Maldini hits out at Malagò: He picked the Italy coach! Pirlo and...

Paolo Maldini is back to tell his side of the story.

Interviewed by Corriere della Sera, he went over what happened in recent weeks, focusing on the decision to leave his role as the National Team’s technical director after Malagò vetoed the choice of Pirlo as head coach, and more besides (HERE ARE THE WORDS OF THE FIGC PRESIDENT).

AN IMPOSSIBLE CHARACTER – “I don’t know. Others judge me; and you can’t please everyone. I care about doing things properly. And I care about saying things clearly. The people who have worked with me, my teammates, my colleagues during five years at Milan as an executive, know me well. If a man who tries to assert his role and defend his duties is uncompromising, then I am uncompromising. If a person who takes responsibility, who tries to win and to accept defeat, is uncompromising, then I am uncompromising. But I have one advantage, which comes from my 25-year career. I’m not attached to the job. I feel very free in my choices. Thank God I have no financial needs. What leads me to accept roles is the possibility of carrying them out, of making my contribution. I’m sorry that this is seen as arrogance or inflexibility. But if I am identified as the person responsible, I feel duty-bound to be exactly that.”

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR – “Malagò called me at Easter, saying: there’s a possibility I could become president of the FIGC; you are the person I would want with me. I told him I was available. In football, for me, there are only two things: Milan and the National Team. Then I didn’t hear from him again. The day before the election, Malagò called back: tomorrow we vote, there’s a good chance, I’d like you on board. I replied: let’s talk about it. He asked me to become president of Club Italia. It wasn’t just about relaunching the National Team. Italian football had to be rebuilt.”

LEONARDO – “I share friendship, values, and principles with him. Leo has great organizational ability, as well as a great understanding with me. So that’s how we began. And we came up with a new role: technical director. The technical director has never existed in the National Team’s organizational chart: the coach reported directly to the president. But that wasn’t right: the coach needs someone to discuss things with. Then the terms were revised; consequently, the only thing to do was resign. Or rather, decline to sign the four-year contract that was supposed to start on August 1.”

THE HEAD COACH – “In fact, the first thing I asked was: who chooses the head coach? Malagò replied: you decide on the coach, and I approve it. That was the agreement. Then events led to that changing.”

AN 8-10 YEAR HORIZON – “At the League I explained our project, centered on two different tracks. Rebuilding Italian football takes time. Developing new talent and a new mindset is a long process. It required creating a new movement involving all the federal components: Serie A, Serie B, Serie C, amateurs, the coaches’ association, the players’ association, the referees’ association. And then there was the other track, or if you prefer the other train, which had to move much faster: because in less than two months we play Belgium, Turkey and France in the Nations League. We had to prepare for tomorrow, but also do well today. And start winning again.”

NAMES – “Pirlo? Our idea was tied to technique. To attacking football. To change. In Italy we’ve fallen behind in many areas. We wanted young players’ development to be based not on tactical obsession but on technique, one-on-one play, and an attacking mindset. And we wanted a young coach who had a history with the National Team. There were three names. Daniele De Rossi and Fabio Grosso. Three world champions. But the president told us that, based on the agreements that brought him to election, with the support of all clubs except Lazio, we could not touch the coaches of Serie A teams. So De Rossi and Grosso were ruled out. We did make one call to the greatest Italian coach ever, my very close friend Carlo Ancelotti. He told us that Brazil had reiterated its complete confidence in him, and he said goodbye wishing us the best of luck. It was a call we had to make.”

GUARDIOLA – “He is the coach who most embodies technical and attacking football. Through a few friends he had expressed the idea of coaching a national team. We went to see him in Barcelona, had lunch together, and talked for an entire day. He was very tempted. He came very close to accepting. He even started writing lineups on sheets of paper… Did he ask for 20 million? Absolutely not. Money was never an issue. Pep told us clearly: give me one euro less than the last head coach earned, and I’m fine. He turned it down because of fatigue. Guardiola is coming off ten grueling years in the Premier League. He had back surgery. He wants to rest. But it was a very serious discussion, we studied the squads from the Under-17s upward… So then we moved on to Andrea. Malagò knew everything, we kept him informed step by step.”

