Jaap Stam has named his all-time starting line-up in terms of players that he played with, and there are four AC Milan players present.
Stam is considered one of the best centre-backs to play the game and his biggest achievement was probably winning the treble with Manchester United – the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League – in 1999.
Stam played for PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, Lazio, Milan and Ajax, winning the Supercoppa Italiana with the Rossoneri but failing to capture another UCL title because of what happened in Istanbul a year later.
The starting defence for that final against Liverpool saw Stam alongside Cafu, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini, one of the best defences assembled. In SportWeek, the Dutchman picked the best team he has played with.
At right-back, Marcos Cafu: “Together at Milan. A true pendulum. Back and forth on the wing: he defended and attacked like few others. His crosses were perfect. He was always smiling.”
In the center the pair formed by Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini. On the former: “I met him at Lazio and then we met again at Milan. Elegant, fast, unique in anticipation. We had a great feeling in defence: an absolute top player.”
On Maldini: “Legend. Proud to have played with him in Milan. Intelligent, complete, charismatic: a beautiful person.” Then, in midfield, Andrea Pirlo: “Calm and never under pressure with the ball at his feet. A master at reading situations and providing assists.”
What a defence we had back then… And Pirlo… Just watched a good video on YouTube about him called How a Midfielder With No Pace or Stamina Destroyed Everyone. The Jube section at the end is hard to watch tho.
One of the best starting 11s in history (barring Dida to be frank).
Dida was the odd man out in what would otherwise be one of the greatest squads ever assembled.
Dida was trash – imagine what we could’ve won with Buffon in goal who we nearly landed.
Thrash? Hahaha get out of here.. dida was much better than any goalkepper we had except maybe Mike.
Now I understand why you write comments about players as you do. You don’t know…
Buffon and Totti were the two I regret we never got….
————————Buffon
Cafu———-Nesta——-Stam——-Maldini
————————Pirlo
————-Gattuso———Seedorf
————————Kaka
—————Totti——-Shevchenko
You’re welcome…
Trash is too much of an exageration.
“Overrated” is the word I’d use for Dida. He was a goalie I liked, but I think him winning so many titles with us made people think that he was some sort of an ATG type goalkeeper, which he was far from.
I might exagerate and I was fairly young back then, but I don’t think Dida was much better if better at all than 21/22 Maignan.
People who rate Dida high clearly hasn’t seem him play. All the horrible howlers are still giving me nightmares.
Cafu, Nesta, Stan and Maldini – now we have Emerson Royal, Gabbia, Tomori and Theo. Sad how low our Milan has gone down. Not even gonna mention the midfield and attack then because it hurts too much.
the best we’ve in back line atm is Theo & still he’s ain’t better than Serginho, our backup player in that era
i was to young to watch dida but from highligths dida isa okor a good player but no where near world class but i would say he was a good penalty stopper