It is May 31, 2009. At the Artemio Franchi Stadium in Florence, Paolo Maldini plays his last game as a starter with the Milan shirt.. Tomorrow they will be 4500 days that the slips of a Serie A match do not see the Maldini surname appear in the list of holders. Tomorrow, at 3 pm, at the Alberto Picco stadium in La Spezia, 151 kilometers away from the Franks, that fast could be broken. Daniel Maldini, Paolo’s son and Cesare’s nephew, can finally make his Serie A debut as a starter. Today Pioli tried it in training and everything suggests that tomorrow could be the big day.
TURNOVER ON THE TREQUARTI – The return to the greats of Europe entails honors, but also burdens, to which Milan and its fans have not been used to for a long time. Among the honors, certainly those very intense emotions of the unforgettable night in Liverpool (more unique than rare case in which a defeat did not make the evening less sweet), condensed in the two frames of the fan moved after the unexpected 2-1 by Brahim Diaz , and the Saelemaekers race under the guest sector to proudly display the Champions patch with the number 7 in the center. On the other hand, among the charges, what the double commitment at a high level makes mandatory reappears: letting the owners breathe more than once in a while. Thus, on Wednesday against Venice, Tomori, Theo, Kessie and Saelemaekers rested in part, while tomorrow it could be at least one of Leao, Rebic and Brahim Diaz. In today’s training session, Pioli tried Maldini himself instead of the Portuguese, on the right, but its use in the center of the trocar should not be ruled out, even if, in that role, Brahim Diaz seems irreplaceable at the moment for the interpretation he offers.
THE SEASON OF TRUTH – From the debut, for one minute, at San Siro against Verona, on February 2, 2020, Daniel Maldini has accumulated 52 minutes in the championship. In between there was also his debut as a starter with the Rossoneri shirt, but in the Europa League preliminaries, against Rio Ave (a game that has irremediably entered the Rossoneri collective imagination also and above all for other reasons). Tomorrow could arrive the most important of the first time, the one in Serie A from the first minute. In his third season in the first team, the second on a permanent basis, the environment is expected, but does not have the courage to claim it, given the importance of the question, that the son of Paul enter with continuity in the rotations of Mr. Pioli. The qualities to do it are all there, even if he has shown only a very small taste, so far. There will also be opportunities, thanks to AC Milan’s return to the Champions League.
MALDINI DYNASTY – The fans hope so. They hope that the Maldini dynasty will not be interrupted, that Daniel can give it continuity. They hope they don’t have to stop saying their names in sequence, “Daniel son of Paul nephew of Caesar”, like this, all in one breath, as if they were a nursery rhyme, or perhaps it would be better to say a Magic spell. It cannot be a coincidence, in fact, that the first European Cup was raised by Cesare, that the return of Milan, with the purchase of Berlusconi, coincided with the entry into the owners of Paolo, and that the latter won all the other Champions Cups won by the Milan (with the exception of that of 69, raised by Rivera) and that he raised the last one as captain, in 2007. It is no coincidence that, after dark years, things have begun to go the right way again with the return of the Maldini to Casa Milan, in 2018 Paolo as a manager and, a year later, Daniel as a player, with his first call-up on 22 November 2019. For virtually any other team, the fact that the son of a club legend can make his first team debut , would represent an element of attention, of curiosity, but certainly not a question of vital importance. For any other team, not for Milan, not for Maldini, who then, these two names do not even represent two entities so clearly distinguishable.
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