Filippo Inzaghi - AC Milan`s ageless saviour

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years”.

-Abraham Lincoln-

In today`s World, where the arrogance of the money-grabbing Wayne Rooney & Co. seems to be hogging the headlines day after day, it was great to see how a truly great, no-nonsense footballer just went on to do what he does best: scoring goals. 37 year old Pippo Inzaghi has surely made every 30+ year old men feel good about their age, as he yet again saved his beloved team from another defeat by the hands of Mourinho`s men, when AC Milan met European giants Real Madrid during a Champions League fixture on the 3^rd of November 2010.

The ageless Inzaghi was brought on to replace a clearly unhappy Ronaldinho, who has already publicly criticized Allegri`s selection methods in the past. Apart from the fact that Inzaghi did manage to save some blushes for the Rossoneri by scoring 2 goals in 10 minutes, I was also delighted that Ronaldihno`s substitution in fact has proved right. I am a great admirer of the gifted Brazilian and very much appreciate his contribution to the beautiful game, but I would always choose Pippo Inzaghi ahead of Ronaldihno. Inzaghi is a kind of player who seems to accept whatever responsibility he might be given, and at this stage of his career it is obvious that he could possibly only play about 30-40 minutes at the best of times. But one thing is for sure: whatever length of time he will be granted on the pitch he will always do his outmost best to serve the Rossoneri.

It is more important than ever to praise the right players for the right reasons at the right time. When the likes of Gareth Bale can rise from being fairly decent to “world-class” status within a matter of hours -because he had a good game or two- makes me think that the footballing world has surely gone mad. Only the English media can so carelessly pile the pressure on the otherwise reasonably talented player, and then quickly revoke the hastily given title couple of days later, when Bale was reduced to pretty much nothing by the hardworking Bolton players.

I have nothing against the Welsh kid; not only is he talented, but also seems like a nice lad. Hardly extraordinarily gifted  though, and I most certainly wouldn`t consider him in the same league as the truly unbelievable World-Cup – Champions League and Scudetto winning Inzaghi. Looking at the Milan striker`s spectacular stats puts it all into perspective: Inzaghi has been a professional football player for some 20 years, and his achievements might only ever remain a distant dream well out of reach for some of the so called world-class Premier League talents. I know the sceptics would say that Bale is only 25 years of age and he has still plenty of time to prove himself. Well let him exactly just do that before granting him with a legend`s status.

By the way I won`t even entertain the famous Alex Ferguson quote, declaring that the talismanic Italian striker “must have been born offside”. AC Milan fans would rather refer to him as over-enthusiastic at times, as for once, it is true that maybe more often than not Inzaghi does find himself well, offside. It`s certainly something that I would happily overlook from a player who -with a whopping 70 goals- has just become the all-time highest goal-scorer (together with Raul) in all European club competitions.

I know that AC Milan has effectively lost 2 points on Wednesday by simply being sloppy and unable to defend for the last 3 minutes of this hugely important game: however I could not help but feel extremely pleased about the fact that my team can rely on a truly unbelievable footballer and sportsman: Fillippo Inzaghi. At the end the beautiful game cannot be all about the trophies and the wins: you have your team for life and the most I ever wanted from my team was to play with dignity and pride, to have players whom we can truly be proud of. Regardless of the result I want the players of my team to be always able to leave the field with their heads held high, otherwise all we going to be is just a bunch of Rooneys and Mourinhos of this world.

Unfortunately Filippo Inzaghi`s future now looks increasingly in doubt after suffering a career threatening lesion to the cruciate ligament of the left knee on the 10^th of November 2010 while playing against Palermo. Milanello has confirmed that the player will be out for the rest of the season and given his age (37), this time it really could be the end of a beautiful career of an extraordinary player.

However so is the love for the veteran player at the Rossoneri that no more than a week after this serious injury Adriano Galliani has confirmed that he has every intention to keep Inzaghi at the club for as long as he wishes to stay and play. A day after Galliani`s announcement Super Pippo made an announcement stating that his recovery is going so well, he could be returning in April 2011.

“Youth has no age”.  Pablo Picasso