一份瑞典的報紙刊的
提供者:maja163 from MOD4
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European Championship gold the next goal
(I don't know if you are aware of this, but the swedish papers like to play a bi
t with Nesta's name. In swedish, the world for next is nesta, so they like to us
e that world in the headlines, and of course change it to nesta instead.)
He is born in what was to be the Hollywood of Italy and he knows his roles: lead
er for the defensive line, idol for the men and sex symbol for the women. Now, A
lessandro Nesta is to become a winner in the national team as well.
-This team has so many talented players. It's time for us to win, Nesta says bef
ore the European Championship.
The fascist leader Benito Mussolini had some grand plans for Cinecitta in the 19
30ths. The suburb was going to be Italy's own Hollywood. But there was no dream
factory in the south-eastern outskirts of Rome. Instead of great film stars a gr
eat football player ?Alessandro Nesta was born the 19th Mars 1976 and at a meado
w he started playing spontaneous football.
-My first team was the team of the neighbourhood Cinecitta. It was a "sister tea
m" for AS Roma and usually the players would go there, he has said.
In January in 1985, after just four months in the club, rumours of little Sandro
's skills had reached the great club and Roma offered the Nesta family 50 000 Sw
edish crowns if they could have the junior of the family within four years.
Refused Roma
But Giuseppe Nesta, a simple worker at the Nuovo Salarios train station who made
an extra income by driving out mineral water, choose love before money. He and t
he entire family were Lazio supporters. Giuseppe refused Roma and in the summer,
he saw a newspaper ad that Lazio were looking for players for their juvenile
teams.
The 13th of June in 1976, 300 boys born in 1976 came to the audition. The scout
Franco Patarca liked the way Alessandro Nesta was playing, simply and with his h
ead high, and immediately signed the gifted talent.
Alessandro advanced quickly in the juvenile teams of Lazio until he
suffered back problems in 1989.
-I grew 20 centimetres in one year and my muscles couldn't
catch up. It was a tough time.
But there wouldn't be many more of those on Nesta's way to the peak. It feels li
ke the elegant centre back has been put on this earth to glide down in perfectl
timed tackles, read the opposition's attacking strategies apart, marking star fo
rwards away, marshal the defence of his team and building up attacks of his own.
Was the captain during Svennis' days
When Nesta was 17 years old he joined the Lazio A-team and the 13th of Mars 1994
he made his debut in serie A against Udinese (2-2). Two years later, he won the
under-21 European Championship with Italy. He was elected as the best defender o
f the tournament and was selected to the "real" European Championship though he
didn't make an entry.
A year later, Eriksson arrived at Lazio and made the twenty-one year old Nesta
the captain of the team. Nesta brought his beloved Lazio to a victory in the Ita
lian cup in 1998 and 2000, the Italian Championship in 2000 and a victory in the
cup winner's cup before he was sold to Milan for 290 million crowns in August in
2002.
Back then, the accommodating centre back had just suffered his third tough champ
ionship in a row with Italy. In the world cup in France in 1998 he was given a p
lace in the starting line-up, but injured his knee badly in the First round game
against Austria. In the European Championship four years ago he was perhaps the
best defender of the tournament but suffered a bitter defeat in the final
against France. (1-0 up with half a minute left and loss in the
extension)
-It was really a shame because we knew and we know that we are a good team with
many good players, capable of winning a major title, Nesta says to World Soccer.
In the 2002 World Cup, the Italians were kicked out after backing home with a 1-
0 lead.
-Perhaps we were being too defensive in South Korea but that has changed now. We
'll play different in the European Championship. I think Italian football has ch
anged over the last seasons and become much more offensive.
However, the Italian defensive is likely to be just as difficult to break throug
h as usual with the general Nesta in an increasingly prominent role since Paolo
Maldini's definite decline of the European Championship.
Nesta is content with the draw for the group games.
-I must admit that I first told myself that it could have been much worse. But w
hen you look at the latest World Cup it was the teams that didn't look so strong
on the paper that went quite far in the end. Sweden, Denmark and Bulgaria might
not be Brazil but they are good teams, Nesta says.
"It's time for us to win"
- We know many of the Danish players individually, but actually we don't know mu
ch about the team. The players are good, since they represent some of the greate
st clubs in Europe. I don't know much more about Bulgaria, besides that they hav
e got a strong tradition. Just like Sweden their results these last years speak
for themselves.
And so does Nesta's list of achievements in his club team: after the
Champions League victory last spring he was voted as the best
defender in serie A by the players in January and in May he got
another Scudetto. Now he is looking for a title with Italy.
-It's time for us to win, Nesta says.