KARACHI (Dawn) -- Italian soccer legend Paolo Maldini has expressed his wish to continue playing for his club till the next season.

The 39-year-old skipper of AC Milan, who had earlier announced his retirement at the end of this season, now wants to take back his decision. He reassessed the situation after his club’s defeat against Arsenal in a knock-out clash of Champions League 2008.
The defeat at home ends the road for the defending European champion to retain the trophy that had enabled the club in 2007 to dominate the game internationally by winning the European Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Many aging players have been blamed for the decline of AC Milan’s performance in recent times and fans of the club are demanding to replace them with younger footballers. Amongst these aging players the most senior one is Paolo Maldini.
AC Milan already seems to be struggling and it has no chance of winning the Italian Championship, Scudetto, this year. In such circumstances Maldini’s wish to continue playing appears to be unnecessary. Having said that, extensive training and exercise keeps the veteran defender super fit and the quality of his game doesn’t seem to be getting poor.
It is a fact that prominent AC Milan footballers have failed to shine this year, and, most importantly, have lost the UEFA Champions League. But Maldini’s current form cannot be questioned. He is an amazing tackler and effective ball-winner. He has incomparable attributes of accuracy, fair-play and leadership. At the age of 39 his running indicates no sign of fatigue and as a left-back he supports players down the wing quite well.
The quality of the game of other seniors like Cafu, Nesta, Ambrosini, Kalac, Seedorf, Inzaghi and Ronaldo -- who are younger than Maldini -- signifies that they are at the twilight of their career. Prior to the recent season, Milan had been the best team in Europe for no less than five years. That led the club authorities to believe that they could keep going with the same experienced players. But sadly all of it has to come to an end.
Another important reason for Milan’s failure is its heavy reliance on the defensive approach, which makes the team’s offensive set-pieces feeble and futile. It is a fact that with the likes of Cafu, Maldini and Nesta the Italian club has one of the world’s most formidable defense lineups -- aided by precise stationing of midfielder Rino Gatusso and deep-lying playmaker Andrea Pirlo. This strategy leaves attackers like Kaka and Inzaghi without any support from the back and never allows them to play speedy and attacking football, like Arsenal and Manchester United players do nowadays.
After the rescheduled itinerary recently, the club was forced to play 16 matches in six weeks, which exhausted most of its players who are past their prime. Playing 16 games in six weeks can clearly hurt any side, but it was always going to be very hurtful for Milan, simply due to the lack of depth in their squad. Milan was not able to afford the luxury of resting key players in the weeks building up to the Arsenal tie because the potential list of replacements was not good enough. Thus the likes of the indispensable Andrea Pirlo were forced to play a majority of 16 games, which caused the players to burn out