Maldini explains the ‘principles’ he has and the circumstances that have made his vision ‘different’

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan technical director Paolo Maldini has shed some light on the ‘principles’ within which he tries to operate and how he goes about his job.

Maldini is weaved into the fabric of Milan, having spent all 25 seasons of his playing career in the Serie A with the Rossoneri, before retiring at the age of 41 in 2009. He won 25 trophies with Milan including the Champions League five times, Serie A seven times, the Coppa Italia, five Supercoppa Italiana titles, five UEFA Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and the FIFA Club World Cup.

In August 2018 – a few weeks after Milan’s change of ownership to Elliott Management – he accepted an offer to return to the club under Leonardo, before being promoted to technical director the following June after the Brazilian left for PSG.

Maldini spoke during a book Diego Guido wrote called ‘Paolo Maldini, 1041’ – the number of appearances has for the Rossoneri. – and the former club captain told some background on his past as a player and his present as a director.

“I like to do my job following my principles, without being influenced by the moment, by any low budget available, by any downturn in team results. It’s not always possible to reach an agreement. Sometimes you have to leave certain players you wanted to bet a lot on and face this in a balanced way,” he said (via Calciomercato.com).

“Balance is good for me and good for them, because then the relationship remains. As always, the important things are respect and honesty. When you are honest what can they reproach you for? That you didn’t buy Messi? I never told you I had the means to do it.

“If I think about my ideas when I arrived, sports ideas I mean, and what I have now, the world has changed. I have completely different visions. I have changed them also thanks to internal conflicts with ownership, comparisons with ideas different from mine, with people different from me.

“I have experienced results that I would not have expected so negative or so positive. I had certainties that I had to question and change. Now my vision is different, but probably if I you will ask in two years it will still be different.”

Tags AC Milan Paolo Maldini
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