On January 20, 1985, 16-year-old Paolo Maldini played his first meeting with Milan to start a long career that extended until 2009, in which he won seven Scudetto titles, five Champions League titles and many others.
In total, Milan won seven Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia title, five Italian Super titles
At the European level, he won five Champions League titles, four European Super titles.
At the global level, he won the Club World Cup on two occasions, with the old name, and once with the modern name
Maldini played his last meeting at the end of the 2008-2009 season against Fiorentina, but the last meeting at the "Giuseppe Meazza" stadium remains the real retirement meeting. Milan blacks who raised a banner saying that Baresi remains the historical leader of Milan, in a clear message to Maldini, who has always had a tense relationship with them because of his refusal to deal with the ultras groups and his clash with a fan after the 2005 final in Istanbul, which angered them.
The same year saw Maldini participate in his 1000th meeting in all competitions against Parma.
Milan chose to withhold Maldini's famous number 3 as a kind of homage, as it did by blocking Baresi's number 6.
In 2005 Maldini won the only Italian Cup title in his history after defeating Roma in the final, but the most important thing is that he broke Dino Zoff's record as the most participating league player after he reached 571 games, and in the same year he reached 800 games for Milan in all competitions.
With Carlo Ancelotti taking over Milan training, and contracting with Alessandro Nesta, Milan returned to the podiums, winning the Champions League title in 2003, the first European championship that Maldini raised his title as captain of the team, and with Ancelot also lifting his second championship in 2007 in Athens at the expense of Liverpool, the same team Which caused the biggest disappointment in its history when the famous 2005 title was snatched from him in Istanbul after Milan was ahead by three goals, Maldini scored the first goal.
Maldini's 2007 title made him the oldest player to hold the Champions League title as a captain for his team at the age of 37.
In the same year, Maldini succeeded in crowning Milan with the FIFA Club World Cup in its new form, after defeating Boca Juniors.
The 96-97 season saw Paolo Maldini obtain the captaincy of Milan after the retirement of both Mauro Tassotti and Franco Baresi, nine years after the beginning of his career, but the beginning of Maldini's era as captain was not successful in terms of coronation, as the team did not achieve any titles from 96 to 2003 except for the title League in 1998-99.
After the departure of Saki and the arrival of Fabio Capello, the brilliance of the Milan team, especially Maldini, continued. Despite his young age, he confirmed his position as one of the most prominent defenders in the world, and began to show distinguished abilities as a central defender as well when needed.
Milan's dominance continued locally and in Europe with Capello, the team won the Champions League, winning the Scudetto title in the 91-92 season without any loss, and the team continued unbeaten 58 consecutive games, entering the records of history.
Maldini made one of his best matches in that era when the team won the Champions League title in 1994, when it beat Barcelona 4-0 in the final, to achieve its fourth title in the tournament.
In the same year, Maldini reached the World Cup final with Italy, but lost on penalties to Brazil, to be third in the ranking of the best players in the world, and the following year he finished second despite Milan not winning any championship.
Maldini did not need much time to establish himself mainly despite his young age, he started as a right back, and then turned to his position in which he shone as a left back under the leadership of Arrigo Sacchi, the coach who made a golden team from 1987 to 1991, in that period Maldini was a strong defensive quartet With Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Beni Costacurta. Suffice it to say that this quartet helped Milan finish the season in the future with only 14 goals.
In Sacchi's presence, Maldini won his first Scudetto title in the 87-88 season, and also won his first Champions League title 88-89, and the following year he also won the title to start an era of domestic and European dominance for Milan.
In 1985, Maldini participated for the first time with Milan's first team, after a long career with the youth team. Maldini's participation came as a substitute against Udinese, and that meeting was his only meeting this season.
The pictures were screenshots taken from my phone camera from the official AC MILAN YouTube channel
