Maltese fans will give their farewell to one of the stalwarts of the national team in the last two decades when Steve Borg will be honoured for his long international career with the Malta shirt during this evening’s friendly international against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the National Stadium (kick-off: 7pm).
Borg suffered a recurrence of his hamstring injury during the team’s final session on Saturday, meaning that he is unavailable to play one last time. But before kick-off, he is set to be given a proper send-off by the Malta fans and is set to be honoured by the Malta Football Association.
The influential Valletta defender has been a cornerstone of the Malta defence during the past 14 years, donning the national shirt 81 times and netting three goals in the process.
The Malta Football Association was keen to give Borg a proper farewell for his service to the national team and decided to use the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina as a testimonial for the powerful defender.
In an interview with the Times of Malta on the eve of the match, Borg says that he is mentally ready to bring the curtains down on his international career and feels he has given everything for the national team shirt.
“The emotions are huge at the moment,” the 37-year-old told the Times of Malta.
“When you come into this chapter of your career, there will be a lot of emotions coming through your head. Mentally, I feel that I am ready for it. Obviously, I have been preparing for this match for several months now.
“I am really looking forward to taking this step, as now I can take a rest from the national team.
“When you represent your country, there is a huge stress, not just physical but also from a mental point of view, and obviously, you have to prepare in the best possible way for such matches.
“I feel that during my career with the national team, I have done my best and given everything that I could for my country.”
Borg started his career 14 years ago and said that his biggest regret is that injuries prevented him from making more appearances for the national team.
“I remember I started my career with the national team when I was 22 years old,” Borg said.
“I had just finished with the U-21 national team, and a few weeks later I was given a call-up with the senior team.
“I started with John Buttigieg, and I spent a year training with him. I remember that in his final match as national team coach, I played my first full match against Latvia away. It was a beautiful career, and if there is one thing I would change, it would be that I would not have so many injuries throughout my career. My biggest regret is that due to several injuries, I couldn’t play more matches with the national team in my career.”
Borg’s first match with the national team came on October 7, 2014, in the team’s European Championship qualifier in Latvia, which saw the side suffer a 2-0 defeat.
The Malta defender admitted that at the time he felt that he was ready to make his first appearance for the national team, but once he put on the shirt, he ended up overwhelmed by emotions.
“I remember that with John Buttigieg I trained a lot. I was involved a lot with the squad, and there were matches where I felt that I could have been included, or being part of the 18-man squad, or even maybe being brought on as a substitute,” Borg said.
“However, when you are young, you take a step back from saying what you think but when I spoke to the players, they told me that it was part of the character of John Buttigieg.
“Then the match against Latvia arrived, and I had no idea that it was going to be his last match.
“In the morning of the match, Carmel Busuttil came to speak to me and told me ‘Steve be ready’. And I told him: ‘I am always ready, coach’. But then he replied, ‘No, prepare yourself because you are going to start’.
“To be honest, I was a bit shocked as I thought that I would be introduced into the first team gradually, making a couple of substitute appearances, and not immediately in the first XI.
“I prepared a lot for the match mentally, and I thought that I was ready to play. But when I put the Malta shirt on, I was overwhelmed with emotion and during the national anthem I cried.
“Until the match started, I was really excited but once I touched the ball a couple of times, I settled down and I felt at ease as if it was any other game.”
During his time with the national team, Borg worked with several national coaches, namely John Buttigieg, Pietro Ghedin, Ray Farrugia, Devis Mangia, Michele Marcolini and Emilio De Leo.
Asked who he feels had the biggest effect on him, Borg said that every coach influenced him in different ways during his career.
“Every coach has left a different kind of impact on me,” Borg, whose most memorable moment with the national team was scoring an injury-time winner against Latvia in the UEFA Nations League, said.
“I learnt different things from every coach, and I know the huge responsibility they carry when you represent your country as national coach.
“Every coach left an impact on me. John Buttigieg was the one to introduce me to the national team and made sure that I was ready to play for Malta.
“Then there was Pietro Ghedin, who spent several years in charge; there was Ray ‘Zazu’ Farrugia, who left a huge mark on me, and then there were Devis Mangia, Michele Marcolini, and Emilio De Leo.
“Obviously, every coach had his good and bad, but I learnt from each one of them.”
The arrival of Devis Mangia in December 2019 has left a lasting impact on the national team set-up as the former Italy U-21 coach completely changed the national team’s mentality of how they approached matches, playing the ball from the back, and adopting more attacking tactics.
