This past week, Inter stalwart Javier Zanetti announced his retirement from football. The 40-year-old will hang up his boots once the Nerazzurri play their final match, he’ll then become an ambassador for the club, which is the least he deserves.
Despite all of his achievements, Zanetti will always be remembered as the unsung hero and leader of his team and possibly his generation.
The Argentinean will always be remembered for one thing, his lack of aging. Despite the fact that he’s 40, Zanetti doesn’t look it and certainly doesn’t play like he’s about to retire. This is a man who’s admittedly gone on runs on his wedding day and used his wife as a weight for his squats.
That’s the sort of determination that’s translated to his performances on the pitch. Zanetti has been the captain of Inter since 1999 and holds the all-time appearances record with 856. Up until this season, he hadn’t participated in any fewer than 39 games in all competitions during any campaign.
Internationally, Zanetti is also the most capped Argentinean of all-time with 145 caps. His style of play has never changed whether he’s played for Argentina or Inter. He’ll always be known as “El Tractor” by the way he motors up and down the flanks past his opponents.
Yet there’s always someone associated with each respective Inter side that’s achieved success. In the treble-winning campaign, it was Wesley Sneijder and Maicon who earned the plaudits. In the other four Scudetto-winning seasons, the likes of Julio Cesar and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were seen as the key figures.
Those players were important, no question, but Zanetti was almost an afterthought. He was so consistently strong that he was taken for granted. He logged up thousands of minutes every year and went about his business. It was members like he, Esteban Cambiasso and Dejan Stankovic that motivated the squad.
One of the many coaches that Zanetti played under, Jose Mourinho, describes the Argentinean the best way.
“To me, Zanetti represents the joy of living, the joy of making football your job every morning. He is the smile, the life force, the passion for training, the good cheer for everyone who works with him.”
Zanetti had a coach every year on average during his Nerazzurri tenure. Because of Pupi’s hard work, it never seemed to faze him. He just rolled with the punches because he was essentially his own motivation, he didn’t need someone on the touchline to tell him what to do.
Everyone always compares the supposedly next best player to a Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo because of certain traits that they see. While there’s never an exact replica of someone already in the game, there will never be another man who comes close to Javier Zanetti.
No one in football possesses the same dedication that he does.
That’s why Zanetti is a legend and should be forever idolized by Interisti worldwide. He may not have been the best technical footballer, but he was still incredibly gifted. His longevity, commitment and footballing talent will always be remembered.
