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Classic Football Youtube #3: GAETANO SCIREA
There aren't very many good youtube videos of defenders, funnily enough. This one's good though, provided you mute the Pearl Jam.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A30xvpDdyes
I guess a lot of people don't really remember Scirea because he's dead, but he kept Franco Baresi out of the Italy team until he retired. Cannavaro got all the plaudits when Italy won the last World Cup but Scirea was just as important in 1982. Plus he was a proper gentleman that never even got suspended in his whole career, and he won every club competition Fifa and Uefa have to offer.
My favourite thing in football is to see defenders bombing all the way up the pitch, but Scirea did it with the elegance of a playmaker.
Do YOU miss the old fashioned sweeper? Laurent Blanc and Matthias Sammer were probably the last ones, and Sammer had to retire at his peak when his knee broke.
NEXT UP: Zidane's favourite, Enzo Francescoli