Cesare Maldini, who has died aged 84, enjoyed notable success as a manager of Italy’s football team and before that as a player for AC Milan, where he became the first Italian to lift the European Cup.
Maldini joined Milan in 1954 as a right full-back, although he would afterwards play as a libero (sweeper) in central defence. This latter role made use of his rapier-like passing, while his commanding presence on the ball became one of the sights of Italian football .
Maldini was booked just five times in 412 appearances for the “Rossoneri”. He was sent off only once, following an altercation with Omar Sivori, the Argentine-born forward whose spiteful temperament would have tried the patience of a saint. By contrast, Maldini was regarded as exuding class in his dealings with others both on and off the pitch.
He won his first Serie A title in his initial season with Milan. Further championships followed in 1957 and 1959, but it was the appointment in 1961 of Nereo Rocco as the side’s manager which helped it to realise its potential.
Rocco had given Maldini his debut when both were at Triestina. He made him his captain at Milan, and with Giovanni Trapattoni the pair formed a near-impregnable defensive bulwark. The team took the league in 1962 and the following year at Wembley bounced back from conceding a goal by Eusebio to defeat Benfica and claim the European Cup. It was the first time that an Italian club had won the trophy.
Cesare Maldini was born on February 5 1932 in Trieste, north-east Italy. The women of his district were renowned bread-makers and, accordingly, the family kept a bakery. His father was a sailor, however, and frequently away at sea.
When Cesare was an adolescent, the Germans occupied the city. Admiring the Wehrmacht’s smart turn-out, he and a friend knocked on their barracks door and asked to enlist. His enraged mother soon scotched his plans.
He trained as a dental technician but by the age of 20 had made his debut for his home town club, Triestina, then in Serie A. The next season he was appointed its captain. Following his 12 years with Milan, during which time he won 14 caps for Italy and played at the 1962 World Cup, Maldini followed Rocco to Torino. After playing a single season in Turin, he became Rocco’s assistant coach.
The pair returned to AC Milan in 1967 and won another European Cup two years later against Johann Cruyff’s Ajax. A league title and a Cup Winners’ Cup followed before the pair were sacked when failing to clinch the 1973 championship in the final match.
Maldini went on to manage Foggia, Ternana and then Parma, where he discovered Carlo Ancelotti and won promotion to Serie B. In 1980 he became assistant to the national side’s manager, Enzo Bearzot, and two years later shared in the triumph when Italy, thanks to Paolo Rossi’s goals, won the World Cup in Spain.
He then became manager of Italy’s Under-21 side for ten years, steering it to an unprecedented hat-trick of European titles from 1992. Among those he coached were the young Gigi Buffon, Francesco Totti, Fabio Cannavaro and his own son Paolo, who would win a record number of caps for Italy and play for Milan for almost 25 years.
In 1996, Maldini replaced Arrigo Sacchi as the manager of the national side. His first match was against England, memorably won by Gianfranco Zola’s goal which helped to secure qualification for the 1998 World Cup. There, however, Italy were eliminated on penalties in the quarter-finals by the eventual champions France. Maldini was subsequently criticised for his team’s tactics, which were considered too defensive and replaced by Dino Zoff.
After a spell as caretaker at Milan, in 2002 he became, at the age of 70, the oldest manager at a World Cup when he took charge of Paraguay. He steered them to the last 16, where they lost in the 89th minute to Germany. Latterly he had worked as a commentator for Al-Jazeera.
He is survived by his wife Maria Luisa and by their three sons and three daughters.
Cesare Maldini, born February 5 1932, died April 3 2016
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