Skippers form backyard boys' brigade

In the increasingly cosmopolitan world of the Champions' League it is always refreshing to see a local lad made good. Remarkably, no fewer than seven of the eight clubs involved in this week's quarter-final first legs are captained by players born in the area, most of them supporters of the team concerned. Even the "outsider", Oliver Kahn, has been at Bayern Munich long enough (13 years) to be considered part of the furniture.

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Not only that, but these men tend to be cast from a certain mould, one marked "triers", which impresses managers and supporters alike. Think Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Gary Neville, leaders at their clubs and the three realistic contenders to succeed David Beckham as captain of England last summer. Had Neville been fit he would doubtless have been one of those, like his two international team-mates, who set an example rather than surrendering to the dismal negativity surrounding England's game against Andorra.

Gerrard and Terry might, of course, have been Chelsea colleagues by now, a possibility that had Liverpool supporters burning shirts outside Anfield when it was mooted two summers ago. Jose Mourinho thought he had a deal, but in the end Gerrard could not go through with it, and Chelsea's manager was content to build around a spine of three Londoners (albeit with an East End bias) in Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole. He never had any doubt that one of them, rather than a foreign superstar, should be the team leader.

Paolo Maldini, you might say, was born to be captain of Milan. His father, after all, is Cesare Maldini, who led the club up the Wembley steps in 1963 to receive the European Cup and later coached the national team. His son, a first-team player at 16, is still going 22 years later.

Many coaches do not like to have a striker as captain, but Francesco Totti's iconic status is such that he is the only possible choice to lead Roma. Totti's mother reputedly turned down Milan while waiting for his favourite club to approach him, which they did, first obtaining his signature as a 13-year-old. United must contain him if they are to progress to the semi-finals.

David Albelda is a name that may currently mean less but will figure strongly in Chelsea's world over the next fortnight. Succeeding Gaizka Mendieta as captain of his native Valencia, he has moved from central defence for club and country to become a holding midfielder whom Lampard - if fit - is likely to see plenty of.

Meanwhile, Gerrard will be shaking hands for the third time this season with Phillip Cocu, a son of Eindhoven whose six seasons starring for Barcelona did nothing to diminish his popularity at the Dutch club, to which he returned three years ago. Like Merseyside, Manchester, Milan and the rest, PSV do love one of their own.