Edgar Davids

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Hi Steemians!

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His nickname was Pitbull, a name a warranty, this cute nickname has been given to him since his beginning in Ajax team by the Dutch coach Luis Van Gaal because of his proverbial aggressiveness, as aggressive as elegant, to see him play was a real delight for eyes, not very prolific in terms of scoring, also because his role was that of the classic mastiff in the midfield ready to steal the ball to the opponents to restart his team action. In Holland he wins everything at club level, Champions League, UEFA Cup, Intercontinental and UEFA Super Cup. Raised in the suburbs of Amsterdam, absolute genius of street soccer together with Ronaldinho was distinguished by his technique, a juggler born on the street, which he loved even when he landed at Juventus, along with Zidane was challenging street's guys in Turin in 3 vs 3 challenges.

Long hair and glasses, which he was forced to put after a glaucoma in his eyes, made him a very special character, instilled fear in the adversaries only to look at him. He moved from Ajax losing in the 1996 final against Juventus in Rome, but fate had in store to make them meet again, after a short unhappy adventure in A.C. Milan after was labeled as an absolute flop, taken to zero money from Ajax and resold as "rotten player" to Juventus for 9 billion of lire, in the Piedmont society had its own sporting revenge. Idol of the fans, he managed to convey his extreme grit, sometimes even too much, to the people who was going to the stadium acclaim him. In the ranks of the old lady lost two Champions League finals, against Real Madrid and Milan. Joy and sorrow for the good Edgar, a delight for the eyes of the fans and a little less for the legs of the opposing players.

He has played in chronological order in the ranks of Ajax, Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, ​​Inter, Tottenham, returned to Ajax for a season and then moved to the Crystal Palace and subsequently to the Barnet. 20 goals in total for him from 1991 to 2011, twenty years as a professional footballer. The best of himself gave it a level of spectacularity playing for Juventus playing 235 games, where he won 2 scudetto and 3 Italian super cups, symbol of the team when he was led by Ancelotti and Lippi, after a fight with Lippi his relationship with the team broke and he moved to Barcelona, ​​where he remained only 6 months, from that moment began his decline as a professional player.

A lots his fouls in the rectangle field and consequent red & yellow cards and disqualifications, in addition to the charges of street fights and violence against his girlfriends, strictly linked to the entertainment world. Edgar often managed to be a negative protagonist ending up on the front pages of newspapers. Closes his career in the team of the fifth English series of Barnet FC, of which he becomes coach-player, from 2012 to 2014, then abandons this career because he claims to be targeted by the referees who, in his opinion, they would have expelled him several times too easily. In 2016 he became ambassador in the world of Juventus together with David Trezeguet, he sponsors the company's brand in the countries in which he is less known, trying to increase the range of his fans. From this year he resumed the activity of coach, in the role of second coach of the Dutch national team.

Definitely not a very sociable person, really famous his fight with Cosmin Contra, who at the time Inter player, in the locker room during a friendly match on TIM summer trophy. Davids in his career managed to collect 16 reds for the sum of warnings, 4 direct expulsions and 114 yellow, conflicting statements from his teammates and opponents, the same Contra called him a violent and bad person, his former teammate from Milan, Billy Costacurta used for him the unpleasant appellation of "bad apple", while apparently someone, in addition to the fans, loved a lot of his determination, such as Matías Almeyda, a former Parma player who a few years ago declared :

He was the adversary that I liked most. He gave me a blow and I got up without saying anything. I gave him a blow and he got up without saying anything. He was on the left and I was on the right: we always clashed. A war.

So loved by the Juventus fans that when they had to decide who to put as the 50th star of the team's history, which would have deserved a giant picture outside of the new stadium, a poll was made on the team official site and the fans chose him, instead of players of the caliber of Zibi Boniek and Fabio Cannavaro.

A curious anecdote was told by Zizou about their alleged illegal matches:

It is not a legend the story that I wanted to put a fisherman's hat to go play with the immigrants, even if I did it only a couple of times. My team-mate Edgar Davids was pushing me. He went crazy, he did it very often: he took the car and when he saw someone playing in a parking lot he stopped to join. He always told me: 'It's for them that we have to play, these are important matches'. And I told him: 'Ok, but we have the training, we belong to a high-level club, we can not risk injuring ourselves'.

A great couple, able to give immense joy to their fans but also pains, like a Champions League night against Hamburg where they were both expelled losing their mind in committing two fouls heavy and bad, evening in which I was present at the delle Alpi stadium and that has remained impressed in my mind, certainly not in a positive way, despite everything Juventus passed the same qualifying group.

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Image 1 – Image 2 - free copyright pictures

Sketch by @ran.koree

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