PIRLO – “This is a personal view. We wanted a young coach, someone who embraced the project and had a top-level career. Technically, when I talk with Pirlo, I find him extremely well-prepared. Supported by a technical director and an advisor, he would have been the ideal coach. What résumés did the last two coaches who won the World Cup, Scaloni and De la Fuente, have? If everything is seen as tied to the coach sitting on the bench, then you’re looking only at today, never at tomorrow. And we are coming off three failed qualifications. The Russian betting agency? That certainly played a part. We didn’t know about it. Public opinion did its job. But legally there was nothing that could have prevented Andrea from coaching the National Team. Was it a pretext? I would say yes. It was certainly exploited in an absolutely exaggerated way. Pirlo was willing to end his ties with the Russian betting company. He is a completely upright person, he didn’t deserve all this uproar. They brought up the code of ethics, the dignity decree. But if there had really been the will to have him sign as head coach, there would have been no legal obstacles.”

SONS AS AGENTS – “Let’s talk about this too. Nobody said it, but that rule was abolished in 2019. Again legally speaking, there was nothing that could have prevented our sons from being agents — today Christian is classified as a scout —, me from being the National Team’s technical director, and Pirlo from coaching it. And if a real incompatibility between my role and my son’s profession had been shown, I would have resigned immediately. It was a very pretextual matter and was never explained by the federation’s leadership. But it had an impact.”

MALAGÒ – “He called me and Leonardo to say: ‘In my opinion Pirlo can no longer be appointed. From today I choose the coach. From today the rules change: I decide the head coach and you approve it.’ But if I have a role, if I have responsibility, and I intend to exercise them, this is an unacceptable line of argument. We took 24 hours and submitted our resignations, on a contract that had not even started yet. I don’t know if that means being uncompromising and presumptuous. I’m used to things being done differently. The conditions of trust were no longer there to carry out a job that is enormous, but at the same time exciting. It was a relationship based on trust. If you make a choice, then you have to defend it. If you explain what you were trying to build, the choice becomes a little clearer. Compare it with the Italian league of twenty or thirty years ago.”

THIAGO MOTTA – “No. Those were the names.”

MANCINI – “Of course I appreciate Roberto Mancini. But we had a different project. We wanted a new, young head coach. Mancini and Conte are two great coaches. And it’s not a question of friendship. I’m friends with Pirlo, that’s true. I’m friends with Ancelotti. But I’m also friends with Mancini and Conte, though naturally in different ways. We’ve known each other for decades, we’ve played against each other, and we’ve played together for the National Team. With Mancini we reached the semifinal of Euro 1988, the one won by Van Basten, and the Italia ’90 World Cup. With Conte we reached the final of the 1994 World Cup and Euro 2000. But I don’t choose people because they are my friends. I choose the people who, at that moment, seem most suitable for the project to be developed.”

PROJECT – “A radical change. Completely different working methods, more attacking. Development of new talent. Support for the entire youth-team pipeline. I would have become president of Club Italia, which is made up of nineteen teams: the youth teams, the women’s teams, beach soccer, futsal…’ Futsal? ‘That’s what they call five-a-side football now.”

CONTE – “I spoke with Marotta, with Percassi, with other presidents and executives, and no one gave me a name. The League was fair, it even guaranteed me this: if there’s a need to help financially, we’re here. But they know me a little. If I have to come here and two names have already been chosen, one by Malagò and one by the League, what’s the point of calling me? I was assured autonomy many times. That they had their own preferred choice, that’s understandable. But if you ask for cooperation, and you envisage a shared project, then you have to share it.”

HOW HE FEELS – “I have one regret that I will carry inside me. I had taken on a heavy commitment that, over the days, had almost become a dream: doing something for the next generations, to build a competitive Italy. A dream interrupted, but a beautiful one, also because of the many people I had found willing to work. Do you know what Guardiola spoke to us about at length? The impact Cruyff had on Spanish football. For two years he was opposed by everyone. But if Spain creates talent today, it is thanks to Cruyff’s guidance. We do not want to compare ourselves to him. But that was the road. Difficult, long; but it would have changed the identity of Italian football. It’s a shame. A real shame.”

RANIERI – “His history speaks for itself. I can’t judge. Having someone like Ranieri is a plus, something exceptional. I’ll only say that the work to be done is enormous. I don’t know what he was asked to do. I fear a lot of importance will be given to the National Team, and much less to rebuilding Italian football.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.