MILANELLO - These are the declarations of Alessandro Nesta on the day of the gathering at the Rossoneri's sports centre of Milanello: "The club had a good transfer market. This year we shall play in the Uefa Cup which on paper seems to be less difficul than the Champions League, but we must surely have an eye on the league. Not having hte Champions League, our objective is that of finishing first in Italy because it's been a while that we did well in the league."
MILAN - Many champions will be on the pitch tonight in Munchen: the two captains will be Clarence Seedorf and Michael Ballack, the coach of one of the two will be Paolo Maldini. In the team led by the Milan captain, also Michael Schumacher and Eros Ramazzotti will play. Among the Italians, other than Del Piero, also Nesta, Gattuso and Pirlo are expected.
The celebrations held for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday on 18 July 2008 are the kick-off for a worldwide initiative that has a greater goal: to make the dream of Nelson Mandela a reality – to defeat child poverty in Africa.
Goal4Africa will be held July 12, 2008. There is no coverage of the game in North/South America, it seems. The formations [according to a source at sandronesta.com] are as follows:
Team 1:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (ITA/Juventus) Defenders: Alessandro Nesta (ITA/AC Milan), Sergio Ramos (ESP/Real Madrid), Paolo Maldini (AC Milan) [It's like defender heaven...for Sergio.] Midfielders: Gennaro Gattuso (ITA/AC Milan), Kaka (BRA/AC Milan), Andrea Pirlo (ITA/AC Milan), Steven Gerrard (ENG/Liverpool) [The Stevie G ambush.] Forwards: Robin van Persie (NED/Arsenal), Andrei Shevchenko (UKR/Chelsea), Ruud van Nistelrooy (NED/Real Madrid), Baichung Bhutia (IND/Mohun Began)
Coach: Fabio Cannavaro (ITA/Real Mad
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MILAN - A short while ago the official presentation of new Italy coach Marcello Lippi took place in Rome at the Federcalcio headquarters. The World Cup winning coach answered as follows the question regarding a possible return to the National team of Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta: "You have to respect people's opinions, in this case of players who have given a lot to the National team. I'm not taking into consideration their return. I will not call them up. If they call? We would talk about it together."
MILAN - We are going back to Manchester. After the Champions League final of 2003 and the knockout matches played against United in 2005 and 2007, there is a new opponent: on Saturday 9 August, in fact, Milan will play a friendly away to Manchester City. The starting whistle will be at 17.15 (local time) at the City of Manchester stadium.
Clarence Seedorf - who has been opposed to the idea of Milan signing Ronaldinho - has given an indication that he is prepared to play in the Premier League before the end of his career.
The 32-year-old AC Milan midfielder has had a long and distinguished career with a number of Europe’s top clubs - Ajax, Sampdoria, Real Madrid, Internazionale and ultimately, Milan.
However, in an interview with BBC Radio, Seedorf revealed that he once turned down the opportunity to play in England, but admitted that he has not yet ruled out the possibility.
He said: "I'd always love to come and play in the Premier League, but things just don't happen like that. I've never touched the Premier League yet, but let's say you never know.
Reports in the Italian press suggest that Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti will be persuaded out of international retirement in time for the 2010 World Cup campaign. Carlo Garganese asks whether this would be a good idea…
The inquest into Italy’s underwhelming Euro 2008 campaign goes on, but one thing is for certain, and that is the Azzurri were short of genuine, world class players in Austria and Switzerland. Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti undoubtedly fall into this category, and Italy could surely have only benefited from their presence (disregarding the latter’s current injury) had they both not retired from international football last year.
With it increasingly likely that Marcello Lippi will return to the fold to succeed Roberto Donadoni, there have been reports in the media that h
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There are whispers that Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta will return to international football if Marcello Lippi returns to the Italy post.
Totti retired from Azzurri duty in July 2007 after a period of uncertainty following Italy’s World Cup triumph in Germany.
He believed that the strains on his body were too great to continue to play for both club and country.
The Roma talisman resisted pleas from fellow players and Coach Roberto Donadoni and watched Euro 2008 from his sofa, but today’s newspapers suggest that he could be lured back to the fold by Lippi.
One month after Totti’s international retirement, star stopper Alessandro Nesta announced that he also wouldn’t answer Donadoni’s call.
However, Nesta said at the time: “Who knows, perhaps things will be different within three years.”
Quarter-finals, 22/6/08 (19.45 UK) Spain 0 - 0 Italy aet
Vienna, Austria
Italy are out of Euro 2008 after a penalty shoot-out, Iker Casillas saving from Antonio Di Natale and Daniele De Rossi. Spain go through to face Russia in the semi-final.
The statistics were on the Azzurri's side, as they were undefeated in competitive matches against Spain since the 1920 Olympics and their last official meeting was a 2-1 win in the 1994 World Cup quarter-final. The Iberians qualified from the group phase with a 100 per cent record, but in all the quarter-finals so far the group winners had gone out.
Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso sat out bans and were replaced by Alberto Aquilani - making his Euro 2008 debut - and Massimo Ambrosini, but the rest of the line-up that defeated France 2-0 remained unchanged. Luis Aragones rested his stars in the 2-1 win over Greece and returned to the same XI that won its opening two games. In a bi
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Clarence Seedorf - who has been opposed to the idea of Milan signing Ronaldinho - has given an indication that he is prepared to play in the Premier League before the end of his career.
There are whispers that Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta will return to international football if Marcello Lippi returns to the Italy post. 
