L'eterno capitano: Paolo Maldini
Un esempio di lealtà: Paolo Maldini
An example of loyalty: Paolo Maldini
For some time now, the lack of loyalty of a player to his club has become more and more normal, there are few who change money for the love of their club, and one of those was undoubtedly Paolo Maldini, today I will talk a little about the spectacular career he had in the club of my love, AC Milan, known by fans as ''L'eterno capitano'' was 24 years in the discipline of the Italian team of which he was captain for a 22 of those 24 years, and therefore the nickname with which he is known, the eternal captain. here are the highligths of his sports career
His beginnings
Paolo Cesare Maldini was born on June 26, 1968 in Milan, son of Cesare Maldini, another legendary member of the club where he played all his life. When he was just 10 years old, he entered the Milan academy where he was trained as a footballer until he joined the youth team in 1982. In 1985 he made his debut as a professional, when he was only 16 years old, that January 20 he entered the lineup replacing Mauro Tassotti who was the starter, and that was added to the injury of Sergio Battistini which opened the way for Paolo to become a starter, as a curious detail, this was one of the only two games he played as a right back, the rest were as a left back and as a central defender. His coach, Nils Liedholm referred to him as a young man with a great future as a player, and under his hand the player had opportunities to show his talent and he did not waste them. Only in his second season he was already a regular starter with the team, appearing in 40 games that season, scoring the first goal of his career on January 4, 1987. Despite his short time with the team, Paolo was already loved by the fans, due to his great technique, his clean cut of the ball and his delivery, however his rise as a player was not accompanied by the team, which showed a rather regular level, in the year 87 was the arrival of Arrigo Sachi and there began the successes.
Sacchi's Milan and Paolo's consecration.
Just mentioning Arrigo Sacchi is enough to make another post, his arrival to the Italian club changed its face completely and Paolo Maldini was one of the stalwarts of that team, winning the Serie A that year and in 89 was champion of the UEFA Champions League, in whose semifinal they beat nothing more and nothing less than Real Madrid of ''La Quinta Del Buitre'' the team that dominated Europe at that time, Paolo was the youngest of the defensive line but his versatility in defense and his contribution at left back was unbeatable, even for legends of the sport like Franco Baressi, with whom he shared team in Sacchi's time. The following year they became the eighth club in history to win the European Cup (now called the Champions League) twice and in 1991 they seemed to be on the same path but were eliminated by the administration and banned for a year from the tournament, thus ending the era of Arrigo Sachi, but not that of Maldini, who continued with the team and already established himself as the captain, At just 23 years old he was already a mature defender and a born leader, desired by all the clubs in Europe, but Paolo always remained faithful to Milan, Fabio Capello replaced the legendary Sacchi and although Milan was not the same dominant team, it had a successful period winning Serie A 3 times in a row in 92, 93 and 94 and that same year they won the Champions League again.
The following years were somewhat low for Milan in Europe, although in Italy they continued to fight and remain on the podium, they won 2 more leagues until the year 2000, when at the age of 32 he began the final stage of his career, and this was accompanied by a small drought of titles.
The final phase of its majestic career.
It is common for a player to reach his highest point of level and then as the years go by and he gets older, this level goes down, but the real cracks evolve with age to overcome this adversity, and Paolo was one of them, today we can see this in players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi or Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who despite being at an advanced age continue to compete at an incredible level in the elite of world soccer. Milan went through a necessary renewal stage between 96 and 2002, players came and went but Maldini kept the captain's tape always tied to his arm, from 99 to 2003 Milan did not win any title however in 2003 the team came back with everything winning the Serie A and the Champions League, Milan had returned to the European elite and in 2005 they reached the Champions final again, in that final Paolo scored the fastest goal in history of a final of this tournament, in minute 1, but that day the miracle of Istanbul happened, and Milan ended up losing that game in an incredible way, two years later Paolo and his Milan had their revenge in 2007, when he they won the seventh (and last until now) European Cup in their history against Liverpool with a brace from Inzaghi and a Kaka at his highest level, Paolo, already 39 years old, had declared that he was going to retire that year 2007 but when he won the Champions League and access the Club World Cup on e He who would also be Boca Juniors, a team that had won the Intercontinental Cup in 2003, decided to stay, also becoming champion of that tournament, in 2007-2008 he played few games and it seemed that his era had ended, but it was not like that, He played one more year demonstrating a plethoric level, retiring then in 2009, after having played the bestial figure of 902 games (the player with the most games in the history of the club), having scored 33 goals and having won a total of 26 titles, in which nothing more and nothing less than 5 Champions stand out, all of them as the captain of the team, without a doubt the greatest legend of this club. Something incredible and that sums up very well what Paolo Maldini means for Milan, is that the Italian was in 26 of the 50 titles that Milan has achieved throughout its history, and was the team captain in each and every one of them. they!
The National Team
Although with Milan he remained in the soccer elite for 24 years, his history with Italy was not so successful, his level was always top but the team in general did not go through a good time in terms of titles, he debuted in 1988 in a draw against Yugoslavia, in the 1990 World Cup they came in third place and in the 1994 World Cup they were runner-up in the world, they also played in the 1998 and 2002 cups, falling in the quarterfinals and round of 16 respectively, they played 3 Euro Cups, in 1988 , 96 and 2000, reaching the semifinals in 88, eliminated in the first phase in 86 and runner-up in 2000. On June 18, 2002 he played his last game with Italy, in that scandalous match between Italy and South Korea where they were eliminated in a more than unfair, rude way, with match fixing included. He played a total of 126 matches with Italy, being the second player with the most appearances in the national team, he was also the captain on 76 occasions, being the player who has been the captain of Italy the most times, honoring his nickname, the Eternal Captain .
Here I leave some data that corroborate him as one of the best defenders in the history of football:
- Maldini played a career of more than a thousand games.
- On average he won more than 1 title per season
- Was included by Pele in the FIFA 100
- He is the oldest player to score a goal in a Champions League final, and also the one who scored the fastest goal.
- In 25 years of career he was sent off with a direct red only 1 time, and he was a defender.
- 2,217 minutes played in World Cups, by far the longest he played in these tournaments.
- Second in the list of players who have won the Champions League the most times, with 5 trophies.
- 2 times Bronze ball, something incredible for a defender.
And plenty of individual titles, a career full of achievement and admiration for both Milan fans and non-Milan fans.
For next week it is the turn of a midfielder and this time, I would like you to be the ones to nominate a player, just leave in the comments the name of the footballer you would like me to talk about and if we have a winner with more votes, that It will be, and if not, I will raffle 1 among all the comments, thank you very much for reading, and see you in a next post.
Great post and somehow missed this one so will catch you next time.