Paolo Maldini has spoken about how his AC Milan story started and the various key moments of his career, while he also discussed Rafael Leao and the economic future of the game.
There are few people who understand football and succeeding at the highest level more than Maldini. He held the record for most appearances in Serie A with 647 until 2020 when he was overtaken by Gianluigi Buffon, and he spent all 25 seasons of his playing career in the Serie A with Milan, before retiring at the age of 41 in 2009.
He won 26 trophies with the Rossoneri including the European Cup/UEFA Champions League five times, Serie A seven times, the Coppa Italia once, the Supercoppa Italiana five times, the European/UEFA Super Cup five times, the Intercontinental Cup twice and the FIFA Club World Cup once.
Now his role is a different one as he is Milan’s technical director, a position he has held for four years. During his tenure the team ended their 11-year wait for a Scudetto and this year reached the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since he was playing, all while the accounts improved too.
Maldini spoke on the Muschio Selvaggio podcast about a vast range of different topics, with his comments relayed by MilanNews and translated below.
Your story starts as a child…
“It started with my dad, who was a great footballer and makes my story even more special. My dad was the first AC Milan player to win the Champions League in 1963 with an Italian team. I am very attached to Milan and Milan and the Rossoneri environment.”
How much did expectation weigh?
“My parents gave me everything I have, education first and foremost. My dad guided me towards a 1960s idea of professionalism, I was born in 1968 and I belong to another era. I I had to look for his idea in modern times.
“I started as a professional at 16 but I wanted to live my life. I think it was an important step of emancipation by detaching myself from this idea, then I got him used to a new idea of professionalism. My dad played on Sundays at three, Monday off and then would go into ritiro until the next game, and it was too much.”
There were rumours that you were put forward, and then you took the field…
“It weighed on me, and unfortunately also on my children. They had pressure, but it weighed on me. It weighed on me when I was 11, 12, 13 and 14. I had a goal and a passion, but at that age think about having fun.
“Having all those expectations took away from me the fun part. There are two ways to deal with this: gain too much weight on your shoulders and have expectations you can’t meet, or fight and show what you’re worth.
“It’s early at that age there because there is always fun in football. The idea of a father who has a child who plays football and says ‘my son is a champion’ puts a lot of expectation and sometimes they are even false. Milan youth team, only 1% manage to reach the top.”
Your first goal in Serie A came at the age of 17. How exciting was it?
“I scored my first goal in Serie A when I was 17, in Como. I remember so many incidents from more than half of the games I played in. I didn’t know what to do, it was the first goal. I was a bit dazed for the first minute and a half.
“Then we also won that game, so a lot of energy and you hope to get to the final result. I also remember that Berlusconi gave me a watch with the dedication. The dedication was very simple but beautiful.”
Then the call-up to the Under 21s with your father…
“My father called me up to the Under 21s, but I had already been called up with Vialli and Mancini who had gone to the semi-finals. I had been called up for the second leg and the final. My path was already traced, but it didn’t avoid comments. I was 18 and it was a bit premature, but from there I started to give a sh*t.”
Was it necessary to be strong psychologically?
“Mentality and discipline are essential. When you’re talented, you tend to not have much discipline, and this thing leads you to do less and over the years it marks you and leads you to perform less.
“I always say this to the kids: even in your career there are ups and downs for the best players ever, so you always have to have discipline. I’ve had so many ups and downs and your family knows very well what turmoil you have in difficult moments.”
How did you do it?
“In my case I believe that being born in my family, having played in the city where I was born with my family at my disposal. If you start playing at 18, you struggle to put down roots or find someone who tells you the real things. Whether you do well or not, you lose touch with reality.”
Is the head everything?
“Important if combined with talent, the joy of the game and discipline. Before Sacchi we weren’t so precise, discipline in the box, willpower counted. You save or score a goal for a tenth of a second. Between a great footballer and a good one, there is not a 10% difference, it’s the details.”
What are the differences between Sacchi, Ancelotti and Capello?
“In his character: Sacchi didn’t play football. I’m not saying he was afraid, but maybe he had a different approach to that of a great ex-footballer. It was very difficult also because the working method changed: with Sacchi he killed us.
