29/07/2025
"I stopped playing football because I didn't recognize it anymore. Nowadays young players are thinking about other things. As a kid all I thought about was coaching and becoming great in this sport I always loved. In Lazio and in the national team, after every training session, I put myself in a bathtub full of ice to avoid injury. But the young players of the team systematically refused.
When they saw me packing my bags of balls to leave at the end of practice, they said "But who tells you to do that?"
That moment I said to myself: 'You're 20 years old and can't help a 60 year old worker?'
They’re more interested in whether their shoes match their socks. That's why I said stop. The football I used to know is no more.
Today's young players think first about cars, contracts with their sponsors and new shoes. Only after all this does football come. For them, their image is the most important thing. Whereas for me, all that mattered was football in its purest form."
Miroslav Close
