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Special story: Why Costacurta got the nickname "Billy" has to do with basketball

2023-04-24 17:55:10Sport SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Special story: Why Costacurta got the nickname "Billy" has to do with
Alessandro Costacurta

He was one of the best defenders in the history of Italian football, a champion who managed to find a place among the biggest flags of a glorious club like Milan.

The career of Alessandro Costacurta (he turns 57 today) was very long, full of extraordinary successes, which began at the professional level in the mid-1980s and lasted until 2007, when, at the age of 41, he "hung up on the nail".

Wise, intelligent, able to decide and predict the movements of opponents in a fraction of a second. He and Franco Baresi built a central defensive duo that has remained in the imagination of many as one of the best of all time, worthy of complexing Tassotti and Maldini, the red and black backline duo that contributed decisively to take Milan on top of the world.

Costacurta's record is clear: 7 Serie A titles, 5 Italian Super Cups, 1 Italian Cup, 5 Champions Leagues, 4 European Super Cups and 2 Intercontinental Cups. 24 overall titles making him, who holds the record for the 'oldest' player to score in Serie A (41 years and 25 days), one of the most successful Italian players ever.

Thanks to what he did with Milan and the Italian national team (with which he was runner-up in the world in 1994), Costacurta gained the status of a football legend, but the nickname that accompanied him throughout his career is associated with another sport, basketball.

For everyone it has always been "Billy" and to get to the roots of what might initially seem like a nickname like many others, we have to go way back in time and more precisely to 1980.

At that time, Costacurta was a very young defender, who had entered the youth sector of Milan, but with a great and real passion for basketball. He had been practicing basketball since his childhood and he especially favored it when at the beginning of training he got hot by following the ball with his hands.

During one of the first sessions with his red and black teammates, he showed off his 'basketball' skills. Then, when he switched to classic dribbling, things didn't go too well, probably because of emotions. So much so that after another mistake, his coach called him out, yelling, "Go play Billy!"

Then, as it happens today, in Italy basketball teams often took the name of the main sponsor and in that period "Olimpia Milano" was called "Billy Milano", after the name of a popular fruit juice on the market in the 70s and 80s. It was a very strong team, capable of winning a championship (the double one in the 1981-1982 season), after a long fast, and therefore very famous.

From that day on, what was originally a joke turned into more than a nickname. That young boy of that time has been consecrated as a great champion and his passion for basketball has never left him.

"Not everyone knows, but it's my favorite sport. "Basketball is my great passion and if I have to choose what to watch on TV, basketball is always first," Costacurta clarified.


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