Paolo Maldini and Andrea Pirlo could end up together again, after the former’s mission to reunite them at AC Milan fell flat.
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As La Gazzetta dello Sport report, a bond exists between Maldini and Pirlo, who understand each other as only two football icons can. There’s a technical respect, but above all, a shared sense of sporting and human values.
It’s not out of friendship that Maldini – now the national team’s new technical director – intends to select Pirlo as the next Azzurri coach. There’s a precedent to prove it: if it were up to Maldini, their paths would have crossed already at Milan in the summer of 2023.
After having shared iconic moments of the Rossoneri’s history, Paolo had wanted Andrea as a coach in Milan. Contacts had been made that were only confirmed later: Pirlo had already won the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana with Juventus, and worked at Fatih Karagumruk in the Süper Lig.
Maldini had chosen him as Stefano Pioli’s successor, but that summer the former captain’s relationship with Milan ended, with him being relieved of his duties as technical director due to differences of opinion transfers and the management of the club.
Pioli stayed on for another year. Pirlo admitted in October 2023, from the women’s stage at the Trento Festival, published by La Gazzetta dello Sport: “It’s true, we talked about it, but it was just a chat between friends.”
Together again at last?
The pair can reunite with Italy because over the years their mutual respect and admiration have remained unchanged. They’ve shared other professional events, as happens with sports legends, and moments of friendship away from the spotlight.
Pirlo had already called Maldini the best team-mate of his career, and the Maestro’s history is full of high-caliber colleagues. Maldini was chosen, he said, for the defender’s strength on the pitch, but above all for his passion as a player and his kindness and intelligence as a man.
Paolo had said on TV that the two had a connection that transcended words. Maldini, for example, was among the first to learn that his former teammate would be coaching Juventus.
“I called to congratulate him on the job as coach of the Under-23 team, and I jokingly said, ‘Are you going to Turin to coach the first team?’ And he replied, ‘How do you know?’ I was one of the first to know. From a joke, the truth came out.”