After Milan’s Lazio game, why didn’t Nesta go and say hello to the fans?

In the 1993/94 season, Nesta made his first appearance in Serie A, playing for Lazio. In the 1998 World Cup, Nesta participated in the World Cup for the first time and established his position as Baresi's successor in Italy. In the 1999/2000 season, Nesta served as Lazio captain and led the team to win the second league championship in the club's history. In the summer of 2002, in order to alleviate Lazio's financial crisis, Nesta joined AC Milan for 30 million euros and subsequently won the European Champions Cup.

On September 28, 2002, at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, there were no tears of nostalgia or angry stones. Nesta put on the red and black jersey for the first time and returned to Lazio’s home court where he had been playing for many years. At that time, the fans at the Olympic Stadium showed indifference and indifference. When the former captain of Lazio was substituted due to injury, he was booed by the home fans.

At the beginning of the game, Lazio fans did not show any particular fury. Nesta received certain greetings, but there was no particular enthusiasm. Perhaps the warmest greetings came from the hugs from his former Lazio teammates, from Stam's welcome, from Petrucci's tap on his shoulder, and from the smile Lopez showed him. Before Nesta walked up the steps and entered the court, Rui Costa whispered something in his ear, and the face of AC Milan's No. 13 player looked calm.

The native and former captain of Lazio changed more than just his jersey. When he returned to the Olympic Stadium, some things, including the enthusiasm that people had given him in the past, were completely frozen. stand up. A long banner was flying in the stands of Lazio fans, "In the 18 years of Lazio, you have sacrificed a lot and you have received everything. Although you did not give any greetings, we want to say: Hello, goodbye." Just like that. As Fiore said half-jokingly a few days ago: "We want to make Nesta flustered."

During the game, Nesta and AC Milan players will be booed once they get the ball. . This is football. Once you change your colors, there will be all kinds of criticism. However, not all stories are interpreted this way. Rui Costa had many similarities with Nesta when he joined AC Milan, but when the Portuguese returned to Florence, he received countless flowers and gifts. Hugs, and enough tears to fill the Arno River.

People say: Rui Costa greeted the fans, but Nesta did not, so he was blamed by the fans. Indeed, Rui Costa sent his regards, but at the cost of subsequent (club) distrust. Nesta ended it all with silence, and the story between him and Lazio ended with a cramp in his leg.

When the game reached about the 70th minute, Nesta dribbled the ball out of the penalty area. After running a few steps, he fell to the sideline while fighting with Lazio players. Immediately, something was thrown down from the stands, not stones, but not flowers either, but some plastic bottles. Then Nesta began to cramp, and pain in his legs and pressure on his heart came one after another. Gianni Keda walked over in a friendly manner and helped him press his feet. Lopez, Stankovic and others also walked over and paid attention. Surround him. After standing up again, Nesta made a substitution gesture.

When walking to the sidelines, No. 13 applauded towards the stadium as a greeting to the fans of the Olympic Stadium. However, at this time, the fans responded with boos. Even if there was a little applause in the middle, but The sound was barely audible. Nesta sat on the bench on the sidelines and buried his head in his hands. He didn't even look at the banner in the south stand that read "Nesta Stays Among Us".

The Rossoneri coach Carlo Ancelotti has been watching Nesta. He seemed to be saying that when the fans at the Stadio Olimpico turned their backs to him, the fans at San Siro would protect him. And Nesta also understood this. In order not to worry the Rossoneri fans, Nesta comforted the fans and said that he only felt a little discomfort when making a strange move. It was a minor injury and he would definitely be able to play against Bayern.

Nesta also said that his mood was not affected at the Stadio Olimpico. "On the contrary, I felt very excited."

Nesta: Breaking with Lazio

July 2002 On March 23, Lazio President Cragnotti officially announced: Whoever can afford to pay more than Rio Ferdinand's 30 million pounds transfer fee, Nesta will belong to him! This means that Nesta, who was once considered as valuable as the Roman prince Totti and the core figure of Lazio, will be put up for sale, a disguised auction! As far as the Italian league's many years of history and successful experience are concerned, any team that relies entirely on foreign aid without young and strong local players to balance the team and create the team's spirit is unlikely to succeed. The Three Musketeers are important, but who No one can deny that Maldini is the main creator and mainstay of AC Milan's glory, and no one can replace his role. Lazio's move is tantamount to AC Milan selling Maldini. What is the motivation behind this suicidal approach? What caused the once passionate love to turn into ashes, and what turned the original "deep love between father and son" into a pure employment relationship? The following 18-year feud between Lazio and Nesta may give us the answer.