“There were fewer acquaintances than today because then the athletic trainers arrived. I think I went into overtraining for half of my career. The important thing is not to mix too many jobs. I went home and I was engaged to Adriana, but I couldn’t eat out (laughs).
“I had Ancelotti in the best part of my life, when you’re 30 you manage your emotions in a different way and enjoy moments of tension. What is missing is that mixture of excitement and fear that exists when you arrive at the stadium in the big matches.
“First you say ‘F**k…’, then you hope to try it again. After 30 you live things in a more logical and calm way. Capello he took me and said: ‘Do you know you are the best in the world?’ and from there I took the responsibility of being the best in the world and it made me grow a lot.”
Is your philosophy like Michael Jordan’s?
“It’s a bit like this: if you’re a winner, you’ve lost a lot as well. I lost three Champions League finals, a World Cup final and a European final. I was lucky enough to play for great teams and great national teams, but thank god I had the chance to always play for something important.”
There are no more icons in football…
“Now it’s much more difficult, Italians almost never went abroad and it was easier to stay within their own country. The important thing is to be ambitious: if you are ambitious and you find everything you need to reach your goal it’s easy in the team I was born in. But if I had been born in another club that didn’t have the same ambitions as me…”
Is it true you received offers from Manchester United, Real Madrid and Arsenal as a footballer?
“The rumours are true, but nothing concrete. Chelsea had also looked for me with Vialli. Have I ever thought about leaving Milan? I’d have had to have been very convinced of leaving and the club of letting me go.
“It never happened. There have been tough years, like in the mid-90s when we finished tenth and eleventh, there were some disputes. The club has always wanted to keep me and therefore there weren’t certain thoughts.”
Why are there fewer and fewer club legends?
“The importance of playing in a team sport teaches that what you have counts and not where you come from. From an early age, schedules, goals, is a continuous teaching.
“I don’t judge who chooses a team only for a financial reason. There are also 16/17-year-old boys who, thanks to football, have to help their families, it’s a heavy and not easy thing.”
Do you remember the episode with Chiellini in a Milan-Juventus match from the 2008-09 season when you put your hands around his neck?
“During a corner he had nudged me, I had already broken my nose several times and so I wanted to avoid breaking it again and so I got very angry. Then Buffon arrived and told me to calm down.
“These are things that captain, but you have to know that in training it’s even worse, sometimes you lose your patience. Then I remember another episode, in a Berlusconi trophy in which I headbutted Casiraghi, my team-mate in the national team.
“What a shame that time. In that match I had also scored and in the end I was elected best player of the match despite the red card. I refused it because I was ashamed. Among other things, Casiraghi was supposed to get married the next day and he did it with a black eye.”
You also created a brand with Vieri…
“It happened by chance. We met at my house and created this brand. It was a fun thing. Now we are still partners, but we don’t deal with it anymore.”
Is talent or obsession more important in sport?
“Talent helps. Everyone is physically and tactically prepared, but obsession and discipline make the difference. There are players who have lowered their physical strength and mentality due to an injury perhaps and are no longer what they were before.”
Your son Daniel is on loan at Spezia…
“What he’s done is already a lot, he even won a Scudetto. Christian also grew up in Milan, then he broke his ACL twice and now plays in Serie C.
“Daniel is having his first experience away from Milan. Among the other things to differentiate, out of me, my dad and Christian he is the only one who is not a defender. What he is doing is beautiful. He is not precocious like me and therefore this season on loan and the next will be fundamental.”
What do you feel when you talk about the ‘Maldini Dynasty’ at Milan?
“The history of the family is difficult to understand and tell, there is no such thing. We are proud of this, as well as obviously being super Milan fans.”
The Istanbul Final. What happened at half-time?
“I scored in the final after 40 seconds and I understood there was something strange (laughs). It’s a match we dominated for 110 minutes, they played well for 10 minutes and we managed to lose.
“There was a lot of speculation about what happened at the interval, we all entered the dressing room screaming because we were very nervous, Ancelotti intervened shouting to keep us quiet.
“They said we had celebrated, I as captain would never have allowed it and my teammates would never have done that. These are things far from reality, it’s almost stupid to comment on them.
“Football is beautiful for that too. Liverpool had made a defensive change to not concede any more goals and instead they score three in six minutes.The beauty of football is also that two years later we had the chance in Athens to face Liverpool again and win.”