Borg agreed that Mangia had a huge influence on the national team but he added that the Italian was aided by the unprecedented investment the Malta FA made to give him and his technical staff all the tools needed to help the national team in terms of performance.
“I agree that Mangia changed the team’s mentality,” Borg said.
“When he met us the first time and explained his technical plan, all the players were perplexed by his words and felt that he didn’t know what he was saying as it was unprecedented for us to take such an attacking-minded approach.
“Mangia was a great coach, but what I can say now is that he was lucky in the sense that on his arrival, the Malta FA made a huge investment and gave him a lot of tools that previous coaches didn’t have.
“But still Mangia was a very smart coach, and he was a game-changer in how we approached international matches.”
Since the start of his career, if there is one quality that stands out in Borg is his leadership qualities. When you watch him play, Borg is always looking to motivate his team-mates and has a huge influence on his team.
“I have always been like that, even when I played with Mosta,” Borg said.
“Those are characteristics that embody me as a player and I always try to motivate my team-mates and I keep fighting till the very end.
“I always try to transmit these values to my team-mates even when I am not selected to play.
“I believe that I did my job well, always gave everything I had and I always felt a lot of responsibility.
“There is no need to be the team’s captain to act like that. I would like to thank all the captains I had during my time, Gilbert Agius, Michael Mifsud and Andrei Agius, as I always looked up to them and tried to learn from their example.”
In the past years, the Malta FA has started to award a Maltese passport to several foreign players so that they can represent our country at an international level.
Asked whether he felt that this approach was closing the doors for young, talented Maltese players to represent their country, Borg replied: “We are not the only country that is doing that. You have far bigger countries like Italy, France, and Germany, which, when they have the option to give a passport to a player, they do it.
“On whether they are taking the place of young Maltese players, I always maintained that if you are good enough you are always going to be given the chance to prove yourself and play. If our Maltese young players have the talent, work hard and are ready to make sacrifices, they will be handed the chance to represent Malta.”
Borg maintains his stance even when he is presented with the argument that the influx of foreign players in the domestic scene has made life difficult for young players to secure regular football.
“When I started playing in the Premier League there were only three overseas players on each team,” he said.
“Today, football has changed a lot as there has been a vast improvement in terms of level of play and it’s much more difficult to win league titles given the huge competition that exists.
“But the argument remains the same, if the young player is good enough to play, he will take the place of the foreign player. I don’t think it should be easy to play, as nothing is easy in life, but with hard work and dedication, one can aspire to reach anything in his career.
“In the past, we only had Michael Mifsud and Andre Schembri who plied their trade abroad. Today, we have six players who are registered with foreign clubs.”
Borg said that the national team has improved a lot in the last few years but insisted that it is important to keep building on the positive decisions taken in the recent past.
“When Devis Mangia came, there was a change in mentality, and the coaches that came after him continued to build on his work. And in fact, the team has had some good performances and decent results against bigger countries,” Borg said.
“But if we are going to continue to improve, we need to look at our young players and instill in them the same positive mentality and approach.”
During his playing career, Borg has enjoyed a special relationship with his close friend Henry Bonello with whom he won several trophies at domestic level while also playing together for the national team for several years.
Close relationship
Borg describes Bonello as a ‘brother’ and said that the veteran goalkeeper always had his back on the pitch and pushed him to reach higher levels.
“Henry and I have known each other for more than 20 years,” Borg said.
“I don’t call him a friend but he is like a brother to me. We had some great experiences on the field of play when we played together.
“I believe that Henry should have played much more for the national team, and I was lucky enough to win every domestic honour with him at Valletta FC and Ħamrun Spartans.
“With the national team, we played a lot together. We had some difficult times, as you are always involved in high-level matches. But we had some beautiful moments as well with the national team.
“We always helped each other and each time I needed him, not just on the football pitch but also on a personal level, he was always there for me and he will always have a special place in my life.”
As we came to the conclusion of the interview, Borg had a special message for young players who are aspiring to wear the national team shirt.
“In football, there is nothing bigger than wearing the national team shirt,” Borg said.
“When I represent Malta is something big for me as you are playing at a high professional level. My message to the young players is that whatever happens, you need to keep pushing and take your career very seriously.
“If you have the dream to play for Malta, keep working hard, as with perseverance and dedication, I can’t see why you cannot achieve your goal.”
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