First call-up for Daniel Maldini, his father Paolo’s last match for the national team was in 2002 and the referee was called Byron Moreno

The Maldini dynasty in blue is a popular novel, a feuilleton, a saga that began more than sixty years ago. With the call-up of Daniel, Monza striker, the fate of the most iconic family in Italian football is reconnected. In fact, Daniel is the son of Paolo and nephew of Cesare, who passed away in 2016. Three generations who have worn the Milan shirt and, today, also that of the Italian national team.

In their way of being in the world (including football) the Maldini have always stood out for the style, education and sobriety they have shown, from generation to generation. It is a story, that of the Maldinis, which goes in parallel with that of Italy. Inevitably it is a thread that is tied again. And Daniel’s new adventure, with Italy’s two commitments against Belgium (Thursday 10 October at the Olimpico in Rome) and against Israel (Monday 14 in Udine), sends back an echo that takes us back to more than twenty years ago. That is: at the last match of Paolo Maldini in the national team.

It is a match that has remained in the collective imagination. Italy-South Korea, which was played on 18 June 2002 in Daejeon. It was the 2002 World Cup which, in fact, was played between Korea and Japan. The Azzurri, coached by Giovanni Trapattoni, barely reached the round of 16, after a decidedly tormented elimination round. Yet that was a national team of champions. There were Gigi Buffon and Fabio Cannavaro, Bobo Vieri and Alessandro Del Piero, Pippo Inzaghi and Francesco Totti, Alessandro Nesta and Gennaro Gattuso, Gianluca Zambrotta and Vincenzo Montella. A very strong team, probably – in terms of quality and personality – even stronger than the one that – four years later in Germany – would win the World Cup.

That match against South Korea saw Italy leave the field defeated, with their heads down – after 120 minutes of passion as the match went into extra time – and from the tournament. But that was also a game decided by a referee in bad faith and who – years later – was even arrested and convicted for drug trafficking. His name was Byron MorenoItalians remember it well. The Muppet referee that day he deliberately kicked Totti off the pitch and disallowed two goals for the Azzurri (who devoured a couple of other sensational ones) and above all he was the protagonist of a direction unabashedly pro-Korea, 118 minutes of torment until the golden goal (it still existed) scored by a Korean striker, Ahn, who was playing for Perugia at the time.

It was the last match of Paolo Maldini’s 126 (enhanced by 7 goals) in blue. An epic that began in 1988 and featured four participations in the World Cup. That day, as he later recounted, Paolo went beyond the anger and frustration at the refereeing and the elimination and believed that his adventure in Italy was coming to an end. Maldini then continued to play until 2009 when – at the age of 41, 25 of which were spent wearing the Milan shirt – he left the football carousel. Now it’s up to his son Daniel to reconnect the thread of this story. The blue story of the Maldini, an Italian story.