Paolo Maldini Takes Charge of Azzurri Project
Paolo Maldini is back where Italian football has always believed he belongs – at the heart of the Azzurri project, this time not in a No. 3 shirt but in a suit, pen and power in hand.
On Saturday night, the FIGC confirmed what had been building as a groundswell of hope: Maldini is the new technical director of the Italian national team. At his side, in an advisory role, will be Leonardo, the long‑time ally with whom he once tried to reshape AC Milan from the boardroom.
For a country that has watched the last three World Cups from the sofa, this is more than a simple appointment. It feels like a reset.
A legend handed the keys
Italy needed a new direction. They have turned the biggest tournament in football into a television event for three consecutive editions, a painful statistic for a four-time world champion. While France, Spain, Argentina and England battle in the latest World Cup semi-finals, Italy are again reduced to spectators.
That is the backdrop against which Giovanni Malagò, the new FIGC president, made his first major call. He has not picked a coach yet. He has done something arguably bigger: he has chosen the man who will decide who leads the Azzurri from the touchline.
The reaction was instant and overwhelmingly positive. Maldini is not just another former player; he is a symbol. More than two decades as the face of Milan, 126 caps for Italy, five Champions League titles, a World Cup final, a European Championship final. His name carries a weight that no slogan or marketing campaign can match.
This time, though, the task is different. With Leonardo at his side, Maldini will be charged with identifying the next Italy head coach. Antonio Conte and Roberto Mancini are widely seen as the leading candidates, names that reassure a fanbase desperate for authority and clarity. Italian media have also floated more glamorous possibilities – Pep Guardiola, Didier Deschamps – but for now, those remain speculative, distant, almost dreamlike.
What is certain is that Maldini will be the one steering that process.
Zoff’s seal of approval
When Dino Zoff speaks about the Azzurri, Italy listens. World Cup winner in 1982, losing coach in that agonising Euro 2000 final against France, he has seen Maldini both as captain and as the young defender emerging under the shadow of his father, Cesare.
“Paolo has given so much for our football, to Milan in particular but also for the national team,” Zoff said, recalling not only the son but also the father, Cesare Maldini, who worked as Enzo Bearzot’s assistant when Italy lifted the World Cup in Spain. The Maldini name is stitched into the fabric of the Azzurri’s greatest days.
For Zoff, the choice is as much about personality as it is about pedigree. “Maldini is a perfect appointment in terms of character, charisma and competence. I also understand the choice of Leonardo as an advisor. It's right that a leader surrounds himself with people he trusts.”
Then came the line that cuts to the heart of the project. Zoff insisted Maldini must be allowed to work without interference. “Maldini has to be free to follow his beliefs, without external interference,” he said, a pointed reminder of the political crosswinds that have so often blown through Coverciano.
Old comrades, new roles
The approval did not stop there. Alessandro Costacurta, another pillar of that great Milan era and a man who shared a backline with Maldini for years, offered his own endorsement.
“This is great news for Italian football, because we have brought in one of the most illuminated and sincere people in the sport,” the former defender said. Costacurta knows Maldini as few do: the training-ground competitor, the dressing-room voice, the captain who set standards simply by the way he walked onto the pitch.
He also knows Leonardo. The Brazilian, who played and worked alongside Maldini at Milan, brings a different energy. Costacurta captured that contrast in a single, telling comparison.
“Malagò made the best possible choice. In fact, picking Maldini is perhaps more important than choosing the new coach. Leonardo is more of a dreamer, a visionary, whereas Paolo is more practical, looks to his knowledge and instinct,” he said.
That dynamic – dreamer and pragmatist – could define this new Italian project. One thinks in sweeping arcs, the other in clean lines. One imagines what could be; the other asks what will work on the pitch tomorrow.
“The best thing about them is that they listen to each other, despite starting from different ideas, and always manage to find a common solution,” Costacurta concluded.
A new axis for the Azzurri
Picture it: Maldini and Leonardo side by side, as they once were in Bergamo in 2019, watching AC Milan from the directors’ box. That day, they were tasked with rebuilding a club. Now, the canvas is bigger, the scrutiny harsher, the stakes higher. This is about reshaping the identity of a national team that has lost its way.
The coach will come. The shortlist is already forming, the rumours swirling, the names debated in bars and living rooms across the country. But the tone has been set from the top.
Italy have entrusted their future to a man who has spent a lifetime carrying their colours with grace and steel. The question now is simple and stark: can Paolo Maldini, the ultimate Azzurro on the pitch, finally drag Italy back to the World Cup as the architect rather than the icon?
