Double farewell to Pordenone, captain Stefani and goalkeeper Bindi announce their retirement from football

The defender in neroverde from 2015: “I put a piece in all the professional categories”.

PORDENONE. The decision was in the air and was made official on Thursday 28 April. Mirko Stefani, captain of Pordenone, has announced his retirement from football.

At 38, the Trentino defender, who has decided to settle in the city, has chosen to hang up his boots. The match on Saturday 30 April with Crotone will be his last at home with the green and black jersey. He will remain with the club, with which he still has another year on his contract. He will most likely train a youth academy.

Giacomo Bindi also chose to end his professional career with him. Even for the goalkeeper, 35, the match with the Calabrians will be the last in Lignano. Curiosity has it that both broke the news on April 28, the day of the anniversary of the promotion of Pordenone to Serie B, a category that they themselves helped to conquer. «The time has come to say goodbye – said Stefani – and I have a little bit of sorrow in announcing it. I have had a long career, the last season was not one of the best but I am ready to project myself towards a new beginning. I hope that with Crotone there is a beautiful environment, magical like the one that has accompanied us in recent years ».

So far the defender has played 165 games with Pordenone, a club he joined in 2015 after a season in Serie C with Messina. He arrived in a club fished out in Lega Pro and was immediately entrusted with the captain’s armband. “Few would have expected the path we then followed – he said -. We have improved year after year. We tasted the football of the greats with the challenges in the Italian Cup with Cagliari and Inter, then came the leap to Serie B and these last three years among the cadets. Relegation? Stopping at this would be an understatement. It is certainly a step backwards, but I am sure that Pordenone will gain momentum to do something important ».

Former national under 16, 18, 19 and 20, product of the Milan nursery with which he made his debut in Serie A in 2003, Stefani has spent most of her career between Serie C unica, C1 and C2, making history at Reggiana ( from 2005 to 2011). In 2019 he made his debut in B with the lizards, a category in which he played 15 matches. «I put a piece in all the professional categories – he affirmed -. We begin a new path, always in black-green. I studied to get the Uefa B qualification as a coach. Now I can thank those who have helped me over the years, my family of origin and my current family, coaches, teammates and the Lovisa family, which allowed me to end my career in the best possible way ».

With Stefani he will also leave Bindi, who arrived in Pordenone from Padua in the summer of 2018. The goalkeeper had won the Serie C championship with the biancoscudati and was able to repeat himself with the lizards the following year.

With 37 appearances he was one of the protagonists and leaders of that group, the icing on the cake was the super performance at Rocco with Triestina (he saved a penalty from Granoche). A product of the Inter nursery, he had never been linked to a club for four seasons as happened with the neroverdi, with whom he played 15 games in B. “Football has been a beautiful journey, full of indelible emotions”, he wrote on social media . He will probably remain in the world of football too.