My Top Four Favourite Italian Defenders of All-Time

Over the years, there have been so many legendary Italian Defenders. Italy has probably produced the best defenders of all-time. However, that’s up for debate. Anyways, here are my top four favourite Italian Defenders of all-time!

 

4. Fabio Grosso 

Fabio Grosso is probably one of the most underrated defenders that I’ve seen. Not only was his positioning great when he defended, but also his offensive prowess. He was a fast defender who could fling nice crosses into the opponent’s box while tracking back effectively. I’d say that his style is similar to modern fullbacks such as Alphonso Davies, Achraf Hakimi, and even Raphael Varane to a certain extent. Although, Varane is a Center back, not a full-back. Also, another huge reason he’s one of my favourite Italian Defenders of all-time was his performance in the 2006 World Cup. In that tournament, he scored a crucial goal against Germany in the Semifinals. However, his most notable moment was when he scored the winning penalty against France that gave them the World Cup Trophy. To this day, that is still my favourite Italian Soccer moment!

 

3. Fabio Cannavaro

At number three comes Fabio Cannavaro! Aside from him being a crucial part of Italy winning the 2006 World Cup, I admire his style of play. He was fairly short for a centre-back, as he’s 5’9″. Despite that, I admired his aggressiveness. If you were an attacker, it was very difficult to avoid getting tackled hard by Fabio Cannavaro. A big part of that was that he could read plays like the back of his hand and anticipate what would happen faster than the majority of defenders. I wouldn’t say he was spectacular going forward. But, what makes him one of my favourite Italian Soccer defenders was his fierceness. When he made his many tackles, opposing players could feel them. That’s one of the big reasons why even before the match, opposing attacking players were scared of facing Fabio Cannavaro. In my view, Giorgio Chiellini is the modern player that most resembles him, style-wise. However, Chiellini is significantly taller.

 

2. Alessandro Nesta

Similar to Fabio Cannavaro, I admired Alessandro Nesta because of his aggressiveness. However, unlike Fabio Cannavaro he’s 6’2″. If you were an attacker in the box against Nesta, chances are you wouldn’t get many good chances. That was evident when Alessandro Nesta gave a hard tackle on Lionel Messi in the box. Messi thought he was going to score, but then Nesta made a good tackle to prevent that from happening! Not many players could beat Nesta in the box. His tackles were fierce, he was very strong and his aerial ability was next to none. At AC Milan, he was joined by the likes of Maldini, Zambrotta, Cafu and other legendary defenders. So, you could imagine how many opponents didn’t want to face the Rossoneri at that time! It’s tough to compare his style to any modern footballer. I guess Chiellini most replicates his style. Maybe, even Koulibaly as well.

 

1. Paolo Maldini

There’s no question that Paolo Maldini is arguably the best defender of all-time. He’s also my favourite Italian Defender of all-time. I also wrote about him being one of my favourite Serie A players of all-time. I admired him for several reasons but above all, his leadership ability. He was AC Milan and Italy’s captain for several years. He was a born leader! Of course, his ability to defend was above basically any other in the history of soccer. But, his leadership ability was just as great, in my view. He’s also one of the most decorated Italian Players ever. Not only did he win seven scudetti, but he also led AC Milan to five Champions League trophies. It’s very tough to pinpoint a player who has won that. Not even Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi have won that many domestic titles and Champions League yet. Paolo Maldini was on a different level from every defender on the pitch. Hopefully, he leads AC Milan back to the glory days as the technical director.

There you have it, this is my article on my top four favourite Italian Defenders of all-time. Like always, thank you for reading this article! I really do appreciate it.

 

Three Current Players I’d like to see Play in Serie A

It’s official! Franck Ribery, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Romelu Lukaku will all be playing against each other in the same domestic League for the first time ever! That league is, of course, the wonderful Serie A. As a result of these players joining Serie A at the same time, I’m writing about three other ones I’d like to see play in Italy. So, enjoy!

1. KYLIAN MBAPPE

The legend of Kylian Mbappe keeps growing at a fast rate. At 21, he’s already won the World Cup as well as three Ligue 1 titles with both Monaco and PSG. He definitely boasts an impressive resume for his age. That is exactly why I’d love to see him play at a Serie A club. Imagine Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, and Kylian Mbappe playing in the same league. That’d be something remarkable and I hope it happens. However, the big limitation to trying to buy the player is his price. He was purchased by PSG in 2017 for 145 Million Euros plus 35 Million Euros in bonuses. Also, he keeps getting better by the day, so, I’m not sure which Serie A clubs can afford to buy him without selling many of their key players. But, it’s a dream of mine for this young star to grace the calcio fields of Italy.

2. LIONEL MESSI

As of now, it’s very difficult to see Lionel Messi going to another club other than Barcelona. Indeed, the loyalty he has for the club seems unbreakable. However, in 2005, Inter were nearly able to sign the young Lionel Messi. That’s in the past now, but, I’d still love to see him play in Serie A, not just because of his technical abilities or dribbling technique, but also because it’d be cool to see him pursuing a new challenge in his career. What better challenge than to play in Italy? Lionel Messi would also join many other Argentinean legends by playing in Italy. However, it is still only a dream, as, like I mentioned earlier, I can’t see him ever leaving Barcelona to go to another club.

3. KEVIN DE BRUYNE

It’s an interesting thing to say, but, compared to the other players in this article, I’d say Kevin De Bruyne is the most likely to make a move to Serie A. His price would be crazy. However, he would definitely be cheaper than the other two players. Also, while, he has won a bunch of silverware for Manchester City, I feel like he’s the type of player to want a new challenge. Maybe, if Manchester City plateaus with their current group, he’ll want higher level trophies such as Europa League or even Champions League trophies. A move to Serie A for Kevin De Bruyne would depend on if Man City keeps achieving the level of success that they have for the past couple of seasons. Hopefully, this move happens in the near future.