“Jose Mourinho moved me into midfield so we could play together: he was a full-back with the soul of a striker” Javier Zanetti on the team-mate so good, he had to change positions to play with him
It was always going to take something special to displace Javier Zanetti from his full-back role at Inter.
The Argentina international spent 19 years at the club he joined in 1995 – 13 of them as captain.
But after in 2006, after over a decade playing in the wide defensive berth, Zanetti was forced into an abrupt change of position…and one that, in the circumstances, he was only too happy to accommodate, particularly as it helped the side to their famous 2010 treble.
Zanetti told FourFourTwo: “Maicon was a full-back with the soul of a striker.
“When opponents sat deep and shut up shop, he always found a way to thread through the gaps.
“When Jose Mourinho arrived, he moved me into midfield so we could both operate down the right flank together.
“He knew that when he pushed forward, I had his back, and the other way around.”
Zanetti also had the pleasure of playing alongside another one of the great full-backs of the era: Real Madrid icon Roberto Carlos.
“He only spent one season at Inter, but what a player!”, Zanetti said.
“Like Maicon, he was a quintessential Brazilian full-back.
“Brazil has produced the greatest full-backs in history,
“On the left, Branco, Roberto Carlos, Marcelo, and on the right, Cafú, Maicon, Dani Alves…
“Not bad, is it?”
