The idea of the new president of the FIGC, Giovanni Malagò: role and powers as technical director for the former legend of the national team and AC Milan. The goal? Give him the keys to the relaunch project.
The role is that of the technical director which in the history of the Italian national team has almost never been practiced in Coverciano but is a consolidated practice elsewhere and almost always with excellent results. It is the dress that the new president of the FIGC, Giovanni Malagò, has decided to sew around a great return to blue, not on the pitch but behind the desk and beyond. Paolo Maldini is the man chosen to assume full sporting operational powers and work night and day to relaunch the national team, which emerged with broken bones from the third failure to qualify for the World Cup.
Not a cosmetic role, also because Maldini’s personal and professional history tells us well how he would not provide any availability unless he knew he could have an impact with his own ideas and skills. The character may be angular, but clarity, competence and attachment to the mission are not to be doubted and they were not even in his managerial period at Milan which ended with the immediate dismissal by Gerry Cardinale in June 2023. The fault? Having acted as a plenipotentiary and wanting full delegations to carry out his task.
Full powers in Coverciano, here is the role designed for Maldini
With Malagò’s FIGC there is no such risk because the idea of the newly elected president is exactly this. Hand over the keys to the national team project to Maldini from the first step. In the event of an agreement, for example, the indication of the next technical commissioner will go through the work and scrutiny of the technical directorleaving the next steps to the political structure of the federation including finding the budget for a possible call outside the federal parameters.
The thought goes to Antonio Contebut not only. In any case, it would be the choice to entrust a “technician” with ample room for maneuver to ferry the national team out of the crisis into which it fell and which was definitively certified on the night in Zenica which left us home from the World Cup and which caused everything to reset. Can it be done? The bet is that someone like Maldini, who would be asked to work day and night in Coverciano, can have the skills and credibility to enhance what is already there, laying the foundations for growing what is pressing behind.
Paolo Maldini, his numbers with the national team
Paolo Maldini playing blue again would also be a very evocative story. His numbers with the national team are legendary, even if he lacked the joy of raising at least one trophy to the sky and he was the protagonist of some of the most bitter events for our football: he was in Vicini’s group at Italia ’90, beaten by Maradona and Caniggia in the semi-final at the San Paolo in Naples, a pillar at USA ’94 with a world title thrown away on penalties against Brazil, present in the final of the 2000 European Championship lost on the golden goal against Trezeguet’s France. Many times he has included these experiences in the list of the many things lost in a career full of triumphs.
He held the national record for total appearances (126) and those as captain (74) before being surpassed by Cannavaro. His last in blue was in Daejeon in June 2002, the scorching elimination at the hands of South Korea with the active participation of referee Byron Moreno. That night was the night of farewell which is now ready to turn into just a goodbye.