In 18 years, Nesta went from a boy full of dreams about football to a super defender with outstanding abilities. But if Lazio hadn't won a Serie A championship by chance in 2000 and derived a Super Cup, , then Nesta’s 18 years at Lazio will be defined as unsuccessful 18 years, because no matter how strong his ability is (practice has proved that Nesta’s strength, who was selected for the national team at the age of 20, cannot be questioned), Lazio has not been able to He builds the team for the core, or in other words, the construction always hesitates in the confusion of gains and losses. Nesta's captain's armband does not really represent the covenant or trust, but is just a simple endowment. It can be said that this "romance" does not It is understandable that a good foundation cannot bear fruit.

We use "Twelve Nights" (the 12 stages that a man and a woman go through in love, taken from the Hong Kong movie "12 Nights") to explain the emotional dispute between Nesta and Lazio, because Lazio is to Nesta The tower is perhaps more valuable than the girl a man has been obsessed with since childhood.

First Night: Longing

Nesta was born to belong to the Lazio team, because he was born at 10:30 am on March 19, 1976 in the First General Hospital of Rome From that moment on, he was completely surrounded by the Lazio atmosphere. As the third child (second boy) in the family, he naturally inherited his father and brother's affection for Lazio and has supported the Lazio team since he was a child. On his 8th birthday, his father took him to the stadium to watch a Lazio home game. The first time he felt the live atmosphere, he was simply stunned. When the fans in the audience sang the Lazio team anthem and shouted the names of every Lazio player who played, Nesta's heart was completely conquered. On the way back, he had completely forgotten the content of the game, and the shouts of the fans echoed in his ears. At this moment, he knew that his choice was Lazio.

Night Two: Close

The father, who knew his son’s psychology well, sent Sandro (Nesta’s nickname) to a nearby football school to study. Sandro 9 When he was 20 years old, Peixinho, the senior coach of the football school and a scout of the Roma team, took a fancy to his potential and actively negotiated with his father about joining the Roma team. However, due to the arrogant attitude of the Roma team representatives, , and without looking when he entered the room, he sat on Sandro’s treasure, the Lazio jersey, which was placed on the sofa. As a result, the young man came out of the room in anger and rejected the Roma team’s training plan. It is said that when this paragraph When the story was later revealed in Nesta's autobiography, Roma president Sensi once gritted his teeth and said that those guys should be beaten hard.

In the same year, the Lazio youth team recruited talented young players at the training base in San Basilio. Sandro was admitted after only one round of assessment and became a student of the 76th class of the Lazio youth team.

Night Three: Acquaintance

After becoming a member of the Lazio youth team, Sandro - no, it should be Nesta. At this moment, he is completely alone. The man faced the challenge - and began his football career wearing the blue jersey of Lazio. The initial adaptation was very difficult. Nesta had to travel between home and football school every day. The burden of cultural classes was heavy and the training content was even more arduous. Nesta was really overwhelmed. He once thought about giving up, but that year as a member of the class of 1976, he served as a ball boy and watched the Lazio game for free. After once again experiencing the feeling of public anger, he no longer hesitated.

When Nesta was 14 years old, he had already started to participate in the tours between Lazio youth teams. In every game, Lazio scouts would sit on the podium to watch and record those games. Players who performed well. Since only 1 or 2 people can be selected by Lazio every year, the competition is very fierce. When Nesta was 15 years old, his 76th youth team defeated all opponents and won the championship. Because Nesta has grown over 1.78m, his explosive power and physical coordination are better than other teammates. Pataka, the youth team coach who admired him very much, moved Nesta from the defensive midfielder to the central defender position. The next year, he handed the captain's armband to the 16-year-old Nesta. Nesta wrote in his diary on the first day he received the captain's armband: "I must become an excellent central defender and guard the central defense for Lazio and the Italian national team."

