Barney Corkhill's "A Tribute To..." series once again looks at football. In this series I look at the greatest talents to grace various sports.
Today's tribute is to one of the most decorated, loyal, and respected players in World Football history. He is the record appearance holder of AC Milan, Serie A, and Italy.
I speak, of course, of the great Paolo Maldini.
Born June 26, 1968, Paolo Cesare Maldini had football in his blood. His father, Cesare Maldini, was also an accomplished centre-back, and is still regarded in high esteem at his club, AC Milan. He went on to manage Milan briefly in 2001.
He set off on his journey to emulate his father by joining the Milan youth team aged 10. For the next seven years, he would star in that youth team, so much so that he was turning out for the AC Milan first team while still eligible.
But, despite his father's ties with Milan, Paolo Maldini was actually a Juventus fan growing up, and started off for Milan as a left-winger, before he was moved back into the left-back slot which he would make his own.
His debut came on January 20, 1985, when he was just 16 years of age. He performed well in the 45 minutes he was given, but, due to his young age, that was his only league appearance of the season.
The following season saw Maldini see more action, playing 40 games in total, and Milan, despite being cautious in using him too often, due to his inexperience, and the fact that he would be coming up against players like Diego Maradona, could see his huge potential..
Everything seemed to come together for Milan in the 1987/88 season as Silvio Berlusconi's idea of a dream team started to come to fruition. He had poured a lot of money into the club, and immediately saw the rewards.
With Dutch stars Marco Van Basten and Ruud Gullit arriving, later to be joined by Frank Rijkaard, and Italian Roberto Donadoni joining up with Franco Baresi and Maldini, Milan became a formidable machine.
They won the title that season, only losing two games along the way.
On an individual level, Maldini was awarded his Italian debut on March 31, 1988 against Yugoslavia, aged just 19, and went on to appear in all of Italy's games in that summer's European Championships.
The following season saw Milan miss out on the league crown, finishing third behind arch-rivals Inter Milan and Napoli, but an even bigger prize awaited them.
The AC Milan "Dream Team" was now making major strides in Europe and they came up against a very strong Steaua Bucharest who had won the Cup just three years previously.
Milan got through to the final by thrashing Real Madrid, while Bucharest got through by thrashing just about everybody. Until the final, they hadn't failed to score at least five goals in a match.
Bucharest were also in the middle of a domestic league run that would see them go an unbelievable 104 matches unbeaten.
Yet they were no match for Milan, as Gullit and Van Basten each got a brace to give Milan the 4-0 win.
A second consecutive European Cup followed the next season as Milan beat Benfica in the final, with Maldini and the rest of the Milan defence once again keeping a clean sheet.
1990 also saw Maldini's second major international tournament with Italy, and his first World Cup. He helped his country to the semi-finals, where Italy lost to Argentina.
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