Former FIGC Director Reveals What His Plans Would Have Been After Short Stint at the Helm
Paolo Maldini's time with the Italian Football Federation may have been short. Still, the former Azzurri captain has now revealed just how ambitious his plans were for rebuilding Italian football. Maldini was brought in as the FIGC's technical director with the intention of creating a long-term footballing project, one that would extend beyond simply finding a new head coach for the national team. At the center of that project was an attacking philosophy. The 58-year-old wanted Italy to move toward a more technical, possession-based style while creating greater consistency between the youth teams and the senior national team. His first major task was finding a coach capable of implementing that vision.
That search nearly produced one of the biggest managerial appointments in Italian football history. The Italian legend revealed that Pep Guardiola came surprisingly close to accepting the Italy job. Maldini and Leonardo traveled to Barcelona to present Guardiola with the federation's plans, and the former Manchester City manager was reportedly extremely interested. According to the Italian’s account, Guardiola even began discussing potential formations and tactical ideas during their meeting. Money was not the obstacle. Guardiola ultimately decided that he needed time away from football after a decade at Manchester City, with the physical toll of his career and recent back surgery also influencing his decision. For the retired defender, losing Guardiola was a major blow, but the project did not immediately collapse.
The next names under consideration included Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi, with Fabio Grosso also reportedly discussed. Maldini wanted a younger Italian coach who could embrace an attacking style while helping establish a new identity for the national team. However, the federation faced an unusual limitation. An agreement prevented the FIGC from simply approaching coaches currently working for Serie A clubs. That restriction complicated the search and eliminated potential candidates such as De Rossi and Grosso from serious consideration. Maldini and his colleagues therefore turned their attention toward Pirlo, who was available after his work in the United Arab Emirates. Pirlo appeared to be the logical next option. A World Cup winner and one of the greatest midfielders in Italian history, he also represented the type of young Italian football mind he wanted to place at the center of the rebuilding project. Then the situation surrounding Pirlo's commercial relationship with Russian betting company Fonbet changed everything. Pirlo came under increasing scrutiny over his role as an ambassador for the betting company and his appearance at a Fonbet event in Moscow. The controversy became politically sensitive in Italy, particularly because of the company's Russian connections. Pirlo ultimately announced that he was no longer a candidate for the national team position, expressing disappointment over the situation while maintaining that his relationship with Fonbet was commercial and complied with his contractual obligations.
The collapse of the Pirlo option was the final breaking point for Maldini. His vision for the FIGC depended on having enough authority to construct a footballing project around the coach he believed best represented that vision. When the federation's options became increasingly restricted, disagreements emerged over the direction of the project. Maldini and Leonardo eventually resigned, bringing an unexpectedly short end to their involvement with the Azzurri. What makes the episode particularly frustrating is how close Italy appeared to getting the project the Italian technical director envisioned. Guardiola was genuinely interested before deciding he needed to step away. Pirlo was viewed as a promising alternative before the Fonbet controversy derailed his candidacy. Other coaches were effectively unavailable because of the federation's restrictions.
The former FIGC technical director’s short tenure therefore leaves behind a fascinating question: what could Italy have looked like if his original plan had been allowed to develop? The answer will never be known. What is clear is that Maldini was attempting to build something much larger than simply appointing a coach. He wanted to reshape the footballing identity of the Azzurri from the youth levels through the senior team. Instead, disagreements within the federation, restrictions on the coaching search, Guardiola's decision to step away, and the controversy surrounding Pirlo brought the project to an abrupt end. For Italian football, it may ultimately become another example of a promising rebuilding plan that never received the time necessary to prove whether it could work.
