World's Greatest Defenders
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Franco Baresi - Nicknamed 'piscinin' by the locals meaning 'little one'. Considered one of the greats of all time by most informed people within the game. Baresi is one of very few players who amazingly played for just one club throughout his entire career. His carrer stretched to 20 years for A.C Milan including around a decade of captaining the team in which they proved very successful. In 1982 he made his debut for Italy in a game against Romania but didn't really become a regular in the side until Scirea retired. After his playing career Baresi made a move to his only other club Fulham where he held a brief spell as Director of Football before ultimately returning to Milan as a youth coach. | Only played for one club throughout his career A.C Milan. Made International debut in 1982 v Romania. |
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Bobby Moore - He played his first game for West Ham in 1958 and went on to captain the Hammers for a decade. He earned his first England call-up in 1962 and in 1966 became synonymous with the legendary England World Cup winning team and his role as captain. After the World Cup Moore became a celebrity and businessman as well as appearing on TV adverts. The 1970 World Cup proved something of a mixed bag for Moore, he was once again proclaimed as Captain but his character was slurred by accusations that he stole a gold bracelet from a jeweller in Bogota during a warm-up game.After his playing days Moore had a brief and fairly non-descript spell in management and suffered numerous problems in his personal life. | 108 Caps for England. His mentor was Malcolm Allison. Won 3 successive cups at Wembley over a 3 year period 1964-66. Overcame testicular cancer early in his career. Died tragically young aged 51 with bowel cancer. Made 708 appearances in his career with 544 of them for West Ham. First footballer to win 'BBC Sports Personality of the Year' (1966). |
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Alan Hansen - Started his career with Partick Thistle after showing initial promise in Volleyball and Water Polo. Hansen went to Liverpool on trial in 1971 but was deemed not up to the standard required. He broke through into the first team at Partick in 1973 and after 86 appearances over 4 years was ironically snapped up by Bob Paisley at Liverpool. Hansen played for Liverpool for the rest of his career finishing in 1991 and becoming something of a cult legend before going on to TV punditry. Amazingly for a player of such quality, he made only 26 appearances for Scotland. Nowadays his main pre-occupation is as a TV pundit alongside Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer on Match of the Day. | Signed for Liverpool £110,000 in 1977. Only 26 Caps for Scotland. Played Volleyball and Water Polo for Scotland. Columnist for the Daily Telegraph. |
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Paolo Maldini - started his career in 1985 and stayed with Milan throughout his entire career. He retired finally at the grand old age of 40 after winning a UEFA 'Club Defender of the Year' award at age 39. He made his debut for Italy in 1988 against Yugoslavia making some 126 appearances. He scored his first goal for Italy on his 44th Cap against Mexico. He holds the record number of caps for an Italian even though he retired from International Football in 2002 some 7 years prior to his club football retirement. In recent times Maldini was offered the chance to join Chelsea's coaching staff under Carlo Ancelotti, but after holding talks with Chelsea decided against taking up the opportunity. | Played for A.C.Milan throughout his career spanning an amzaing 24 years (902 Apps). Won 7 League titles. First defender to win World Soccer magazine's annual 'World Player of the Year Award'. Retired aged 40. Won no fewer than 5 Champions League Titles. |
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Franz Beckenbauer - started his career in 1964 with Bayern Munich debuting against Stuttgart Kickers before moving on to New York Cosmos and Hamburg. Beckenbauer became club captain in 68-69 season and around this time experimented with the modern day sweeper position. during his reign Bayern won 3 consecutive European Cups a feat which won them the trophy outright. | Nicknamed 'Der Kaiser' (The Emperor). Often credited with the invention of the 'sweeper'. |
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Roberto Carlos - | |
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Allessandro Nesta - | |
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Fabio Cannavaro - | |
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Daniel Passarella - | |
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Gaetano Scirea - | |
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Giacinto Facchetti - | |
| Nilton Santos - | ||
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Carlos Alberto - | |
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Rudi Krol - | |
| Djalma Santos - | ||