logo
AC Milan Legend Costacurta Backs Cristian Chivu: ‘He Has The Qualities To Be Successful, He's Ready For Inter Milan'

AC Milan Legend Costacurta Backs Cristian Chivu: ‘He Has The Qualities To Be Successful, He's Ready For Inter Milan'

Yahoo12 hours ago
AC Milan Legend Costacurta Backs Cristian Chivu: 'He Has The Qualities To Be Successful, He's Ready For Inter Milan'
Legendary former AC Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta feels that Cristian Chivu is ready to be Inter Milan coach.
Speaking to Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor, via FCInter1908, the former Italian international argued that Chivu has 'all the qualities to be successful.'
Advertisement
Cristian Chivu became Inter Milan coach last month.
The 44-year-old took over from Simone Inzaghi following the previous coach's decision to accept a massive money offer from Al-Hilal rather than remain coaching at a high level in Europe.
Chivu came in with just thirteen matches of senior coaching experience under his belt. All of these came at Parma last season, as he kept the Gialloblu up in Serie A.
However, Inter based their faith in Chivu not just on his work at the Stadio Ennio Tardini. The Romanian had also coached Inter at various youth team levels, including their Primavera side for three years.
Advertisement
Costacurta: 'Cristian Chivu Is Ready To Coach Inter Milan'
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 17: Cristian Chivu, Head Coach of FC Internazionale Milano, reacts following the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 group E match between CF Monterrey and FC Internazionale Milano at Rose Bowl Stadium on June 17, 2025 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by)
Legendary former Milan defender Alessandro Costacurta gave his thoughts on the appointment of Cristian Chivu as Inter coach.
'I think that he has what it takes to be successful,' said the former defender.
'He's also already worked with Inter's young players. And then he did well at Parma last season.'
'I think he's ready for Inter!' Costacurta declared.
The Italian also called Chivu 'a great guy.'
'We're not close friends or anything. But he's a good guy.'
Costacurta even made the bold prediction that 'it could be an extraordinary season for him at Inter.'
''It's a great opportunity for him,' the former defender concluded.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Switzerland's Sydney Schertenleib, an Instagram DM and why Barca wasted no time signing her
Switzerland's Sydney Schertenleib, an Instagram DM and why Barca wasted no time signing her

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Switzerland's Sydney Schertenleib, an Instagram DM and why Barca wasted no time signing her

