Aldo Maldera (; 14 October 1953 – 1 August 2012) was an Italian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a full-back or as a

wide midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

on the left flank. A left-footed player, Maldera was a modern full-back who possessed an accurate and powerful shot, which earned him the nickname "Aldo-gol", due to his prolific goalscoring ability, despite his more defensive playing role; he was a hard-working team player, who was capable of covering the flank effectively and aiding his team both offensively and defensively. Throughout his career, he was known for his pace, stamina, technique,

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

, and crossing ability; his speed and galloping offensive runs earned him the nickname "the horse".

Club career

Maldera was born in Milan, and he spent a large part of his career with one of the major local clubs of his city

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

(1971–1982); with the club, he won a Serie A title in 1979, two

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

trophies in 1972 and 1977, a

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

title (earning promotion to Serie A the following season, following Milan's involvement in the

1980 Totonero Totonero 1980 or Totonero was a match-fixing scandal in Italy in 1980 in Serie A and Serie B. The participants in this scandal were Unione Sportiva Avellino, Avellino, Bologna F.C. 1909, Bologna, S.S. Lazio, Lazio, A.C. Milan, Milan, and A.C. Peru ...

football betting scandal) in 1981, and a

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

, during his final season with the club, in 1982, also serving as the club's captain. Throughout his career, he also played for

Bologna F.C. 1909 Bologna Football Club 1909, commonly referred to as Bologna (), is an Italian professional football club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. The club have won seven top-flight titles, two Co ...

(for a half season loan, as a youth, during his time with Milan), local rivals

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

and A.C.F. Fiorentina. Maldera won a total two

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

titles throughout his career, at A.C. Milan and A.S. Roma respectively, both under the tutelage of manager

Nils Liedholm Nils Erik Liedholm (; 8 October 1922 – 5 November 2007) was a Swedish football midfielder and coach. ''Il Barone'' (The Baron), as he is affectionately known in Italy, was renowned for being part of the Swedish "Gre-No-Li" trio of strikers al ...

. Maldera won his second career league title, with Roma, during the 1982–83 season, after leaving Milan following their relegation to

at the conclusion of the 1981–82 season. Maldera this league victory up with a

with Roma in 1984, also reaching the European Cup final with Roma that

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

, only to lose out to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

on penalties.

International career

Maldera made 10 appearances for

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

between 1974 and 1980. He represented his country at the 1978 FIFA World Cup, and at

Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams i ...

on home soil, where the Italian national side finished in fourth place on both occasions, reaching the semi-finals. He also made 9 appearances for the Italy reserve, B, side, and 1 appearance with the Italy national U21 side.

Personal life

Maldera was the third son of a family of Apulian immigrants in Milan. Aldo's older brothers Luigi Maldera and Attilio Maldera both played football professionally. To distinguish them, Luigi was referred to as Maldera I, Attilio as Maldera II and Aldo as Maldera III.

After retirement

Following his retirement, he worked as a football agent, and he lived in Rome with his wife. He also worked as member of the A.S. Roma youth system until 2004, and later also as Sport director of Greek club Panionios F.C. with the president Zakiris and A.C. Milan's technical director Fabio Martella. On 1 August 2012, it was announced on the A.S. Roma website that Maldera had died in Rome at the age of 58.

Honours

A.C. Milan *

: 1978–79 *

: 1980–81 *

: 1976–77 *

: 1981–82 Roma *

: 1982–83 *

: 1983–84 Individual * A.C. Milan Hall of Fame

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maldera, Aldo 1953 births 2012 deaths Footballers from Milan Italian footballers Italy men's under-21 international footballers Italy men's international footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1980 players A.C. Milan players Bologna F.C. 1909 players A.S. Roma players ACF Fiorentina players Lucchese 1905 players Serie A players Serie B players Men's association football defenders People of Apulian descent