Paolo Maldini – the soul of Milan and the national team’s backbone
Few football players managed to write their names into the world history of the number one sport, performing at one and the same club throughout their entire career. As practice shows, to demonstrate high football scores today, a player has to go through a few successive stages of building his capabilities, allowing him to reach a truly high level. But Paolo Maldini didn’t follow this pattern, starting his career at the youth school of Italian Milan and reaching his last official game wearing the same red and black T-shirt and never playing for other clubs.
This football player is unique not only by playing for two legendary teams – Milan and the Italian national team. In fact, he was one of the best defense line players of his time. For almost a quarter of a century spent in Serie A, he won gold medals of the championship and the Italian Cup a few times. Besides, playing football on the international level, he managed to demonstrate scores that most stars can’t even dream of even today.
Why do fans remember Maldini
Indeed, Paolo was a part of the truly legendary team and appeared on the field accompanied by outstanding partners. But if you look at the individual standings of the table for Serie A, you can easily see that Maldini was quite a self-sufficient player, making a significant contribution to the team’s success. In particular, he has won the following regalia and statistical indicators:
- Over a thousand official games. The statistics counted not only appearances at the club level, but international games played as a part of the national team as well.
- The fastest goal in the Champions League final. The Italian defender scored this achievement in the game against Liverpool, hitting the English goal at the 52nd second.
- Winner of the Bravo Trophy. It is awarded annually to the most promising young players. Maldini was awarded back in 1989.
- Included in the Fame Hall of the best football players of the 20th century. Despite its symbolism, this fact shows the player’s great contribution to the development of football.
- Included in the world team. We are talking about the squad of the year 2002.
As you can see, this player would definitely find his place in the tables for Serie A even today. Even despite the obvious transformations of some playing aspects, the general principles remained unchanged, which means that Maldini would be a worthy addition to the squad of any world grandee or his beloved Milan.
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