Loyalty for sale in summer transfers

Sometimes you have to wonder what footballers understand by the word ’loyalty’.

Already, with the season barely over, Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy declares he hopes Chelsea come calling this summer, while Bayern Munich’s Owen Hargreaves has been openly courting Manchester United for months.

It has also been revealed that Michael Owen has a £9m (€13.3m) getaway clause in his Newcastle contract.

At the same time, Sven-Goran Eriksson has the cheek to tell us he was good value for the mountains of money the Football Association paid him for failure as England boss.

Quite how he squares that with the past 12 months when he has racked up several million pounds without lifting a finger is a matter for his conscience – an entity the search parties are still out for.

Like a Tesco clubcard, too many in the football world appear to regard loyalty as they would a piece of plastic, to use or discard as the whim takes them.

So thank the Lord for Paolo Maldini.

Which is not to intrude on the personal grief of distraught Scousers, just to give credit where it is due to a player who quite possibly is the greatest European Cup footballer of all time.

Sure, Alberto di Stefano was a striker of wonderful grace and power. Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini were midfielders of rare invention. And Dino Zoff a goalkeeper who played virtually until he picked up his bus pass and was still better than the young pups around him.

But when Maldini kissed and hoisted the Champions Cup aloft for a fifth time in the Olympic stadium in Athens, football had its supreme role model.

You might think that strange considering Maldini is captain of a team who many, myself included, believe should not have been in the tournament because of their involvement in the Italian corruption scandal.

But there is no arguing with Maldini’s career, in which he does not appear to have attracted a single bad headline.

Let the statistics tell the tale. It was his eighth European Cup final. He has now won five trophies and only Real Madrid great Paco Gento has won more with six between 1956 and 1966 when the greater rigours of the Champions League were not in force.

At 38 and 331 days Maldini was also the oldest outfield player to play in a European Cup final.

That is a testament to his remarkable endurance and allegiance to AC Milan, a club he has served for a quarter of a century.

Let’s not make him out to be a saint.

He is not the only one-club man out there. At a quick count I can think of Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville.

And John Terry has declared his intention to spend his entire career at Chelsea, even asking for a clause in his contract to allow him to manage the club following his playing days.

Of course they all have one thing in common. They are all playing for elite clubs, earning huge salaries and playing regular Champions League football.

Not difficult to be loyal in such circumstances, is it?

But Maldini eclipses them all in that he is a footballer who exudes sheer joy to be still pulling on the boots.

Listen to his verdict on the latest triumph.

“It is the fifth time, but it is always wonderful,” he said. “I have the fortune to play in a great team that has given me the opportunity to make up for the disappointments which are outnumbered by the good times.

“I want to play another Champions League, another league season and the World Club Championship that escaped me the last three times. Ending like that would be fantastic.”

If he sounded like a star-crazed teenager then it is because in his heart and mind he is still one.

Still loyal after all these years to his love for football.