Daniel Maldini (born 11 October 2001) is an Italian professional

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 le ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for club

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

, on loan from

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

Early life

Maldini was born in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, the second son of

Paolo Maldini Paolo Cesare Maldini (; born 26 June 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer who played primarily as a left back and centre back for AC Milan and the Italy national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of a ...

, then captain of

, and Venezuelan model Adriana Fossa. His grandfather

Cesare Cesare, the Italian version of the given name Caesar, may refer to: Given name * Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria (1738–1794), an Italian philosopher and politician * Cesare Airaghi (1840–1896), Italian colonel * Cesare Arzelà (1847–1912), I ...

also captained Milan in the 1960s, making him the third generation to make appearances for the club. His elder brother

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

played for Milan's youth teams and went on to play professionally at a lower level.

Club career

Youth career

Maldini joined Milan's youth system in 2010, and over the following years he came through the various age-group teams, from the under-10 ''Pulcini'' to the under-19 ''Primavera''. In the 2016–17 season, he was part of the squad that won the Under-16 National Championship (''Campionato Nazionale Under-16''), defeating Lazio 5–2 in the final.

Senior career

On 2 February 2020, Maldini made his senior debut with Milan in a 1–1

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 Coppa ...

home draw against

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as Hellas Verona or simply Verona, is a professional Italian football club based in Verona, Italy, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won the Serie A Championship in 1984–85. His ...

, coming on as an added-time substitute for

Samu Castillejo Samuel "Samu" Castillejo Azuaga (born 18 January 1995) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Sassuolo, on loan from Valencia. Club career Málaga Castillejo was born in Barcelona, Catalonia where his father, a Gua ...

. On 15 September 2021, Maldini came off the bench against

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 popul ...

in a 3–2 defeat on his

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debut. On 25 September, Maldini started his first match for Milan in Serie A and scored the first goal in a 2–1 away win against

. On 22 May 2022, he won his first trophy, the Serie A championship, like his father,

and grandfather,

Cesare Maldini Cesare Maldini (; 5 February 1932 – 3 April 2016) was an Italian professional football manager and player who played as a defender. Father to Paolo Maldini and grandfather to Daniel Maldini, Cesare began his career with Italian side Triestin ...

before him. Throughout the season, he did not break through into the starting lineup, playing only 239 minutes in 13 matches in the club's league-winning

2021–22 Serie A The 2021–22 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 120th season of top-tier Italian football, the 90th in a round-robin tournament, and the 12th since its organization under an own league committee, the Lega Serie ...

campaign.

Loan to Spezia

On 29 July 2022, fellow Serie A side

announced Maldini had joined the club on a one-year loan from AC Milan. On 5 November 2022, on his league debut as a starter with Spezia, Maldini scored his first Serie A goal of the season against his parent team, AC Milan. On 10 March 2023, he scored a goal in a 2–1 victory over

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

, to be Spezia's first ever win against the latter.

International career

Maldini won his first international cap for Italy at the under-18 level, in a 2–0 win against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 22 March 2019. Later that year, he won two caps for the under-19. In 2021, he was capped three times for Italy under-20 and he scored his first international goal in a 1–1 draw against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 7 October 2021.

Style of play

Although in his very early days Maldini played as a defender like both his father

Paolo Paolo is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Paul. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Paolo Art *Paolo Alboni (1671–1734), Italian painter *Paolo Abbate (1884–1973), Italian-American s ...

and grandfather

, he soon started to be employed in offensive roles. Today he mainly plays as a free roaming

, a position that suits his playmaking ability,

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 ...

skills, ball control, and vision.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

AC Milan *

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maldini, Daniel 2001 births Living people Italian people of Slovene descent Italian people of Venezuelan descent Italian footballers Footballers from Milan Association football midfielders Italy youth international footballers Serie A players A.C. Milan players Spezia Calcio players

Daniel Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...