Paolo Maldini — The Art of Defence

Lessons from a Legendary Career

9 min readJun 9, 2024

This is the next installment in my series of articles where I look at the lives and achievements of a select group of professional athletes. Most importantly, I try to examine how they became who they became. What lessons can we learn that could be applied beyond their areas of expertise and preferably in our day-to-day lives? Here are the previous articles on this topic:

Today, we take a look at football (sorry, I’m not going to call it soccer). We will zoom in on Paolo Maldini and his body of work. Perhaps not an obvious choice? When discussing football’s greatest players, the names we mention typically are those of the players who score goals or are the playmakers. I did not see Pele or Cruyff, but I have been lucky. I saw pretty much everyone since then, from Maradona to Messi. I even caught Platini and Zico. I saw legendary Italians Roberto Baggio, del Piero, Totti and Pirlo. I saw Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry. Xavi and Iniesta. The great Dutch trio Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Rudd Gullit. The dazzling Brazilians Ronaldo Nazario, Romario, Rivaldo, Kaka, Neymar, and Ronaldinho.

And yet, my favorite football player has always been Paolo Maldini. Il Capitano. A defender. THE DEFENDER. A man with an incredible work ethic, defensive skill, a supermodel's looks, and a true gentleman's demeanor. The backbone of the legendary AC Milan and the Italian national team. Maldini had an exceptional career of 25 years (!), during which he won many international and domestic trophies. He participated in four World Cups and three European Championships. Maldini played against some of the best attackers in football’s history — he defended Maradona and Platini, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo, Zidane, Ronaldo (Nazario), Battistuta, Henry, Vieri, Baggio, Del Piero, Raul, Ronaldinho and many, many others. Most, if not all, of these exceptional players, unequivocally stated that Maldini had been the toughest defender they had ever faced.

Maldini with the Champions League trophy in 2003

Son of another legend of Italian football, Cesare Maldini, Paolo was born in 1968 and was naturally around football from an early age.

Maldini debuted at AC Milan in 1985 when he was just 16 years old. Imagine that—to play with Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti, and Alessandro Costacurta while still legally a minor and being part of an incredible defensive line-up of AC Milan of the late 80s. This line-up gave rise to the famous quip used in a Nike commercial — that the easiest job in Europe is being the goalkeeper of the Italian squad, such was the reputation of the Italian defense.

Maldini was also part of—no, he led another legendary defense of AC Milan in the 90s with Alessandro Nesta, Cafu, and Jaap Stam. These defensive line-ups epitomized defensive excellence and are revered as some of the greatest in Italian and world football history.

It is easy to pull a YouTube video of Maldini’s highlights — these are usually the perfect tackles he performed on some of the best attackers in football history. Maldini was extremely brave and ready to play hard — all the tough tackles, collisions, scrapping with all sorts of players — the physicality of it all is easy to forget when you see how he glides around the football pitch. But Maldini always said — if I have to tackle, I have already made a mistake — that his skill was picking the right position, reading the game, and the prophylactic prevention of the attackers’ plans. Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary Manchester United coach, was dumbfounded after watching AC Milan play against Bayern Munich in 2007: “Maldini went through the entire 90 minutes without tackling. That is an art, and he is the master of it.”

In brief, Maldini is one of the legends of the sport. Take a look at some of his records and achievements:

7 Italian Serie A titles;
5 Champions League titles and 8 Champions League final appearances;
FIFA’s all-time dream team member, along with names like Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Messi. The other two defenders on the team are Cafu and Beckenbauer.
2nd most minutes in the World Cup history: 2,217 (first is Messi after the 2022 World Cup);
2nd most appearances in the Italian Serie A — 648 (first is Gianluigi Buffon with 658);

Paolo Maldini was so good, he broke barriers for the defenders. He was:

The first defender to win World Soccer magazine’s World Player of the Year Award (the only other defender to win it was Fabio Cannavaro after Italy won the 2006 World Cup);
The first defender ever shortlisted for the FIFA World Player of the Year award (Maldini was 2nd in 1995). The only other defenders included were Roberto Carlos and Cannavaro.

Maldini scored only 33 in his career — a little over 1 a year. But where it mattered, his impact was undeniable.

What can we learn from Maldini’s illustrious career?

