former seat of the most loyal of the loyal tifosi adopted, their captain with two striscioni:

"Per i tuoi 25 anni Tues gloriosa carriera sentiti ringraziamenti because Coloro che hai e Pezzenti definito mercenaries."
"Many thanks for your great career of 25 years whom you've called mercenaries and scoundrels."

"Grazie capitano sul campo campione infinito, ma hai mancato di rispetto a chi ti ha arricchito!"
"Thank you, Captain. On the square inaccessible champion, but you lacked respect for those who have made you rich. "

Respect? It is known that the ratio of Maldini and Curva was not just a quaint, that the Curva but it did not take, such a player to spoil the party right, just sad. It can change anything, that 70,000 fans standing after the game applauding when he was on the stadium round opened - one of four sides of the San Siro, accompanied him with a huge Franco Baresi-shirt with the number 6 and chants such as "Franco Baresi" or "There's only one captain." Neither the visibly angry Carlo Ancelotti nor his presumed successor in the chair coach, Leonardo, Maldini could move to make the originally planned ceremony in the square. He fled to the locker room.

Of course, Maldini has never been so close to the tifosi like Gattuso, Ambrosini, Inzaghi and Shevchenko, who had returned. The "Number 3" has become noticeably more restrained when it came to an intimate relationship with the fans. There was also certainly owe to his influence that the players of AC Milan never came under the fan curve, but after victories as defeats have waved up from the center circle. And her captain are very well met with a certain coldness. Maldini was serious Fanproteste center after a home defeat to Parma 1996th It was his first game as captain, Milan, under the leadership of Fabio Capello stands by the grandiose promises made before the season on a disappointing 10th Place. After a poor performance turns the Curva - followed by the rest of the stadium - back to the playing field and begins opening goal for Parma, smoke bombs and throwing eggs on the square. There were serious disagreements even after the miserable abgeschenkten Champions League final in Istanbul 2005th The Curva Sud accused the players to have left to go in the second period (at 3-0 lead) and identified the captain as the responsible person of the team would need to call for more concentration. Not very elegant and his gesture, which invited the fans into silence, as this after the game (despite the miserable game, the team has supported more than 90 minutes) was their legitimate anger at the ridiculous appearance of the team against Werder Bremen did manifest.

Nevertheless, the events after the game unworthy. For all perceived differences we would have this iconic AC Milan give a fitting farewell, but, unfortunately, small-mindedness and bigotry have ruined this beautiful day. And so the legendary Paolo Maldini as one enters from all teammates and opponents, respected footballer with an exemplary career - among the catcalls of "his" curve. And when someone like Maldini deserves no respect, so who will? Maldini, who himself salutes the northern curve of Inter, Maldini, who in 901 games in the battle never withdrawn his leg, Maldini, the most beautiful symbol of the last two and a half decades of AC Milan. Yes, I expect no love, to me other players are likeable, but the captain was too brittle and too close to the people - but respect?

Giancarlo Capelli, capo of the Curva Sud explains the pitiful spectacle like this:

"Non si di una trattava contestazione, era una soltanto precisazione by fargli capire come la pensavamo su alcune sue affermazioni e negli anni comportamenti sati. Nel giro di campo, poi, ci sono stati episodic non belli, ma in ogni caso non era una contestazione verso Tues lui. "
"It was not Fanprotest, it was merely a clarification, to make him understand how we relate to some of his utterances and actions of recent years. At the stadium round, there was less then a few nice episodes, but in no case was the one Fanprotest. "

And I had the Curva also on any other day so conceded. On any day except the 24th May 2009. Also, I would have liked to have seen Paolo from time to give fans a greeting would have been entitled under the curve, and I was furious at his to his mouth out index finger after the inexcusable performance against Werder Bremen, and I do not think Maldini for an infallible man. But the little things are ridiculous against the background of such inimitable career of a player who has honored its colors, as hardly anyone else in the history of modern football.

"I am proud to be one of those," he commented after the game. And I can not blame him. Never again will a player at Milan, the number "3" to wear the jersey - and it's almost impossible that will ever come back a captain in his footsteps. The Curva has let a great opportunity to show size and humility, instead of poisoning with an unworthy "settlement" a big soccer day. Many will remember when ultras demand respect for themselves and once again the self-inflicted offside against the vast majority of other fans in the stadium spwielt only those in the hands of the Ultras want anyway displace from the San Siro. Thank you for 25 incredible years, Paolo, you would have deserved better.

A few months ago already said Maldini this sentence:

"San Siro è stato semper magico. Adesso stiamo perdendo questa magia"
"San Siro was always a magical place. Now we are losing the magic. "

Summary of events

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMCYr_nKwtY