Football United

The Rossoneri walked away with the honours on Oscar night for the 38,000 professional footballers worldwide who form FIFPro - the global umbrella organisation of players’ unions. Five were named in the team of the year and one of those, Paolo Maldini, said from the San Siro: This award is for what we did last year not fifteen years ago! It is the second time in a matter of months that Milan have received recognition for their endeavours, coming on the back of the UEFA Champions League Awards 2004-05. There were ten Rossoneri nominated in all, with Nelson Dida in goal, Maldini at left-back, Marco at right-back, Alessandro Nesta in central defence and Andriy Shevchenko in attack, all making the side. Chelsea had three players in the team: Terry, Makelele and Lampard, Barcelona two stars, Ronaldinho and Eto’o while Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane made up the eleven. In total, forty national players’ associations are accounted for, with only Milan representing Italy. The reason for this being the number of times Milan have been in the Champions League final in recent years and the number of players standing on the podium for the Golden Ball. It is something to be proud of and, above all, a great honour for the defence.

Source: acmilan.it