Hard work works. When looking at Maldini’s body of work, words like talent and genius come to mind, but when asked what made him so good, Maldini and his teammates gave a simple answer—he worked hard. There are no secrets, and Maldini is a testament to this simple concept. The concept is simple, but it is not so simple to execute. Maldini focused on maintaining high levels of physical fitness, implementing strength training, cardio workouts, and flexibility exercises. He worked on his technical skills, including tackling, ball control, and passing. He drilled all the time. He studied opponents, watched match footage, and analyzed and dissected formations and tactics. His teammate Andriy Shevchenko called him the most hard-working player he had ever seen. A good example of his dedication and relentless work ethic is how he started his professional career — to break through to the main team of AC Milan, Maldini spent countless hours working on his left foot until it was as good as his right. Legends do not just appear. Legends are made one training session and one match at a time.
Take care of your body. This seems obvious for a professional athlete but is equally true for anyone else. Not all professional athletes follow this principle. For every Cristiano Ronaldo, there are dozens of professionals who let themselves go. Not Maldini. Even later in his career, I rarely remember him being substituted. He was almost always on the pitch for the entire match, even at 39. Maldini’s strict physical regimen allowed him to adapt to different challenges and to play at the highest level of professional football for over two decades. His impressive longevity helped shape the image of a reliable captain who was always there for his team and teammates. Honestly, I don’t remember Maldini being absent due to serious injuries. Two to three months at most. Now that I think about it, it is incredible.
Continuous learning and the importance of mentors. Maldini was notorious for continuously refining his tactical skills. Only a few years into his professional career, he was so good that he could easily take on any defensive position — center of flank. He was highly coachable. He learned to be a defender from the legendary Franco Baresi. He was coached by Arrigo Sacchi, Fabio Capello, and Carlo Ancelotti. His hard work, physical and tactical preparation, and never-ending growth made him as good as he was. Over time, Maldini became a mentor, helping young stars such as Nesta, Cannavaro, Kaladze, and many others become exceptional defenders.
Mental and emotional stability. Maldini is universally recognized as a gentleman on and off the pitch. Able to maintain his composure even in the most difficult situations, Maldini was notoriously difficult to rattle — a true Stoic! Here is a statistic that says it all — in his 902 (for AC Milan) + 126 (for the Italy team) career matches, Maldini has only had three (!) red cards. Class, elegance, professionalism. Not win at all costs, but win with style. Poised no matter what. I have never heard anyone speak of Maldini badly. I have never seen him do anything ugly (yes, Zidane, we all remember the headbutt). Maldini’s mental toughness and calm helped not only manage his stress but also project confidence and boost the morale of his teammates. In those rare instances when Maldini appeared to lose his temper, it was typically to protect a teammate. For example, there is a famous video where he grabs Chiellini’s jersey after Chiellinie viciously tackles Kaka.
Earned Leadership. Maldini played with AC Milan for almost ten years before becoming the team's captain. By then, no one questioned this decision. Maldini worked hard, continuously improved, and showed maturity and mental toughness, which made this choice natural. Most importantly, he was all these things continuously, consistently, day in and day out, so it was felt that becoming the captain was well-deserved. Maldini was the captain of AC Milan until he retired. Over the same period of time, he also was the captain of the Italian national team for some eight years. His leadership showed in how he handled it — he never abused it, never took it for granted, and continued to train and play with discipline and grit, leading by example. Maldini’s authority was never questioned. Even brawlers like Gattuzo would not disobey Maldini.
Loyalty: Unlike the money-chasing stars of today, Maldini spent his whole football career with AC Milan. He had lucrative offers but turned them all down. Maldini became the symbol of the Rossoneri, and the club retired his #3 jersey. Paolo Maldini was the heart of AC Milan, the symbol. Il Capitano. This is in a team with Gullit, Van Basten, Baggio, Shevchenko, Pirlo, Kaka, Seedorf, Weah, Rui Costa, Savicevic, Rivaldo, and many others.

We admire these characteristics in people. Staying true to them for a long time takes discipline and strong character. But if one does, the payoff can be tremendous. Maldini is a great example of how greatness is achieved through hard work and unwavering dedication — no tricks, no magic formula, just the things that reliably work.

Looking at his career, Paolo Maldini didn’t have it all—his biggest regret is that, unlike his career with AC Milan, his time with the Italian national team did not result in any titles. In the World Cup, Maldini was part of the Italian squad that lost to Brazil in the 1994 finals. In Euros, the 2000 loss to France in the finals is another painful memory. In 2006, when Italy finally won the World Cup, Maldini had retired from the national team a few years prior.

Paolo Maldini’s father, Cesare Maldini, was also an AC Milan legend and, later, the coach of the Italian national squad. Today, Paolo’s son Daniel Maldini is a defender in AC Milan. The dynasty goes on. :)

I leave you with the words of Alessandro del Piero, the famous Juventus forward who often played against Maldini on the pitch: “There are great players and there are world-class players. Then there are those who manage to go beyond that term. Paolo is the perfect example.”

Here is a documentary about Paolo Maldini made by the AC Milan club:

If you liked this read, check out my home page for articles about philosophy, learning, self-improvement, literature, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and more. Here are some you may be interested in:

Paolo Maldini — The Art of Defence

Lessons from a Legendary Career

Written by Rational Badger