10 Greatest Players in Serie A History [Ranked]
Once upon a time, way back in the 90s and 00s, there was a time when every player dreamed of playing on Italian shores. AC Milan – who boasted some of Italy’s classiest players – were the dominant force in the Champions League, while the likes of Juventus, Inter Milan and AS Roma had all reached superstardom status.
Despite that no longer being the case with the Premier League, Bundesliga and La Liga all gathering pace on their Italian counterparts, the long line of talent that Serie A has been home to over the years is just sublime.
From talismanic forwards to swanky midfielders to the coolest of defenders, Italian football may have focused on the latter, but there has been no shortage of talent in the former duo of departments, as evidenced by the impending list of the Italian top flight’s top 10 players of all time.
Your favourite defender’s favourite defender. Paolo Maldini spent the entirety of his club career plying his trade for Serie A royalty AC Milan and, across 647 league outings, and puts together an incredibly compelling case to be remembered as the greatest-ever defender to grace the turf.
Composed, versatile and intelligent, the archetypal Italian won countless trophies with his beloved Rosoneri, including seven Serie A titles and a quintet of European Cups. Milan-born Maldini is a club legend in the truest sense and, for all those who have followed, set the benchmark for what a central defender should be.
To understand what sort of influence he had on the red side of Milan, the number three was retired in his honour once he, sadly for all football fans, hung up his boots in 2009 at the ripe old age of 41.
