That of 1985 is a cold, harsh January with heavy snowfall in most of Northern Italy. The cities are paralyzed, the streets are frozen and closed and, with them, many commercial activities. Milan , on Sunday 20 January , must play away to Udinese , but the match is at risk.
The match, thanks to the arduous and generous work of the attendants and the shovelers, was able to play, but Tassotti did not get on the bus for the Friulian match . In his place, at the first call-up to the first team, Paolo Maldini goes .
Cesare’s son, just 16 , sits on the bench with thejersey number 14 , alongside Nuciari, Ferrari, Cimmino and Giunta. On the pitch, however, the coach Liedholm fielded Terraneo in goal, in defense Galli, Baresi, Russo and Di Bartolomei, in midfield Evani, Verza, Battistini and Manzo behind the two strikers Hateley and Incocciati.
Udinese took the lead in the 11th minute with a fine goal by Selvaggi who dribbled in the defender and goalkeeper area, while Battistini was injured just before the break . During the end of the first half, Maldini, who was not thinking at all about the possibility of making his Serie A debut and was only thinking about covering himself from the cold, was called back by Liedholm: “Where do you prefer to play
He said. “I usually play on the right, mister,” Caesar’s heir replied.
Thus the 17-year-old boy begins his long love affair with Milan . On the pitch he is already confident and determined: he can be seen slipping through a couple of interventions, a trademark for timing and punctuality of his career. Milan reached the equalizer in the 63rd minute with the goal of the English Hateley, able to be the first to catch a deflected free-kick from Di Bartolomei.
For Italian and international football, January 20, 1985 is not an ordinary day: five Champions League, seven league titles, many awards and 902 matches always with the same shirt, after all this and still remembered today as the day of Paolo Maldini’s debut . With Milan he won a lot, everything that could be achieved in a club; bitter disappointments, however, with the national team will remain. Pillar of defense, 126 appearances, 74 of which as captain, Maldini played no less than 4 World Cups.
Nils Liedholm at the end of that match against Udines said:
Paolo has a great future
The dynasty before and after: from Cesare to his nephew Daniel
But that of Paolo Maldini would be only a partial story if we did not mention the dynastic cycle in the Rossoneri opened by his father Cesare and continued by his son Daniel.Cesare Maldini, born in Trieste on February 5, 1932 and at the age of thirteen, favorably impressed the masseur from Triestina who had him tested at the halberd club , where within the same he then completed the entire process of youth training, overcoming in recent years also the physical obstacle of a pleurisy that threatened to preclude his future football career. In the early 1950s he got to know Nereo Rocco for the first time, destined to become a recurring figure in Maldini’s career and even more so in the life. Just the paron decided in recent years to add him permanently to the first team, although his professional debut was then under the orders of Mario Perazzolo on 24 May 1953, at the age of twenty-one, for the Serie A match on the Palermo field. The following season he became the owner and, despite his young age, he was elected captain of the Julian team which returned after three years in the hands of Rocco. I moved to Milan in 1954 and his Serie A debut with the Rossoneri shirt was, coincidentally, against Triestina in September of the same year. With Milan he played 386 games, many of which as captain, winning four league titles and the first historic Champions Cup.
And we come to Daniel . San Siro applauded him too, on Sunday 2 February 2020 in the 1-1 draw against Hellas Verona.Born in 2001, the first player of the new millennium to make his debut in the first team in Milan , Pioli looked at the bench looking for fresh forces to insert. Piatek sold, there was only one player from the Primavera, sometimes a member of the first team. Attacking midfielder with a surname Maldini. So Pioli sent Paolo’s second son onto the field in the 93rd minute.«It was a dream, too bad for the result. We hope next time to be able to bring home the three points. Verona are a tough team. Maybe we deserved the victory, but we have to be satisfied with the same »declares the smiling blond. «The debut was a goal, now we hope to go on like this. I felt a strong emotion, but my father reassures me ». He left the stadium with his backpack on his shoulder, while Paolo proudly follows him: «The debut was not planned. He shouldn’t have been called up, he hadn’t trained for two days, he wasn’t very well ».