The fourth night: getting to know each other

On July 4, 1993, a day that Nesta would never forget, Zoff, Lazio’s head coach at the time and Nesta’s personal idol, personally called the youth team. And directly told Nesta to go to Lazio's training camp in Austria to participate in training before the 1993-1994 season. After being stunned for a long time, Nesta suddenly said: "Are you sure you are not mistaken, Mr. Zoff? I am Alessandro Nesta, the one who is only 17 years old."

Become After becoming a member of Lazio, Nesta has been studying hard behind the senior players. During the game, he was proud of being able to sit in the player-only area on the podium, and tried hard to feel the atmosphere of the Italian Serie A - ―Cheers, victories, defeats including boos. Nesta was furious when he heard fans booing Lazio for the first time in an away game, but later he understood that only victory is the most powerful counterattack. The days closely related to Lazio made Nesta's Lazio complex even stronger. After training, he would often stand on the court with his arms outstretched, imagining that he was standing in the Olympic Stadium and feeling the fans chanting "Lazio, Nesta" in unison. !” atmosphere.

On March 13, 1994, Lazio faced Udinese, and Zoff included Nesta's name in the 18-man roster. In the second half of the game, Nesta was notified to warm up behind the goal. He immediately felt that his feet were weak. In the 33rd minute of the second half, Nesta replaced Casillaci. His mind went blank, but he made no mistakes. On April 7, Nesta tackled British star Gascoigne. When he saw Gascoigne being carried on a stretcher, Nesta almost cried, causing the latter to comfort him repeatedly on the stretcher. he. But from then on, Nesta began to pay attention to the art of defense and despised the rough style of play.

In the 1994-1995 season, Lazio's head coach became Zeman, and Nesta was also one of his favorite young players. Under Zeman, Nesta's defensive skills became even better, and he became a key player for Lazio. He was often given the opportunity to play as a substitute. Many super clubs began to pay attention to Nesta, and AC Milan even directly asked for it. Buy Nesta. However, Cragnotti, who had noticed Nesta's potential, rejected AC Milan's request and proposed for the first time that Nesta would be Lazio's future, which moved Nesta extremely.

Fifth Night: Strong Love

At the beginning of the 1995-1996 season, Nesta often started the game. He was already over 1.85m tall, and his clean style of play, His keen judgment, good explosive power and heading skills make him stand out among young players. Because he once served as an attacking midfielder and forward, Nesta is also quite good at footwork. In addition to his introverted personality that makes him less general-like, Nesta is fully qualified to play the main position of Lazio.

In the 1996-1997 season, Lazio experienced internal conflicts and a crisis of coaching changes, but Nesta's performance was still outstanding. Both Cragnotti and Zoff (the club's vice president) praised Nesta in public. Tower will be the backbone of Lazio's defense for the next ten years. Faced with the temptation of many teams interested in Nesta, Cragnotti characterized Nesta as "not for sale by Lazio."

In the 1997-1998 season, Eriksson came to Lazio. He also attached great importance to Nesta and said to Cragnotti: "If you want to win the championship, buy some good players. At the same time, Nesta was retained."

In the 1998 World Cup, Nesta was injured in the group stage. While Nesta was recovering from injury, Lazio firmly claimed that Nesta could not be replaced. Six months later, Nesta returned to the Lazio training camp. Cragnotti and Eriksen officially handed the Lazio captain's armband to Nesta. Since then, Nesta has become a symbol of Lazio. On December 3, when Nesta walked into the Olympic Stadium wearing a substitute's vest after being away from the stadium for several months, all the fans stood up and shouted "Captain, Nesta!", and greetings to Nesta were hung everywhere in the stands. Tower slogan. Nesta's childhood wish came true at this moment, and when he secretly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, he may have made a wish to lead Lazio to win the championship.

Sixth Night: Lingering

The 1999-2000 season was a prosperous season for Lazio and Nesta. Lazio defeated "Treble Champion" Manchester United before the season started. Moreover, the year 2000 was the centenary anniversary of Lazio, and the club issued a fatal order for the team to win the league championship. Lazio's results in the early part of the season were not ideal. They were caught up by Juventus, and the fans continued to put pressure on the players and the club. For the first time as captain, Nesta taught the fans on TV: "When do we need everyone's support the most? It's this difficult time. But what are our fans doing? Ridicule, sarcasm, abuse, this It’s very sad for the players.” Nesta’s popularity helped at this time, and the fans began to support the team again. Coincidentally, the team's performance also caught up, and Lazio won the league championship at the last moment. Everyone was changing clothes and crying together. Afterwards, Lazio defeated Inter Milan and became the Italian Cup champion, completely declaring Lazio's strong status.