What is the economic future of football?
“Right now the gap is huge and it’s not easy to fill. Milan were a great club until 2007, then it struggled to keep up with certain clubs like PSG, Real and United in terms of revenues.
“Today, at market level, we are battling, losing from an economic point of view, with teams that finish 18th in the Premier League. The economic power of these teams is greater than ours, but we have tradition and ideas.”
What is your relationship with Berlusconi?
“At first he wasn’t a politician. When he arrived at Milan he told us about his project and they made us all dream. Berlusconi wasn’t as well known as he is today, so we had some doubts when he told us he wanted to bring Milan at the top of the world.
“He arrived and reorganised the whole club as a company that had to function. He was methodical, he controlled everything. He prepared himself in everything, before talking to someone he wanted to know everything about him.
“Before becoming prime minister in 1994, at the beginning of the season, he told us that we had three objectives: to win the league, to win the Champions League and he had to become prime minister.
“He told us that if we won the Champions League, he would have a better chance of becoming prime minister. And how did it go? We won the league, the Champions League and he became prime minister.
“I knew his son Pier Silvio, I used to go to Arcore with him. Did we talk about politics? No, maybe about football. On his life in general, he has always been very careful. He has always been very attentive to all of us.
“A year ago I went to Arcore with him and Galliani, and he asked about my family and things like that. They are things that please, he means that he cares.”
Can Leao become a top player and a top rapper?
“He’s already made a record. Once he asked me if he could put it out on Fridays and then we’d play on Saturdays. I’m like, ‘What?!’. He then explained to me that in the music world, records come out on Fridays.
“And I told him: ‘So tomorrow you have to score two goals’. Leao is a crazy talent. I’m an esthete thanks to my dad and Leao is nice to see, it’s something unique. He has what it takes to become a top player.
“He was on the bench at Lille and when he arrived I told him that he played for his Instagram because he posted beautiful videos with dribbling and plays, but then he finished the season with two goals scored. We helped him change this mentality. talented must work even harder than others to exploit his talent.”
Have you spoken with Spalletti since that argument?
“There’s no need to clarify. The beautiful thing about maturity is also this. A sentence was reported that I didn’t say. I don’t want to make a mess and be noisy, at that moment the protagonists were others and not us.”
Refurbish San Siro or build a new stadium?
“If we want to live on memories, we stay at San Siro. The players make history. It’s a stadium that has changed a lot, it’s no longer the one that was built 80 years ago.
“But can we go on living on memories? Or do we build a new modern stadium that allows us to increase revenues? The thing that bothers me the most is that the city of Milan has understood this thing, it’s impossible not to take such an opportunity.”
Do you regret never having won the Ballon d’Or?
“I have no regrets. It pi**es me off not having won a World Cup for example. Better to win a trophy than a personal prize.”
What is your relationship with Inter?
“There is maximum respect, but it’s not just mine. When Nesta arrived from Lazio he asked me which restaurants he could go to and which he couldn’t, because that’s the way it is in Rome. I told him he could go wherever he wanted. It’s a healthy antagonism between the two teams.”
Great and comprehensive interview. So maldini actually swears from time to time 😀
I dont remember ever seeing that casiraghi incident and Iis a bit curious to see that headbutt on casiraghi even if paolo is ashamed of it but couldnt find it so if anyone has access to it via youtube, please post it here,
There are no more icons in football…
“Now it’s much more difficult, Italians almost never went abroad and it was easier to stay within their own country. The important thing is to be ambitious: if you are ambitious and you find everything you need to reach your goal it’s easy in the team I was born in. But if I had been born in another club that didn’t have the same ambitions as me…”
This is for everyone that wants to crap on the players of today, call them gready and disloyal, and glorify the “loyalty” of players from the past.
Maldini had no reason to leave Milan because he played in the best club in the world that was also paying the best salaries, and they were competing for the most important trophies every year. Read his last sentence.
Another player who is glorified for his “loyalty” is Totti at Roma, who now wants to talk about Real Madrid wanting him, but he stayed out of love for Roma. He stayed because Italians never left Italy, and Totti was also scared of failure. He was treated like a king in Rome, when they won it was because of him, when they lost it was everyone else’s fault.