'We have just witnessed the Champions League debut goal of one of the next Ballon d'Or winners,' exclaimed a journalist at the end of the match. It was the first leg of the holders' quarter-final and Barcelona had just sealed their place in the next round after winning 4-1 against Wolfsburg in Germany. The fourth goal was scored in the 88th minute by a player from the reserve team who came on three minutes earlier, replacing Alexia Putellas. Advertisement Sydney Schertenleib collected possession on the edge of the Germans' box, dribbled past a defender and struck a stunning shot into the top corner. Next to her, Aitana Bonmati — the reigning Ballon d'Or holder — had stopped moving in the penalty area and stood watching, impressed by what she had just seen. She immediately grabbed her team-mate by the neck as the Swiss player turned around, her braids waving in the air. Those three minutes were all it took for her to score and make her mark on the European football scene. Now the 18-year-old is the bright hope for Switzerland as they host the European Championship. Schertenleib was 16 years old at the 2023 European Under-17 Championship in Estonia and was one of the outstanding players in the tournament. After eliminating Germany in their final group match, Switzerland reached the semi-finals but suffered a 10-2 thrashing by eventual winners France. Advertisement She caught the attention of several big clubs. One of those was Barcelona, who were already watching her. 'The first time I saw Sydney was in October 2022,' Dani Sanchez, the head scout for Barcelona Women at the time, tells . Markel Zubizarreta took Sanchez with him when he went to Kynisca Sports, the giant club chaired by South Korean businesswoman Michele Kang. 'I was following (Italy's) Giulia Dragoni by then. In the under-17 groups, in the preliminary rounds, they form groups of four teams and the winner of the mini-league goes through to the next round. 'There was a group consisting of Italy, Switzerland, France and Finland. Italy was the host. I was there to follow Dragoni, and in the match against Switzerland the whole team caught my attention. I saw Sydney very quickly. She has a presence that catches your eye, something unusual in women's football. She had great coordination and technique. It wasn't a difficult case to spot. You didn't need a special eye because she stood out so much. Advertisement 'Players with her physical characteristics who also have talent and good technique are very few and far between. It's something that's hard to find. 'When I saw her, I wrote a report with her profile and left it there, because she was still too young to be signed. At the end of the season (in the 2023 U17 European Championship), I saw her again and she confirmed what I had already seen in October 2022.' He had access to videos with all her performances. When the Swiss youth teams gathered in Alicante in Spain in 2023, he came to see her play live. 'She played a friendly match against Spain,' he recalls. 'She was under-17 but already playing with the under-19s. It was a very good reference because she was playing against players we already knew, such as Vicky Lopez. It was useful for us to be able to compare. That was the day we decided to contact her.' Advertisement She was a player who stood out from the rest, starting with her physique — she is 5ft 10in (178cm) tall with long braids that immediately catch the eye, but above all for her technique and elegance. Barcelona also wanted to see her in an environment where she was playing with senior first-teamers, rather than just with other teenagers. They went to watch her play in Switzerland with her club, Grasshopper Zurich. Before that — up until 2023 — she had been at FC Zurich, a more established team in women's football but one that has tended to favour experienced players. There, they assured her she would progress a lot but that she would play with their Under-21 team. At Grasshopper, they were more committed to young talent and guaranteed her playing time with the first team, so her family recommended she sign for that club, even though it was a move that might surprise people. Sanchez was convinced Schertenleib was a player they had to sign as soon as possible, before another big club snapped her up. Advertisement Looking for a way to contact her, they realised she did not yet have an agent, so they contacted her via direct message on Instagram, as she explained in an interview with Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos. Sanchez was the person who reached her. 'Everybody is talking about this anecdote,' he says, laughing. 'I want to make clear that at no point did we offer her the option of coming via Instagram! When we fill out the forms for interesting players in the club's database, we are asked for the player's contact details in case we need to get in touch with her at any time. Also, when her contract ends, the more information we have, the better. We saw that she didn't have an agent. The club's manager contacted Grasshopper and, at the same time, I contacted her on Instagram to ask who her agent was and if she could give us a contact person or her parents' details.' A few weeks later, Schertenleib was already in Barcelona. On June 25, 2024, her signing was made official with the idea she would first play for Baraa B. However, her performance in the Joan Gamper Trophy — the pre-season friendly that kicks off the new season each year — caught the attention of head coach Pere Romeu and his staff. She started playing for Barca B and was quickly promoted to the first team. Advertisement She made her official debut with the first team in November 2024 against SD Eibar and ended the season playing a total of 764 minutes in 22 matches, scoring two goals. According to sources from the Barcelona technical staff who prefer to remain anonymous to protect relationships, the player quickly integrated into the first team's dressing room and has been accepted by everyone. This is something they consider very important and significant. The staff are aware they have a rough diamond on their hands and want to guide her well and be patient with her. 'She has a lot of room for improvement and is a player who will be talked about a lot now and in the future,' Romeu said at a press conference in March. Although many are already thinking about replacements for Patri Guijarro when she needs a rest and have set their sights on the Swiss player for that role, Barcelona see her playing as an attacking midfielder or winger. They like her elegance, the way she handles the ball, how she reads the space when she does not have it, her technique and her versatility. However, they are aware that, due to her young age, she still has a lot to learn. Advertisement 'Given her qualities, her ideal position is not very clear,' Sanchez says. 'In my opinion, playing her at the base of the play, as a defensive pivot, means not taking full advantage of her potential. A more advanced position with the option of getting forward seems more suitable to me. Despite being tall, she is a skilful player who sees the inside passes well. For me, her ideal position is '8' with the option of getting into the opposition's area.' That she is not the finished product was clear in December 2024 when the Catalans faced Real Betis. Schertenleib came on in the second half and a loss of possession led to Betis' only goal. The player left the stadium in tears despite her team winning 4-1. She has so much potential in attack and is such a goalscorer that she is seen as more suited to playing closer to the opposition's area. However, she will have to bide her time in that area. The Catalan midfield is packed with elite players and seems unbreakable with Guijarro, Bonmati and Putellas. It took just a few games for everyone to realise a star was born. At this home Euros, she has an opportunity to shine and show she deserves more playing time next season at Barcelona, where she has already laid the foundations for an exciting career. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Barcelona, Switzerland, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros 2025 The Athletic Media Company

The enduring legacy of Denmark's 1986 World Cup kits: Stripes, chevrons and ‘carnival suits'
The enduring legacy of Denmark's 1986 World Cup kits: Stripes, chevrons and ‘carnival suits'

New York Times

time2 hours ago

  • New York Times

The enduring legacy of Denmark's 1986 World Cup kits: Stripes, chevrons and ‘carnival suits'

