Manchester United's Scholes and Giggs celebrate scoring during Scholes' testimonial soccer match against New York Cosmos in Manchester. Reuters
On the 6 March 2011, Ryan Giggs became Manchester United’s most capped player ever, surpassing club legend Bobby Charlton’s record of 607 appearances. In May of the same year, Liverpool Centre-back Jamie Carragher made his 666th appearance in a Liverpool shirt, putting him second in line for the most number of first team appearances for the Merseyside Club, only behind Ian Callaghan, who played a staggering 857 times for the Reds.
On October 2, Frank Lampard’s hat trick at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton Wanderers meant he had marked his 350th appearance for Chelsea with more than a flourish. And while Lampard was cracking open the champagne on reaching this milestone, Alessandro Nesta, on his 568th competitive appearance, was marshalling AC Milan’s defence in a crunch match at the Juventus Arena against a team which boasted of veterans Alessandro Del Piero, Luca Toni, Gianluigi Buffon and Nesta’s former Milanese colleague Andrea Pirlo.
And on the 16th of this month, Francesco Totti, who has been capped 617 times for AS Roma and is currently the highest active goalscorer in Serie A, will pit his wits against his German counterpart in Miroslav Klose, who has featured more than 400 times for various clubs throughout his career, when Lazio meet Roma in what promises to be a thrilling game.
While these numbers sound impressive, there are several reasons as to why these footballers have been able to amass a whopping number of caps. Read on, and you will know why:
1) They get the job done
Time and time again, these footballers are called upon when their teams are in need of a breakthrough which their colleagues are unable to find. They know how to create that special pass, spot a run with their eagle-eyed vision, and turn a game on its head with one moment of magic. Remember Henrik Larsson who put Barcelona level and then played a hand in creating Juliano Belletti’s goal in the 2006 Champions League Final against Arsenal? How many times have Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Thierry Henry bailed Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal out of sticky situations?
Chelsea's Frank Lampard walks off with the match ball after their English Premier League soccer match against Bolton Wanderers in Bolton. Reuters
The perfect example to illustrate this would be when Manchester United took on Portuguese side SL Benfica at the Estadio da Luz – by no means an easy place to get a result – in a Champions League game on the 14th of September, and were trailing 1-0 to Oscar Cardozo’s first-half strike. United were struggling to get past the hosts who were defending staunchly, until the ball was played into the path of Ryan Giggs.
The Welsh wizard cut inside from the right and fired a 20-yard piledriver into the Benfica net in the 42nd minute to put United on terms and come away with a share of the spoils. In doing so, Giggs broke his own record as the oldest goalscorer in the Champions League, and it also meant he’d scored in sixteen consecutive seasons of the Champions League, moving one ahead of fellow veteran Raul.
Time and time again we’ve seen the likes of Jamie Carragher, John Terry, Alessandro Nesta, Paolo Maldini and Carles Puyol weather wave after wave of attack. Scoring a goal from twenty yards out brings with it a thrill like no other, but these defensive stalwarts always see their team through when it comes to the business end of the game. A title winning team is always built on a solid defence, and veterans like these are what tip the scales in their team’s favour.
2) They’ve been there, and they’ve done that
Old Warhorses such as Carragher, Totti and Co. have been playing top flight footballs for decades, and have amassed huge amounts of experience which has enhanced their ability to read the game. Players of the ilk of Lampard, Gerrard and Klose have the can do in seconds what others would be able to do in minutes, while playmakers such as Xavi Hernandez and the recently retired Paul Scholes can do in inches what less experienced players would do in yards. The vast experience these veterans have gained over the years means their game is of the highest standards and has been refined time and time again to make them the best at what they do.
The reason AC Milan were able to clinch the Scudetto last season was due to the presence of Alessandro Nesta at the heart of their defence. Nesta was an integral cog in a Rossoneri defence that conceded just 24 goals in 38 top flight games and formed what turned out to be the meanest defence in Italy. The ability of a defender to perceive weaknesses in an attacker’s style of play where none are overtly visible may be the difference between a title winning side and an also-ran that despite providing competition for much of the season lacks that cutting edge that only an experienced player can provide.
3) They inspire those around them
Due to the age factor, someone like Totti, Del Piero or Giggs isn’t going to play week in week out. When they do play, however, they bring that extra something to the team that makes those around them play better than they do when these warhorses aren’t playing alongside them. This presence may be the difference between restoring the flagging morale of a side and rejuvenating them, providing them with belief and self-confidence, and imploding, throwing away a vital win in the process and getting run over by the opposition.
