The Israeli team will open tonight (Thursday) at 19:00 the World Cup qualifying campaign against Denmark, and as before every game of the boys in blue and white, this time too the question arises – who is the defensive player who will stand between Eran Zehavi and the perforation of the nets? Denmark may be at the top of Europe, but it is a strong team that mainly has players from the top leagues on the continent, with some of them playing in the most senior teams. One of them is who became Milan’s defensive stronghold last season – Simon Carr.
Carr is 31, but has already experienced mileage in football that does not embarrass a 40-year-old footballer. , Then he signed for Italian side Palermo, two seasons before their golden hair landed on the team.
Frequent Flyer
Since then, the undisputed leader of the Danish national team in the last decade has gone through six different stations, in four leagues. He went to Wolfsberg, moved to Rome, returned to Wolfsburg, from there for the French night to the Turkish Farnbacha. They all had a significant car player and screw, much thanks to his game wisdom. Carr is not one of the typical fast and physical brakes that Scandinavian football has to offer, but he has always relied on the quiet he produces on the field, and the game wisdom and ability to read situations that help him win battles against bigger, stronger and faster strikers. Offensively, he is a technical player, one who can also contribute to the attacking game, just as he did in the last round in 2: 3 against Fiorentina, when he cooked for Zlatan Ibrahimovic the first goal with a wonderful depth ball, Which you can see in the video above the break.
It can be said that at the age of 31, Carr is experiencing a resurgence in his career. After two years in Sevilla, he was loaned to Atalanta and after half a season at Bergamo, fulfilled a childhood dream and signed for AC Milan, who longed for an experienced stopper and joined him on loan. “Milan is simply Milan. It’s a very special club for me, and it’s a privilege for me to wear the Rossoneri uniform. “Since I came to Italy when I signed for Palermo for the first time, I have dreamed of coming here,” he said Car When he signed.
Enemies for friends – while Zlatan is waiting in the locker room
With the signing in Milan in January 2020, Carr opened a Pandora’s box. He arrived in Milan together with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. There has been bad blood between the two for years. It started further in clashes in the Scandinavian derby between Denmark and Sweden and reached a peak in 2016, when Carr, then at Fenerbahce, managed to get the Swedish giant out of his composure in the game against Manchester United in the Europa League home stage.
Carr is the type of player who fits the well-known cliché “when he is on your side you love him, but when he is against you you most hate him in the world”. He’s the kind of brakes who stick, who don’t let go, don’t respect any opponent, not even Zlatan. After receiving a kick without a ball from him, the Dane was not afraid to face the Swede, who responded with a strangling motion. “It does not surprise me, I know Zlatan,” Carr said after the confrontation, “he is an arrogant player who walks with a swollen chest. This is his style of play. “My style of play is to keep him as strong as possible and give him as little space as possible, because he is a good player.”
From then until he joined Milan, four years had passed, and yet the arrival of the Dane and the alliance with the Swedes very quickly flooded past events. To be honest and surprisingly, it only did Milan good. The Rossoneri, who have recently lost height in the battle for the Scudetto but still provide a season worthy of all the appreciation in the world, all the more so when it comes to one of the youngest teams on the continent, rely on two leaders – Zlatan and Carr.
“I believe our journey began as soon as Zlatan and Simon Carr joined the team in January,” said the Milan coach. Stefano Fioli, While evidence that for him the arrival of the Danish stopper influenced and contributed to Milan’s return to the front of the stage in Italy, no less than Zlatan’s glittering return to a second term at the club.
When looking at the numbers, it’s hard to disagree with him. Zlatan did add the spark in the front and the confidence projected directly to the young players certainly made Milan back relevant, but all that would not have been enough without the experience and quiet Carr put into the hitherto shaky back of the Rossoneri. The captain of the Danish national team soon integrated in the 11th and became the defensive stronghold of Milan, on the way to a streak of 27 games without a loss in Serie A, which started last season and came to an end with a loss to Juventus this season. It was the same loss that brought Milan to the ground and started a decline that helped Inter, the city rival, escape to the top apparently on the way to their first championship in 11 years.
Find his place
This season will probably end without a title, but it looks like Carr has found a warm home in Milan. In 30 appearances this season in the Rossoneri uniform, the Dane even managed to score one goal, dramatic and especially important, when he equalized with a shot in the 88th minute against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Unfortunately, this was not enough for AC Milan, who lost 1-0 in the rematch and were eliminated in the last 16 of the Europa League, but despite this, after quite a few years, Carr justifies his place as a brakeman who belongs to the top of world football.
Denmark’s staff boasts quite a few talents. Christian Eriksen (Shayder), Martin Breithwitt, Joseph Poulsen, Caspar Dolberg and the list goes on, but alongside all that, Carr is still considered one of the most esteemed players on the Scandinavian national team squad. He recorded 102 appearances in the media, in which he was a partner in two World Cups and one Euro. With this impressive resume and in the midst of a period in which he successfully tackles every week with the best pioneers in the world, now, the Danish brake faces a task in which his failures have been greater than in the past – stopping Eran Zehavi.