This article is part of our Kitted Out series, an exploration of the impact of soccer kits on culture and fashion. Mexico 86 was the last of the innocent World Cups. Played in searing heat on terrible pitches, it gave us the joy of Josimar, the Hand of God, that shadow of the spider camera and some all-time great kits. Denmark didn't just look the part, they lit up a technicolour tournament. Preben Elkjaer, Michael Laudrup and co were a red-and-white attacking machine, leaving pinstriped trails in their wake. As they dashed around and through startled opponents, they scored at will. Even the Danes' giant, italicised numbers seemed to be in motion. Advertisement The World Cup debutants were dynamite as they danced through the group of death completed by West Germany, Uruguay and Scotland. Played three, won three. For: nine. Against: one. Diego Maradona likened them to a bullet train. But then they were gone, confoundingly beaten 5-1 by Spain in the last 16. While Denmark were consigned to history as one of the great what-ifs, Hummel's bold kit lives on as a coveted classic, adored by fans and designers alike. Back in 1923, entrepreneur Max Albrecht Ludwig Messmer founded a sports shoe company with his father in Hamburg, Germany. Messmer & co went on to introduce a football boot called Hummel — the German word for 'bumblebee' — the name subsequently adopted by the company in 1961. Its trademark chevrons and logo followed. Hummel first made the kit for Denmark's national team in 1979 and, by the 1980s, the company was Danish-owned. After Denmark qualified for their first World Cup in 1985, designers Birgit Leitner and Anne-Mette Ernst were freelancers at Hummel and devised a daring, futuristic design. 'Of course, we knew it had to be red and white, but it was about sitting with the fabric samples in our hands that we had in the office, putting them together in different ways and making it work like a jersey,' Leitner told Hummel in 2023. 'Fortunately, we had a roll of striped fabric lying around, which we tried to use, and it ended up working very well.' With its half-and-half pinstripe design, chevrons on the shoulder and V-necked collar, the lightweight kit was launched on Danish television in February 1986. The home kit was predominantly red; the away white. Both featured shirts mirrored by matching shorts, an iteration kiboshed by FIFA due to concerns about its appearance on television. 'I think it's… different,' captain Morten Olsen said, 'but I think it's a breath of fresh air.' Some scornful Danish media christened it 'the carnival suit'. Advertisement But with an accompanying range of merchandise, including tracksuits, beach chairs and umbrellas, the design grew popular with the Danish public. 'In the summer of 1986, we regularly received messages and pictures from fans who had used the design to paint their cars and other wild things. It was crazy. We probably should have licensed it then. Then we would have been rich today,' Ernst told Hummel in 2023. Few know football shirts better than Rob Warner. Once creative directing manager at Puma, for whom he designed Italy's 2006 World Cup strip, he outlines the contrasting components of Hummel's kit. 'It was like they took all the classic bits of football kits,' Warner tells The Athletic. 'So the chevrons over the shoulders — Puma had been doing that sort of thing; Adidas had done three stripes; Umbro had done their diamond tape over the shoulders. 'That was quite an iconic look from the 70s and early 80s. It's like, they've kind of got that and they jumped on the emerging trend of graphics, and being able to print on polyester. 'They've got the black contrast piping through the armholes as well, which was something else that was very much of the era — usually on single-colour shirts. And then they've got a V-neck but they crossed it over with the stripe on it. 'There were a lot of elements there that I think had shown up in some form or other on classic football shirts, and they just put all of them together and somehow made it work.' Denmark had the players, a German coach in Sepp Piontek, the kit, the friendliest fans — known as 'the roligans', with 'rolig' meaning 'calm' in Danish — and Re-Sepp-Ten, the nation's biggest-selling pop song, which featured members of the squad singing, behind them. Two years earlier, they had suffered a galling defeat against Spain on penalties in the semi-finals of Euro 84. This time, they could go all the way. Advertisement Midfielder Klaus Berggreen started all of Denmark's games in Euro 84 and three in Mexico. 'We had a very close group who had been playing together since we were young,' he tells The Athletic. 'We were happy to play together. We had great fun, and we were also proud of playing for Denmark.' In Piontek, they had the perfect leader. 'He was a great coach, absolutely,' says Berggreen. 'First of all, he had the German discipline. He understands very fast the Danish humour. We had a lot of humour in the team. He tried to put equilibrium, a good balance. I think he was the right man at the right moment for Danish football. 'He had strong players on almost all the position in the team. He listened to his team, he listened to his players, and that was also a secret. He used the players to get even stronger.' With matches being played at midday in temperatures of up to 35C — some at over 6,000 feet above sea level — Denmark arrived early to acclimatise. 'We went for two weeks to Colombia,' says Berggreen. 