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#4 Paolo Maldini
Paolo Maldini never won anything with Italy, but neither have Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi with their respective countries. With 7 Serie A titles and 5 UEFA Champions Leagues, he was arguably the game’s greatest defender because he was remarkably composed in situations where any other defender would have crumbled or let in a goal. Only three defenders have won the award, yet Maldini is not one of them.
It appears that what ultimately cost him was a lack of trophies with the Italian national team. Take the other defensive victors, they all won an international tournament around the time of their triumphs. Franz Beckenbauer won the World Cup with West Germany in 1974, Matthias Sammer was part of the German side that claimed the European Championship in 1996 and Fabio Cannavaro captained Italy to the 2006 World Cup.
In 1994, when the Azzurri lost that year's World Cup on penalties to Brazil, Maldini was third in the running behind Hristo Stoichkov and Roberto Baggio. Maldini was also placed third in 2003 which was won Pavel Nedved playing for Juventus and Czech Republic at that time.
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