Former Milan director Paolo Maldini revealed that he tried to bring Lionel Messi to the club when he left Barcelona. The former Rossoneri man was dismissed by the club earlier this year, and speaking with PoretCast, he shared his early beginnings with the club and weighed in on the title race this summer:
“Messi? For ten days we tried to bring him to Milan, but then we realised it was impossible. Now it’s too late, but a footballer like Messi is a spectacle for everyone. When I read that he could go to Inter I was afraid”.
“Who will win the Scudetto between Milan, Inter and Juve? Congratulations Inter, you’ve already won…”.
“My time at Milan? It’s difficult for a player to start and finish in the same team. In my time there was no fashion to go abroad. I was lucky to find a team and a President Berlusconi who had the same goals as me.
“I started at the Giardini, in the south of Milan, I went to the Leonardo Da Vinci school, then the Pio X school. At the time they couldn’t card you before you were 10 years old, so I waited until that age to go for an audition at AC Milan. They asked me what role I played and I answered: ‘What role is free?’ In fact I started on the right wing, then at 14 as a defender. I was signed by coach Braga, in his report it said that I never stood still”.
“I started with Baresi and Bergomi and ended with Pato and Pirlo. I have lived through different generations of footballers. The generations haven’t changed but the pressure has changed – for the worse. Social media creates a lot of expectations. Families also often create expectations. In the family they see you as the diamond in the rough and expect a lot from you and maybe sometimes the kid is not able or cannot handle the pressure 100 per cent. Football is a team sport, there are boys of different ethnicities, you don’t have to think only of yourself but of the good of the team. It happens that you only have to work for your teammate because it’s not a good day for him. The boys don’t always have the awareness of the power they have over the fans.”