'And it was so tough training, and it means that when we started off at the championship in Mexico, we were already at 100 per cent. Normally, when you go into such a big tournament, it's better to be only on 90. You don't have to be 100 already at the start.' In Mexico, Denmark did not wear the same kit combination twice. They beat Scotland 1-0 wearing their away shirt with red shorts and white socks. While walloping South American champions Uruguay 6-1, they were all in red. Against eventual finalists West Germany, a 2-0 win, the red jersey came with white shorts and red socks. And it was all white for the defeat by Spain — they were 1-0 up but went on to lose 5-1. 'It went out the way it went out,' says Berggren. 'But we had a very strong team and made very good publicity for Danish football in the whole world.' Berggreen is no stranger to style. For a season, he played for Roma under Sven-Goran Eriksson in their lustrous NR shirts. After his footballing career, he launched his own clothing brand, Piro (the first two letters of Pisa and Roma, two of his former teams). Six years after Mexico, Denmark wore another Hummel number all the way to a glorious, against-all-odds Euro 92 triumph in Sweden. The team of the mid-80s felt they were good enough to win at a trophy too. 'Yeah, we could have won the European Championship in 84 and we could also have won the Mundial (World Cup) in Mexico,' Berggreen adds. 'I think in those three, four years, we had one of the three best teams in the world.' After the end of Denmark's two-year kit cycle, the template lived on as teams across Europe joined Hummel's hive. Tottenham Hotspur's similar V-necked lilywhite shirt was adorned with chevrons and diagonal pinstripes from 1985-87. Think of a flowing Chris Waddle or hark back to the October night in 1986 when Glenn Hoddle temporarily handed over his No 10 for Maradona to wear at White Hart Lane for Ossie Ardiles' testimonial. Real Madrid sported a classic of the genre and pipped Barcelona to the title in La Liga by a point while wearing it in 1986-87. The next season, Hummel kitted out Feyenoord, Real Betis, the Wales national team, and three English clubs too. First Division sides Coventry City and Southampton, and Aston Villa from the second tier, had sky blue, red, and claret and blue versions of Denmark's kit that were exact copies. 'It was as well-received back then as it is now,' former Southampton player Francis Benali tells The Athletic. 'I've clearly got fond memories of it myself because it was a kit that I wore on my debut against Derby County at The Dell. 'I remember thinking when we first wore it for the first-team photo in the season that it came out, 'Well, yeah, this is such a cool kit'. The material had a silky finish and just looked really, really good as well. 'Half and half with very thin stripes — it was just a number on the back, the Hummel branded logo, the crest of the club, and the Draper Tools sponsor with black shorts and white socks.' When @SouthamptonFC unveil a new @hummel1923 home kit but you've already got one! 😉🔴⚪️#SaintsFC #hummel — Francis Benali MBE (@FrannyBenali) June 19, 2023 Benali, who raised over £1.3million for Cancer Research by running three gruelling charity challenges, is now a television pundit. He still has a memento to this day. 'I've got the actual shirt that I made my debut in,' he says. 'This was in an era when we had a handful of kits that we had to look after for the entire season.' Advertisement Meanwhile, in the Midlands, Warner received a claret and blue shirt, shorts and socks under the Christmas tree in 1987. It remains his favourite Aston Villa kit. 'I then went on to deface it not long afterwards by drawing a number eight on the back for David Platt, and that was my first go at changing the design of a football shirt,' says Warner, who co-founded the Spark Design Academy. 'It kind of hit me like a lightning bolt that it's the least Villa shirt of all time, really, in terms of home shirts. Potentially, from a Denmark perspective as well. It was a real break from tradition to have something that from a certain distance even came across as pink, really. 'It was quite a departure — the same for every team that took that shirt on. It's remained iconic but it's such a departure that I think if a team showed up with something that different now, I think the response to it would be very different online.' Hummel's senior designer Keld Moesgaard Pedersen calls the kit 'an all-time classic'. 'The shirt was so different and innovative for its time when it was released,' Pedersen tells The Athletic. 'There's a good harmony in the pattern, and the colours work well together. 'The classic red version is just beautiful but my personal favourite is probably the national team's white/red away shirt. It just works really well and has probably received less attention than the red home shirt.' Hummel have often used the past as inspiration, channeling that iconic 1986 look for designs for Coventry in the 2019-20 season and Southampton in 2023-24. 'We felt it would be the perfect opportunity to re-release perhaps the most iconic Hummel shirt across a number of our current club teams,' says Pedersen. 'Fortunately, many of our clubs embraced the idea, and we were able to spread the concept across various leagues — Werder Bremen, FC Koln, Southampton, Coventry, Brondby, Real Betis, Saint-Etienne, Malaga, and the national team.' The series introduced the kit to new generations and brought back memories for older fans. Not that they had ever forgotten it. Kitted Out is part of a partnership with VW Tiguan. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Top image: Design; Demetrius Robinson/The Athletic; Photo: Allsport/)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store