MONTREAL – This past weekend, with the Formula One circus in town, the Ferraris on wheels took center stage. But for Impact fans, there’s only dominant Ferrari in Montreal, and he’s red hot, too.
On June 1st, the final whistle of Montreal’s 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City was the exclamation mark on yet another colossal display by Matteo Ferrari. Imperiousness in aerial play, tidiness in ball recovery: this is no special performance anymore in Ferrari’s case.
Ask any Impact fan about consistency, and chances are he’ll mention Ferrari. At 33, Ferrari has seen it all, from Serie A to the Premier League, from the Italian national team to MLS. Yet he still plays every game as if it were his last, and that, he feels, is how you string good performances together.
“I always want to put myself in a situation where nobody can say ‘Look at that player: he’s here, but he doesn’t care anymore,’” Ferrari told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. “I consider this club an important one for me. I want to be able to say that I understood that, for me, those are the last years. I have two more years on my contract with Montreal, but those could be the last of my career.”
The words ‘last years’ are said with a hint of sorrow, as if the inevitability of his career ending one day were unbearable. Until then, though, he is mesmerizing his coaches every day. For Marco Schällibaum, Ferrari ranks very highly among MLS defenders.
“Much is said about the Nestas, the Di Vaios, but Matteo is an extraordinary person who, with his experience, conveys calm on the field,” Schällibaum said. “And most of all – we were just talking about that yesterday – he’s still very hungry. It’s extraordinary.”
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When Ferrari reflects on the serenely efficient play he has brought to Montreal since he unexpectedly signed nine days before their MLS debut, the passion for the job Schällibaum hinted at is palpable.
“I understood that every day is something that I will miss,” Ferrari said. “Every day, for me, is a day when I have to give the best of myself on the field, training or playing. Maybe I’ll play two more years, three more, who knows? It depends of my body. But for sure I don’t have ten more years. When you understand that, you learn that every day is important.
“Let’s say I break my knee. You don’t know if you can come back at 33 or 34. You know it can happen every day. I have to say thank you for every day, because when I won’t play anymore, I will miss my job.”
