Alessandro Del Piero puzzled over Paolo Maldini’s farewell

Alessandro Del Piero puzzled over Paolo Maldini’s farewell

Alessandro Del Piero participated with Francesco Totti in the talk “10+10 SKY 20 years,” along with Federico Ferri, on the occasion of Sky’s 20th anniversary celebrations.

“I believe that when a footballer leaves the activity, if he does not prepare himself beforehand, he is not ready to start a second life,” the former Juventus flag bearer stressed. “You reflect on what you have done, on the mistakes, on how to improve, and then you find yourself deciding. It is a journey that can be 6 months or 10 years, but once you make the decision you have the will to be involved in everything. Number 10s seem to be external to the team, in past generations they didn’t have to run, they just had to make assists and goals. The number 10 of our generation, on the other hand, had to run like a number 8 or a number 4, lend a hand to the rest of the team but eventually put it in the cross and score goals. We learned from the sacrifices we made, from the injuries we suffered, from our competitive failures, from defeats, from missed penalties, from being pissed off. So even in the [management] group there has to be a team game, with roles working together for the same goal: only in this way do we win. One person cannot do everything. One collaborates, for the team.”

He then seemed puzzled by Paolo Maldini’s departure from Milan: “Paolo Maldini has shown as a manager that he is a winner: one of the keys to Milan’s success last year was definitely his presence, him within a team. Today soccer is not like it was when we started, it needs many more people, a different organization, so you have to put the pieces in the right place. Maldini proved to be a winner even as a manager. I feel very sorry for Paolo, because when I think of Milan I think of Paolo Maldini.”