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#1 Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta
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What is it with Italy and centre backs? Dig this: Alessandro Costacurta made 458 appearances for AC Milan. Franco Baresi made 532. And, Paolo Maldini made 902, with more than half of them at centre back. And partnering him was arguably the best technical defender the game has ever seen since Beckenbauer, Alessandro Nesta. In fact, Nesta was so good at what he did that Wikipedia describes his tackling as artistic!
Together with Il Capitano, Nesta marshalled Milan to Champions League triumph, in his very first season with the club. And while he didn’t partner the great man on too many occasions with the national team (Fabio Cannavaro was his partner in crime there), he certainly formed a club duo with him, that has been immortalized since.
Arguably the greatest centre back pairing any team has ever been fortunate enough to field, the two of them were the two best defenders in the world during their peak – and in Maldini’s case, his “peak” lasted about two decades. Surely, the game will never, ever see another duo quite like this.