If you move to a team like Real Madrid, or Milan at the time, you are just 1 of 25 guys, while at Roma, he was #1. He would have probably been a bench player at Real Madrid and having a hard time getting playing time over Guti, who is one of the most underrated players.
Things have always been the same in football. Players have always followed the money and ambition.
Serie A was the best league in the world because they paid the highest transfer fees and the highest salaries, just like EPL is now.
well if you gonna pull that one out of the interview then why not mention this one as well
“The history of the family is difficult to understand and tell, there is no such thing. We are proud of this, as well as obviously being super Milan fans.”
He also mentioned the bad years where we finished 11th two years in a row and still stayed when he easily could have played cl football in any other top club those years as well.
Its not as simple as you paint it and when you bring up totti its ridiculous to question him staying and speculating that he was afraid to move to real madrid and become a bench player.
Some players are guided by money some isnt as much guided by their wallets just like normal people doesnt necesarily choose a career for money but are guided by their passion for something.
That is simple facts
Milan bad years when they finished 11th 2 years in a row were not because of LACK OF AMBITION, but because they were buying a bunch of players every summer and the team didn’t gel well. That’s the point you are missing. Siimilar to Something that is happening at Chelsea this year, but not to that extent.
That’s why he said “if the club didn’t have the same ambitions as me….”
Totti was payed very well at Roma he just didn’t have the sporting ambitions that matched those of Real Madrid or Milan’s. He was in his comfort zone and didn’t want to leave that confort zone.
As in everything else in life there is no growth in the comfort zone.
But now at his old age he looks back at it with regrets. That’s why he is talking about all these years later.
I get your point and im not disagreeing that he hints at it as a possibility but thats not the same as he wouldnt have stayed either anyways. There are many examples in danish football where players chose to stay in an inferior league even though offers was coming from abroad but instead choce to play in their favourite clubs instead. From the top of my head i can mention the defender per nielsen from Brøndby and gk lars høgh from OB. You propably doesnt know those players but høgh were a constant with the national team even though he had a tough competion to play there with schmeichel . Nielsen were also an international player and both had offers from abroad and chose to stay where they were for the entirety of their careers when they had better paid offers from clubs around europe and the danish tax system is amongst the highest if not being the highest taxes in the world.
Those players could easily have slotted in european teams that were better than where they played and sure you might argue that they lacked ambition or were in their comfort zone playing where they did butt hose players were club men through and through.
My point is just that not everyone make their choices by the wallet.
In regard of totti you must then refer to an article im unaware of so my bad oin that front.
That’s why Maldini said “It was easier to stay within their own country”.
Those players you mentioned took the easy way.
The best players in the world wanna compete vs the best in the best league.
Don’t you think it’s much easier for Brazilian or Argentinian players to stay in their own leagues instead of coming to the top European leagues. But if you have ambition to grow, compete vs the best opposition and win the most important trophies, you take the hard way and move.
Even CDK could have stayed in Belgium and win the league for the next 10 years, and be celebrated but he had higher ambition than that.
I always thought that Totti took the easy way and he was scared to leave Roma. In Roma he was the best, the captain and most important player, but if he moved to Milan, he starts all over again. He is not the captain, that’s Maldini, he isn’t the best and most important player anymore, that’s would have been Shevchenko. Same at Real Madrid.
Nesta could have stayed in Lazio all of his career but his and Lazio ambitions were not the same. He tool the step up and it paid off by winning 2 UCLs.
Nesta didnt want to leave lazio he has said that before but lazio where on the brink of financial collapse so he joined milan instead.
You can argue what you say but that doesnt mean you are right that they lacked ambition maybe they just loved their clubs more than money and fame and for that matter more trophies.
I think its a bit disrectfull to paint that picture of club legends but you are obviously in your own right to see things as such.
Ill use myself then as an example i could have gotten a university degree and have a well paid job but chose to live as an artist painter and its not really a great chance of earning as much as i could have done had i made a different career choice.
South american players will generally earn far better in europe so on that ground no but level wise sure its more difficult to break through in europe than in south america but if players want to stay there is a respectable choice as well.
By the way høgh was in the OB team that threw out Real Madrid with laudrup and zamorano in the uefa cup in the early 90ies which propably is one the greatest shocks ever in the sport so think he did quite well there and not every player needs to follow the same path,