It is award season in Milan and that means the San Siro Gentleman awards in Milan. Now, this is (IMO) a sort of goofy afair - sort of like the end-of-the year awards in High School or something - but hey, a trophy is a trophy. For those of you who dont know, the San Siro awards are Milan-based "annual prize-giving ceremony rewards Inter and AC Milan players who have distinguished themselves with their class and sportsmanship, on and off the field. " There are a number of categories and a member of each team is awarded for each category, as decided by fan votes. They throw in a little dinner, a little gala, and, well, you get the idea.
The four Inter players who won this year are:
Javier Zanetti - Gentleman FC Internazionale 2010/11. I think he has won a fair number of these things. He probably has at least 5 or 6 of these things. Given that they only started in 1996, that isn't too shabby.
Dejan Stankovic - Gentleman Best Goal FC Internazionale 2010/11 for the strike against Roma (see below). I think the volley against Shalke was pretty amazing as well.
Giampaolo Pazzini got Gentleman Best Performance and Yuto Nagatomo was awarded Gentleman Revelation (whatever that means. Best newcomer, maybe?).
In a related story, Andrea Ranocchia picked up the Armando Picchi award for Best Italian Under-23 Defender in Serie A 2010/11.
Kudos all around, boys.
FORZA INTER
Oh, in case you were wondering, Eto'o and his wife spent their time off at the Cannes Film Festival. Boy, those are sure some cheekbones.