Gattuso and Inzaghi announce AC Milan exits
The experienced duo have confirmed they will be exiting San Siro at the end of the season after more than a decade of service at the Serie A giants
AC Milan duo Gennaro Gattuso and Filippo Inzaghi have announced that they will leave the club at the end of the season.
Both players have expiring contracts with Milan and will depart San Siro after a season in which they featured infrequently.
This is the third Milan veteran to wave goodbye to the club after Alessandro Nesta revealed on Thursday that he will quit the Rossoneri in the summer.
Gattuso, who joined Milan from Salernitana in 1999, has made only six appearances this season after a serious eye problem forced him to spend several months on the sidelines.
He said earlier in the week that he could retire from football if he was not guaranteed an active role at Milan next season.
"I leave because the time has come for me to give room to other players," he told reporters.
"I will explain everything at a press conference on Saturday. I do not know yet where I will go, I have not yet decided."
Inzaghi, 38, has been at Milan since 2001, when he joined the club from Juventus, scoring 125 goals in 296 appearances for the Rossoneri but featured just eight times this season.
"Today I would like to thank with affection and emotion president Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani," Inzaghi said in a open letter, published on Milan's website.
"Their electricity and their ability to transmit emotion made me stronger and pushed me beyond any and all limits.
"But I also want to give a thought to those who, from the youth sector to all the wonderful clubs that I’ve played for, helped me to become the man and the player that I am today.
"Thank you Milan, thank you football. Allow me to call you my own, the people of Via Turati, from Milanello to the offices to the phone operators to the warehouse workers, the physiotherapists, the doctors, the cooks, from the stadium to the changing room.
"All the people who saw me on Sunday with the short sleeves and shook with the hope that I would score.
"Ciao Carlo Ancelotti, I won a lot with you, ciao to my wonderful fans who followed me the world over with affection and passion. Ciao to my team-mates from today and yesterday."
More players could join the Milan exodus in the next few days, as seven other footballers have expiring contracts with the Rossoneri.
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AN OPEN LETTER FROM FILIPPO INZAGHI
His name is in the history books of football and in the joy of the fans who always cheered his name. Pippo Inzaghi says goodbye to Milan with an open letter to the club.
MILAN – Everything that you’re about to read is secondary to this. The first and foremost thing that I want you all to know is I played and won for "us". Playing and winning without sharing the emotion is nothing, but you and me, us, we did it all together. We hoped, suffered, celebrated and rejoiced. We lifted cups and won titles together in our hearts. We have always been on the same wavelength. And no one can ever take that away from us.
Dear Milan fans, when I got to the club you didn’t know this. I was in a hotel room and couldn’t leave so as not to compromise the negotiations between Juventus and Milan. The first weeks, the first months, you studied me and we watched each other.
Then we fell in love. That evening against Torino. You were angry, things weren’t going well on the field and you were in silence. I started warming up and the roar you gave me made us win the match, pushing us into the Champions League and towards that final in Manchester. These memories as well as all those who consoled me in the difficult months of 2004 and 2005 and the shivers down the spine that we felt on 9 August 2006, my birthday against Stella Rossa will always be in the bedside drawer of my heart.
Athens. Football given to us for one reason: me and you, us, we wanted is so strongly, so intensely that it had to be given. Of course the reality went beyond our wildest dreams. 2 goals, against Liverpool, 2 years after Istanbul, the seventh Champions League. Destiny gave us more than we had dared hope.
Today I would like to thank with affection and emotion President Berlusconi and Adriano Galliani: their electricity and their ability to transmit emotion for me made me stronger and pushed me beyond any and all limits. But I also want to give a thought to those who, from the youth sector to all the wonderful clubs that I’ve played for, helped me to become the man and the player that I am today.
Thank you Milan, thank you football. Allow me to call you my own, the people of Via Turati, from Milanello to the offices to the phone operators to the warehouse workers, the physiotherapists, the doctors, the cooks, from the stadium to the changing room. All the people who saw me on Sunday with the short sleeves and shook with the hope that I would score. Ciao Carlo Ancelotti, I won a lot with you. Ciao to my wonderful fans who followed me the world over with affection and passion. Ciao to my team mates from today and yesterday.
Last of all allow me to thank my family, my mother Marina, my father Giancarlo, Simone and Tommaso. I never would have got here without you. You’re my strength. My dear Milan, I’m leaving you only because that the way life goes. The moment has come and you know it as well.
Ciao and thanks to everyone,
Pippo Inzaghi.
http://www.acmilan.com/en/news/show/141274[ 本文被RMadrid在2012-06-21 23:02重新編輯 ]
