Messi or Ronaldo? When Paolo Maldini answered and named his 3 toughest opponents

Paolo Maldini is many fans’ pick for the greatest male defender in football history.

A Champions League-winning captain who only dived in when it was absolutely necessary, Maldini is a god of Italian football who elevated the art of defending to heights never seen before.

Oh, and he also happens to be an AC Milan legend who amassed a barely believable 902 appearances between 1984 and 2009.

So, it’s fair to say that he’s a somewhat revered figure when it comes to assessing the relationship at the heart of the beautiful game: defence vs attack.

And when your career spans almost four decades, we can also uncontroversially assume that you have a pretty good idea on how that dynamic has changed, evolved and progress over the years.

Besides, Maldini was there holding the fort for AC Milan back in the day of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge just as he was upon the emergence of Mario Balotelli and Alexandre Pato.

So it’s only inevitable that fans, journalists and no doubt ex-teammates have all clambered over each other since Maldini’s retirement to ask one question above every other: who were your toughest ever opponents?

It is, after all, ultimately fascinating to speculate on who the greatest defender in history would name as the player who gave him the most bother across his illustrious career.

Now, Maldini has evidently been asked the million-dollar question, well, a million times, so it’s worth saying that he’s probably answered it differently depending on the year and circumstances.

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But there was one particularly fascinating occasion where he responded to it in a way that always sticks out in our minds because it just so happens to involve Lionel Messi.

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