Faced with this situation, Cragnotti also began to hesitate. Of course he knew the value of Nesta, and Nesta’s current pure employment mood was a dream for the Lazio team, so Cragnotti Niotti announced that he would not sell "not for sale" Nesta, but Nesta, who was participating in the World Cup, found out and sneered: "Lazio said they won't sell me? Who dares to believe what they say now?"

Night Eleven: Indifferent

After the World Cup, Juventus and Inter Milan still did not give up the fight for Nesta. They offered 50 million euros, but Lazio insisted on 60 million. Euros, and 40 million must be in cash. Juventus was short of money, so they withdrew from the competition, and Inter Milan and Lazio finally reached an agreement of 30 million pounds. Nesta was very excited to join Inter Milan, which is strong and has many big names. , he has put aside his emotions and started playing rational football.

But things have changed again. Lazio hopes to get Inter Milan’s Italian player Zanetti in cash, but Inter Milan can only use Ventola or Emrega in cash.

Just when Nesta had started training with the Lazio team, Ferdinand's sky-high transfer price completely stimulated Lazio. Cragnotti angrily criticized Inter Milan for being insincere: "If Chairman Moratti does not include Zanetti as part of the deal, , then they don't want to get Nesta. Now it seems that there is no doubt that Nesta will stay in Lazio. Last week, Manchester United spent 30 million pounds to buy Ferdinand, and Nesta is better than him."

Twelfth Night: Reality

So far, Nesta’s transfer is still under negotiation, and the outcome is nothing more than leaving or not leaving: Wearing Inter Milan or other team jerseys will be a big deal for Nesta It is no longer as sacred as before. Nesta lost his faith during the Twelve Nights with Lazio, but gained maturity and reason. The reality and utilitarianism of professional football cannot tolerate Nesta's petty bourgeoisie. From this point of view, Cragnotti is correct, and Nesta has also learned to say things like "Inter Milan is an excellent club, and I look forward to playing alongside Vieri and Ronaldo." Whether he wants it or not, a good bird will choose its rightful place to roost. These are the rules of the football game, and the 26-year-old Nesta finally began to understand.

In today's world of utilitarian football, it is easier to find a dinosaur than to find a "not for sale". The so-called "irreplaceable" and "not for sale" are more about clubs trying to improve players. A gimmick created by worth. Take Lazio as an example. Veron, Nedved, and Vieri are all "not for sale" to them, but they buy and sell them every year and get entangled in them, as if they can only buy and sell players without playing football. Like survival. No matter how close the relationship between the club and the players is, they cannot escape the constraints of the employment relationship framework. Oaths of eachother or lifelong entrustment do not conform to the rules of the game in this circle. Various survival pressures such as the competition in the business community, the club's behind-the-scenes operations, operational difficulties, the economic crisis of the team after the reduction of television broadcast expenses, etc., have forced many clubs to resort to foolish measures, reluctantly parting ways, or hoarding. At the same time, clubs The vicious competition between them has also made the fighting in the transfer market more intense and cruel. In the face of the big choice of survival or destruction, there is no longer romance and tenderness. Moreover, since Figo has switched to the "enemy country", Nesta has been eliminated by the ball. It makes sense for the team to be sold off, this is life!

For Nesta, bidding farewell to a team that is dazzled, dull, and boring heralds a new beginning. Whether it is Inter Milan or AC Milan, they are both very enterprising teams. Compared with Lazio, the two teams are more rigorous in organization and management, have clearer positioning, and have longer-term goals. They are more rational and planned in team construction. Joining Nesta will bring his career to a higher level. At the same time, the team's performance will allow him to maximize his performance. The room for improvement will make him the best Italian player after Maldini. The defender has truly entered the ranks of world-class stars.

Nesta has become too accustomed to the pure sky blue of the Lazio team. He claims that he has no talent for dressing. In the past 18 years, he has been accustomed to choosing sky blue as his color. . But now he wants to reform colors. He must let people know that he is not just a solid color, he is colorful!