The reason these players improve the performances of those around them is because these individuals, over time, have become natural leaders, and that is why other players gravitate around them. This phenomenon is evident in any football team. At United, where Gary Neville marshalled United’s defence through leading by example, where play was directed through Giggs and the recently retired Paul Scholes.
At Juventus and Roma, where Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti play in the trequartista or playmaker position, just behind the main strikers, where play is directed through them and inspiring those around them to deliver more than a hundred per cent with their performances. Gerrard and Carragher inspire those around them at Liverpool, Thierry Henry and Dennis Berkgamp used to wow not just audiences but their teammates as well with the quality of their performances at Arsenal, and despite Frank Lampard’s recent exclusion from the starting eleven at Chelsea, his teammates always give a hundred and ten percent when he’s on the pitch.
But the best example to highlight the above would be with the case of the French national team in 2004. France had been knocked out by eventual winners Greece in the quarter finals of Euro 2004, and stalwarts Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram had decided to call it quits on the international scene. Then Coach Raymond Domenech persuaded them to return to the fold for one last hurrah to help them qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, halfway through their qualifying rounds which Les Bleus were making heavy work of. The return of these two legends of the game inspired the rest of the team to perform and France ultimately qualified for the World Cup as Group Winners.
4) Their loyalty to the Club and Manager
In the modern day world of football where players swap clubs on the basis of the number of zeroes in their payment cheques, finding players who are loyal to the Club are rare. Yet, these players have developed an emotional and psychological bond to the Club, giving their all for the Club which has invested so much in these players.
Fergie’s fledglings felt that bond with United, and so did Gerrard and Carragher with Liverpool. Despite the constant rustle of paper notes from cash-rich Real Madrid, and in the current scenario, Manchester City, these players did not sell themselves out for a bigger bank balance. These players understand that they owe it all to not just the Club, but the manager, who has guided them through every stage of their development, and the fans, who’ve come to love and adore their heroes. Ricardo Carvalho may have swapped smoky London for sunny Real Madrid, but his loyalty to Jose Mourinho was unquestionable.
Tony Adams, who was at Arsenal, stated many times during his playing career that it was his chronic drinking problem. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have been courted many times in the past by Real Madrid, but to them, the loyalty for the Spion Kop and the Shed will always be put before the lure of the Santiago Bernabeu.
Juventus' Alessandro Del Piero celebrates after scoring against Brescia in their Italian Serie A soccer match at Olympic stadium in Turin. Reuters
Footballers are paid thousands every week. Tottenham Hotspur’s Benoit Assou-Ekotto was very succinct about it saying, “If I play football with my friends back in France, I can love football,” he says. “But if I come to England, where I knew nobody and I didn’t speak English. Why did I come here? For a job. A career is only 10, 15 years. It’s only a job. Yes, it’s a good, good job and I don’t say that I hate football but it’s not my passion. Is there one player in the world who signs for a club and says, Oh, I love your shirt?’ Your shirt is red. I love it. He doesn’t care.”
Despite what Assou-Ekotto might have said, players such as Giggs, Buffon and Gerrard value what their shirts represent. To them, the name on the front of the shirt is more important than the name at the back, and that underlines their loyalty to the club.
5) Their dedication and love for the beautiful game
There is no doubt that these players have talent. But to prolong their careers for so long means they’ve had to sacrifice a lot along the way.
Ryan Giggs once said in an interview “Nothing could have prepared me for the limelight I was thrust into at 17. I was in newspapers, magazines, on TV, and everyone in the street knew me. It was strange for me and I dealt with it by trying not to create a fuss. I’ve just tried to keep it that way ever since. The high-profile relationship I had with the TV presenter Dani Behr was the turning point for me”, said Giggs. “Before I knew it, we were being photographed outside my house and cameramen followed us everywhere. It was very uncomfortable. At that point I decided the celebrity lifestyle wasn’t for me. Around that time I felt my commercial work was affecting my work, too. I thought, no, football is my bread and butter. It has to, and always will, come first.”
It’s easy to retire after plying your trade for a few years and fall back on your wealth, but these players go beyond that. It is their love for the game that makes them play the way they do, and their love for the game that has made them the footballers they are today, and continues to inspire people around the world.
What makes these players special is the passion with which they play the game week in week out, their innate loyalty towards a Club where they’ve spent the majority of their adult lives, growing up as people, and their love for the sport of football which can be seen every time they take to the football pitch. These players are a special breed, one of the highest class of sportsman to have graced the beautiful game.