Reuters Soccer Blog

Does the captaincy really matter in football?

Here’s a question for you: Who is Manchester United’s official club captain?

The hullabaloo surrounding the England cricket skipper has shown how different the role is in the two sports.

I think Gary Neville is actually the club captain at United, but to be honest I’m not sure. He has been injured for most of the last two years so Ryan Giggs took over.

The Welshman is in and out of the team, though, so Rio Ferdinand has donned the armband the most recently. (The pair lifted the Champions League trophy in May, see right, with poor Gary left on the sidelines).

Let’s face it, it doesn’t really matter who the captain is on the football field. Technical areas are so large now that coaches can bark the orders and leave centre backs, traditionally the obvious skippers, to the defending.

In Spain, clubs often have several club captains and in Italy it generally goes to the most-experienced player.

Paolo Maldini, 40, is club captain at AC Milan but plays once every three games. If the captain was that important, wouldn’t they appoint one who played every game?

Where has the art of Italian defending gone?

During the 1980s and 90s, Italian defences were world-renowned as the toughest of the lot.

The word catenaccio became known in other languages and jokes about boring Italian teams winning 1-0 were all the rage.

The likes of Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini were hailed while Fabio Cannavaro was a rare defender to win the Ballon d’Or and FIFA world player after his stunning defensive displays helped Italy lift the 2006 World Cup.

Now everything has changed.

Cannavaro is coming to the end of the line after some stuttering displays for Real Madrid. Maldini, 40, is in his last season before retirement and only plays now and then when his weary body allows. AC Milan team mate Alessandro Nesta has missed the past two seasons with injury. (more…)

Who’s the best one-club player?

One-club players are rare and precious.

The likes of Paolo Maldini, Raul, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes might be handsomely paid by their clubs, but the fact they have spurned chances to get even richer elsewhere suggests they share at least some of the fans’ devotion to the colours they wear.

Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira recognised this recently when talking about his former Juventus team mate Alessandro Del Piero.

“What I like about him, and envy a little, is that he has played all his career for the same team and won everything with that team,” Vieira told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Indeed, Del Piero has a good claim to being the world’s top one-club man.

Five Serie A titles and a Champions League are part of the 34-year-old’s trophy haul at Juventus. He also holds the Turin club’s record for appearances and goals — he netted his 250th for Juve in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Reggina.

AC Milan’s Maldini has more Serie A and Italy appearances than Del Piero, Real Madrid’s Raul has scored more European goals and both have won more Champions Leagues, as have Scholes and his Manchester United team mate Ryan Giggs.