The former Rossoneri striker between memories and future: “Max is a guarantee, he still knows how to make himself loved by the group. I haven’t played for two years and I don’t feel the call of the ball: I want to enjoy my son without getting lost even a moment”
Alexandre Pato is four years less than Modric, who in September will blow on the 40 candles of his birthday cake and in a handful of days he will be in Milan to start the adventure at Milan. Yet the Brazilian farewell to football feels he has already given him. Still not officially, but in his head the sacred fire is no longer there. “When I was at San Paolo and my wife Rebecca, my son was waiting for, for the first time I realized that going to train was no longer a priority: I wanted to be all the time next to her. And now that there is Benjamin, I want to see him grow, not to waste even a moment of time with him. He is a year and a half and already kicks the ball”. Good blood does not mind. Pato, the golden boy from Milan by Silvio Berlusconi, Barbara’s ex -boyfriend, the daughter of the great President Rossoneri, is a boy of almost 36 years to whom the injuries have removed an important slice of his career, but who has not lost the desire to smile. In these days he is on tour with his former team as Legend: he participates in events, autograph signature, wears like a footballer and is together with many people who love. But above all he feels that he kicks the ball is no longer his priority.
Yet he has a physique still as a player …
“I am trained in the gym and with tennis. I like it and I am quite competitive. When I played at Orlando City, I went to see a tournament and I met Federer as he made a workout. I was almost afraid to disturb him and instead as soon as he saw me, he called me on the field. It was an incredible emotion”.
The call of the ball no longer feels it?
“Honestly not. I played the last game almost two years ago and I don’t have much desire to play, even if I consider myself in a transition period, in which I am deciding what to do. I still like football, but my family is in the first place. Being here, with the Milan shirt on me, is still an immense pleasure that awakens beautiful feelings of the past”.
So in the future we will see it in the guise of coach or manager?
“Who knows … I don’t think as a technician, or at least this is my current thought. Maybe as a manager or as the owner of a club. In my career I have accumulated a lot of experience and I can make it available to the players. I would like to do it”.
How much have your injuries influenced in saying goodbye soon to the world of the ball?
“I had both when I was young and in the final of the career (the most serious, editor’s note). At Milan when I was a boy I always tried to accelerate recovery because I wanted to be on the field and to help my teammates. And sometimes I ended up hurting me again. Repented? No, because I am like this. The injuries are part of life and teach you something. If you are down and find the strength to go up, then you are a better person. Many challenges and I have always overcome them “.
Allegri is looking for a center forward. It is not really going to think about it and …
(Laughs) “No, I have already given, even if for the Milan shirt I will always and only have love. Seeing Allegri on this bench makes me come to mind good memories, those of the Scudetto won together. We had a team of champions such as Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf, Nesta and all the others. We were an exceptional group and we have reported the Milan. players.
Like Ancelotti who now guides Seleçao.
“For us Brazilians it is an honor to have such a winning coach. Carlo will always remain a special person for me because he brought me to Milan and made me grow. The players will follow him and will take off the satisfactions, but he will also do his son Davide at the helm of the botofogo. Being on the bench of Brazil entails great pressure, but if there is a person who can endure them and get the results, that is Ancelotti.”
We continue with the coaches who get results: impressed by Conte who won in the first year at Napoli and now aims at encore?
“Napoli is doing well because he has a very strong president and an equally strong coach. Last season he was fantastic and celebrated the tricolor, but he continues to invest because Inter will want to redeem himself. Milan is back from a difficult year and now he has turned the page: I hope to see him at the top with Allegri”.
Let’s go back to his Rossoneri years and the most beautiful memories.
“In the first place I put the brace in the derby that we won 3-0 and gave us the Scudetto. Inter was a comeback, but that defeat against us will turn over his chances. In May I spoke to the Champions League final with Julio Cesar and, after some time, I took it a little around for those two goals that he suffered from me. Network to the debut with Napoli.
If he looks to the past, can he say he has realized his dreams?
“I played in the best world team, Milan, with the fort of everyone, as well as my idol, the Ronaldo phenomenon. I wore the shirts of Brazil and Chelsea, I had an important experience in China and I went back to San Paolo. Football has given me a lot and I have no regrets. If I think back to the past, I smile. And now I enjoy the present”.
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